Temple Israel invites you to enjoy

The Arlene June Gottlieb Concert

MARS ADVERTISING

page 105

world-renowned and direct from Chicago

fice Depot; Thorn Apple Valley;
Ziebart.
Retail (UCl/Co-op Programs):
A&P/Farmer Jack. Direct Mar-
keting
(Consumer/Business-to-Busi-
ness): Liz Claiborne.

XfORGIVA811

M

Sunday, June 8, 1997, 3:30 p.m.

in the beautiful Garden at Temple Israel
5725 Walnut Lake Road, West Bloomfield

(in case of inclement weather, concert will move indoors)

co-sponsored by the Temple Israel Couples Club

for complimentary tickets, call (248) 661-5700

STATE FARM INSURANCE

MARILYN J. GOLD-AGENCY
"I believe in personalized service"

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8100353-1400

26561 W. 12 Mile Road, Suite 203, Southfield, MI 48034

TRUST YOUR NEXT CATERED AFFAIR TO THE FINEST KOSHER CATERER

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CLASSIC CUISINE

Approved by Council of Orthodox Rabbis

PHILIP TEWEL

Food and Beverage Director

(810) 661-4050

Farmington Hills, Michigan

arilyn Barnett's Mars
Advertising is the
largest woman-owned
ad agency among De-
troit's top 25.
"The most important thing is
that you can't ever have the at-
titude that Uwe did it, we did it
this way.' Or, 'If we didn't do it
this way before, we certainly
can't do it now,"' said Ms. Bar-
nett.
"You have to be ready and pre-
pared to change your thinking and
your viewpoint, and be abreast of
what's going on, and topical all of
the time so you can be state-of-the-
art.
"We don't use a singular media
as we did in days gone by. You
bought [time on] the [television]
network, and you had it, you were
reaching the masses. But-you re-
ally can't do that anymore.
"You have to appeal to not
only the demographic groups,
but the psychographic groups.
Because you've got five 35-year-
olds, all of whom are interested
in totally different things, ab-
solutely opposites from each oth-
er. So you have to reach them in
every area. And the networks
don't do it."
"We do direct mail. We do ca-
ble. We do Web pages, but it's
not the primary vehicle for any
of our clients. It is an ancillary
vehicle. It is something that yes,
they feel they have to be partic-
ipating in, but the usage isn't
there yet, and there's no way to
quantify it."
Some of Mars' most innova-
tive work has been for a chain of
supermarkets in Connecticut
and Massachusetts. "They have
decided that they wanted to help
education for a couple of reasons.
One, education needed the help
desperately, schools desperate-
ly need help. And two, because
that is their demographic.
"So we conceived a plan
whereby we develop a catalog
and the school has the opportu-
nity to pick and choose items
based on points that they ac-
crue," said Ms. Barnett.
The students' parents regis-
ter their school choice at the
market and points are electron-
ically tabulated automatically
atthe check-out counter. The
program is three years old.
Ms. Barnett was once Farmer
Jack supermarkets' on-air
spokesman. Parent company
A&P asked Mars to design a pro-
gram that would involve chil-
dren with the environment.
"Part of the program," said
Ms. Barnett, "was to get the kids
to write essays. And we tied that
into President Clinton's Youth

Task Force. We got an indepen-
dent judging group to judge the
winners from A&P-owned stores
in 17 states. We accompanied
those kids along with a parent
to the White House last week for
the presentation of the Presi-
dent's Environmental Youth
Awards. It is a good deed, and it
does help business."
"It is all very different than it
used to be in the era of the hard-
sell, when you sold strictly price.
That really isn't that important
now. People still want to save
money, but it should be a given
that your client certainly has a
competitive price, if not the low-
est price.
"Imagery has changed. Your
client's image is now very im-
portant. So you have to build
that image and maintain it.
Your client has to be a good cor-
porate citizen, a good citizen of
the community. It's important
to create the imagery of who this
client is, and what they stand
for. We're just fortunate that we
have a lot of good clients."
Mars is known for account
specific marketing: marketing
to and for a particular account
as opposed to the mass market.
"That's when a manufactur-
er, Nestle for example, wants to
do something specific in the De-
troit market, and even more
specifically, for Farmer Jack or
with Farmer Jack.
"We develop the program
where Nestles and Farmer Jack
are partners in a program to the
good of both. So it's not just mar-
ket specific, it's account specific.
It's a labor-intensive business, and
it is something that Mars does
well," said Ms. Barnett.
"The other thing we started
about five or six years ago is the
publication of customized mag-
azines. And that feeds psycho-
graphics.
"Remember those five 35-
year-olds that you can't reach in
the same way? With this vehi-
cle, we can deliver messages and
reach them via customized mag-
azines.
"And, of course. we still do
traditional advertising and mar-
keting," said Ms. Barnett.
Mars may appear to be a fe-
male-dominated workplace. But
Ms. Barnett explained, "It's not
that we hire more women. It is
not a gender thing. We just hire
who is best for the job, and in
many cases, women are. They
have a lot of sensitivity. They are
very hardworking, and in many
cases they are working moms.
"I think the agency has to be the
best it can be," said Ms. Barnett.
"We have to strive to be better
than we were yesterday. What-
ever our clients goals are, are our
goals. I think that as far as growth
is concerned, we plan on measured (—/\
growth. Ten percent a year would
be nice, so that we can absorb it
and that every client gets the ser-
vice it deserves."

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