One man's trash is another man's treasure. And in the case of a Texas-based advertising company, one state's trash became marketing gold.
GSD&M Idea City is the marketing communications and advertising company behind the "Don't Mess with Texas" campaign. The company's clients include heavyweights like AT&T
Roy Spence is Chairman and CEO of GSD&M and the author of It's Not What You Sell, It's What You Stand For: Why Every Extraordinary Business is Driven by Purpose. On this week's Motley Fool Money Radio Show, Spence shared the story behind "Don't Mess with Texas" and offered up some marketing advice for BP
Chris Hill: BP for years marketed itself as a different kind of oil company -- saying that the BP stood for Beyond Petroleum. This was an oil company that even socially responsible mutual funds would invest in. In your mind, is this an example of a company where the marketing didn't really line up with what the company was doing?
Roy Spence: You know, it is a great question, Chris. I think that the quick answer is that I don't know because I wasn't on the inside of BP, but I do have people who were. The end story to me is I don't think BP has a brand anymore. And what I mean by that is brand is often overused, but to me, a brand is a sacred promise. Whether it is Southwest that promised to keep the skies democratized or Wal-Mart to save you money so you can live better. Their [BP] brand promise was they were going to be beyond petroleum. I think they are now just a corporation. Until they fix their mess, and I know they are trying, I wouldn't be doing all the advertising they are doing. I wouldn't be doing the full-page newspaper ads. They will get credit only when they stop it and they fix it, and that is a long road. So long story short, I don't think they have a brand anymore.
Hill: A year from now, or two years from now, when the mess is cleaned up and things are relatively back to normal, what does BP need to do to gain trust from investors, consumers, and business partners?
Spence: First of all, never leave the Gulf Coast after they clean up. If I was them right now, I would move my corporate headquarters to New Orleans. I would say, look, we had a terrible mistake, and by the way, that shouldn't be a condemnation of all offshore drilling or all oil companies. We made a mistake. We didn't do the right thing out there, and the first thing I would do is quit talking about it and make a long-term commitment that once they stop the leak, and once they clean up the Gulf (and by the way, that is a long-term program), I would not ever walk away from the people of the Gulf Coast, ever. I would move the corporate headquarters down there, I would move business down there, I would say, "folks, we did something you had nothing to do with. It wasn't your fault; it was our fault." So what I would do is earn my way back and never leave.
Don't Mess with Texas
Hill: Now Roy, the latest radio station to add our show to their lineup is in Houston, so it is only fitting that we talk about what is maybe your most well-known marketing campaign, and I am referring to, "Don't mess with Texas." What is the story behind that campaign?
Spence: The story behind it is a great story. In fact, it has Houston roots because Bob Lanier, he used to be the great mayor of Houston who I just love, he was the chairman of the highway commission in the mid-eighties, and litter was a real problem, so he was sitting there, and just like a lot of bureaucracies, they came in and he was hearing this is what transportation cost is and then the litter guys came in and said, "Well litter is up 17% again, so we need a 17% increase in our budget." And he stopped and put his glasses on his nose and he looked down and he said, "Has anybody ever thought about like reducing litter?" The room was silent. So my partner, Tim McClure, the "M" in GSD&M, was pitching the business and one day he came in and he said, "I got it." He said, "We don't have litter on our highways, we have trash," and he wrote the line, "Don't mess with Texas."
It was very controversial, but what we did, Chris, in a sense, was our first lesson in laddering up to a higher purpose. We didn't even know we were doing this. We got out of the litter business and got into the pride business, and didn't even know it. And at that moment in time, we didn't increase any fines, we didn't pass any freaking' laws, we didn't try to regulate it. We got celebrities like Willie [Nelson] and Jerry Jeff Walker and the Cowboys and the Houston Oilers back then, the Rockets and we had commercials, the Hell's Angels in Tyler, Texas, and we said, "Don't mess with Texas," and it became the most recognized theme, not only here, but damned near around the world. A lot of it was because the Former Mayor of Houston, Bob Lanier, was there, and he inspired people to reduce litter. If we had more leaders in politics, instead of trying to legislate behavior, let's go out there and appeal to people's best instincts. Consumers want to change. They want the things to work. Put the consumers in charge, and it is amazing.
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