matt higgins

David Ogilvy is considered the “Father of Advertising,” but he is, in truth, an absolute icon of marketing. Born in England in 1911, after failing out of the prestigious Oxford University, he turned to selling ovens door-to-door.

He was a natural and so successful that he was asked to write a manual for other salesmen. This manual, called The Theory and Practice of Selling an AGA Cooker, was then so well received, it landed him a position at the advertising agency his older brother worked at. The manual identified the need of benefits to be articulated in the message and for the messenger to be properly prepared for pushback in the form of objections. He stated the salesman needed to be tenacious but charming. So, he outlined what the message should be (benefit focused) and how it should be delivered (purposefully but politely). Ogilvy also made note of who was really the key decision maker and noted the influence they could have on success before and after the sale.

Ogilvy was already customer-centric in his approach, but this was further developed in 1938 when he attended George Gallup’s Audience Research Institute in the United States. While Gallup is best known for political polling, Ogilvy’s time spent at the Audience Research Institute deepened his appreciation of consumer data and analysis.

After WWII, Ogilvy eventually made his way to New York, NY and started his own Manhattan agency in partnership with an existing agency. Here his sharp opinions on advertising and people led to some of the most influential quotes in marketing.

“The customer is not a moron, she’s your wife”

“Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon.” See: marketing alphabet soup

“Don’t count the people that you reach, reach the people who count.”

“Consumers do not buy products. They buy product benefits.”

“When you advertise fire extinguishers, open with the fire.” The fire is the problem; the extinguisher is the solution.

“Any damn fool can put on a deal, but it takes genius, faith and perseverance to create a brand.”

“Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.” Much like the above quote about reaching the people who count, these are more relevant today than they were when Ogilvy first said them.

“Within every brand is a product, but not every product is a brand.”

“You now have to decide what ‘image’ you want for your brand. Image means personality. Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the market place.”

“Great marketing only makes a bad product fail faster.”

“If you tell lies about a product, you will be found out – either by the Government, which will prosecute you, or by the consumer, who will punish you by not buying your product a second time.”

“I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.”

Ogilvy passed away in 1999, but his ideas remain remarkably relevant today. Because of the time he operated in, his focus was on advertising (and brand), but it’s all marketing. While not all marketing is advertising, all advertising is marketing.