Long Lost Marketing Secrets

Rosser Reeves (1910-1984)

Rosser Reeves was born in Danville, Virginia in 1910, the son of a Methodist minister.

His first job after leaving the University of Virginia was as a reporter for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Reeves quickly realized that the pay for newspaper reporting was lower than he wanted, so he turned to advertising.

In 1934, he moved to New York and worked as a copywriter for several companies before landing a job at the Ted Bates And Co. Advertising Agency in 1940.

In the 1950's Rosser Reeves becomes a great success, creating history and demolishing icons of creativity on the way. He was the vice-president and copy chief of Ted Bates And Co. for 6 years, and then became the chairman of the board in 1955.

He wrote his first book in 1961, "Reality of Advertising." This book laid out the selling technique that he is famous for: "The Unique Selling Proposition (USP)."

He defines a USP as having three parts:

Each ad must make a proposition - "Buy this product and you get these benefits
The proposition must be uniqie - something that your competitors do not, cannot, or will not offer
The proposition must sell - it must be something prospects really want, it pulls them over to your product.

In essence, a USP briefly and clearly explains a single quality about your product that lets it stand out against the competition.

The most memorable USP Reeves developed was the one for M&Ms. At the time, M&Ms was one of the first sugar-coated choclate candies on the market. So Reeves wrote: "It melts in your mouth, not in your hands."

Utilizing USPs, the Bates agency leaped to be the 5th. largest advertising agency in the world, hadnling such accounts as Warner-Lambert Pharmaceutical, Brown and Williamson Tobacco Products, Mobil Oil, and the Chase Manhattan Bank.

In 1965, he was inducted into the Copywriter's Hall of Fame. However, a year later he astonished everyone by resigning after explaining that he had always wanted to retire at the age of 55, and find serenity.

Rosser Reeves died in 1984 but his concept of USP revoltionsized marketing forever.

Domino Pizza grew because of a USP - "Hot, fresh pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, guaranteed."

FedEx became popular because of a USP: "When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight."

So have many other companies with a USP.

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