Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S4E16 - Brand Envy 2015

Episode Date: April 19, 2015

This week, it’s Terry's annual look at his favourite brands. They may not be the coolest brands, or the newest or the biggest - they are just fascinating studies in marketing. Terry looks at an armoured truck company that decided to transport money instead of packages, a business that started because of spilt milk, a board game created to protest capitalism, and a 51 year-old game show that still attracts over 25 millions viewers per week. Each wildly successful, each still going today, and each one of them survived because of an unforeseen opportunity. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling.

Subscribe now, and don't miss a single beat. This is an apostrophe podcast production. You're so king in it. Scores of it in an instant. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon! You're not you when you're hungry. You're in good hands with all things.

You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly Not long ago, the lock on the front door of our house was sticking. So I marched to the garage and got my can of WD-40. I took the handy little red straw it comes with, stuck it into the head of the can, and eased it into the lock mechanism of the door handle. Two quick sprays,

and the lock turned like it was brand new. Then I shook the can of WD-40 and realized it was almost empty. So I of WD-40 and realized it was almost empty. So I put WD-40 on the top of my shopping list for later that day. When I thought about that brand, I realized what a handy little product it is. It can lubricate, it can repel rust, it can loosen seized bolts, and it can even free a naked burglar trapped in an air conditioning vent. I'll explain that last part in a minute.

As a brand, WD-40 has been around since 1953. It was invented by a fledgling San Diego business called the Rocket Chemical Company. It had a grand total of three employees who were trying to come up with a way to prevent corrosion on missile parts. The brand name, WD-40, isn't just some weird scientific gobbledygook. It actually has a meaning. The key to preventing rust is to repel water. So the folks at Rocket Chemical were experimenting to find just the right formula to displace water on missiles and got lucky on their 40th try.

Hence, water displacement 40th attempt became WD-40. As it turned out, employees of the rocket chemical company kept smuggling WD-40 out of the plant to take home because it solved a lot of household problems like silencing squeaky hinges to removing road tar to removing adhesive labels, etc. So the company decided to put WD-40 into aerosol cans

and start selling it to consumers in 1958. By 1960, the product was so successful, the company doubled in size to seven employees. A year later, Hurricane Carla hit the U.S. Gulf Coast and truckloads of WD-40 were used to recondition flood-damaged cars and equipment. WD-40 was also sent to soldiers in Vietnam to prevent moisture damage in their firearms. The product began growing by leaps and bounds,

and by the early 90s, a can of WD-40 could be found in four out of every five homes in North America, and sales had reached a million cans a week. Customers have found endless applications for the product, and you can find an official list of 2,000 uses on the company's website. One of those uses came in handy one day, when police officers used WD-40 to get a naked burglar out of an air conditioning vent he was stuck in. You don't want to picture that. But it is a brand that has survived and flourished, and the familiar blue and yellow cans proudly sit in garages and basements everywhere.

Welcome to the annual episode that celebrates my favorite brands. My list may not include the coolest brands, the newest brands, or even the hippest ones, but I admire them for other reasons. Maybe it's because they've lasted so long in this disposable world, or they made a big impression on me when I was a kid, or maybe just because they are so utterly unique. But whatever the case, the object of my desire gives me a big case of brand envy. You're under the influence.

One of the clearest indications that a brand has truly embedded itself in our world is when the mere mention of it conjures up instant imagery. For example, think Brinks truck. I would bet that right now we're all seeing the same image in our minds, and we know what the Brinks brand is. I remember a number of years ago I was working with the creative director on the U.S. Chevy truck business. At that time, the ads featured Bob Seger's Like a Rock song as the theme.

The creative director was mentioning that the song was a powerful part of Chevy's image, and that every year they'd quote, back a Brinks truck up to Bob Seger's door. I knew instantly what he meant. Mr. Seger was making a fortune licensing his song. We associate Brinks with money and security in our minds. And it's a company with an interesting history. Back in 1859,

a man named Perry Brink bought a horse and wagon. Then he started a business transporting parcels in Chicago, Illinois, and called his company Brink's City Express. Chicago was booming, fueled by railroads

that brought manufacturers, distributors, insurance companies, and banks. Brink would also use his wagon to transport luggage from rail stations to hotels.

When the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed over 18,000 buildings, Brink's horses and wagons survived. So, as Chicago recovered, Brink's flourished. Things went well until the late 1880s, when the Long Recession hit, and railroads suffered greatly. That had a profound effect on Brinks, as its package delivery business dried up.

So, to survive, Brinks made a landmark decision. It decided to get into the business of transporting money. In 1891, Brinks made its first money shipment, transporting six bags of silver dollars from a bank to the Federal Building. Brinks guaranteed its customers that it would reimburse any lost, damaged, or stolen shipments. As Chicago quickly grew, massive companies began employing thousands of workers who needed to be paid in cash. Brinks served that need with payroll security. Soon, the company boasted 85 carriages and 170 horses. Then, in 1904, Brinks made a technological leap.

It purchased its first motorized vehicle. It frightened the horses, and employees complained of fumes. But the truck could do the work of 12 horses and 3 wagons. By 1910, most of the Brinks' stables were converted into garages. A violent robbery in 1917 caused Brinks to beef up its security. It began refurbishing retired school buses with armored side panels and safes bolted to the floor.

When criminals began putting armor on their vehicles, with armored side panels and safes bolted to the floor. When criminals began putting armor on their vehicles, Brinks purchased its first fully armored truck in 1923. Brinks began to expand across the U.S. and opened up a Canadian office in 1927. The company managed to thrive during the Depression as increased organized crime drove demand for armored security. And the mere sight of a Brinks truck outside an ailing bank would calm depositors.

Over the years, Brinks not only expanded overseas, but diversified, adding air and sea security. Today, it offers jewelry, precious metals, and securities transportation with its fleet of over 2,300 armored vehicles, as well as global risk management and logistics. But it's those Brinks armored trucks that may be the company's best long-running advertisements. Brinks, a 156-year-old company that is, for my money, a powerful brand. Time for a quick break and a glass of Canada Dry ginger ale.

Hey, that doesn't smell like ginger ale. Yeah. Way back in 1890, a Canadian pharmacist named John James McLaughlin had an idea. He had just returned to Toronto from running a pharmacy in Brooklyn, New York, and had seen firsthand how much customers liked carbonated beverages sold at drugstore counters.

So Jack, as he was called, thought there might be a niche for a better-tasting ginger ale. In a shop near Toronto's Old City Hall, he developed a soda that he called McLaughlin's Belfast-style ginger ale. In a shop near Toronto's Old City Hall, he developed a soda that he called McLaughlin's Belfast Style Ginger Ale. Customers loved the new drink, and soon Jack had to move to larger premises to meet demand.

To facilitate expansion, Jack also began manufacturing high-end marble soda fountains for drugstores and restaurants, and his customers included the Hudson's Bay Company and Simpsons. His wife, Maud, was a big part of his organization. She helped refine the recipe, making it less sugary. They renamed the formula Canada Dry Pale Ginger Ale in 1906, and Maud came up with the famous slogan that is used to this day, Canada Dry, the Champagne of Ginger Ales. The company became so successful that it opened plants across Canada,

and its ginger ale was appointed to the Royal Household of the Governor General of Canada, which is why you still see a crown in the Canada Dry logo today. It also expanded to the United States, where Prohibition gave it a big boost. A dry, strong soda was needed to mask the harsh taste of bootlegged, homemade liquor in speakeasies.

And ginger ale was the perfect solution. Jack McLaughlin died of a heart attack in 1914, and his family, the McLaughlins who started GM in Canada, by the way, later sold the business to an American company. Today, Canada Dry is still a mighty brand, born in Toronto, raised everywhere. The familiar green bottle, the crown and Map of Canada logo,

and the slogan, the Champagne of Ginger Ales, live on over 100 years later. Speaking of green things, think pine trees, hanging from the rearview mirror of cars. Sixty years ago, a chemist named Julius Simon was talking to his milkman in Watertown, New York. The milkman was crying over some spilt milk. Or, more precisely, he was complaining about the

smell of spilt milk in his truck. As it turned out, he was talking to the right guy. Simon had lived in the Canadian pine forests, studying and extracting aromatic oils. So, he got to work, and developed a paper that could be impregnated with a pleasant scent. In 1954, he filed a patent for a paper with, quote, odor-destroying, air-perfuming substances that featured a cellophane wrapper and a string attached. According to the New York Times, the drawing showed a bosomy woman back arched in a pinup position. Later, Simon changed his mind and sketched out a simple little green pine tree shape instead and gave it the brand name Car Freshener. His timing couldn't have been better. The 50s saw the emergence of the mighty automobile.

Because cigarettes were so popular in those days, people loved to smoke while driving. The problem with that was the smell stuck to the upholstery. Those little trees solved that problem. Soon, Saman's automotive air fresheners were hanging from rear rearview mirrors everywhere. They became especially popular in cabs, where the dangling green tree was looked upon as an added service.

To this day, the car freshener corporation still exists in Watertown, New York, and the brand has not only survived, but thrived. It exports its air fresheners all over the world, offering over 60 different fragrances. And if you were to drive by the head office, you'd know it instantly, because a giant green car freshener pine tree proudly dangles outside. Outside.

One of the most enduring games of all time is Monopoly. More than a game, it's a powerful brand. Think of how many ways it has been embedded in popular culture, with such phrases as, don't pass go, and a get out of jail free card. The game also happens to have a history that just may surprise you. According to Parker Brothers, now owned by Hasbro, the game of Monopoly was created by a man named Charles Darrow, who lived in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

The Depression had drained him of his last dollar, he was unemployed, and his wife was about to have their second child. But he had a dream that he would one day be rich so that he could take his wife to vacation in Atlantic City. So he sat down one evening in 1932, summoned up all his inventiveness, and devised a game for his own amusement. He called it Monopoly. The object of the game was the buying and selling

of properties. It had cash, chance cards, and utility companies. He named the cities after places in Atlantic City. Eventually, he sold the game to Parker Brothers and became rich. It's a great story. Out of the depths of the Depression, ingenuity prevails. Except, it didn't exactly happen that way. See, 30 years before that, a woman named Lizzie McGee created a board game she called the Landlord Game. The game was about the buying and selling of properties. It had cash, chance cards, and even utility companies.

But Lizzie was against the evils of capitalism. So she created a game where the most ruthless monopolist won. It was meant to be a lesson to children that argued against the concentration of wealth. The landlord game became quite popular. It was played by lots of people who brought it home with them on their travels. One of those people brought the game to Germantown, Pennsylvania, where it was played by a woman named Esther and her husband, Charles Darrow. Darrow loved the game and brought it to Parker Brothers, claiming the idea as his own. The rest is history. Eventually, Parker Brothers sought Lizzie Maggie out

and bought the rights to her landlord game for $500. That cleared the roadblocks for the tidy story about a game born in the depths of the Depression by a down-and-out Charles Darrow. Monopoly sold 2 million copies in the first two years, and instead of going straight to jail, Darrow went straight to the bank to deposit his millions. The game also

saved Parker Brothers from bankruptcy. But, in the haze of history, it has been forgotten that Monopoly was really a game against monopolies. In an amusing footnote, the game was banned in Russia

because it was thought to glorify capitalism. Little did the Russians know that the purpose of the game was to protest capitalism. Even with its bumpy history, Monopoly is a powerful brand that has sold 275 million games and there are reportedly

over 2,700 versions of it available, from a bass fishing edition to a BlackBerry version to a Beatles edition. After 80 years, it still monopolizes the board game world. Speaking of games,

Jeopardy! is another brand that has stood the test of time. Back in the early days of television, game shows were king. They were cheap to produce, audiences loved to play along, game shows all but disappeared. Back in 1963, Merv Griffin was a television host and producer. On a flight to New York one day, he told his wife he wanted to pitch a game show to the network, but was worried they wouldn't be interested in one based on trivia questions.

Why not just give them the answers to start with, quipped his wife. Griffin's eyebrows shot up. Back at his office later, he quickly drew up the outline of a new game show with ten categories.

But instead of the questions being shown, the answers were given to the contestants. They had to come up with the questions. He called his show, appropriately, What's the Question? When he presented it to NBC network executives, one of them said the show needed more jeopardies. According to Griffin, he didn't hear another thing the executive said.

All he could think was, that's a great show title. Griffin then refined the game, took it back to NBC, and emceed a trial run of the show in the boardroom with network executives. The president of NBC said he thought the show was too smart for prime time. But his assistant leaned over and whispered, buy the show. He did. Jeopardy proved to be a big hit, despite the fact it was

up against the popular Dick Van Dyke show in 1964. But even though it was doing well, the network asked Griffin to dumb it down. He refused. Then, in 1975, despite good ratings, NBC cancelled the show to make room for programming

that targeted a younger audience. Three years later, Jeopardy was briefly brought back, then cancelled again. In 1984, Merv Griffin met with a syndication company to talk about reviving Jeopardy. His other game show, Wheel of Fortune, was already a hit. The time was right for a trivia game show, as the board game Trivial Pursuit was a runaway success. Griffin updated the show with video monitors and recorded an original theme song. That famous song, entitled Think, was written by Griffin as a lullaby for his son back in the 60s.

Griffin also hired a new host named Alex Trebek. Trebek had all the right traits. He was smart, he was funny, he could keep a fast-paced show moving, and he was from my hometown of Sudbury. That last part may not have been super important to Merv Griffin. The syndication company was happy with the new Jeopardy, but wondered if it was too smart for prime time. Trebek told the company they would make the questions easier.

But in reality, Griffin and Trebek intensified the game. It was a good decision, because five years later, Jeopardy was being watched by 15 million viewers. It's not just a game show. It's a brand, with merchandise, multiple spin-offs, home versions, and even classroom editions.

Nearly 300 game shows have come and gone since Jeopardy was syndicated in 1984, yet it still attracts 25 million viewers a week and has won 30 Daytime Emmy Awards. If the answer is, it has been granted trademark status as America's favorite quiz show by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, then there is no question that the question is, what is Jeopardy? Some brands are loud and proud. Others just quietly hum along.

Car Fresheners is a hummer. A simple paper pine tree that helps a car smell fresh. And over a billion have been quietly hung from rearview mirrors all around the world. On the other hand, there's no mistaking a Brinks truck. A mobile fortress performing the dangerous work of making a money delivery. Great brands last. Canada Dry Ginger Ale has been fizzing in our drinks for over a century. Monopoly is still selling briskly after 80 years.

Interesting to note that each of the brands mentioned today benefited greatly from unforeseen opportunities. WD-40 was made for missiles but was snuck into households. Brink's package delivery service was crushed by a recession, so it turned to delivering money instead. Canada Dry was a popular Canadian soda until Prohibition put it on the map in the States. And Monopoly began as a protest against capitalism, but became a breakout hit when people thought it celebrated the pursuit of profit. Then there is Jeopardy,

criticized for being too smart for prime time. And you know how that story ended. They backed a Brinks truck up to Merv Griffin's door. Which only proves that big brands bring big rewards when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Under the Influence was recorded at Pirate Toronto. Series producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound engineer, Keith Oman.

Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Research, Lama Balagi. Follow me on Twitter at Terry O. Influence. You can find this podcast in our archives wherever you listen to the show. See you next week. Oh, hey, Terry. Listen, I have a perfect Jeopardy moment for you.

If the answer is he loves chimneys and WD-40, can you guess the question? It's who is Santa? Huh?