[2010] 1960s WORK
[2010] 1960s WORK
0168 FCB Stories
The first project I had to undertake when I joined Foote Cone & Belding was for Dial soap. Determined to get the best retail information, in particular, the account team had bought into two retail audits (Nielsen and BMRB), and the one dustbin audit (Attwoods). Once a month, therefore, as the reports came into FCB the account group had to make a presentation to the American clients. My job, therefore, was to summarise - for the account group - the latest movements on these three audits. This sounds like it should have been easy. With three different sources the facts should have been that much more accurate. The problem was that the three almost invariably disagreed with each other. It wasn't even a matter of absolute levels, all three would show different trends; one would be rising while one another would be falling! The moral of this is not that you should not use retail audits, they offer useful information though sometimes of dubious accuracy, but you are not just wasting money taking three versions -- you are confusing everyone.
I well remember my first assignment. The figures had already been averaged across the two retail audits, and I was asked to recalculate the overall figure for the brand share. The reason for this was that the audits had changed the proportion of chemist outlets they used and hence the ratio between each side had changed marginally. I realised straight away that all I had to do was to take the existing shares and just multiply them by the changes in the ratio. Being who I am, though, I went back to basics.
Had I done as I was told, I would have come out with a brand share figure accurate to within .01 per cent. What I noticed, however, was that - since they had started tracking the brand share figure - the whole basis of their assumptions had been undermined. In particular the brand share they were looking for was based on the assumption that the brand would gain the position of fourth in the marketplace. In fact the brand shares overall had changed to such an extent that that brand share would now put them in the position of second in the marketplace; moving up two places without any obvious reason for this! I proceeded to tell my bosses this was the case, only to be told (as I was so many times later in my career), that I should do what I was told. They then presented the Americans the new share position, accurate to 0.01%!
Dial went into test market in the Northeast, and there were some amusing incidents en route. Thus, a high-pressure line in the Cussons soap-making factory (they were making the soap for Dial), exploded while the account team were there - covering the whole factory and the account team with layers of soap.
Having said all that, the test market did some good, since Armour pulled out after they realised the likely scale of the resulting marketing disaster which emerged from the audit figures. They probably saved themselves a fortune. More important, personally, it gave me a very good grounding in marketing, and in particular brand management, which later became my forte.
The agency provided a very pleasant environment, full of stories. Thus I remember an account executive going out with one of the beer salesmen -- and coming back in at noon absolutely blotto. The same account executive, who was later off work for a week so, with the flu, scandalised his neighbours by having a 40 foot Watneys trailer stop outside his suburban front door, delivering a case of Watneys beer.
Most of the stories, though, were told about clients. Thus Wallace Smedley, who was managing director of Smedley foods, used to go down to the production line for Spaghetti Bolognese -- then its main line -- and taste the sauce. Based on his hunches, almost every day he would change the formulation; making it almost impossible to maintain brand quality! He also proudly took the account team into the works canteen, and explained to them just how democratic it was. There were no class distinctions, everyone ate there and helped themselves on the same self-service line. Accordingly, they went off and helped themselves in this way, only to find - when they got back to the table - Wallace Smedley was being served separately by his own team of waiters!
G Plan was almost bad. They had one director who was known as Mr 100%. Whenever he was asked a question he would inevitably say “I agree with Leslie (Leslie Gomme was the owner) 100 percent”. It was rumoured that once, when Leslie wasn't there, he replied “I agree with what Leslie would have said”! Their great venture, during the time I was on the account, was building a totally new factory in high Wycombe; on the site of one of their old factories. The problem they discovered, too late, was that it was approached by such a narrow bridge that they could only ship out half the production of the new factory.
We, in the marketing group, weren't allowed anywhere near clients, but even so the glamour of the whole thing rubbed off on us. I remember going with the group to the musical 'How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying'. The musical was about an American advertising agency, and I remember sitting with my friends laughing a totally different jokes to those enjoyed by the rest of the audience. But we did think we were the best ever. We produced beautiful reports for clients; before the days of Xerox we had our own line of AB Dick litho printers to produce these beautifully printed reports. The agency also did some very good advertising.
One of my chores was to go round a few of the local supermarkets, to check up on what special offers were in place; so that we could report these to our clients. This was something of a chore, but it had the one distinct advantage that I had to buy lots of products, which I could then use at home. I should point out that my salary then was grand total of £600 per annum!
Even so, it was, as I have already said, a pleasant environment. For example, after lunch - which was taken in the canteen in the mews at the back of the offices - we would retire to the table tennis room. I was fortunate enough for my partner, Philip, to be a county tennis player. It really was a fun life.
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