E S S E N T I A L S

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Summer's hottest look...

The "Tin Cup" necklace in black
or white pearls on chain or silk cord.
Starting at only $72.00

Stone & Simons

Doug Stone: The new breed.

3

,

248-932-7700

1-800-337-GIFT

Diamonds & Fine Jewel?),

Our Cash Refund Policy ensures that you shop with complete confidence every time.

Orchard Mall . Orchard Lake Road at Maple Road West Bloomfield, MI 48322

DISCOUNTED
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DETROIT TO TEL AVIV
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Munchkin • Beginner
Intermediate • Advanced
All ages and all levels

The Detroit
Tennis and Squash
Club of Farmington
Hills is now offering a:

Okemos Travel
800-798-7040

Great fun and excitement
while your children learn
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Limited space available.

Touch A Life.
The United Way.

Main Office: Southfield
Chuck Stone, president
Doug Stone, executive vice presi-
dent
Billings: $21.7 million
Number of employees: 24
Sampling of major accounts:
Country Crock Margarine Brand
(Lipton); Imperial Margarine
Brand (Lipton); Thomas J. Lipton
Company, Retail Division (Cana-
da); Brummel & Brown Mar-
garine Brand (Lipton); Image
Sculpting, Inc.; Citizens Banking
Corporation; Win Schuler Foods;
Computech; Holocaust Memorial
Center.

oug Stone, executive vice
president of Stone & Si-
mons, represents the
second generation in ad-
vertising. Much younger than
most of his peers, his way of think-
ing reflects his generation.
"It's funny, because everything
that's old is new again in adver-
tising," said Mr. Stone, whose fa-
ther, Chuck, was a co-founder of
the agency in 1956.
"With print, people choose to
read or they don't choose to read.
In radio or TV, you really don't
have a choice unless you've got
that clicker button going really
fast.
"With the Internet, there's a
chance for interactivity. You have
to continually reward them as
they go through the page [or the
site] to go on to the next thing, the
next thing, the next thing, to get
deeper and deeper into your mes-
sage, into your pitch."
One of Stone & Simons largest
clients is Lipton, which is part of
Unilever Co., one of the largest
package goods companies in the
world. The agency handles their
largest margarine brand, Shedd's
Country Crock, the bestselling
margarine in the world. Almost
20 years ago, it was "invented" in
the Stone & Simons office, in co-
operation with Shedd's.
The agency now does other
work for Lipton in new product
development, packaging design
consultation and consumer com-
munications.

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'We've also invented with them
a number of new products and
new brands," said Mr. Stone. One,
in limited distribution in the
Chicago and Milwaukee area, is
Brummell & Brown, a new mar-
garine/yogurt blend. "The product
concept came to us from Unilever,
and we helped them name it,
package it, brand it, and created
a really interesting advertising
campaign for them.
Stone & Simons has had to
leverage their international suc-
cess in package goods to do the job
for local clients offering services.
But the strategy has worked, es-
pecially for one client, Image
Sculpting, Inc., which uses laser
surgery to correct vision problems.
"Our society has stigmatized
people who wear glasses, and I
know because I wear them,' said
Mr. Stone. "If you want to turn
Clark Kent into Superman,
what do you do? You take off his
glasses. If you want to turn a li-
brarian into a vixen, what do you
do? You take off her glasses.
"We stigmatize people like
crazy. We went through dozens
of high-fashion magazines like
Vogue and Harper's Bazaar look-
ing for people who wear glasses.
We couldn't find any other than
in ads trying to sell glasses.
"So what has that done to peo-
ple? What are they looking for?
What is the truth that we can
tell?
"The truth we tell is in the
headline we went with, 'Specs
just aren't sexy.' I don't care
what anybody says. We glasses-
wearers know it is not true.
"We pushed the envelope a lit-
tle. We took the symbol of Venus
de Milo, the goddess of beauty
and love, and we basically de-
faced her, made her not beauti-
ful. How did we do that? Just by
putting glasses on her. It cut
right to the heart of what con-
sumers spoke to as the truth. In
politics they call it a resonance.
We call it a head nod — 'I get
that.'
"In the end, what we're mar-
keting is very simple and com-
mon sense. Always, the simpler
it is, the more intelligent it is.
But it is a lot of work to get
there," Mr. Stone said.
The agency recently inked a
contract with Clover Communi-
cations, the company which won
the contract for Internet wiring
in the new world headquarters
of General Motors. Mr. Stone
called the Clover offices "a build-
ing full of computer and net-
working eggheads." Not
surprisingly, he is developing a
Web page for them.
Last year, through the De-
troit Newspaper Agency's Part-
nership for Humanities, Stone
& Simons designed an ad for the
Holocaust Memorial Center,
aimed beyond the target area of
Jews in the metro area. ❑

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