Andrew Seth on marketing

This article surveys the changes in marketing over four decades. It argues that in the 1960s/70s Procter & Gamble invented brand management, the best companies looked impregnable and smaller companies could muddle along unthreatened.

Andrew Seth on marketing

Andrew Seth

As this is my last column for Admap I thought I would describe the changes I've seen in marketing over four decades. Are we living in a better brand world now than we were 40 years ago?

I first managed a brand in the mid-1960s, in a simple world. There was no internet, only two UK television channels, no local radio. The global market was at best a vision for futurists. America dominated everyone's lives. A commentary from Jean Servan-Schreiber echoed European thinking – 'Le Defi Americain' – but it wasn't just...

Not a subscriber?

Schedule your live demo with our team today

WARC helps you to plan, create and deliver more effective marketing

  • Prove your case and back-up your idea

  • Get expert guidance on strategic challenges

  • Tackle current and emerging marketing themes

We’re long-term subscribers to WARC and it’s a tool we use extensively. We use it to source case studies and best practice for the purposes of internal training, as well as for putting persuasive cases to clients. In compiling a recent case for long-term, sustained investment in brand, we were able to support key marketing principles with numerous case studies sourced from WARC. It helped bring what could have been a relatively dry deck to life with recognisable brand successes from across a broad number of categories. It’s incredibly efficient to have such a wealth of insight in one place.

Insights Team
Bray Leino

You’re in good company

We work with 80% of Forbes' most valuable brands* and 80% of the world's top top-of-the-class agencies.

* Top 10 brands