Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S7E02 - I See A Little Silhouetto Of A Brand: How Old School Products Survive

Episode Date: January 12, 2018

This week, we analyze how old school products survive in the 21st century. Many brands can’t keep up with the digital age, but others have found a way to succeed – some doing even better business today. We’ll look at how one company makes money by retiring its products, why another partnered up with its biggest competitors to stay relevant and how an entire profession saved itself by not going digital.From Crayola to Velveeta, it all comes down to smart marketing. 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. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 7, 2018. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon You're not you when you're hungry You're a good man with all things You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly.

One evening, Freddie Mercury sat down at the piano and played the opening notes to a new song for his producer. Then he stopped and said, and this is where the opera section comes in. His producer thought, what? When Freddie played the song for Queen, his bandmates thought the idea was fun. It was a weird, complex song.

It opened with a ballad, then moved into a mock opera, then into a head-banging rock section, then ended with a quiet, reflective coda. It took three weeks to record, with the band singing its vocal parts ten hours a day. In the end, the song required 180 overdubs. When completed, bass player John Deacon asked Freddie Mercury

if he was going to call the song Mama. Mercury said, No, I think we'll call it Bohemian Rhapsody. Bohemian Rhapsody was released in 1975. Critical Reaction was mixed. It reached number 9 on the Billboard charts. Then for the next 17 years, the song got less and less airplay

and was filed in the Golden Oldie category. Then came Wayne's World. This is my best friend, Garth Elgar. Hi. I think we'll go with a little Bohemian Rhapsody, gentlemen. Good call. It was the opening scene of the movie. The film's producer, Lorne Michaels, wanted to use a Guns N' Roses song. But Mike Myers insisted on Bohemian Rhapsody

and threatened to walk off the movie if the song wasn't used. Myers argued that Bohemian Rhapsody had a sense of humor. He was right. I see a little silhouette of a man. Got a moose, got a moose will you do the fandango? The best moment in this scene was when the song hit the headbanging section. For me, for me. Before the movie was released, Myers sent a video of the scene to Queen guitarist Brian May to see if he liked it. It made May laugh.

He told Myers that when the song comes on the radio, Queen actually headbangs to the heavy part too. Then May showed it to Freddie Mercury. Freddie was in the final stages of AIDS and was very ill, but he loved it and it made Freddie laugh. When Wayne's World hit theaters in 1992, it became a huge hit, but it also revived Bohemian Rhapsody. The song shot to number two on the Billboard chart,

higher than when it was released 17 years earlier. Freddie wouldn't live to see that success. He died three months before the movie's release. But the success of the movie, coupled with Freddie's death, gave the old-school song an incredible rebirth. school song, An Incredible Rebirth. The world of marketing has many old school brands and industries that have also found a rebirth. Many of them were released years ago and fell out of favor. But each has found a way to succeed in a 21st century digital era.

Some are doing even better business today. And all of them figured out the secret to surviving is to do a delicate little fandango. You're under the influence. Question. What is the fastest growing profession in the U.S.? Well, according to Forbes magazine, the answer is barbering. In the UK, more barbershops are springing up than any other kind of business. But that wasn't always the case.

Barbershops are an old-school business that took a steep decline in the late 80s, early 90s when unisex hair salons became all the rage. But now, in the 21st century, short, neat, or shaved back and sides hairstyles are trending. Those cuts require regular return visits and maintenance, and men are seeking out classic barbershops, not hairdressers. The renaissance in barbering has brought on a new kind of barbershop. They don't just offer a haircut and a shave, they offer an experience. Amenities include LCD TVs at each station.

There are checkerboards, pinball machines, and pool tables. After noon each day, customers at Bird's Barbershop in Austin, Texas are offered a free ice-cold can of beer or a shot of bourbon while they enjoy a trim. The House of Barons in Ottawa plays vinyl records in a cool, retro-style space. Some new barbershops are decorated tastefully with vintage cabin furniture and luxurious wood paneling. Many have their own line of grooming products. Like the barbershops of yesteryear, these new barbershops have become gathering places. But more than anything,

21st century barbershops are selling masculinity. The Modern Man barbershop in Portland, Oregon, sums up the new barbershop movement best by saying it specializes in quote, traditional cuts, modern cuts, hot towel straight razor shaves, and grooming products for men. Manly, hairy men. Unquote. When's the last time you needed a barber? 1991.

Shoe shining has been called the world's second oldest profession. In the 19th century, commercial shoe shining emerged using basic products based on tallow, sugar, black dye, and vinegar, which was fine, except the dye would rub off on the hem of your pants instantly. The art of shoe shining took a leap during the world wars of the 20th century, when the military turned polishing into a major skill set. Over the years, shoe shiners dwindled in numbers. But lately, the shoe shining business has attracted some interesting practitioners.

A shine and company in New York has brought shoe shining to another level with their contemporary booths and old school ties and hats. The girls at Penny Loafer Shoe Shine in Toronto shine your shoes and give you a unique foot massage at the same time. In a fascinating documentary by Canadian director Stacey Tenenbaum, titled Shiners, she follows the lives of five shoe shiners. One of them lives in Japan, and he has brought a 21st century take to the age-old profession. His name is Yuya Hasegawa, and he is the proprietor of the Brift H Shoe Lounge.

He started shining shoes on the streets of Tokyo. One day, a customer told him he shouldn't crouch down in a subservient way to polish shoes. It would be classier to work from a table instead. That gave Hasegawa an idea. He opened a highly unique shoeshine shop. To begin with, Hasegawa chose a location far from the train station in downtown Tokyo. While that may seem counterintuitive to attracting business, he did it for a reason.

He believed people who were willing to pay for a first-class polish would want to actively seek him out. In other words, his location signaled that his service was not only out of the way, but out of the ordinary. The shop is small but beautiful.

When customers hand their shoes to Hasegawa, he gives them slippers to wear. Because, even though it takes more than one hour for Hasegawa to shine your shoes, you want to wait for your shoes, because Hasegawa puts on a show. First, he pours you a flute of champagne or a shot of fine whiskey. Soft jazz plays in the background. Then, the transformation of your shoes begins. Hasegawa stands behind the counter in a double-breasted suit.

Cleaning shoes standing up creates a completely different experience for customers. They watch as Hasegawa explains his meticulous shoe-shining process. Soles and heels are lightly sanded and polished first. Then the shoe leather is cleaned, creamed, and brushed. Polish is applied, not with an applicator, but with his fingers. Skin on skin, as Hasegawa says. A special cloth is wrapped around two fingers to give the shoes a second coat of polish. The shoes are brushed once more, then polished again to a mirror shine.

And it doesn't end there. The bottoms of the shoes are cleaned and polished. It's an elaborate 11-step process that is fascinating to watch. Customers liken Hasegawa's process to a tea ceremony. It is formal, nuanced, and deliberate. Yuya Hasegawa is marketing his shop to raise the profile of old-school shoe shining to a new, respected status. Is it working? Well, the Brift H shoe lounge has a three-month waiting list.

Speaking of shoes, a campaign for Kiwi shoe polish won a gold lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival last year. Advertising agency Ogilvy Chicago playfully completed the bottom half of famous paintings. They did it by organizing an exhibition of famous paintings and placed a framed painting underneath the originals. So, imagine the Mona Lisa hanging on a wall. Then underneath it, also framed, was a painting of Mona Lisa's feet, done in Leonardo da Vinci's exact style. Or, picture Claude Monet's famous self-portrait

and, underneath it, a painting of Monet's legs and shoes done in the same style as the master. In the exhibition, the only thing in a display case was a can of old-school Kiwi shoe polish. Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait, 1889. Bottom Half Completed by Kiwi, 2017. Drawing digital pictures would be an idea Crayola would take to the bank. We'll be right back to our show.

If you're enjoying this episode, why not dip into our archives, available wherever you download your pods. Go to terryoreilly.ca for a master episode list. In a sea of toys that are struggling with the rise of technology, one company turned a product rooted so far from the information age into a digital success. The humble Crayola Crayon. Founded in the late 1800s, Crayola still commands an 80% market share after all this time. The crayon company came out with an innovative app called Color Alive that animates children's

drawings online. Users purchase a Color Alive coloring book, complete with seven crayons, and color in the characters as usual. Then, using a smartphone or tablet, they scan their drawings and watch them lift off the page and come to life on screen. Today, Crayola has over 10 apps. To promote them, Crayola connected with top social media and YouTube influencers around the world. But Crayola's target market isn't just limited to kids,

because they have another very powerful tool at their disposal. Nostalgia. because they have another very powerful tool at their disposal. Nostalgia. So Crayola tapped into that nostalgia and led the adult coloring book craze with its Crayola Color Escapes. Crayola also made some strategic partnerships. It collaborated with Clinique to create a limited edition range of lip products that look like crayons. It also partnered with Sally Hansen for a set of crayon-colored nail polishes,

both of which reached the teen market as well. But apps and collaborations aside, Crayola's original product, the crayon, is still their star player. Today, Crayola sells over 120 different colors and often features limited edition shades. But did you know that Crayola also retires colors? Last year, Crayola retired an orangey-yellow shade called Dandelion. They didn't plan on making a big deal out of the retirement, but realized it was a marketing opportunity.

The announcement of the retirement was picked up by media across the nation. The story received four billion impressions in just one week. People cared, and Crayola saw a year-over-year sales lift. It has not only withstood the test of time, it's thrived, proving that with smart

marketing, old school brands can weather the tech age with flying colors. When you talk about old school brands, just the mention of their names can send you careening back to your grade school days. Like Velveeta. I don't know about you, but Velveeta made up quite a few school lunches for me back in the day. Velveeta itself was originally created because of a problem. Back in the 1920s, the Monroe Cheese Factory in Monroe, New York, was one of the busiest cheese factories in the country.

The company noticed that many of its factory cheese wheels would break or become misshapen, which would lead to a lot of wasted cheese bits. So Monroe asked one of its top cheesemakers, Emile Fry, if there was a way to make money from this wasted cheese. Fry took some cheese bits home and experimented on his stove. Eventually, he

discovered that by adding a cheese byproduct called whey to the cheese bits, he could create a very smooth cheese product. When it melted, it had a velvety consistency. So he christened it Velveeta. Velveeta was an immediate hit. Four years later, Kraft purchased Velveeta to enhance its stable of cheese brands. Velveeta's popularity kept growing through the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Do you like to give the kids a treat after school?

Smart mothers make it a Velveeta treat for extra fine nutrition because Kraft's famous pasteurized processed cheese spread is extra good for youngsters in sandwiches and cracker snacks. Besides tasting so good, today's Velveeta is richer than ever in vital, non-fat food values from milk. Kraft's nutritious Velveeta is full of health. Velveeta was a convenience food. Early ads instructed housewives to make a cheese sauce

by melting a half pound of Velveeta in a quarter cup of milk. Then suggested pouring it over toasted sandwiches of peanut butter and pickles. Yuck. But over the next few decades, Velveeta began to slowly lose its fan base. Tastes changed, boomers grew up, families moved on. Kraft had to figure out a way to put Velveeta back on shopping lists. It discovered that some people combine Velveeta with other foods to create dishes.

For example, many combine cans of diced tomatoes and chilies with Velveeta to make a dip. Kraft saw its opportunity and did something highly unusual. It approached competitors and asked if they wanted to team up. ConAgra, for example, said yes and entered into an agreement to promote cans of its Rotel diced tomatoes and Velveeta side-by-side in grocery stores. Then Kraft approached competitor Hormel to produce a TV commercial that combined Velveeta and Hormel's canned chili to create a quick chip dip. Just mix Velveeta and Hormel chili together.

It's delicious. It's... With that strategy, Velveeta was back in the game. Then came the big scare of 2014. In January of that year, Kraft announced a shortage of Velveeta in stores across the nation due to a recall and a move to a new production facility. It was just weeks before Super Bowl XLVIII. People went crazy.

It created an uproar on Twitter and Facebook. Even the Washington Post wondered how people were going to survive the Super Bowl without Velveeta chip dip. The press dubbed it

Cheesepocalypse. At first, some thought it was a publicity stunt to drum up more sales. Kraft responded immediately, saying there in fact was a temporary shortage of Velveeta across the nation, but the company was going to work overtime

to get Velveeta back on the shelves before the big game. Kraft even played along with a sense of humor, creating a cheesepocalypse website with a map that tracked the affected areas. In the end, the buzz ended up being more valuable than advertising. Today, Velveeta's slogan is Liquid Gold, and that golden oldie is still a vibrant brand as it enters its 98th year. And by the way, there is an 80s cover band named Velveeta.

It covers the cheesiest hits of that decade. Show starts in eight minutes. Yum, yum. It's time for a tasty and refreshing snack. If you're of a certain vintage, like moi,

you grew up going to drive-ins. In the 70s, it was our favorite dating spot. But that was a long time ago. So, how are old-school drive-ins coping in the 21st century? Back in 1928, a man named Richard Hollingshead had a problem. His mother was too large to fit into indoor theater seats. So Richard, an auto parts salesman, put her in a car, plunked a film projector on the hood,

and tied two sheets to trees in their yard. It worked pretty good. Soon, neighbors started coming around to watch the movies. That's when Hollings had wondered if he was on to something. He patented the concept in 1933 and opened the first drive-in in Camden, New Jersey that year. People paid 25 cents, parked their car, and watched the first movie ever shown at a drive-in,

titled Wives Beware. I'm always thinking and dreaming of... The first drive-in to open in Canada was in Stony Creek, Ontario in 1946. The industry flourished and peaked in 1958 with over 4,000 drive-ins in the U.S. and over 240 in Canada. But in the intervening years, more and more drive-ins disappeared. As cities expanded,

the land drive-ins sat on became valuable and owners sold the land to developers for big dollars. People didn't leave drive-ins. Drive-ins left people. Please remember to replace the speaker on the post when you leave the theater. Today, the number of drive-ins in the U.S. has declined from 4,000 to 330. In Canada, it's down to 51. Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador are the only provinces with no drive-ins, by the way.

When the film industry moved to digital equipment, the cost to switch was in excess of $75,000 for drive-ins, prompting 10% of them to close. But the ones that could afford it found a rebirth. For starters, the digital switch persuaded Hollywood to start sending first-run movies to drive-ins, which they had never done historically. Then, drive-in owners became smarter marketers.

Show starts in six minutes. First of all, drive-ins don't just sell movies anymore. They sell an entire experience. They promote flexibility to patrons because you can bring babies pets and you can even smoke in your car if you wish some drive-ins promote healthy concession stand food now like veggie burgers and healthy snacks you can now purchase tickets online for many drive-ins and even pick your parking spot in advance. One drive-in in Montana has a roller coaster built around the screen.

The Devil's Night drive-in in Los Angeles is located on the roof of a parking garage and features astroturf, car hops, and a spectacular night view of the city. A drive-in in South Africa lets you book seats in one of six classic cars, like a 57 Chevy and a two-tone T-Bird. So smart. The Port Hope drive-in hosts the Durham Video Game Convention in June. Other drive-ins stream live concerts and sporting events. There are even pop-up drive-ins happening in various cities,

with food trucks providing the confectionery stand. And here's an idea for Canada. A drive-in in Dearborn, Michigan stays open in the winter by offering in-car heaters. You get more out of life when you go out to a movie. Drive-ins have figured out ways to make money when the sun is out, too. The Park Drive-in in Prince George, B.C. offers go-karts and mini-golf during the day. Others offer batting tents and laser tag. Still others use their grounds for flea markets and swap meets.

Show starts in one minute. The president of the United Drive-In Theatre's Owners Association says they have not seen any kind of decline in the last 20 years. In fact, drive-ins are some of the highest-grossing theaters during the summer when the weather is good. And the secret to that success is the double feature of new ideas mixed with old-school nostalgia.

And now, on with the show! Old school products are almost always at a disadvantage in the world of marketing. Even though these brands and industries have succeeded for decades, age is their Achilles heel in an era that chases the new new. With the exception of drive-ins, all of our stories today had one thing in common. None of these products or services can be moved online. You simply can't get a haircut on a website or plunge your chip

into a Velveeta dip on a smartphone. Yet, these old-school brands have embraced technology like Crayola, which formed partnerships and created innovative apps and still boasts a remarkable 80% market share in its category after more than 100 years.

Shoe shiners and barbers have both discovered the secret to survival is to offer an old-school service wrapped in a 21st century experience. So, barbershops created hip gathering spots for men who don't apologize for wanting to look good. And shoeshiners have elevated their profession to a performance art. And even though drive-ins face competition from streaming movies,

they have not only embraced digital technology, they have also thrived by marketing not just a film, but a total experience as well. It is a fascinating balancing act, kind of like mixing rock and roll with opera when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. Zip, zip, zip, zip. Zip, zip, zip, zip.

Zip, zip, zip, zip. Under the Influence was recorded in the Airstream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Keith Oman. Research, Allison Pinches. Co-writer, Sidney O'Reilly. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter at Terry O Influence.

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