“I know half of my advertising budget is wasted.” US car manufacturer Henry Ford knew that even in his day. “I just don’t know which half.” Why is this? After all, advertising is nothing other than communicating with other people and trying to attract their attention, gain their favour and build up mutual trust. But it doesn’t always work: people are different and so are their reactions.
Hermes has been advertising its services from the very beginning. In the launch phase, it was essentially about making people aware of its services – so it focused on friendly delivery agents handing parcels or items of clothing hanging on coat hangers to happy customers at their front door.
But advertising soon became something more. An image of a girl holding a giant teddy bear with the slogan: “Animal transport? We do that too!” was used to present new services. Prominent brand ambassadors such as Niki Lauda and Mika Häkkinen appeared in adverts with the slogan, “Even successful racing drivers hand it in – a parcel to a Hermes ParcelShop, that is”. Hermes also used advertising to inform the public that it had become a Stiftung Warentest test winner with the slogan: “The parcel’s right!”
Hermes later ran TV adverts, and its humour went down well. One clip was legendary: it showed a street which had been cleared of snow and Father Christmas causing sparks to fly from his sledge as he tried to slide down it and setting all his presents alight in the process. The accompanying slogan: “Father Christmas won’t bring anything. But Hermes will.”
The parcel service of 1972 has been transformed in 40 years into a global commercial service provider that can handle all the steps in the chain, from ordering raw materials to the delivery of the final product. Advertising for the individual business segments was therefore enhanced with a uniform marketing concept presenting the entire Hermes portfolio with the aim of positioning the company as an all-round competent commercial partner. In the autumn/winter of 2011, Hermes launched a six-figure campaign to promote the company’s umbrella brand, presenting its performance-oriented approach with images from Hamburg to Hong Kong.
The question obviously arises: is it worth it? Let us again quote Henry Ford: “A man who stops advertising to save money, is like a man who stops the clock to save time.”