DAGMAR in 1961: Russell H. Colley and the Discipline of Measurable Advertising Goals
The final campaign report is a poor place to decide what success was supposed to mean. By then, a team has seen the results and can select the most flattering…
Who Invented the Barcode? Woodland, Silver and the Idea of 1949
A product had to become legible to a machine before its sale could become a routine source of detailed electronic information. That was the challenge Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard…
Bulova and the First Television Commercial: What Happened in 1941?
A claim to be the world's first television advertiser is a powerful piece of brand history. It gives a company a place in the story of a medium, reaching far…
Rosser Reeves and the USP: A History of the Unique Selling Proposition
A chocolate candy need not be sold through a complicated explanation of its recipe. Its advantage can be shown through an ordinary experience: chocolate enjoyed in the mouth rather than…
American Marketing Association: The 1937 Merger and the History of Marketing Associations
A research book of 1937 records an institutional transition. Prepared through the American Marketing Society, "The Technique of Marketing Research" appeared under the new American Marketing Association after the Society…
Journal of Marketing: How a Journal Has Shaped Marketing Scholarship Since 1936
Agricultural policy occupied the opening research pages. When the first issue of the Journal of Marketing appeared in July 1936, Don S. Anderson discussed consumers and the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.…
George Gallup and the History of Opinion Research: What Sampling Changed for Marketing
The most spectacular advertisement for a research method was a competitor's failed election forecast. In 1936, the American magazine Literary Digest expected Republican Alf Landon to win the presidency. Franklin…