Why do people collect trading cards? Collectors often hope the pictures can inspire them to their field or find pleasure in seeing remarkable people and their achievements. To inspire you in your marketing, MarketingProfs put together a roster of 16 remarkable smarty pants who changed business.

2. Why do people collect trading cards? Collectors often hope
the pictures can inspire them to their field or find pleasure in
seeing remarkable people and their achievements. To inspire
you in your marketing, we've put together a roster of 16
remarkable smarty pants who changed business.

3. Smarty Pants #1
(1706-1790) Benjamin Franklin, founding father, printer,
author, inventor, all-around genius
Benjamin Franklin's resume looks
like it's made-up. Brilliant
inventor? Sure! Best-selling
author? You betcha! Ambassador
to France who got the French to
join the colonists' fight for
independence? Absolutely!

4. To that list, add that Franklin was also the
owner of General Magazine, which
printed one of the first American
magazine ads in 1742.
Franklin also invented the lightning rod,
bifocals, and other items that, if they
didn't exactly reinvent marketing and
advertising, certainly enabled our ability
to read and enjoy newspapers and
magazines.

5. Takeaway: Listen to your inner genius. If you've a plan or
idea that no one has heard before, you might be onto
something groundbreaking.

6. Smarty Pants #2
(1838 to 1922) John Wanamaker, department-store
founder, pioneer in marketing
The next time you pass a
department store, thank John
Wanamaker. In 1861, he and his
brother-in-law opened Oak Hall
and gave birth to the concept of
the first department store. In
1874, Wanamaker published the
first copyrighted store ad.

7. Wanamaker definitely knew how to
work with the seasons (even if he
had to make some up). He created
seasonal sales, such as February's
Opportunity Sales and July
Midsummer Sales. And guess who
started the January White Sale? Yep.
Wanamaker in 1878.
He also popularized the fixed-price
system and created the idea of the
"money-back guarantee." (Those
have caught on, haven't they?)

8. Takeaway: Unite your marketing efforts with the seasons…
and if need be, create some special events and occasions of
your own.

9. Smarty Pants #3
(1854 to 1925) Frank Munsey, American newspaper and
magazine publisher and author
Before "Pulp Fiction" the movie,
there was pulp fiction, the cheap
magazine. Munsey, the father of
pulp magazines, used the cheapest
pulpwood for his magazines.
Folks could buy these "pulp
magazines" for just 10 cents a pop.

10. (Those other fancy-shmancy magazines in the
1800s cost between 15 to 30 cents.)
Aside from first publishing Edgar Rice
Burroughs stories (feel free to let out a Tarzan
yell right about now), Munsey also was the
first person to attempt a run a magazine by
relying on advertising sales revenue rather than retail stand
sales.
Takeaway: Know your audience and their needs. Munsey
wasn't afraid to go cheap with the paper, knowing folks
would like the lower cost. Throughout the years, the Argosy

11. also underwent various name and publishing changes…
always to better reach an audience.

12. Smarty Pants #4
(1877 to 1934) Ivy Lee, the father of public relations
It's 1906. You're Pennsylvania Railroad
magnate George F. Baer, and your railroad
company has just experienced a major rail
accident. What do you do?
Baer put himself in the hands of Ivy Lee,
who would become one of the most well-known pioneers in
PR.

13. Lee convinced Baer to send a press release out
before anyone had even heard of the accident.
He also asked reporters and photographers to
come to the accident and report what
happened. (Lee even had Baer provide a train
for all the journalists.) This brilliant PR move
earned Ivy Lee the title "father of the modern press release."
Takeaway: Be one step ahead of your audience. Anticipate
reactions and have a plan in place for any crisis that may
arise.

14. Smarty Pants #5
(1891 to 1995) Edward Bernays, Austrian-American pioneer
in PR and propaganda
Who came up with the idea of getting
dentists (even just 9 out of 10) to
approve a product? And what about
"experts" on TV giving their
testimonials?
Credit Edward Bernays for popularizing
the use of "third-party authorities" to lend weight to press

15. releases. For example, to help a
company sell more bacon, Bernays
conducted a survey of physicians and
shared their recommendation that
people eat heavy breakfasts. He then
sent his report to 5,000 physicians and
got the quotes he needed to promote
bacon as the heavy breakfast that
physicians recommend.
How powerful was this campaign? Even today, people

16. consider bacon and eggs as being part of an all-American
heavy breakfast.
Takeaway: Use data and details to lend credibility to your
claims.

17. Smarty Pants #6
(1886 to 1983) Henry Jamison "Jam" Handy, Olympic
breast-stroke winner, water polo player, leader in
commercial audio and visual communications
He created thousands of industrial and
educational films for the biggest
companies of his day. (During World
War II, his company, Jam Handy
Productions, produced 7,000 films!)

18. Jam Handy films were really advertising shorts presented as
educational or documentary films. Handy's Direct Mass
Selling Series ran in both movie and newsreel theaters.
"Down the Gasoline Trail" (1935) explains what happens to a
drop of gas from the tank to the engine cylinder... and in the
end, you find out the gas tank belonged to a Chevy.

19. With his storytelling technique and soft sell, Jam Handy was
definitely the pioneer of all modern-day commercials.
Takeaway: Use short movies to entertain and educate your
customers rather than to boast about your product or
service.

20. Smarty Pants #7
(1946) Mrs. Carveth Wells, explorer and TV host
Imagine your well-heeled neighbor
carrying a box of DVDs of her travels
into your living room, putting them in
the player, and droning on about each
one. TV viewers in 1946 didn't have to
imagine it all. They had Mrs. Carveth
Wells.

21. Wells had a show that had this
simple premise: Wells plays her 16
mm home movies of her worldwide
travels and talks about them. Yep.
That's the "Geographically Speaking"
show.
Why are we speaking about it today?
Because "Geographically Speaking"

22. was the first show to have a regular sponsor. Bristol-Myers
would have kept sponsoring her… had Wells not run out of
movies.
Takeaway: Don't be afraid to explore shiny new concepts (in
this case, the new idea was TV programming), but make sure
to plan well… or you'll run out of content.

23. Smarty Pants #8
(1894 to 1982) Bernice Fitz-Gibbon, US advertising
executive
Known as the Fabulous Fitz, she pioneered
the idea of events into the world of
department stores and advertising by
creating fashion shows, lectures, and
demos.
She also opened an award-winning agency
in 1954, which helped women become
copywriters.

24. Her famous quote is:
"A good ad should be like a
good sermon: It must not
only comfort the afflicted, it
also must afflict the
comfortable."
Takeaway: Remember to help others. As a successful writer,
Fitz-Gibbons made sure to help other women become
copywriters.

25. Smarty Pants #9
(1911 to 1999) David Ogilvy, British ad executive, father of
modern advertising
Forget Dumbledore and his
spells. David Ogilvy, called
"the most sought-after
wizard in today's advertising
industry" by Time Magazine,
knew the power inherent in
words and images.

26. He believed in engaging, stylish
descriptions of products would best
reach consumer and in knowing
your consumers.
He said, "Advertising people who
ignore research are as dangerous as
generals who ignore decodes of
enemy signals."
Ogilvy also wrote the uber-popular
Confessions of an Advertising Man,
one of the most famous books about advertising.

27. Takeaway: Know your audience well. Think about what they
think about. Talk to them as they talk. Reach out to them
how they want to be reached out to.

28. Smarty Pants #10
(1891 to 1971) Leo Burnett, advertising executive and a
creative legend
What do these folks have in
common? The Jolly Green Giant,
Charlie Tuna, Morris the Cat,
Tony the Tiger, the Pillsbury
Doughboy, and the Marlboro
Man.

29. Leo Burnett and his agency created them.
Though most ads at the time favored text, his approach was
to go for the simple memorable icon.
One of Burnett's famous sayings is: "Make it simple. Make it
memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to
read.”
Takeaway: Use simple, memorable images to capture your
audience's imagination and interest.

30. Smarty Pants #11
(1917 to 2001) Katharine Graham, US newspaper executive;
publisher of The Washington Post; Pulitzer Prize-winning
author; first woman to head a Fortune 500 company
Personal tragedy brought Katherine
Graham to the helm of The
Washington Post in 1963, but she
guided it through its best years.

31. She was in charge of the Post during the
publication of the Pentagon Papers in
1971 and the Watergate scandal, which
led to President Richard Nixon's
resignation. She was threatened for her
role in revealing the Watergate scandal,
but she didn't back down.
In 2000, Graham was named one of the
International Press Institute's 50 World Press Freedom
Heroes.

32. Takeaway: Be authentic. Graham received numerous threats
during the Watergate Scandal, but she kept delivering honest
info. Likewise, your audience expects you to be honest in your
business.

33. Smarty Pants #12
(1943 to present) Rosabeth Moss Kanter, US
businesswoman
How huge is the leap from studying
communes to studying corporate
America? Not very.
After writing about life in communes,
Kanter made the switch to studying the structure and
management of corporations.

34. Her book Men and Women of the
Corporation (1977) documents "a
bureaucratic corporate model that is
about to be replaced." She has also
written about what promotes
corporate growth and what suppresses
it (The Change Master: Innovation and
Entrepreneurship in the American
Corporation, 1984) and changing management strategies for
future success (When Giants Learn to Dance, 1989)

35. Her work has helped businesspeople better understand
themselves and the corporations in which they work.
Takeaway: Be curious about the world around you. Kanter
did more than just look at business; she analyzed it.

36. Smarty Pants #13
(born in 1955) Tim Berners-Lee, CERN physicist
You can thank Berners-Lee for the fact
that you're enjoying this slide show
online. And for being able to email
friends. And for, well… let's just thank
him for inventing the World Wide Web.

37. In 1990, he pitched the idea for
an information management
system. By Christmas the next
year, he implemented the first
successful communication
between an HTTP client and
server via the Internet.
As far as the popularity of the Web, that speaks for itself!
Takeaway: Dream big. Real big. And if your idea develops
wings and starts flying, follow it and see where it goes.

38. Smarty Pants #14
(1964 to present) Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com
In 1995, Bezos launched Amazon,
an online bookstore. What was the
first book it sold? Something
entertaining? A summer read? No,
it's Douglas Hofstadter's Fluid
Concepts and Creative Analogies:
Computer Models of the
Fundamental Mechanisms of

39. Thought. (Well, it's a fun read for the guys of "The Big Bang
Theory" show.)
Today, Amazon sells just about
everything, which keeping with
its goal "to be Earth's most
customer-centric company
where people can find and
discover anything they want to
buy online."
Takeaway: Give your projects time to succeed. Amazon.com
launched in 1995, but success came slowly (well, slowly in the

40. minds of investors who wanted insta-success). Trust in your
project, and be patient.

41. Smarty Pants #15
(Hurly, 1997 to present; Chen, 1978 to present; Karim, 1979
to present) Chad Hurly, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim,
founders of YouTube
YouTube might have started out with Jawed Karim uploading
"Me at the Zoo," but it revolutionized the way we share and
create videos.

42. YouTube has come a long way from
being the favorite place to upload
videos of animal shenanigans. It now
is home to countless educational
videos, webinars, instructional videos,
and, OK, clips of animal shenanigans.
In 2012, a total of 72 hours of video are uploaded to
YouTube every minute.
Takeaway: Don't overcomplicate your product launch. The
first video on YouTube is 19 seconds long. Jawed Karim gives
on reason for liking elephants. That's it.

43. Smarty Pants #16
(1955 to 2011) Steve Jobs, US businessman and technology
visionary
Known for being the father of Apple
Computer (and all its life-altering
products, such as the Macintosh,
iPod and iPad), Steve Jobs was also
a legendary speaker and pitchman.
He was so persuasive that the term
"reality distortion field" was dubbed
to explain how he could get anyone
to believe almost anything he told them.

44. Jobs was also known for his belief of setting trends and
creating want in consumers rather than creating products to
serve consumers' need.
Takeaway: Make up your own
rules. Jobs didn't ask people what
they wanted; he told them what
they wanted. Sometimes, you
have to thumb your nose at the
rules like Steve Jobs did.

45. Want to become a marketing
smarty pants, too?
Check out the wealth of
marketing information at
www.marketingprofs.com.