How Advertising and Marketing Got Started
Copyright 2006 Presslink Publishing
This is the first in a series of 10 articles starting with thebeginnings of advertising and marketing through to present day.
Advertising, as we know it, probably started to prosper in 1904when John E. Kennedy gave the world that definition:”Advertising is Salesmanship-in-Print”. A definition that hasnot been bettered since – and many have tried.
For me, modern day advertising started a few years earlier thanKennedy when Richard Sears produced the very first mail ordercatalog (around 1892). This catalog contained hundreds of pagesof articles for sale and each with their own sales copy. AndSears Roebuck is still going strong today, in marketing andsales.
Around this time, advertising agencies sprang up everywhere. Andthe people they employed and trained, left us with suchtreasures that all top marketers today display in their resourcelibraries and use to their advantage.
Shortly after Kennedy arrived on the scene, Claude Hopkins camealong. He left us with a legacy we should all thank him for. Hepioneered market testing, sampling, vouchers, and a whole lotmore.
At the turn of the last century there were many others: WalterDill Scott, Maxwell Sackheim, Haldeman Julius, John Caples, toname just four.
Then around the middle of the century such geniuses as ElmerWheeler, Robert Collier and other contemporaries appeared.
Post war, advertising greats David Ogilvy, Joe Karbo, also madetheir mark
And living legends Jay Abraham, John Carlton, Gary Halbert, DanKennedy, and Ted Nicholas, have all made many millions both forthemselves and their clients.
Towards the end of the last century, the greatest marketing toolof all time was unleashed on the world – the Internet. Earlypioneer of the Internet, Ken McCarthy, is still around and his”System” seminars are an absolute must attend.
The Internet has opened a whole new world for advertising andmarketing. And a new breed of entrepreneur has been born. Guyslike the late, great Corey Rudl, Marlon Sanders, RobertImbriale, Yanik Silver, Jim Edwards and many others have shownwhat can be done and in such a short space of time.
But one thing all these “gurus” have in common is that they havestudied the markets. They have studied the psychology of whatmakes people buy. They have learned these principles from thegreat masters of the past – the John Kennedys, the ClaudeHopkins, the Walter Dill Scotts, the Elmer Wheelers.
And thats what my articles are all about.
You will be taken from the very beginnings of advertising andget an insight into the writings, the ideas and the philosophiesof most of the greatest marketers that ever lived.
For sure, you will recognise much of the material that ismentioned as we take the “tour” but its doubtful that you willhave come across all of it.
All top marketers recommend that you continually add to youreducation and you will not do better than picking up any (orall) of the material that you will be exposed to on your “tour.”
Each manuscript mentioned in this “tour” is a desirable additionfor your resource library.
Pick them up, maybe one at a time. And you will
profit from them- just like all the great masters have done – past and present.
This article is a brief history of events leading up to theappearance of John E. Kennedy in 1904.
But it also highlights a few milestones in advertising
1704 The first newspaper ad appeared. It was in a BostonNewsletter and sought a buyer for an estate in Oyster Bay, LongIsland.
1729 Benjamin Franklin starts to publish the PennsylvaniaGazette in Philadelphia – which included ads.
1742 Americas first magazine ads published by Benjamin Franklinin General Magazine.
1784 Americas first successful daily newspaper, thePennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser, starts in Philadelphia.
1833 Benjamin Day publishes the first successful “penny”newspaper, The Sun. Circulation reached 30,000 by 1837 whichmade it the largest in the world.
1843 Volney Palow opens the first ad agency in Philadelphia.
1868 Francis Wayland Ayer opens N. W. Ayer and Sons inPhiladelphia with just $250.
His first clients include Montgomery Ward, John Wannamaker Dept.Stores, Singer Sewing machines, and Ponds beauty cream.
1873 The first convention for ad agencies held in New York.
1877 J.W. Thompson buys Culter and Smith from William J. Carltonand pays $500 for the business and $800 for the office furniture.
1880 Department Store founder John Wanamaker becomes firstretailer to employ a full-time advertising copywriter – John E.Powers.
Wannamaker makes famous statement: “half my advertising iswaste, I just dont know which half.”
1881 Daniel M. Lord and Ambrose L. Thomas form Lord and Thomasin Chicago.
1881 Procter and Gamble advertise Ivory Soap with an enormousbudget of $11,000.
1886 N.W. Ayer promotes advertising with the slogan: “Keepingeverlastingly at it brings success.”
1886 Richard Warren Sears became the worlds first directmarketer.
1891 George Batten and Co. opens.
1892 NW Ayer hires first full-time copywriter.
1892 Sears Roebuck formed.
1893 Printers Ink founded by George P. Rowell. A magazine thatserves as the “little schoolmaster in the art of advertising.”
1898 N.W Ayer helps National Biscuit Co. launch the firstpre-packaged biscuit Uneeda.
1899 Campbell Soup makes its first advertising.
1899 JWT becomes the first agency to open an office in London.1900 N .W. Ayer establishes a business-getting department toplan ad campaigns.
1904 John E. Kennedy bursts onto the scene to change the face ofadvertising – forever.
My next article will continue with the evolution of advertisingas we know it.
Mail order guru Ted Nicholas said that the old marketers werethe best and that they, and the works they produced, should bestudied – he did!
About the author:
Peter Woodhead is the author of Long Lost Marketing Secrets,other niche websites and a member site. He offers a free 9 Parte-course at: http://www.LostSecretsofMarketingLegends.com Get ittoday! And you can get his 4 sales and marketing books byvisiting: http://www.LongLostMarketingSecrets.com or view hismember site at: http://www.PublicDomainResource.com
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