34 ~ Sunday, August 12, 1990 ~ North Shore News

AFFLUENCE & INFLUENCE

Can't forget L

Marketing
whiz knows
what counts
in advertising

IF THE Peter Principle
decrees that successful ex-
ecutives be promoted until
they reach a position in
which they are incompetent,
then Larry Sherwood
should have his own princi-
ple in the business lexicon.

By Evelyn Jacob
News Reporter

The Sherwood principle: dirce-
ting an advertising campaign that
fails so miserably artistically that
its creator is fondly recalled by
upper management and even
promoted because of it.

‘“L perpetrated some of the
worst advertising ever foisted on
the public,’ says Sherwood, who,
because of an awful ad campaign
landed himself a hefty promotion
from a regional sales position to
become nationa! promotions
coordinator for Imperial Oil.

Sherwood’s strategy was to
create 30-second TV spots that
focused on your friendly
neighborhood furnace oil service
men. The campaign was based on
Sherwood’s reasoning that people
bought the oil because they liked
the men wearing navy-bluc suits.

The ads may have been corny,

TRANSMISSIONS

NEWS photo Pau! McGrath

LARRY SHERWOOD...Doesn’t believe in pushy advertising.

but they worked.

“How bad were they? They
were so bad that people
remembered them,’’ says Sher-
wood.

That ground-breaking philoso-
phy led him to become director of
marketing for Western Canada for
the king of fast food chains.
McDonald's, from 1975 to 198).

During that time he launched
the award-winning [6-page
McDonald’s Fun Times magazine

& MUFFLERS

GUARANTEED SERVICE!
DOMESTIC/IMPORT CARS_

in conjunction with Palmer Jarvis
Advertising.

A good-natured man with grey-
ing hair, Sherwood sounds like a
45 e.p. plaved at 33 and one-third.

He punctuates his conversation
with jokes fike a magician con-
stantly pulling rabbits out of a
hat: ‘‘My mother feil in love with
my wife so we had to get mar-
ried,** he chortles.

Sherwood is now a private
market research consultant whose

RAKE

a

AUTOMATIC |

TRANSMISSION |

Includes:

SERVICE ¢ 18°!

* Complete road check « Remove and Clean Transmission
Pan « Change Gasket « New Fluid e Make Any Necessary Adjustments

COMPLETE 4 WHEEL BRAKE JOB*

¢ Replace Brake Shoes e Resurface Drums

* Replace Disc Pads ¢ Top Up Brake Fluid

«Machine Rotors * Repack Bearings

@ Adjust Brakes « Road Test ¢ Metallic
Linings and FWD. Extra

CeO’"TESY CARS AVAILABLE

OPEN

Also see our 2nd location at:
2639 Kingsway, Vancouver — 436-1633

‘8

Eg N. TO SAT. 8:30 TO 5:00 PM.
860 WEST 15TH ST, NORTH VANCOUVER 984-9581

ONLY

59

*MOST CARS

C=) pave aucr

clients include Dairyland and
Freybe Sausage. His tried-and-true
philosophy — the cardinal rule of
the service industry that the cus-
tomer is always right — is largely
what he credits for his series of
successes.

Not the company, not the man-
ufacturer, not even the marker
research consultant knows more

arry Sherwood

° NAME: Lacry Sherwood

© AGE: 50

* EDUCATION: UBC grad ‘66
OCCUPATION: Market
research consultant

* RESIDENCE: North Vancouver
© FAMILY: Married to Ninna;
Iwo sons,

* HOBBIES: fishing when he has
time.

about what a product should offer
than the customer, he believes.

“When § first got into market-
ing,’ Sherwood says, ‘ta lot of
people had the attitude that if you
fan it great iudvertising campaign
you'd get peaple to go like sheep
und buy your product. But it
didn’t happen. It didn't happen
even then. You have to det the
market decide...customers will
walk away from your product,
from your services, if you’re not
giving them what they want.”

This let-the-customer-decide
strategy may not be every com-
pany's game plan — __ especially
large corporations who are used to
telling customers what they should
wait,

But market manipulation and
pushy advertising is something
Sherwood frowns upon.

“ft think you might be able to
manipulate the public once, but I
don't think you can manipulate
them forever. I think the public is
very, very quick to catch on to
manipulation and they'll resist it.””

Besides which, his own strategy
has always worked for him.

It worked in 1981 when he and
five business partners came up

See Sherwood Page 35

Go with
the flow

Ceiling fans on sale.
Now from: $39

Large assortment of styles to set the
right mood in any room.

NORBURN LIGHTING centre

4600 E. HASTINGS ST., BBY. 299-0666

Wholesale & Retail ¢ Free Catalogues
Now Open Monday througn Thursday anh? pm

Friday unt! 9 pr

and

Warday 9