The Greatest Marketing Geniuses of All Time
By
Geoffrey James (January 26, 2011)
Marketing talent is rare enough, but marketing genius only
happens once or twice in a lifetime.
Here are more than a dozen men and women throughout history who changed the face of marketing,
creating entirely new concepts, or bringing good ideas to full fruition.
If you think you might be a marketing genius, or just wish
you were one, these are the luminaries
whose thinking processes you should learn to emulate. Although, in some cases, you might want to
pick a different industry than the ones these geniuses chose.
John R. Brinkley, Inventor of Broadcast Advertising
Hard to believe it now, but radio was
once originally considered akin to a public library, a cultural asset free of
commercials.
All of that changed when Quack
Physician John Brinkley built his own radio station in 1923 to hype his cure
for male impotence, which consisted of implanting goat testicles in the human
body.
John R. Brinkley, Inventor of Broadcast Advertising
Brinkley combined entertainment (booking some of the great country music acts of his day), bible readings, and a strong sense for the memorable turn of phrase. His most memorable catch phrase: "You'll be a ram-what-am... with every lamb."
Mary Kay Ash, Inventor of Network Marketing
Mary Kay Ash, Inventor of Network Marketing.
Network marketing (recruiting independent-agents to serve as distributors of goods and services, and then encouraging them to build and manage their own sales force) had been around for several decades when Mary Kay Ash founded her world famous cosmetics firm in 1963.
But older companies, like Amway and
Wachters, failed to what Mary Kay did: turn the network marketing concept from something
on the fringe into an integral part of America's middle-class culture.
She did this by tapping a great underutilized workforce: housewives who
were sick of the June Cleaver act but didn't want a 9 to 5 job.
Her most brilliant move: awarding top
sellers pink Cadillacs, thereby transforming them into mobile advertisements
for the company's products. Beautiful.
George Wilkes, Inventor of Eye Candy
George Wilkes, Inventor of Eye Candy
The journalist George Wilkes, along with his friend Enoch Camp, founded the world's first girlie magazine, National Police Gazette, way back in 1845.
The Gazette was packaged as a trade magazine for law
enforcement, but featured numerous engravings and photographs of scantily-clad actresses, strippers and
prostitutes.
These pictures were often facing pages of advertisements,
which in those days were dull by comparison.
Later, of course, the eye candy ended
up in the ads, but Wilkes was the first to use sex to sell an unrelated product.
Andre Citroen, Inventor of the Electric Billboard
The founder of the Citroen automobile firm
was always something of marketing genius.
He was one of the first auto execs to
sponsor car races, for instance, and he promoted his car plant to tourists
as "the most beautiful in Europe."
However, his real masterwork was renting the Eiffel Tower in 1925 and having the Citroen brand name emblazoned with in 125,000 incandescent lights.
The sign remained in place until the
company went bankrupt in 1934, partly because of the incredibly high
electricity bills. (The first act of the new owners was to flip the off
switch.)
The lesson here: no matter how brillant the marketing,
it's got to pay for itself somehow.
Conrad Gessner, Inventor of Viral Marketing
Conrad Gessner, Inventor of Viral Marketing
Viral
marketing consists of creating a trend that
carries along by word of
mouth, creating demand for a product that previously wasn't on anybody's
radar screen.
People tend to think of it as an
Internet phenomenon, but it's actually far older.
Some scholars believe it began way back
in 1559, when the Swiss naturalist Conrad Gessner waxed lyrical about the beauties of the tulip -- a
flower then not well known in Europe.
His remarks eventually spawned (in
1634... thing move a bit slower without the Web) what's now known as "Tulipmania."
During the craze, some bulbs sold for the contemporary equivalent of several
million dollars.
One tulip fancier actually murdered his
manservant for eating a particularly prized bulb, believing it to be an onion.
Now, that's brand loyalty with a vengeance!
Lily Langtry, Inventor of the Celebrity Endorsement
Lily Langtry, Inventor of the Celebrity Endorsement
The best way to think of Lily is as the
Madonna of her era (the singer, not the saint).
For decades, Lily acted, sang and conducted highly
publicized sexual escapades (including
an affair with the future King of England), creating an image of glamour that was
ripe to be exploited.
And exploit it she did, adding her
famous name to a line of cosmetics. The fee she charged the cosmetic
firm: her body weight in gold... pound per pound.
Charles Ponzi, Inventor of CEO-centric Marketing
Charles Ponzi, Inventor of CEO-centric
Marketing
It's easily to vilify Ponzi as a conman, but what he did right was promote his company by promoting himself. It's a technique that CEOs have been imitating ever since.
Ponzi may have intended to pay off all
his investors eventually, but his marketing -- based upon a lifestyle of conspicuous
consumption -- created so much interest that it all got out of hand.
At one point, Ponzi was taking in so
much money that his offices in Boston were said to look as if a hurricane had
hit a bank.
Today, of course, Ponzi schemes are
illegal, unless they are run by the U.S. government.
Julius Caesar, Inventor of the Advertorial
Julius Caesar, Inventor of the Advertorial
An advertorial, of course, is a published article that
appears to be news, but which is secretly intended to promote a product.
It's a common way for companies to try
to get their message
across without being forced to cope with pesky concepts like accuracy
and honesty.
When Julius Caesar was away in Gaul
(now France), his enemies in Rome were busy trashing his reputation. So he
invented the advertorial.
He started sending Rome reports on his
progress, ostensibly to keep people informed, but really to make sure that
everyone knew about his victories.
When Caesar finally crossing the
Rubicon, he had a reputation to "die" for.
Jam Handy, Inventor of the Marketing Video
Jam Handy, Inventor of the Marketing Video
Ads were fine, but Jam Handy made actual movies about products and companies, with production values that rivaled the B-studios of the day.
His films, most of which were made for
the auto industry, gave numerous real actors their first start in films, and
even today are surprisingly watchable.
Here's an example that has some pretty
darn good animation:
James S. Bell, Inventor of The Ad Jingle
James S. Bell, Inventor of The Ad Jingle
On Christmas Eve of 1926, radio listeners were
treated to a new song "Have You
Tried Wheaties" by four male singers known only as "The Wheaties Quartet".
Product sales in areas where the song was played spiked,
causing James S. Bell, CEO of Washburn Crosby Company to decide to make into a
national program.
As a result, Wheaties quickly became
one of the world's most popular breakfast cereals.
Dracula, Inventor of the Publicity Stunt
Dracula, Inventor of the Publicity Stunt
In 1462, Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia
(aka Dracula), learned that Sultan Mehmet (aka Mehmet the Great) was marching
through his lands with a Turkish army.
Vlad needed a way to impress upon the Turks that he was
not to be trifled with, even though he had a tiny army in comparison.
So he invented the publicity stunt, with a vengeance.
He captured 20,000 Turks and impaled them alive on the road
on which the Turks were traveling. Aghast, the Turks turned back.
Vlad later became the world's first
victim of bad press when Victorian author Bram Stoker immortalized him as a
vampire.
Alfred E. Neuman, Inventor of Personal Branding
Alfred E. Neuman, Inventor of Personal Branding
Early in his career, Neuman overcame
the limitation of being an entirely fictional character to establish himself as
an avatar of entire lifestyle.
He kept a firm control over his brand image, always appearing with the same
expression, and his motto "What
Me Worry?" perfectly expressed a certain philosophy of life.
More importantly, his ability to
establish his image in the marketplace was ample evidence that personal success
comes from self-packaging,
rather than from actual accomplishment.
The effectiveness of Neuman's technique
can be gauged by the fact that Bill Gates clearly borrowed Neuman's image in
crafting his own personal
brand.
Stephan Paternot, Inventor of the Social Networking Service
Stephan Paternot, Inventor of the Social Networking Service
Before
there was Facebook, Myspace, or even Friendster, there
was theGlobe.com,
an internet startup founded in 1994 by Cornell student Stephan Paternot and his
pal Todd Krizelman.
Most memorably, theGlobe.com made
headlines by going public in 1998 and posting the largest first day gain of any
IPO in history.
Alas, theGlobe.com did not stand the
test of time, even though Paternot did become justifiably famous attending
parties wearing plastic pants.
Which was marketing genius of a sort,
because people are still writing about it.
N.W. Ayer, Inventor of the Advertising Agency
N.W. Ayer, Inventor of the Advertising Agency
Founded in Philadelphia in 1869, N. W.
Ayer & Son created the kind of all-purpose advertising agency that plays such a big role in the
world today.
The company's headquarters (shown in the engraving) still stands as a monument to the advertising business. It is a condominium.
The company was particularly well known for its catchy tag phrases including:
The company was particularly well known for its catchy tag phrases including:
- "When it rains it pours" (1912)
- "I'd walk a mile for a Camel" (1921)
- "A diamond is forever"(1947) by Frances
Gerety.
- "Reach out and touch someone"(1979)
- "Be all you can be" (1981)
- "Oops, we went out of business" (2002)
The God Thoth, Inventor of Print Advertising
The God Thoth, Inventor of Print Advertising
Writing
ad copy thus goes back to the dawn of
civilization, so we'll have to give credit for the idea to the traditional
inventor of writing: the Egyptian God Thoth.
As you can see from the picture, Thoth,
like many ad copywriters, had the brain of a bird.
Ron Popeil , Inventor of the Infomercial
Ron Popeil, Inventor of the Infomercial
An infomercial is a commercial disguised as a
television program.
Ron Popeil rented time on a television
station in Florida in the late 1950s to sell "The Spray Gun" (a garden hose nozzle with a chamber in
the handle for tablets of soap, wax, weed killer, fertilizer, insecticide,
etc.).
But wait, there's more!
Ron launched a trend that would transform
television advertising, creating an entire new channel for selling everything from
computers to jewelry.
But wait, there's more!
Even today, Ron remains the champion of
infomercial selling; he once went live on the QVC cable channel and, in a
single hour, moved a million dollars worth of rotisseries.
But wait, there's more!
Uh, no, there's not. Popeil is
the last genius in this gallery.
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