Reflections of a Dinosaur

As a general rule I believe that dinosaurs should remain a part of their own time frame. There they have a relevance to each other and to their environment. I mention this because I think I can now claim bone fide dinosaur status having retired from business and the marketing scene in particular twenty odd years ago. But even dinosaurs leave information behind them that subsequent generations find useful and interesting. I wonder what my generation will leave behind them…apart from colour television, mobile phones, the internet, fast foods, and an insatiable desire to own things that the marketers feed on enthusiastically.

I spent twenty-five fantastic years in that business and saw some monumental changes in the approach to the whole subject of marketing. So when I was invited to comment on the subject by the creators of this site I told them I was almost certainly the wrong man to perform such a task. Things have changed so much since I stopped doing whatever it was I was doing. You see I have what I always regarded as a sales orientated mind. I was trained as a salesman by a company that raised the activity almost to the level of a fine art; the guiding lights of which were Dale Carnegie and Frank Betcher. Long before T.W.Twee and the Saatchis re-invented marketing and advertising and….and…well all the others who created images and ended up believing the images they created were real.

So when, as sales controller for a very large media house, I was introduced to Mike our new marketing manager I was frankly sceptical. How could someone who couldn't and never had sold a thing to anyone tell my sales force how to sell? They were already the best in the business. What could he tell them that they didn't already know?

As it turned out he was able to tell them quite a lot and me too! But until then we had worked in a different way.

In those days we sold things to people by going to see them. The meeting could take place in an office, a restaurant, on a golf course or anywhere else that could be conveniently and agreeably arranged. Discussions would cover a multitude of subjects and somewhere in amongst all the chat we sold our product. Yes we did! Lots of it! And all this without a laptop, spreadsheet or presentation in sight! All that infiltrated onto the scene much later. We simply agreed an order and shook hands on the deal. That was it…no bits of paper needed there and then, that job was for admin bods to sort out. We had struck a deal and it was inviolate.

But now it was time to stop all that and become professional….be modern…product ranges not individual items, brand names not manufacturers, structured approaches now, not a swift telephone call with an invite to Ladies Day at Ascot for the buyer and his wife ..oh yes…and the chairman of the company that puts his/her target product in front of the customers…oooops sorry consumers, no more just talking to people, present to them… with graphics if possible and supported by as many statistics as you can find.

Forget doing business on the terraces at Twickenham or Wimbledon all that was passé. Now the entire company must be invited to hear you present the virtues of your group of publications. They used to be individual titles that everyone knew intimately. Questions on the efficacy of the title would be put by young people who had never read any of them. Never mind the readers who did, they had studied the focus group report on the brand's potential in the sector of the market to which the product range is targeted and knew that….I can't go on….well I can but I won't.

You must by now see what I meant at the start of this. Dinosaurs should stay where they belong…in the past. Mind you it's worth remembering that some dinosaurs grew very big, some had big teeth and an attitude, all left footprints…And I will just add this, I and others like me not only hoisted in all the new jargon and the blather that went with it we became rather good at it too, but we still went to the most agreeable places, we still found time to have lunch with people we liked or wanted to do business with, we still attended the various gala evenings at the Grosvenor House, and had dinner parties at home with our friends.

Above all we bloody well enjoyed ourselves! Do you enjoy what you're doing? I mean really enjoy it….If you don't here's some advice from a very well fed and comfy dinosaur….STOP DOING IT!