Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S9E16 - Brand Envy 2020

Episode Date: April 16, 2020

This week, it’s our annual Brand Envy episode, where I tell the stories behind some of the brands I admire. We’ll talk about a romance novel company that was started by a fur trader, an empire created by a cartoonist and a certain cream cheese with its very own spokes-angel. 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. In case nobody's told you, weight loss goes beyond the old just eat less and move more narrative. And that's where Felix comes in. Felix is redefining weight loss for Canadians with a smarter, more personalized approach to help you crush your health goals this year.

Losing weight is about more than diet and exercise. It can also be about our genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix connects you with online licensed healthcare practitioners who understand that everybody is different and can pair your healthy lifestyle with the right support to reach your goals. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era,

dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not. Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your push. Find your power.

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You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Alan Ladd was an unlikely movie star. While he was good-looking, Ladd didn't come in the usual Hollywood leading man package, standing at only 5 feet 6 inches tall. But he had a great voice, so he turned his sights on radio and found success there. A talent agent spotted him and believed he could have a career in motion pictures. So she helped Ladd land some small B-movie roles beginning in 1939, including an unbilled part in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane.

Ladd finally became a star when he played the role of a psychotic killer in the movie This Gun for Hire in 1942. But the film he is most remembered for is Shane. In the movie, Ladd plays a lone gunfighter

named Shane who wants to leave his violent past behind and live a simple life. He meets a farming family who take him in as a hired hand. Shane is an interesting man. He wears fancy clothes, almost a dandy. When he enters a bar filled with rough men, he doesn't order a whiskey.

Pardon? Yes, what can I do for you? Do you have any soda pop? In the story, there is a rich villain named Rufus Riker who wants to run all the homesteaders off their land. He sends his henchmen to terrorize the families. Shane is the only one who can protect them. But he is a reluctant hero. He knows how it will all end.

In the classic showdown, Shane seeks out Riker and main henchman Jack Wilson, played by a menacing Jack Palance. So you're Jack Wilson. What's that mean to you, Shane? Never heard about you. What have to you, Shane? I've heard about you. What have you heard, Shane? Then the two men square off.

I've heard that you're a low-down Yankee liar. Prove it. While the movie has several classic moments, the one it is most remembered for is the very last scene. Shane has killed Riker and his henchmen. He decides he has to leave the family he has protected. He knows he will be forever known as a killer. In the final moments, he explains his reason to the family's young son, Joey.

Joey, there's no living with a killer. There's no going back from him. Right or wrong, it's a brand. A brand sticks. There's no going back. A brand certainly does stick. And Shane knew that brand would never go away. Shane! Shane!

Come back! Some brands do stick and do last. Welcome to our annual episode where I tip my hat to some of the brands I admire. This year, as we watch many good companies struggle to stay afloat, I want to talk about brands that have lasted through many difficult times. Companies that have survived wars, pandemics, and economic catastrophes, all of which were unprecedented at the time. Some of these companies were a welcome diversion. Some helped during wartime.

But in each case, the strong brands I talk about today inspire brand envy. One day back in 1916, a salesman visited the De Metz Candy Store in Chicago. He dropped a strange-looking chocolate on the counter of the family-owned business. It was made of pecans dipped in chocolate. While this type of candy had been made by various companies at the time, one word that day changed the future of De Metz forever. A waitress looked at the strangely shaped candy and said, It looks like a turtle.

The Demet family immediately trademarked the word turtles, then added gooey caramel to the pecans and chocolate, and that took the candy industry by storm. When big movie theaters opened in the neighborhood in the 1920s, they attracted crowds of people every day. Those crowds dropped into DeMets and began buying more and more turtles. Turtles became a prized treat during the Depression and the Second World War rationing years. They came to Canada in 1949.

Over the years, turtles created some very memorable jingles. I love pecans and caramel too. I love chocolate, oh yes I do. That's why I love Turtles. Turtles, Turtles, rah, rah, rah. That famous jingle was actually inspired by a song that came out in 1966 called I Love Onions. I don't like snails or toads or frogs or strange things living under logs, but I love onions. Today, turtles is still a popular treat, especially at Christmas.

It has survived for over 100 years by slowly building its brand through the Spanish Flu, World Wars, and the Depression. But hey, you can't rush a Turtle. Pick a card, any card. Without even knowing you, I bet I can guess which card you'd most likely choose. You'd pick a bicycle card. Bicycle is the biggest brand of playing cards in North America. I always thought that was an odd name for playing cards. They were first manufactured in 1885.

The reason the name Bicycle was chosen is interesting and simple. Bicycles were the hottest items in the 1880s. So the company jumped on a trend. When you fan out a deck, you'll notice the Ace of Spades and Jokers carry the bicycle trademark. But the backs of all cards feature what is called a rider design, showing a winged cherub on a bicycle. Bicycle brand playing cards are not only the best-selling playing cards in North America, they are also preferred by a group who knows a thing or two about cards.

Magicians. They like the brand because it helps them with their tricks. The reason? The bicycle brand is so familiar, spectators never

question the cards. Playing cards are said to have originated in the Far East. They were highly prized in Europe, and the designs of the suits and face cards we all know

today are said to be French in origin. Interesting to note, there is only one card that originated in North America. The Joker. Curiously, very few games employ them, and that is why the Joker is the only card that

lacks a standard design, brand to brand. Bicycle playing cards were dealt a very interesting role during the war. In World War II, prisoners were guaranteed the right to receive mail and packages from the Red Cross, according to the Geneva Convention, as long as the packages didn't contain weapons. Included in those packages were decks of bicycle cards. Playing cards were so familiar among troops, they aroused no suspicion from Nazi camp guards. So Bicycle teamed up with American and British intelligence and created a very

clandestine deck of cards. When these special cards were wet, they peeled apart to reveal hidden maps and escape routes. They also gave POWs important information that helped navigate their way back to Allied lines. All the soldiers had to do was put the cards in the correct running order to get the full map layout. These special decks inspired hundreds of escape plans and saved many lives.

Two of the only known surviving decks are displayed now at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. Bicycle Playing Cards, 135 Years of Games, and the occasional game of life. Recently, I pulled a container of Philadelphia cream cheese out of our fridge and saw something I never noticed before. On the lid, it said, since 1872. I had no idea Philadelphia cream cheese had been around that long. Here's the surprising thing.

It wasn't made in Philadelphia back then, and it hasn't been made there any time in its 148-year history. It was actually created in upstate New York by a dairy farmer named William Lawrence. He boosted the cream content of his cheese recipe and created something new. It sold in modest quantities. That's when he was approached by a cheese distributor named Alva Reynolds. Reynolds instantly saw the potential of cream cheese and said to Lawrence, you need a name for that product.

Essentially, Reynolds wanted to brand the cream cheese and said to Lawrence, you need a name for that product. Essentially, Reynolds wanted to brand the cream cheese. It was a pioneering thought, as almost no food was branded in the late 1800s. He chose the name Philadelphia cream cheese not because of location, but because of reputation. Back then, the Philadelphia area was widely considered the top producer of fine cheeses. So, Reynolds named the product after the cheese capital. Reynolds brought many other dairies on board and they all began producing Philadelphia cream cheese.

It was such a big success, Reynolds eventually sold the brand to a big cheese company that eventually merged with Kraft. Here in Canada, Philadelphia cream cheese has long been the market leader. But being the number one brand means you are always playing defense while other brands nip at your heels. Because it's way more fun to storm the castle than to defend it. In 1994, Philadelphia cream cheese came in two basic styles, a hard brick for baking and a soft variety for spreading. The brick accounted for the majority of sales, but was declining. The soft version was much smaller in sales, but was increasing.

The reason was simple. People were becoming more concerned about healthy eating. That meant fewer cheesecakes. But the spreadable cream cheese was seen as healthier because it had 60% less fat than butter or margarine. And that was a compelling selling point. Research also revealed that women loved the soft cream cheese spread and looked forward to the treat. So, Kraft blended the rational 60% less fat message

with an indulgence message and came up with a campaign idea. Here's one of the first commercials from 1995. See if you remember it. Heavens. I've been on my wings all day. Time for today's little indulgence. Billy. 60% less fat than butter or margarine and it tastes like paradise.

Oh. Crumbs. Crumbs. Oh! Nobody looks there anyway. With 60% less fat than butter or margarine, Philadelphia cream cheese is a little taste of heaven. This place is a mess.

The campaign was called A Little Taste of Heaven and featured a spokesangel who lives in the soft clouds and loves to indulge in Philadelphia cream cheese treats. The angel was portrayed by Linda Cash, a very talented Canadian actor who has appeared in episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond and Seinfeld and in movies like Waiting for Guffman. Linda and I have done many commercials together over the years.

She is funny, witty, and brought just the right amount of angelic impishness to the role. The campaign was a huge success. In 1995, sales jumped 24%. The next year, they jumped another 25%. The Taste of Heaven advertising campaign doubled sales. It was so successful, it ran in 30 countries with different angels in different languages. And in 2020, the wonderful Linda Cash finally retired her Canadian halo

and even led a casting call to find the new Philadelphia cream cheese angel. Hi Canada, remember me? I'm the Philly Angel. And I've come back to pass on these wings. So, post a short video on why you should be the next Philly Angel, and you can be the new me. A brand that has lasted through thick and thin, hard and soft, for 148 years. And today, Philadelphia cream cheese has a heavenly 80% market share. And we'll be right back. It is said 60% of all households do not purchase even one book per year.

Yet, almost 42% of romance readers read one romance novel per week, and some spend upwards of $1,200 a year on books. And even though the compilers of bestseller charts ignore the romance category, the genre accounts for over 40% of all paperback sales, second only to mystery novels. Which is good news for the one company that dominates the romance market worldwide. Harlequin. I bet you didn't know this fact. Harlequin Romance was started by a Hudson's Bay Company fur trader.

Makes sense, in no way whatsoever, but it's true. Richard Bonnycastle was born in 1903 and eventually became the chief fur trader for the Hudson's Bay Company. After 20 years, he went to work for, and eventually became the owner of, a company called Advocate Printers in Winnipeg, Manitoba. To keep the printing company busy during the war years, Richard and his manager Ruth Palmore began buying the reprint rights to a variety of out-of-print books and republished them for Canadian readers. In particular, they purchased romance novels from a British publisher called Mills & Boone. Bonnie Castle's wife Mary began editing the books and noticed those romance novels were becoming their bestsellers.

So she and Paul Moore went to Richard with an idea. They wanted to pivot the company exclusively to romance. Richard couldn't argue with the logic. With that, the Harlequin Company was founded in 1949. Throughout the 1950s, Harlequin specialized not just in romance, but medical romance. How's that for a subgenre? But that was because many of the books from Mills and Boone were written with doctor and nurse plots. It worked, and readers ate them up.

Harlequin would eventually move its headquarters from Winnipeg to Toronto in 1969 and purchase Mills & Boone two years later. In the 1970s, a marketing specialist named Larry Heise moved over to Harlequin from Procter & Gamble. Knowing the Harlequin readership was comprised mostly of women, he reasoned the same techniques that sold soap to women could be used to sell them novels. He applied that P&G strategy to Harlequin by creating distinctive Harlequin packaging that framed the author, title, and cover art.

His idea was to market the books in a place where women already shopped, namely, grocery stores. Heise bundled free books with Ajax cleanser and Kotex boxes. Books were given away at McDonald's on Mother's Day and bundled with Avon products. It was a disruptive strategy. With that, Harlequin's profits soared. Those big revenues attracted the attention of publishing giant Torstar, owner of the Toronto Star, which purchased Harlequin in 1975. With the acquisition of several publishing companies in the U.S., Harlequin now boasted an 80% market share on both sides of the border. By 1986, Harlequin was selling over 180 million books per year, with most sales occurring outside Canada.

By 1989, Harlequin had revenues of $325 million and an operating profit of $56 million, making up more than a third of Torstar's total profit. Then in 2014, Torstar sold Harlequin to publisher HarperCollins, where it resides today. Harlequin is a remarkable

success story. 65% of romance readers cite Harlequin first when they think of romance novels. Two Harlequin books when they think of romance novels. Two Harlequin books sell every second worldwide, and they are published in 16 countries

and 32 languages. From a fur trader's desire to keep his printing company busy to his wife's shrewd eye for the potential of romance novels, the company has grown to dominate a category

in a way few brands ever do, proving all you need is love and a good plot. Believe it or not, some big ideas are hatched in slow, desperate times. Back in 1918, a sports cartoonist at a New York newspaper was desperate for an idea during an incredibly slow week in the sports world. So he hit on the idea of drawing up a cartoon panel based on surprising sports facts. He titled it Champs and Chumps. The cartoonist was Robert Ripley. The response from readers was overwhelming.

His editors urged him to continue with the new feature. Soon, he expanded his idea beyond sports to cover oddities from around the world and renamed his feature Ripley's Believe It or Not. In one cartoon, Ripley pointed out the surprising fact that the Star-Spangled Banner was not the official anthem of the United States because it had not been designated as such. That cartoon created such an outcry that Congress was flooded with letters, prompting President Herbert Hoover to sign it into law in 1931.

Newspaper baron William Randolph Hearst saw all the attention Ripley's Believe It or Not was attracting and sent a two-word telegram to one of his VPs that simply said, Sign Ripley. With that, Ripley was syndicated to hundreds of newspapers across the nation. Ripley's Believe It or Not actually grew during the Depression as it was a welcome diversion from the difficult times. By the mid-1930s,

he was making half a million dollars a year. Ripley assembled a large team of researchers and scoured the world for oddities and surprising facts. He found shrunken heads, dogs that play the piano, men who put pins

through their cheeks, and people who could swallow fire. Over 80 million readers were mesmerized at his discoveries. The words, believe it or not,

became a national catchphrase. Ripley wrote best-selling books, and when Tencent movies were therapeutic for millions of people during the Depression, Ripley created short films that ran in theaters. Hello, Mr. Ripley. My name's Billy. Hello, Billy. What can I do for you? I finished all my lessons, and now I'd like to see your book. Will you show it to me? You bet I will. Supposing you and I take a little trip through Believe It or Not land. Next, Ripley brought his show to radio. And here is that uncanny, unassailable, unmatched, unparalleled underwriter with the ultimate and unexampled, unconfutable, ultra-unbelievable, unquestionable upheavals, believe it or not, Bob Ripley. Greetings everybody and welcome to the program.

Ripley's Believe It or Not was quickly becoming an empire. In 1933, when many companies were shutting their doors, Ripley opened up his first auditorium, O-D-D as in odd. It was a place where people could come and marvel at the bizarre, strange and sometimes grotesque artifacts Ripley was collecting from around the world. In the 1940s, Ripley was voted the most popular man in America. With that level of fame,

there was only one medium left to conquer. Television. But it would be Ripley's last stop. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations.

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Season is here and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year. Weight loss is more than just diet and exercise. It can be about tackling genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix gets it. They connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who will create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle

with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at Felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X.ca. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not.

Just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Just as television was getting off the ground in 1949, Ripley debuted his new Believe It or Not program on live TV. Ripley's Believe It or Not program on live TV. Ripley's Believe It or Not. After hosting the 13th episode about death rituals,

Robert Ripley suddenly collapsed on the set and died of a heart attack. He was only 55 years old. Even though the great Robert Ripley was gone, his empire has continued unabated. Today, the brand is now owned by the Jim Patterson Group in Vancouver. There are 30 Ripley's Believe It or Not Auditoriums, 10 Ripley's Marvelous Mirror Mazes, 4 Ripley's Moving Theatres,

4 Ripley's Haunted Adventures, and 3 Ripley's Aquariums. Not to mention a huge publishing arm. If the true measure of a brand is staying power, this unusual enterprise has managed to survive the ebbs and flows for over 100 years. Hats off to the talented Mr. Ripley. would disappear. There are a million ways for a company to die. Hungry competitors emerge every year. Technology can help or slay.

Tastes change. Leadership can fumble the ball. And unforeseen circumstances can jump out of the bushes at any time. After this pandemic finally flattens, a lot of companies

will have disappeared. Companies that were healthy and successful. That's why I tip my hat to those companies that find a way to survive. Four out of the five brands mentioned today have lasted over 100 years. That means they have survived pandemics, the Depression, world wars, recessions, aggressive rivals, and probably dozens of unforeseen circumstances. Harlequin and Philadelphia cream cheese not only endured, they dominate their categories.

Ripley's, which began in the first year of the Spanish flu, has not just survived, it's expanded. And Bicycle Playing Cards still has the best hand at the table. As Alan Ladd said in the movie Shane, a brand sticks. But the real feat is for a brand to stick around when you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode was recorded in the Terrastream Mobile Recording Studio. Producer, Debbie O'Reilly. Sound Engineer, Keith Ullman.

Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Research, Beverly Mason. If you liked this episode, you might also enjoy comparing it to our very first Brand Envy show, Season 1, Episode 19. You'll find it in our archives wherever you download your podcasts. See you next week. I can't imagine spending $1,200 on romance novels. I budget $1,100.