But nothing has changed with the marketing, other than cigarette advertising being banned from radio and TV, and the price of cigarettes soaring. The same marketing campaign that appeared to fail has succeeded to the point that Marlboro is now known as the best-marketed brand in history.
How did that happen? It happened because of the power of the first secret of guerrilla marketing. It’s the same secret as the secret of a good marriage or a great golf game or a successful business. The word is “commitment.”
COMMITMENT
Two frogs fell into a large cylindrical tank of fluid, and both fell to the bottom. The walls were sheer and slippery. One frog died but one survived.
Why?
The frogs fell into a large tank of cream. One swam around for a while but then gave up and drowned.
The other frog kept persistently swimming until his movement turned the cream into little lumps of butter on which he safely floated.
Your level of commitment and perseverance can determine if your marketing campaign sinks or swims.
I don’t like saying this in print, but I don’t want you to miss the point here: brilliant marketing without commitment isn’t nearly as profitable as even medium marketing with commitment. It’s the commitment that makes it happen. The hero of the Marlboro campaign was not the creative who dreamt up the marketing, but the chairman of the board of Philip Morris, parent company of Marlboro, who stayed with the campaign from day one, reminding us that we had let him know that the marketing might not work immediately. Thank you, Joseph Cullman IV, for being a guerri