Modern marketing from the past 

Introduction

Victorian Bournemouth (126) uses a sample of advertisements placed in one publication to explore media marketing practices during the 1870s. The sample consists of advertisements placed in the Poole & Dorset Herald by selected package goods marketers. It provides a glimpse into the early marketing for several products that would grow into major consumer brands.

Victorian Bournemouth (126): media and marketing (1)

High frequency of appearance

The Poole & Dorset Herald, during the 1870s, carried advertising for local and national businesses. Retailers comprised most of the former, manufacturers the latter. The samples taken consisted of January 1874, 1877, and 1879. Most advertised products consisted of various medical remedies. Other categories included food preparation, tea, and laundry products. The advertisements appeared on the first two pages. Even though the paper could print visuals, most advertisements consisted of text. Lea & Perrins and Bryant & May, however, always featured their pack shots. The readers encountered the same products with each issue. Furthermore, many of the products appeared in both 1877 and 1879. Thus, the advertisers had the budgets and inclination to use high frequency as part of their media strategy. This suggests that companies and their agents took a professional approach to the employment of print media. They wanted to achieve a constant presence.

Retail support and brand credentials

In two other areas, the advertisers displayed an efficient use of their advertising money. First, several of the advertisements featured the names of local retailers stocking their products. Thus, the advertising both forced distribution into the retail channel and helped to pull it through by encouraging consumer traffic. This suggests that the advertisers had good local knowledge and perhaps mobile sales representatives to build local retail relationships. Second, in many advertisements, the copy emphasised the authenticity of the products. They warned consumers against copies. ‘Beware of counterfeits’ warned Lea & Perrins. Bryant & May referred to ‘dangerous imitations’. Collis Browne‘s copy for Chlorodyne mentioned ‘piracy and imitations’ as did Reckitt’s for their Paris Blue. By so doing, the advertisers began the work of building an emotional or non-rational linkage between product and consumers. This constitutes a fundamental ingredient for establishing a brand having a premium and longevity. 

Victorian Bournemouth (126): media and marketing (2)

Different target audiences

Defined targeting helps efficient deployment of media funds. Deeper analysis of these advertisements explores the mechanics to reach different targets. These consisted of two types of people: end-users and gatekeepers. On the one hand they addressed end users, people who bought medical, cooking, and cleaning products for personal and household consumption. In some cases, a servant may have visited the shop or arranged delivery, but they acted on an employer’s instructions informed by the advertising. Gatekeepers, on the other hand, have their own customers to whom they provide access for the advertisers. For the medical products, the manufacturers wanted to influence prescribers or endorsers. Thus, they included physicians and chemists amongst those they wanted to receive their messages. A similar process would have applied to the cooking and cleaning products. In this case, the gatekeepers consisted of people who managed hospitality businesses: hotels, taverns, and lodging-houses.

Good business opportunities at Bournemouth

Thus, Bournemouth, covered by this newspaper, would have formed a valuable market for these products. On the one hand, as a destination for convalescents, it offered a considerable opportunity for the manufacturers of various medical remedies. On the other, in additional to several hotels and taverns, Bournemouth had many lodging-houses. In high-season, others took in lodgers. Managers of such enterprises will have wanted to deliver best quality food experiences to their guests for the minimum outlay. Within this context, the food preparation items that aimed to improve the taste of meat dishes would have played an important role. Packaged starch products facilitated the preparation of sauces and gravy. Taste enhancers would provide quick ways to enrich meat taste. Such items enabled catering managers to reduce costs: cheaper meat cuts; cheaper staff having only basic cooking skills. Bournemouth’s seasons provided a stream of potential end-users to benefit from these products.

Victorian Bournemouth (126): media and marketing (3)

Trajectories of success

Many of these brands sold at Bournemouth during the 1870s still exist today, although their trajectory has passed through different owners in most cases. Reckitt’s, the makers of Paris laundry blue, in time merged with a competitor – Colmans – before forming the Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Reckitt Benckiser. Horniman’s tea has reached another Dutch company, Jacobs Douwe Egberts, spun out of Mondelez, once part of Kraft. Brown & Polson has also gone through a chain of owners: Corn Products, Unilever, now Premier Brands. Liebig’s meat products became Fray Bentos and Oxo. The former has gone through the books of Campbells to reach Baxters. The latter has followed a similar route to Brown & Polson, reaching Premier Brands after Unilever. Beecham went from selling pills ‘worth a guinea a box’ to powders on the way to becoming part of the global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. Bryant & May now belongs to Swedish Match.

Timeless brand properties

This brief revue of advertising placed in the Bournemouth market during the 1870s has suggested that the manufacturers proceeded in a way not dissimilar to marketing practices today. Their use of media frequency, branded copy, and defined targeting constitutes timeless components of successful advertising and marketing. A measure of this success appears in the continuing existence of both the companies and their brands today. Whereas, the original ownership may have vanished, the brands, as valued entities, have satisfied the acquisitive appetite of global giants who like to deal in known and established business entities. Such brands succeed because they find a ready way into the retail channel, physical or online, and have a ready franchise of awareness and trust amongst end users. The basics of these marketing qualities appeared in place during the mid-Victorian times as the advertising analysed for Bournemouth shows.

Takeaway

Victorian Bournemouth (126) has sampled advertisements placed in the Poole & Dorset Herald during the 1870s. It has found that the marketing methods used then differ little from those employed today. They formed the basis of brands which have continued to substantial global success.

References

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