Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (Mitsubishi Jidōsha Kōgyō Kabushiki Kaisha) 'belongs to the Mitsubishi Group, a Japanese conglomerate of industrial and service activities.
And David Ogilvy
David Ogilvy is seen as one of the greatest marketers and copywriters of the twentieth century. In 1962, Times Magazine called Ogilvy: "the most sought-after wizard in today's advertising industry." He knew what he was talking about and changed the world of marketing and copywriting.
Marketing as an active tool
That was because he made the highly vague concept of 'advertising' an exact science. He started 'measuring to know'. He investigated the response of advertising based on sales figures and thus came up with an ideal 'advertising model' in terms of image and content. He was a marketer before that concept ran into cheap planning to ram the consumer as much meaningless dredging as possible. His advertisements were substantive. His approach was 'Let them read'. And that clearly worked before humanity got an average attention span of 5 seconds.
Two pages in National Geographic
The Mitsubishi advertisement in 'National Geographic' from 1987 is an iron example of this: A page-large image of Charles Darwin and his book 'The origin of Species' and a page with really substantive text about Mitsubishi plus a photo of a very early Mitsubishi .
Internet: The turning point
Ogilvy died in 1999 at the age of 88 at his chateau in France. He has not really experienced the rise of the internet. Yet his way of working and approach to texts and stories is still relevant today. In fact, they are more true and worth than ever before.
Mitsubishi's history
Mitsubishi's history in the automotive industry goes back to 1917. In that year, the Mitsubishi Model A was introduced as the first series-built car in Japan. This hand-built seven-seater was based on the FIAT Tipo 3.
Until 1988, Mitsubishi was the only private car manufacturer in Japan. In that year the company became public. MHI's share fell to 25%, but that company remained the main shareholder.
The advertisement from 1987
And in 1978, Mitsubishi placed a two-page advertisement in National Geographic. The layout of that advertisement was 100% according to the guidelines that David Ogilvy had drawn up. And that the ad design now seems hopelessly outdated?
Mitsubishi in 1987
The editorially correct story without sales and marketing brains concludes with a reference to Darwin's evolution theory and developments at Mitsbishi. The block text below states that Mitsubishi Motors has published a free, 24 page booklet that tells the story of the brand and its history.
For that, just a letter had to be written to: Advertising, International Busness Planning Office, Office of International Business, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, 33-8 Chiba 5 chome, Minatu-ku, Tokyo 108, Japan.
An 1987's Mitsibushi now
Beautiful classical Mitsubishis are not sown very thickly. But they are now real classics. The Pajero's and Starions were sort of toppers. Many of the Colts and Lancers have been made, sold and disappeared. That also applies to the Galants and Cordias. And Mitsibushi Magna Elite Sedans and Sigma's with six-cylinder engines are quite rare here. The Pajero's already have substantial price tags (In South America, by the way, the name was received quite jokingly. 'Pajero' meant so much there as 'jerk'.) The other 'Mitsus' still have no Bonham prizes. Far from it.
What concerns David Ogilvy's advertisements?
We can only dream about advertisements like that. In the advertising world 'content and text' have been replaced by 'a nice picture, the Experience and the Emotion. Young, happy people in a perfect world. A pity ...
What in those ads is about a dream world. Take a look at how it used to be:
In those years I drove a Chrysler GS Turbo 2
Looks very like this and in my mind came about in a partnership and built in the same factory.
Dear Dolf, what a beautiful hymn to Mitsubishi and David Ogilvy! Rightly so, because this advertising guru indeed introduced a whole new way of advertising. Another great example was his well-known advertisement "At sixty miles an hour the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock."
I had the privilege of working for Ogilvy for such an 15 year (I even had lunch with him) and his ideas still inspire me. Also in this online world!
Hi Bert, You are lucky. I only read his books 🙂