Marketing and History - Live Episode 4

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Guest: Em Wilson (https://www.linkedin.com/in/emwilson36274/) Topic: Marketing and History

Discussion Points • Tractor magazines • Toothpaste changing a nations habits • Is breakfast the most important meal of the day? • Is smoking healthy? • Sample cards • Historical brands and logos

Link to the live video:https://www.linkedin.com/video/live/urn:li:ugcPost:6715289765270315009/

Enjoy the Episode - Happy Marketing!

Website Thingy: www.marketingstudylab.co.uk The Professional Bit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petersumpton/ Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/marketingstudylab/ Tweet Tweet: https://twitter.com/cousinp81

Transcript (this transcript isn’t 100% accurate but provides a decent representation of the conversation – soz for any confusion)

Peter Sumpton 

Hello and welcome. My name is Peter Sumpton, marketing consultant and Lego master of marketing and you're listening to the marketing study lab podcast live. Well, this bit isn't live, but the rest of it is. You'll hear a bit about that later. I mean, now, let's crack on. These episodes are taken from my live show marketing, where we look at the relationship between marketing and a specific topic. Subject or specialism. Sometimes there'll be guests, other times, it will just be me. So let's get cracking. Right, apparently we are live. Fantastic. Great thing. First first time and Wilson Welcome to LinkedIn live. It's wonderful in here, isn't it? Absolutely marvellous. So glad you'd say you do this. I'm really looking forward to it. Because I know you've put a lot of time and effort into the research into this and every time you post something, in terms of the history of marketing and all that kind of stuff. It's really engaging, really exciting. And I just can't wait to see what you've got for us today. But I'm going to chip in with a few things as well if you don't mind. But before we do that, first of all, introduce yourself to the lovely audience who are you?

Em Wilson 

Well we take screenshots Everyone knows that we're live wire on my station.

Peter Sumpton 

I was looking at the camera there. It's not gonna look good.

Em Wilson 

I don't look great either to be better excited.

Yeah, introduce yourself. So I'm m Wilson. I run an international marketing agency called Mari Mari located at UK and and yeah, bit of a bit of a weird and wonderful squiggly career into marketing. So and started in the commercial team at BP and trading so as a buyer, and then went into strategy for Europe for Castro then I did some global social media for BP, their tech startup through a successful investment round. And then I did six months with a as a marketing director and business development manager and then yeah, walked out and started Omari

Peter Sumpton 

as you do, where does the name of Mari come from?

Em Wilson 

And so, in honesty, it's a bit of a smush of my my name and my husband's name. So we save you money. And and yeah, we were just always always married. So that was because we were proper from day one. So

Peter Sumpton 

great, great little story that absolutely fantastic. And how is life in general? And

Em Wilson 

yeah, really good actually. I mean, I think I'm, you know, I'm in a bit of a COVID bubble because I don't really I don't really know anyone that's been affected touch word. And and and in honesty, although we've had you know, some struggles I think everyone's had some struggles during COVID. And you know, lots of our clients have have you know, we've had to stop projects and do payment plans and things like that, but overall, I think Yeah, not it's not the bit I've missed most is actually my Latin dance classes, which is out of everything you know, it's not a lot to complain about, is it?

Peter Sumpton 

Anyone who's ever gonna come in here and say I'm missing my dance class?

Em Wilson 

That's that's all like that thing really and hug people as well. person and I'm really struggling with not being able to sort of cut off people because you know that you might think they made it into the best man speech at my wedding was like the you know, the legendary avocados. Yeah.

Peter Sumpton 

Yeah. Oh, thank you. Thank you so much for asking. Yeah, all good. Bit of a cold which is a bit of a downer. But apart from that all is all is good with life To be fair, busy, busy, busy, which is always fun and always exciting. But yeah, things are things are going pretty damn good. Again, similar to you can't complain touchwood, my own little bubble, that kind of stuff. But have been infiltrated by a call. But apart from that, all is really good. Right? Okay, we should really talk about some serious stuff shouldn't we'll give people watching at least something to keep rather than our life stories. So what I wanted to talk to you today about so the way I'm doing these lives is that it's kind of like a marketing and series. So this this is classed as marketing and history, but it doesn't really do it justice. So I think the great thing and anyone that doesn't follow, please follow and go back through some of the videos and some of the posts about some historic elements in marketing and how it's been used through history and time and stuff like that. It's amazing. And plus, take a look at the videos where she just picks something random that a client has asked glean a lot of information from them. It's pretty much how I do all my strategies to be fair. Watch your videos, and then pick You know, the bowl and go? Yeah, that's about right. Let's do anyone that's watching. I don't do that. Okay, but so what I want to do is dive into kind of the history of marketing or certain elements of the history or certain things you've found that's really interesting, fascinating that we might even learn from. So first and foremost, take it away, what, what would you say is like, let's start on a high the most exciting thing or the most interesting thing that you that you've seen recently in terms of marketing and history.

Em Wilson 

And so I'm, I'm a really big fan of the custom magazine, so that I've got a I've got a lot of time for that. And basically, it's different companies creating magazines for their particular target audience. Because it's really interesting. There is a brilliant book by Joe bootsy, that talks about how do you make marketing a profit centre? And one of the ways you do that is through a magazine that you get people to pay for. And so that got me like, hooked, like, when did it start from, you know, obviously, we had the Gutenberg press in 1450, or whatever it was so and then everyone always talks about the Pharaoh, which started in I think it was 1895, which was a tractor magazine. And so I've learned about tractors. But actually, the first, the first magazine I can find was in 1730. And there was a race between Ben Franklin and this other guy to who could get the first published magazine in America, which I found really fascinating. So he started that off, that was quite nice. And then, with the magazines that what I found quite interesting about that was just how, like, if you think about the 1730s, like, the only way that people could really mark it was like word of mouth. It was, and, you know, posters on the side of building, which actually got, it got so bad, because people are doing it so often, that actually got banned in London and France.

And France.

Peter Sumpton 

Yeah, no one else had posted.

Em Wilson 

But that I found really interesting. And then, and you know, the adverts from like the 1800s, as well. And so there was I found out about this whole thing about the baking powder was, and which is really exciting. Yeah, so baking powder in like the, you know, late 17 1700s, early 1800s was this, like the adverts and nuts? Like they're just so because what you don't realise is that no, baking powder was like, female liberation at the time, like a woman's worth is defined by the quality of her bread. So like baking powder was incredible. And it's so it was so competitive. And like, you look at all the adverts, and they're just, they're just insane. They're just really fun. And in terms of the different things that they did, and I think, you know, it's kind of, then you move on, and you kind of have, and obviously the posters and everything, all the adverts from that magazine went out into the posters, and then the posters got banned. So then we had the billboard, and billboards came out in like 1860s. And I think that the first one was rented in 1867. And what I find amazing about these things is that, you know, like, if you think, however many years later, so 2010 Mini, like the car company, look pretty glued and actual mini to the top of the Billboard, as sort of, you know, shout out marketing think outside the box. And I just, you know, you see all these things that happened in sort of, yeah, the 1718 1900s and how that kind of came through, like telemarketing. So I'm under the like telemarketing. Everyone thinks that's like 1970s 1980s Wolf of Wall Street. started in the early 1900s by a bunch of housewives who wanted to sell more cookies. Yeah. So not even joking. And he then had, and they basically sold the original lead list of, you know, local directories, and these ladies would just ring each other up and say, you know, my recipe is better than yours. Do you want to buy my piece?

Peter Sumpton 

I just I find it fascinating how? Here we overcomplicate marketing, like we just do massively. And I always find it interesting to go back to its roots and original, where it all came from, and all that kind of stuff. And from from what I know, and what I found, is that there's no no one can give you a definitive, this is where marketing started. This is how this grew. Yeah, there's like tally marks in our posters and stuff like that. But it's usually someone's doing it in one country, or someone's doing it over here at the same time, roughly the same time, or whatever it is, and they derive something slightly different. And I just think typifies what marketing is all about, you know, trying new things, testing new things trying to stand out, but to a particular audience, and I think it's really interesting that if you read the history and go try to go back as far as you can, there isn't a Well, this person said this, and that led to, there are certain elements, but there's almost it's almost hearsay if you like.

Em Wilson 

Yeah. And that I think that's the bit I find I find fascinating about it. And the bit I really enjoy about like, the history of marketing particularly is just its effect on society. Like, I don't think you know, so like, and I always go back to the toothpaste analogy, so, and advertising actually save the teeth of a nation.

And so

my favourite, one of my favourites,

that and you know, so back in the early 1900s, again, and only like 7% of Americans brush their teeth every day, which just seems insane. Yeah. And then this guy, called, I think his name's Claude Hopkins or something. But he, he basically got asked to advertise some toothpaste. But obviously, nobody really got it, they didn't really understand why they needed it. So he went and wrote read a load of dentistry books, which was really boring. And he found out about plaque and how it leaves like the film on your teeth. And he is actually one of the earliest examples of the cue and reward and advertising and marketing that we can find or I found today. And so the cue is if you feel the film on your teeth, then the reward is brushwood, Pepcid and get like the tingling feeling. Okay. Yeah.

And yeah, and so by the end, so it was all sort of do the tongue test, I think was his tagline. And, and he is like, within a decade, 65% of Americans were then brushing their teeth every day. And he also you had like the beginnings of influencer marketing, because Clark Gable was known for his Pepsi dense smile, Shirley Temple, you know, all of these people are so yeah, it's just I think that's, it's sort of the Mad Men era that I really enjoy.

Peter Sumpton 

Yeah. And we, we need, and things are slightly changed from when I was, was being educated in marketing, if you want to call it that. But it's, I'd say, a lot of people get into the industry, because of that madman era, which is, I think it's slightly changed now. But and it's more, I suppose I have a Zuckerberg error if you like. And that's why people get into it, whether they fall into it by accident, or they want to, but I was hugely influenced by the fact that the psychology behind marketing and how it can have a massive influence on Well, actually a nation, like you just said, to the point of view that it changes culture. And I feel like did it change culture, people like cleaning the teeth.

That's, that's my,

Em Wilson 

that was the bit in their social dilemma. I don't know if you've seen it on Netflix yet. But that's, I mean, that just makes you want to throw your phone out the window, and start talking about all the data that people get from, from your social media channels and stuff. But I thought was really interesting about that was it wasn't that the consumer was the was the main thing, like getting more customers wasn't actually the main thing. It was behavioural change. Or it was all kind of focused on and I thought that was Yeah, just really interesting. But I look to the the old, the old marketing, so mad men is usually associated with the 1950s, isn't it? I was talking about sort of the Victorian Mad Men, I sort of see them,

Peter Sumpton 

okay.

Em Wilson 

But, and also, like, think about Michelin, so like, and the tires, they started their publication in 1904. And because they wanted people to go explore, so they wear the tie that more often so that they, you know, so much higher. And now it's like the industry standard or gold standard for restaurants and things.

of 100 years.

Peter Sumpton 

And that's it makes it makes me laugh. Like today when you hear people come up with some crazy ideas or crazy concepts within within marketing or everyone thinks that that's what we do. We draw stuff we call stuff in we come up with stupid ideas. Okay, we kind of do, but there's a lot of there's a lot of theory and methodology behind it. Imagine going into a boardroom. And, like, just on the face of it saying, right, we're at a company, what do you want to do? I know what we're gonna do. We're gonna give restaurants rewards. What how, how does that work? I but the theory behind it is absolutely bang, when you tell people that story, but that's how the stars came about and all that kind of stuff. It's like, Oh, yeah. And that's what really fascinates me about like, the history of marketing is the fact that you look at various things. And most people like the toothpaste, for example, they probably thought he was crazy. Like he never got to get people to clean the teeth. But doing his research, and bringing it forward to what people gather data for is behavioural change. That's pretty much what he did. He went back and read books and said, right, okay, this is a thing that I feel can influence people to change the way they think about their teeth.

Em Wilson 

But what I love about that one particularly is like the dentist history books he read, he said in his autobiography that they were like, so dry because it was just all about what newsone plaque and like, just sounds and making it, you know, by calling it the film, like anybody can understand that anybody knows when you wrap your your tongue across your teeth, exactly how that feels, you know, if you've had a glass of red wine or something, you can feel it. It was that it was making, I think sometimes it marketing is just about making the complex, simple. And certainly like that the you know, that's the the challenge that keeps me in interested in in what I do is a lot of my work is actually how do you take this really sort of techie complicated thing and make it ama friendly, I call it

sort of anybody could understand

1. And I think that's, that's the important bit of a bit of marketing. And I think also, like, the other thing that we learn from the history is to play to your strengths. So, you know, think about, you know, post World War, you had the the VW, the Volkswagen, and you sell, you know, a German car, that's pretty rubbish in comparison with its western counterparts. And, and you know, and it's got horrible name on it. And what you do is you call it a VW, and all of the copy around those adverts were about the fact Yes, it was very small. And no, it wasn't going to go very fast. But it was reliable, and it wasn't going to need a lot of upkeep. So for people in post war, you know, post war Britain, post war America, it was actually as long as you call it VW Volkswagen actually not, it was a lot easier to get that that message across and actually became, it became a bit of a personality symbol a bit like the Mini is now. You know, for people, it's a bit quirky. And you know, many really, I think they actually took the lessons from VW from the 50s. And sort of brought that sort of into its own in the sort of the 2010. And because they were they were, you know, really playing on the on the mini sort of quirky personality. Yeah, yeah, that's really, I really enjoy it.

Peter Sumpton 

Yeah, I mean, I, again, I mean, there's so many lessons we learn through looking at history and what's gone before us and all that kind of stuff. And we should always be looking forward. Don't get me wrong. But looking back to that. And and, again, the simplicity of marketing is, you know, you've got something that solves a problem. How do you get it into the hands of the people that have that problem? That's it, you know, that's all we're here to do? Through various methods or whatever. And pretty much, that's what VW did. They're like, Okay, we've got this car. So I'm going to suit everyone. It just isn't it fundamentally isn't. And we don't say Volkswagen, because that is far too German. So how do we get into this UK in this US market, right? We're going to need a name change, fine tick. But it's too small for most. So we're not targeting big families. We're not targeting people that want to do long journeys. Let's just be really focused and targeted on the people that that may want this. And let's make our comms about them. And how this car isn't made for everyone. And straight away, you're, you're in a select club isn't made for everyone.

Em Wilson 

Yeah, you have to opt in. Yeah. And what I,