Market segmentation and the Mentality model

From analysing the ads we found in our various corpora, it soon became obvious that not all 'modern' ads were targeting the same group of consumers.

In looking for a model that could help us further, we came across the Mentality model by Motivaction, basically a psychographic market segmentation.

(Psychographic segmentation - as opposed to for instance demographic or geographic segmentation - involves dividing your market into segments based upon different personality traits, values, attitudes, interests, and lifestyles of consumers)

It divides the consumers into 8 groups:

The Mentality model by Motivaction

As expected, ads with the word 'modern' appear in most categories in the middle of the model, but we think we have found some - especially car ads - that appeal to the 'new conservatives' (also called 'techno-progressives' in a private communication by a Motivaction researcher).

According to Motivaction's Mentality model, the new conservatives embrace technological change, while placing importance on traditional values, social status, and family.

An example of an ad that seems to be geared at this group is the 1929 Hupmobile ad we found:

Hupmobile, 1929

This ad praises the Century Six and Century Eight Hupmobiles for their technological sophistication: their engines are as complex and 'streamlined' as modern aeroplane engines, and give the car 'smoothness, power, and flexibility'. However, it isn't all about technological innovation for its own sake. While the consumer is told that the high-tech engines of the Century Six and Eight allow the 'high-speed transport' that characterizes the twentieth century, the cars are also prominently advertised for offering the more traditional values of being 'safe and dependable', and for offering good value for money. In this way, the ad appeals to both sides of the 'new conservatives', with their interest in technological change and emphasis on tradition.

That ads for essentially the same product could also be geared at totally different groups is nicely illustrated by two silverware ads we found. In the Mentality model, the 'modern mainstream' are focused on finding a balance between traditional values and modern consumership. They are family-oriented, materialistic and attached to traditional gender roles. 'Social climbers', by contrast, are materialistic, place importance on social status, and are focused on consumption and entertainment.

The WMF ad shows a young couple who will be using the WMF silverware set in their future home. As such, it is clearly geared at the 'modern mainstream': couples and 'young people' ('jonge mensen') preparing for their mainstream family lives together. The 1881 Rogers ad, however, with its focus on Hollywood celebrities, is targeted at 'social climbers'. In contrast to the WMF advertisement, this ad presupposes a group of consumers who want to model themselves on Hollywood stars through the goods they purchase - in this case, the 'Hollywood Ensemble' silverware set.

1881 Rogers, 1938. The text balloon on the bottom left says, 'For her own table, ANITA LOUISE - now appearing "IN EVERY WOMAN'S LIFE", a Warner Bros. Picture - has chosen this lovely silverware "Service of the Stars."

WMF, 1956. The caption below the photograph reads 'this is the most beautiful modern silverware'. The headline above the photograph shows the young man lovingly telling his fiancée, 'I admire your good taste...'.

Of course, we are using the Mentality model to categorize the ads after the fact. Advertisers at the time didn't design their ads with this specific model in mind and, therefore, mapping ads onto it isn't always easy to do. It is important to note, as well, that not all ads fit into this model. However, as a tool for gaining insight into which groups advertisers wished to target, it proves useful. For one thing, it shows that ads with the word 'modern' in them were not all geared at similar consumer audiences.

Modern is not for everyone

Obviously, there are different strategies for reaching your target audience (or customer segment - more about that in a later blog). While there is definitely a substantial segment of the population that identifies with being modern, there is perhaps an even larger group that needs a different approach.

Mostly, advertisers use words and phrases such as 'old' [as in Old Grand-Dad, Old Forester, Old Crow, Antique (all bourbon), Old Dutch Cleanser], 'the way grandmother used to make it', 'Aunt Jemima', 'reliable', 'has been in use for two generations', 'since 1884',  etc.

This is mostly for products/companies that need a solid, reliable image, such as insurance companies and banks. You will also find it in household and food & drink advertising - perhaps because people are more drawn to food products that have been around for a long time, and have thus proven not to be dangerous.

It is rare to find it in automobile advertising, and I was surprised to come across an ad for National automobiles that actually addresses conservative people, see the illustration below.

National Motor Vehicle Company, Motor, May 1913

This ad is also quite indicative of the attitude towards women at the time, but we'll save that for another project :-). For now I'll just quote a few lines from the text:

The National is a "Button Car" that appeals to a woman

She touches one button and starts the motor. She touches another button to turn on the lights. ...Everything is immediately and safely under her control. Her gown, of coat or hands cannot come in contact with anything that can soil them.

[1] Modern Living series, for more info follow this link

Counting ads

Before the Christmas holidays we had decided it was time for a more systematic approach to get a better feel of the percentage of "modern" ads within a well-defined set.

Up till then, our sources had been collections of ads or other ephemera, collected over many years by individuals. Their ways of "picking" items will always be biased in some way or other - some people limit their collection to items of a specific size, others by period, language etc. And since collecting is at least partly driven by emotions, some items are included in or left out of their collections without any rational explanation as to the reason why/why not. Within such collections we have found many great examples of the use of the word modern, but of course that is by no means an exhaustive search within a single corpus.

Therefor we decided to do a systematic search through entire volumes of magazines.

We requested many volumes from the Dutch Royal Library and spent quality time searching them page-by-page and did the same with a few bound volumes  of LIFE magazine from 1948 which I have in my own collection.

Below is a summary of what we found in the two LIFE volumes (JULY-AUG-SEP and OCT-NOV-DEC 1948).

Each volume contained 13 issues and each issue approximately 110 ads, making a total of approx. 2850 ads.

We found 36 ads containing the word 'modern', of which 2 ads occurred twice or more. This amounts to approximately 1.2% of the ads. Not a staggering number :-)

Of those 32 different ads, only 2 contained the word modern in the headline, 6 had the word in a sub-header (by our definition a piece of text set in a different (larger) font/typeface to distinguish it from ordinary text) and we counted the word 32 times in the text - 25 ads with a single occurrence and one ad with 7 (!) occurrences in the text (and also in the headline).

Headlines: 

1. "MODERN RUGGED" [Bostonians (shoes)]
2. "U.S. KOYLON FOAM MAKES MODERN LIVING MORE COMFORTABLE" [U.S. Rubber]

 Sub-headers:

1. "With all this health and refreshment it's one of the biggest food values of modern times" [Florida Orange Juice]
2. "Modern scientific suds" [Swerl]
3. "... tire ... will ... modernize your car" [Goodyear]
4. "It's so new. It's so modern. It's so different" [Hotpoint]
5. "[gives] food energy - to sustain the pace of modern living" [bread]
6. "a ... utensil with these modern features" [Quaker Oats double boiler]

Text:

1. "Truly modern motorcar design" [Stubaker]
2. "Modern insurance" [American Fore]
3. "Modern patterns" [Rogers Bros.]
4. "Modern comfort" [Goodyear]
5. "Modern sanitary protection" [Tampax]
6. "These fine, modern, medium-priced [camera's]" [Kodak]
7. "Modern platform-type bed-springs" [Simmons bedsprings]
8. "A modern, absolutely accurate alarm clock" [General Electric]
9. "Modern styling in every line" [Royal typewriters]
10. "The world's most modern vacuum cleaner" [Lewyt]
11. "Modern engineering" [Lustron homes]
12. "These ultra-modern one-piece razors" [Gillette]
17. "The last word in modern living" [Oldsmobile Futuramic]
18. "Modern case" [Sentinel clocks]
19. "The efficiency of the modern jeweller" [Watchmakers of Switzerland]
20. "No truly modern bathroom is is ever without Air-Wick" [Air-Wick]
21. "A modern electric kitchen clock" [Sentinel clocks]
22. "Chesterfield is building another factory - it's large, it's modern and ..." [Chesterfield cigarettes]
23. "Just these three easy steps ... when you use the modern Bruce method - standing up" [Bruce floor products]
24. "We've matched the modern beauty of this cabinet with the finest of electronic engineering" [RCA radio]
25. "Complete modern home entertainment in one console" [RCA Tv-radio-phonogram]

We'll leave further analysis of these findings for another blog, but it seems that the word is mostly used purely for its dictionary meaning: of, relating to, or characteristic of the present: contemporary or involving recent techniques, methods, or ideas: up-to-date.

Only in a few instances (modern living, modern times, modern design) the ad seems to specifically target consumers who identify themselves with people living a modern life.


[1] Modern Living series, for more info follow this link

Modernize with Mack

Because it seems that car ads are by far in the majority we decided to investigate that category some more and visited a collector with a very large (approx. 50.000) collection of car advertisements. The collection is not limited to ordinary cars, but includes truck, ambulances, fire engines and other utility vehicles and has ads from approx. 1890-1980.

With his help we found some very nice examples which helped fill some gaps: 2 very early ads (1901, 1905) and three later than 1979.

Again, we found support for our theory that there was a peak in the late 1920s, early 1930s and another peak in the 1950s.

We'll go into that some more in the article (due to appear on-line in February 2020), but for now I'd like to share some really nice Mack fire engine ads from 1947-1953.

[1] Modern Living series, for more info follow this link

Modern pancakes

One of the more challenging subjects to be labeled as modern is food.

Modern potatoes? Modern vegetables? Modern eggs?

So far, the only examples we found refer to the modern packaging used for the product or the modern factory where it's made.

Pillsbury in 1930 goes one step further and talks about their "modern pancakes".

Breakfast should be good news as well as good food

try this modern kind of pancake

Pillsbury Pancake Flour, SEP April 19, 1930

"Pillsbury made a discovery - Pillbury's Pancake Flour contains a new kind of flour, unusually soft, fine and delicate. It makes lighter pancakes, more tender, more delicious, easy to digest. Much better than the old-fashioned kind - truly modern pancakes."

Earlier in the text the ad stresses the importance of  'good health, good digestion', hence a pancake that is easy to digest must be good for you. Pepsi Cola uses a similar strategy in their series of ads from the 1950's where Pepsi is praised as a "modern, light refreshment". More about this in another blogpost.


[1] Modern Living series, for more info follow this link

A first inventory of products that are labeled 'modern'

Although our corpus is still very small (see the second last post), we can already see a pattern emerging. A quick tally shows the following results (in no particular order)

• washing machines -2
• cars - 76 (of which 18 in the series "Be Modern - Buy Chrysler" and 7 in "Modern living" series by Lincoln)
• toothbrushes - 1
• cookers/ranges - 1
• silverware/flatware - 4
• fashion - 9
• car parts or accessories, motor oil -2
• furniture - 1
• Elsie, the Borden cow ("Women are much more modern than men") - 1
• cookware -3
• tableware, glasses - 3
• flooring - 1
• ships, aeroplanes, transport - 3
• cosmetics - 3
• personnel ads - 1 ("healthy work for modern women")
• food - 3 ("modern packaging") 
• beverages - 1
• cigarettes -2
• bathrooms - 1
• soap - 1
• refrigerators - 1
• radiators, heaters - 2
• hardware - 1
• lamps - 1
• cleaning - 1
• packaging (cellophane) - 1
• beer - 1
• radio - 1
• sewing machines - 6 (5 of which a series by Singer)
• curtains - 1
• detergent - 1
• professional coffee machines - 1

As you can see, most products occur only once or twice, and often it is not the product that is labeled 'modern', but the packaging (cellophane) or the potential buyers ("modern people buy beer").

Cars and fashion are the top runners,  followed by small household items such as cookware, flatware etc.

Our source material may have been slightly biased towards cars, but not enough to explain the 76 - 61 ratio of cars versus all other products.

Obvious categories that are completely missing are insurance, banking, telecommunications, computers(!) - apparently there's no such thing as a "modern computer" :-)

Food and beverages are a difficult category, because how can you label a food as "modern"?

'Modern people eat potatoes' or 'A modern potato for today's healthy dinner' - it just doen't sound right.

When I started collecting, I used very broad categories to store my collection:

1. Food, drink and smoking
2. Transport 
3. Health and body
4. Fashion
5. In and around the house
6. Everything else

 If we add the numbers first list by these groups, we get the following results:

1.  6
2.  78
3.  6
4.  9
5.  30
6.  3

We will examine the ads more closely to try and find an explanation for the higher number in group 5 (In and around the house) - I'm guessing it has something to do with products that are very visible to the people that use them and the people we entertain in our homes. After all, what's the use of being modern if other people can't tell that we are?


[1] Modern Living series, for more info follow this link

Modern Old Dutch Cleanser

How do you work the word modern into advertising for a product with the name "Old Dutch Cleanser"?

The answer is simple, and very clever indeed: by not concentrating on the product - something cannot be both old and modern at the same time, but by focusing on the packaging instead:

Old Dutch Cleanser, Saturday Evening Post, 1939

Or, like they did the year before, by focusing on the buyer:

Old Dutch Cleanser,1938

A very clever bit of advertising ...


[1] Modern Living series, for more info follow this link

Some preliminary statistics

One of the first things to tackle in this project [1] was finding suitable source material, which meant finding one or more large enough collections to ensure that what we found was not (or at least not terribly) biased towards one result or another.

My own collection (approx. 100-150.000 ads) provides a rich starting point, but is slightly biased. I've collected ads that I found to be unusual, beautiful or interesting either from a marketing or from a historic/documentary point of view, which means that there are MILLIONS of ads that I have seen, but not kept. Among those there could have been many that contained the word "modern". 

Using Google to search the internet has the same problems as an ordinary Google search - the search algorithm will show you the sites with the highest ranking, not necessarily the best sites. However, if you know what you're looking for, a Google search is a wonderful tool to find extra examples, illustrations etc.

I decided to start by looking at what I found during my regular work as dealer; every new pile of magazines purchased is basically "new raw material", so while harvesting and sorting the ads I put everything relating to "modern" aside, even the ads that I did not find collectable or commercially valuable. This ensured a fairly random random first search which I hoped would provide us with enough material for more specific searches later on in the project.

After I while I had found 109 different ads (and the number keeps growing weekly, sometimes daily). The sample is to small to be statistically reliable, but gives a good first impression.

As first attempt at classification we put them in chronological order and counted the occurrences per decade. Below is a graph showing the results.

Occurrence of the word "modern" in advertising per decade.

We see confirmed what we thought at the start of the project: a peak in the 1930s and a second peak in the 1950s. So far we weren't able to find any "modern" ads from the 1980s and upwards [which doesn't mean they don't exist :-) ]

The sudden decline in the 1940s is most likely due to the Second World War and its aftermath, during which period society had other things on its mind than being modern.

In another post we'll go into the different products/product groups that were advertised as modern.

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[1] Modern Living series, for more info follow this link

Jazz and modern smoking

(this post is part of our Modern Living series, for more info follow this link)

Dutch magazine ad from 1939; connecting jazz, modern and American. 

Not only is the cigarette brand presented as modern, it's a "modern American" cigarette. Stressing the fact that this is an imported cigarette is quite unusual in the 1930s in the Netherlands as only a few years earlier (1933) a government funded campaign was launched to promote buying Dutch products.

More about the connection between jazz and smoking later, for now I just want to share the picture, which I think is quite striking in it's use of colour. 

Jazz cigarettes, Panorama, Aug 10, 1939

 P.S. I cannot find any information about this particular brand - any and all information is welcome.

World's most modern motor car!

(this post is part of our Modern Living series, for more info follow this link)

Chrysler, Saturday Evening Post, Dec 8, 1956

The headline under the drawing of the car speaks for itself :-) 

The emphasis is on technical improvements: a new suspension system, new transmission, smaller wheels with bigger - and low-pressure - tires. Luckily there are also "exquisite new appointments and interior conveniences [that] will delight a lady's heart".

This ad supports our preliminary findings that there is a peak in the occurrence of the word 'modern' in the 1930s and 1950s. But we will have to do more research to substantiate that claim and will get back to that later this year.

Lucky Strike

(this post is part of our Modern Living series, for more info follow this link)

We found a Dutch Lucky Strike ad from 1932, in which the use of "modern Ultra Violet Rays" in the toasting process was specifically mentioned (the highlighting of the word in the picture below is done by me) and the words "Ultra Violette Stralen" were given a very prominent place in the text, thereby focusing on the modern scientific nature of the process.

Another 'unique selling point' for this ad is explained in the heading "Versch uit Amerika", which translates to "Fresh from America". In Dutch too, "vers" (versch is old spelling) has the double meaning of "not stale" and "new".

Interestingly, in the American version(s) of the ad campaign, the word modern does NOT appear, instead, the focus is on the analogy with the sun:

"Everyone knows that sunshine mellows, that's why the 'TOASTING' process includes the use of the Ultra Violet Rays"

Lucky Strike, Haagsche Courant, Jan 23, 1932

Examples of the American ad campaign can easily be found on Google by searching "Lucky Strike Sunshine Mellows ad campaign".

The Ford V-8

(this post is part of our Modern Living series, for more info follow this link)

Ford V-8, [Fortune?], 1934

As we've found in our research, the word "modern" in advertisements can mean many things.

What makes the new Ford V-8 for 1934 "Distinctly Modern"? According to the text, its beauty, comfort, speed, economy and safety: it "leads the line in design" (beauty), has an "exceptionally smooth performance" (comfort), has "quicker acceleration" (speed), has "more miles per gallon" (economy), and offers "Great security in driving because of the all-steel body and safety glass" (safety).

When Henry Luce founded Fortune, he envisioned a magazine that was targeted at "wealthy and influential people". Its "Purpose" (Luce capitalized the word) was: "To reflect Industrial Life in ink and paper and word and picture, as the finest skyscraper reflects it in stone and steel and architectural design" (letter to advertisers by Luce, included in vol. 1, no. 0 of Fortune, September 1929). The Ford ad, with its sleek car, elegantly dressed woman, and confidence-inspiring text, seems to fit the mission of the magazine and Luce's (modern) industrial vision perfectly.

Miner's modern cosmetics

(this post is part of our Modern Living series, for more info follow this link)

Miner's "top-ten" cosmetics, Picturegoer, December 7, 1957

This Miner's cosmetics ad from 1957 we found taps into "modern" English youth culture to advertise its products.

The brand presents itself as with-it through making lots of references to music: Miner's "top-ten" cosmetics offer a "hit parade" of beauty products, you'll be "right on the beat" (a reference to 1950s beat music) with their "beauty aids", and Miner's Super-Stay lipstick is a "top hit" that is available in "pop colours".

According to the text, Miner's is "as modern as tomorrow's mood". Buy it, the ad suggests, and you'll be dancing and flirting at the dance hall, dressed in "your style, your colours" - like a truly modern girl. 

The way to Modern Living

The next couple of months we will be posting blogs about a new project that my daughter Saskia and I have started this year.

For a long time we had been wanting to do something together involving advertising and in 2018 we sent in our application to the Ephemera Society of America (ESA) for the Philip Jones Fellowship for the Study of Ephemera. 

Our idea was to investigate the use of the word 'Modern' in advertising. Some of the questions we wanted to answer were:

• How and when is the word used? 
• Is it used in specific industries (automotive, apparel) only or do you find it in advertising for all sorts of products? 
• Is it more common in certain periods? 
• Is the word targeting a specific consumer demographic? 
• Who labels the products as 'modern'? Is it the advertiser who first labels the product as modern? Or are products already perceived as modern by the consumer and are advertisers simply using the word in their advertising to confirm that status?
• Are there advertisers labeling their products as modern to boost sales while the product does not really deserve the label 'modern'?

We were very happy to receive the news earlier this year that we had won the competition and enthusiastically started searching for examples, using my own collection of advertisements as a starting point.

The project will result in a digital paper, to be published online in early 2020. Naturally, it will be profusely illustrated.

In this blog we will post a series of three short essays with the results of our research, interspersed with shorter entries containing scans of interesting ads.

Keep following this page for updates !

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For more information on the ESA and the Philip Jones Fellowship, please refer to the links above; the ESA also has a Facebook page.

OK, de datum uit de vorige post hebben we dus niet gehaald.

Maar we zijn wel bezig met een interessant nieuw project, over het gebruik van het woord "MODERN" in de reclame.

Stay tuned for more info !

P.S. Voor een preview van de nieuwe website ga naar srokads.nl.

Zodra onze volledig vernieuwde webshop"in de lucht" is, zullen we ook weer regelmatig posten op dit blog.

We streven naar medio November !

l'histoire se répète

We geven geen prijzen voor het juiste antwoord, maar zijn wel benieuwd of iemand het jaartal waarin deze advertentie gepubliceerd is, kan raden.

Veranderende taal

Taal verandert, en met name de betekenis van woorden wil in de loop der jaren nog wel eens wijzigen. Uiteraard is in het Engels de betekenis van 'gay' nogal ingrijpend gewijzigd en men ziet het woord dan ook niet langer in advertenties gebruikt worden. Maar ook in het Nederlands zijn voorbeelden te vinden, zie de advertentie hieronder. Toelichting is denk ik niet nodig ... :-)

Van den Brink, Haagsche Courant 15 november 1962

Melk inhaker

(Voor recente inhakers in de reclame zie Verse Reclame )

Ook in het verleden kwamen directe inhakers voor, met name bij overwinningen in de sport. Soms duurde het even voordat de reclamemakers ergens op inhaken, zo is het Witte Fietsen Plan van Provo uit Augustus 1965, terwijl de onderstaande advertentie voor melk pas in September 1966 in de Libelle kwam te staan, ruim een jaar later. Wellicht dat het even duurde voordat de Witte Fietsen populair genoeg waren om door te dringen in de rclame?

 

 

 

Reclame voor Melk, Libelle 10-9-1966

Inhakers in de reclame (1961)

Voor recente inhakers in de reclame blijft Verse Reclame erg leuk om te volgen. 

Maar uiteraard kwam het verschijnsel vroeger ook voor. Hieronder een leuk voorbeeld uit 1961 van Lexington, dat inhaakt op de nieuwe verkeerswetgeving m.b.t. zebrapaden. De knipperbolpalen gingen per 1 november uit dienst, omdat vanaf die datum voetgangers onder vrijwel alle omstandigheden op zebrapaden dezelfde bescherming kregen als met de knipperbollen. De advertentie is verschenen op 24 november, dus niet razend snel, maar toch een echte inhaker.

Lexington, Leeuwarder Courant, 24-11-1961