Account Histories: The Fleischmann Company
A typed internal file from the J. Walter Thompson Company library, dated January 2, 1926, that sets down what the agency knew about its client, The Fleischmann Company, whose account came to it on July 7, 1920.
What it is
A typed internal file from the J. Walter Thompson Company library, dated January 2, 1926, that sets down what the agency knew about its client, The Fleischmann Company, whose account came to it on July 7, 1920. Only the first of eight pages is in this file. It follows a fixed order. History of the Client: Charles Fleischmann founded the firm in 1868 and made the first compressed yeast for American bakers, and a step by step account of how grain becomes yeast follows. Sales and Distribution Organization: four divisions with offices in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Seattle, about 2,500 agents and distributors, and 25 to 30 demonstrators who visit bakers. Distribution stops at towns of 10,000 people. Competition: the Northwestern Yeast Company's dry Yeast Foam, which country buyers prefer because it keeps. The page ends mid-sentence.
Why read it now
The order of this file still makes a sound client brief: what the product physically is, how it reaches a buyer, then who stands in the way. Each section yields a fact someone can act on. The distribution floor of 10,000 people tells the media planner where not to spend. The note that country families bake more but buy the rival's yeast because it keeps names the real barrier, shelf life, before any copy is written. The process paragraph already holds consumer claims, such as the million tiny cells and the line about human hands. What has dated is the scope. It holds no buyer research, prices or sales figures, so the brief is written from the maker's side only. Files in the same collection show where the account went next: doctor testimonial ads and a 1931 Federal Trade Commission complaint against Fleischmann. Use: before a new Saudi client's first campaign, write a two page file in this order, product, route to buyer, competitor, and add the section this 1926 file lacks, what buyers themselves say.
Passages worth keeping
The Fleischmann Company account came to the J. Walter Thompson Company on July 7, 1920.
يبدأ الملف بتاريخ وصول الحساب إلى الوكالة، فهو سجل للعلاقة مع العميل قبل أن يكون وصفًا للمنتج.
All necessary processes are carried out by machinery, and human hands seldom touch it.
جملة من ملف داخلي تصلح ادعاءً إعلانيًا عن النظافة، فمعرفة طريقة الصنع تسبق النص الإعلاني وتغذيه.
some 25 to 30 demonstrators, practical bakers, who spend their entire time visiting bakers and showing them how to get better results.
الشركة تبيع بالتعليم؛ خبازون محترفون يزورون العملاء ويحسّنون نتائجهم، فالخدمة هنا جزء من البيع.
The distribution is practically confined to cities and towns of 10,000 and over.
حد التوزيع يرسم السوق الفعلية، فلا فائدة من إعلان يصل إلى بلدات لا تصلها البضاعة.
The big market for packaged yeast is in the cities, for home baking; people in the country, although they bake more than those in cities, are apt to use Yeast Foam because it keeps indefinitely.
أكثر الناس استهلاكًا ليسوا بالضرورة زبائنك؛ فأهل الريف يخبزون أكثر، لكن ميزة المنافس في طول الحفظ تكسبه إياهم.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original idn.duke.edu
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