Advertising Club of Toledo History
Theodore MacManus: Automotive Advertising Great
Written by:  Kathy Jex
Posted:  August 2010

Some of you advertising history buffs out there may have heard of Theodore MacManus, but did you know that he was a member of the Advertising Club of Toledo? Our most famous member, Theodore MacManus was born in 1872 in Buffalo, NY and was the advertising manager for Kobacker’s Department Store, a chain of stores with locations in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio, and eventually owners of Tiedtke’s in downtown Toledo. While working at the Kobacker’s here in Toledo, he wrote the memorable slogan, “You’ll Do Better at Kobacker’s” which he later reworked as “You’ll Do Better in Toledo” to promote business and industry in the growing community.

In 1903, he opened the MacManus Kelly Company, an advertising agency with offices in Detroit and Toledo. He helped introduce the Chrysler and Dodge nameplates and among other brands he handled were Cadillac, DeSoto, Hupmobile, Maxwell, Overland, Packard, Pontiac and Studebaker. MacManus coined the term, “Dependability” for the Dodge Brothers Motor Company, a line of cars known for their quality. Dodge car owners often wrote to the company in praise of their well-built and reliable cars and used the word “dependable” so frequently that MacManus used his newly-formed term dependability in his Dodge ad campaign. It was so successful that the company continued to use it for the next 50 years.

In 1915, MacManus wrote his most famous ad, “The Penalty of Leadership” for the Cadillac Motor Car Company. In September of 1914, after previously standing behind its four-cylinder engine and stating that it had no intention of marketing a six-cylinder car like its close competitor, Packard, Cadillac made the stunning announcement of its eight-cylinder, “V-type” engine. Paige-Detroit announced its new six-cylinder Paige autos in the January 2, 1915, issue of the Saturday Evening Post magazine and in the same issue the Cadillac Motor Car Co. placed “The Penalty of Leadership.” The provocative title is as striking today as it must have been then. The ad makes no extravagant product claims but instead warns the potential Cadillac customer that he must be willing to endure the envy of others for being in the forefront. “The Penalty of Leadership,” which ran only once, in the January 2, 1915, issue of The Saturday Evening Post, helped create an image for Cadillac as a prestigious marque which it retains to this day. Sales of the car surged and “The Penalty of Leadership” was voted “The Greatest Ad of All Time” in 1945, and later one of Ad Age’s Top 100 Advertising Campaigns.

Cadillac repeated the ad in a different format in the January 11, 1919, issue of the Saturday Evening Post magazine and in 1967, Cadillac mailed out scrolls of “The Penalty of Leadership” to their customer list. Elvis was on that mailing list. He read “The Penalty of Leadership” and said that, even though the piece had been written before he was born, the author could have just as well been writing about him. Elvis felt it described his life, so he framed the scroll and hung it near the desk in his office at Graceland.

In 1927, he founded MacManus Inc., an agency that specialized in automotive advertising. That company became MacManus, John & Adams in 1934, and later was absorbed into D’Arcy MacManus Benton & Bowles, later DMB&B. Although they dropped the name MacManus from their name for a while, that company later named itself the MacManus Group.

In 1927, MacManus wrote The Sword-Arm of Business a book about business, advertising and positioning, long before the term “positioning” was coined. He also hired and mentored Leo Burnett, another advertising great who created Tony the Tiger and the Pillsbury Dough Boy, among other advertising icons.

A devout Catholic, MacManus and his wife, Alice built the stone church of St. Hugo of the Hills Parish on their family estate, Stonycroft, after the death of two of their sons. In addition to becoming the permanent parish church of Bloomfield Hills, MI, it was to become a memorial to their two sons, Hugo and Hubert, and the final resting place of the family. Construction began in 1931 with formal dedication taking place on June 28, 1936. Thedodore MacManus died in 1940 and is interred at the church he built. Ironically, although he remains one of the advertising greats for his work with the Detroit car makers, he never learned to drive a car.

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Online Advertising Research in Advertising Journals: A Review
by:  Louisa Ha

An integrated model of advertising clutter in offline and online media
by:  Louisa Ha and Kim McCann

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May 2010 Article
Industry News

Flying Colors Press Merging with H.O.T. Printing & Graphics
Top Toledo printing companies join forces as an industry leader in the area

Two of the area’s leading commercial printing and graphic companies now will be one team. Effective May 1, 2010, Flying Colors Press will become a division of H.O.T. Printing & Graphics.

Over the past 35 years, H.O.T. has grown to become one of the largest full-service printing, graphics and direct mail organizations serving northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan. Adding Flying Colors Press assets to the family-owned business is H.O.T.’s ninth acquisition of competing printing companies over the past two decades.

“We are excited to welcome Flying Colors Press and its reputation of excellence to the H.O.T. family,” says Greg Shapiro, President of H.O.T. “This merger will position us for even more growth, providing additional quality choices for our clients, providing production efficiencies with more in-house resources and enabling even greater competitiveness in the marketplace.”

H.O.T. – originally known as Shapiro’s House of Type – was started as a small, out-of-the-home typesetter by the mother of the three sons presently running the business, Greg, Myron and Norm Shapiro. Currently operated in a 35,000-square-foot modern, suburban facility, H.O.T. has vastly expanded over the years, offering a graphics department and many more presses, including a six-color Shinohara sheetfed press and Kodak NexPress digital press. Investing in advanced technological services also has been a priority, with H.O.T. providing options such as variable data printing, one-to-one marketing, data-driven communications, PURL (personalized URL), storefronts and online ordering portals.

With acquisition of Flying Colors Press’ specialty services, H.O.T. continues to expand its already extensive printing capabilities. H.O.T. is gaining larger Heidelberg presses and equipment, experienced personnel providing enhanced quality and craftsmanship, expanded bindery, advanced die-cutting and specialty finishes, more direct mail options, assembly and kitting fulfillment abilities.

“After 45 years in the business, I am pleased with this venture and look forward to working under the H.O.T. name and continuing to uphold the character of integrity and exceptional customer service,” says Mike Glinski, owner of Flying Colors Press. “The joining of our companies designates us as one, united leader of the industry for fulfilling the printing and communications needs of the Toledo area and beyond.”

About H.O.T. Printing & Graphics
Established in 1976, H.O.T. Printing & Graphics is a certified green full-service printing, graphics and fulfillment organization located in the Toledo, Ohio, area. Clients include small businesses to Fortune 500 giants, numerous non-profit organizations, and a multitude of educational and medical institutions. H.O.T. also works in conjunction with its common ownership, neighboring brother company, Envelope Mart USA, a national wholesale envelope manufacturer and printer for distributors and the trade. For more information about H.O.T. and its services, visit www.h-o-tgraphics.com.

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February 2010 Article

Purpose Creates Success
Four Steps to a Better Web Site
By: Michael Temple, MBA

Web sites are all the rage today, it seems more companies and professionals have decided they need them and have put plans in place to build a site for their business.  Unfortunately outside of the basic notion that a site is needed most businesses don’t plan out what a web site will do for their business.  It becomes a situation where you want one because “they” have one, but unfortunately without purpose and planning neither your site nor theirs will be successful.

A statistic regarding web sites is that over 1,500 new web sites are launched every day somewhere.  With that many new sites being created every day to make yours stand out, much less provide value it has to have purpose.  Here are four steps to creating a stronger web site for your business.

1. Know your purpose: Is your web site designed to sell products online, build your prospect list or serve as a vehicle for information fulfillment?  It could be one of these things it could be a combination of them.  However even if it has more then one purpose then answer the question what is the primary purpose of the site?  Rank your priorities in order of importance from first to last.  Once you know the purpose you can focus the site on achieving this goal.
2. Build your site around the primary purpose: Build your web site around your purpose.  For example, if you goal is to build a site that grows your prospect list then you need to focus on creating ways to get visitors to give you their contact information.  You could do this through an online newsletter, free reports, giving away products or consultations and other methods of giving value to a user that will trade that value for their contact information.  Your site navigation, color, overall design, copy and organization needs to be built around achieving this goal.
3. Offer value: If your web site is a basic brochure about you or your company that ranks very low in terms of providing true value to a visitor.  If you can offer articles, free reports, fresh updated content, checklists, links to other sources, a current blog on your expertise, etc. you give people a reason to explore the site and share it with others.  You also create a reason for the visitor to come back to your site and expose them to your message and marketing again.  If you don’t offer value and instead just have a site all about you and your company you may get visitors once, but soon your traffic will start declining.  You want to create a site that is vibrant, alive and a destination for visitors, one that they will willingly come back to.  The key to getting this interaction with your visitors is value, offer it and they will come.
4. Measure progress: Once you have something of value to offer now you need to measure how successful it is.  However measurement of useless information isn’t going to help.  Figure out what really constitutes a useful measurement.  Is it sales, visitors or names for your list?  Whatever “it” is be sure you not only know and measure it, but have the goal in mind of what this measurement needs to be to constitute success.  There are several great management tools that can give you web statistics on your site, but without the right stats and goals that information is about as useful as ice in Antarctica.

It is too easy to build a web site today, so easy that most become a failure.  Don’t let your site become a failure because of lack of purpose and planning.  Know why you need it and what the goals and plans are to achieve the “why” then like any good plan execute it and measure your progress.  If you apply this strategy your site and business will be much more successful.

Michael Temple is the President of Temple Development Company, LLC.  He is a speaker, author and consultant on the topics of Internet marketing, email marketing, copywriting, SEO marketing and direct response marketing. Michael is also an adjunct professor of marketing for The University of Toledo teaching Internet and Direct Marketing. He can be reached at www.web2gold.com you can also call 419-882-4904 to reach him directly.

© Copyright 2006 by Michael Temple