From the Saturday, September 2, 2006 Business section of the Chicago Tribune– J.C. Penny decided to move its $400 million advertising account from DDB to Saatchi & Saatchi after Pennys’ CEO heard Saatchi’s Kevin Roberts speak when promoting his new book, “Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands.” As the Tribune reports, “Ullman was so impressed with Roberts and his ideas about making deep emotional connections with customers that he directed Pennys’ chief marketing officer to find out more. Thus began a courtship that resulted Friday in the surprising news . . . .”
I’m tempted to end with some trite rhetorical question about whether Pennys’ lawyers are reading this book today, but that would ignore the profundity of Penny’s decision. DDB had orchestrated an ad campaign that resulted in Pennys’ stock moving from $14 to $65 a share, and increased sales of over $1 billion. Their ad campaigns had been award-winning. So the decision to move the entire account to an agency with little experience in marketing apparel and no experience in the mid-priced retail segment says a great deal about the compelling nature of Roberts’ “lovemark” theories.
What happens in the business world foreshadows what happens in the legal world. So I leave with this rhetorical question: Are lawyers creating their own lovemarks?