Entrust Advertising and Promotions to the Best Agency
It is interesting that many similarities could be found from the history of APPLE, the world-class computer giant and preliminary period of“TELE VIDEO”. The first personal computer, APPLE 1 was born in the co-founder Steven Paul Jobs' garage in 1976. It was one year after my game card was created in my garage with difficulties.
Steve Paul Jobs was originally an employee of Atari which ordered monitors from my company. Perhaps, I met Steve before when I contacted with Atari. Both Steve and I were frequently introduced as pioneers in the US IT industry. In fact, we were intimate partners.
There is another important common ground. The APPLE's bite in its logo enjoys the same popularity as APPLE computers. Advertising not only arouses people's attention on its logo, but also creates wide praise for their computers.
One person must be mentioned in tracing APPLE history. It was Regjs McKenna, a famous talent in the advertising field then. He was also the first PR for“TELE VIDEO”.
When the R&D of CRT terminal was approaching to an end, I was thinking about advertising. For game monitors, we just needed to send them to Atari. However, the terminal was another case, we must attract consumers ourselves, or otherwise, we must have consumers to come to us. Advertising was necessary if we wanted the consumers to come to us then.
However, we had no money for production, not to mention the budget for advertising. I had produced company logos, brochures and booklets before, yet they were extremely simple with redundant texts without professional design. However, it was better than nothing. I could not afford printing in the printing house, but copy the pictures into black & white and staple them into simple brochures.
I planned to complete it this time as well, so I drew adverting schemes everyday in the paper. Our terminals boasted their strength include intelligence and reasonable price, etc. A promoting sentence came up into my mind:“SMART TERMINAL WITH DUMB TERMINAL PRICE!” It sounded not bad.
My ads started from the European market, since the US market had been occupied by LEAR SIERGER and other traditional brands already. As a result, I intended to market our terminals in European countries where terminals were popularized later than in the United States. We were satisfied with our advertising influence. When a small amount of orders arrived, we were more confident with the advertising.
Sales of CRT terminal were sky scraping, and then we put into the production of PC immediately. I was thinking about a formal advertisement this time and decided to demonstrate our products and company image with the help from a professional PR company. People in the Silicon Valley realized the importance of advertising again because of the successful example of APPLE, so the PR professionals were in high demand then.
I would like to entrust the marketing to the most popular PR experts. Ads of APPLE and INTEL could be regarded as the most attractive ones for me. They aroused curiosity immediately and displayed the cutting-edge features of the IT industry. I heard that PR of both these companies was responsible by the same company. It was Regjs McKenna's company.
I called the PR company and invited it to design ads for our products. Regjs McKenna's company was quite large, which showed little enthusiasm with my request. A former“garage company” which just grew up with its CRT terminals,“TELE VIDEO” certainly would not be regarded as a VIP to Regjs McKenna's company. Therefore, I decided to meet with their Vice President.
The Vice President spared a glance at“TELE VIDEO”brochure I brought up. However, I explained our creation process as well as blueprint sincerely. I was talking and writing, my illustration was filled in the blackboard. I was so devoted to the explaining the promising future and potentials of“TELE VIDEO”, together with my hopes and ambition, only to realize that my shirt was soaked with sweat.
“So, I would like to invite your company to handle our PR.”
“Mr. Hwang, I understand what you mean. But we have not accepted a request of advertising from such a small company by far, I am really sorry.”
The response of Vice President was still very cold. I failed to convince him. As I slowly packed up the file and turned to leave, applauses came from the office inside.
“Your introduction touched me deeply.”
A man walked slowly to me, and shook hands with me heartily.
“My name is Regjs McKenna, and it is our great pleasure to be your PR.”
My fate with McKenna began. When he was representing PR for APPLE, he did not take size and appearance of the company into account, but the entrepreneur's enthusiasm. He focused on its future value rather than its current status.
He said that after listening to my introduction, he was touched by the challenge will. He believed that even if he missed another company, he could not miss this person. Although the vice president responsible for specific matters had expressed his refusal, but McKenna personally came forward, mainly to get to know me.
McKenna first shortened my advertising proposal of“SMART TERMINAL WITH DUMB TERMINAL PRICE!” into“SMART WITH PRICE DUMB!”, which was more concise and impressive. Original meaning of“SMART TERMINAL was sold at DUMB TERMINAL” was kept, yet impression was completely different. This was professional!
McKenna did a lot of work for“TELE VIDEO” PR. Although we paid USD 50,000 per month to McKenna's company, it was entirely worthwhile. McKenna not only played its role in advertising, but also guided public opinions on the promotions of the company.
Owing to the reports in Fortune,“TELE VIDEO” had become a household name within a morning. It was McKenna that contributed to the story. I established“TELE VIDEO”, but the leader from the PR company was managing the image and its evaluation of“TELE VIDEO”.