Martha O'Gorman of Loyalty Brands on learning from a marketing mistake: a redesign that lost a vote on the side of a bus, and the resignation her CEO refused.
Martha O'Gorman, Chief Marketing Officer at Loyalty Brands, on learning from a marketing mistake, told against herself.
Early in her career, transit advertising was working well. She wanted a fresher look, so she redesigned the bus cards with an illustrated computer and soft rounded lettering.
In this conversation with Michele Brasfield:
• Her CEO asked her to put the old design on one side of a bus and the new one on the other
• The bus was driven past corporate headquarters
• Everyone came outside, stood on the street, and voted on which was readable
• The plain yellow card with black type won hands down
• She was 32 or 33, and she offered her resignation over a 20,000 dollar fix
• His answer: do you think I just spent 20,000 dollars to educate you and I am going to let you quit
The lesson she took was not about typography. It was that a leader can convert an expensive error into a permanent capability, or into a resignation, and the difference is a single sentence.
Listen to the full episode: https://www.theblisspodcast.com/marketing-with-purpose-kit-bringing-purpose-and-empathy-into-marketing-4/
More from Martha O'Gorman: https://www.theblisspodcast.com/guests/martha-ogorman/
More from the series: https://www.theblisspodcast.com/categories/marketing-with-purpose-kit-series/