Old-Style Marketing

Marketing used to be intelligent.

When Sears and Roebuck wanted to sell radios to farmers, it created a radio station that discussed issues highly relevant to farmers. Sears sold thousands of radios and later sold the radio station at a huge profit.

When Procter and Gamble wanted to sell soap to housewives, it created a daytime television drama (or a ‘soap opera’) that appealed to their target audience. P&G sold a ton of soap and also managed to create one of the most enduring (and profitable) media forms of the 20th century.

The model was simple – find your target audience, continuously deliver something valuable to that audience through a media platform, and then offer products and services specifically designed for that captive audience.

These marketing techniques were difficult and expensive to execute, but they paid off big time. Companies worked hard to build attention and trust, and they used those to sell their products.

Pretty brilliant, right? [Read more…]