Leo_Burnett

Cheuk Law Assignment 1.4: Company Research Business 101 JS5 Leo Burnett is one of the ten biggest advertising agencies in the United States. It is a company that uses marketing and advertising strategies to promote brand awareness and stimulate demand for products. It is currently stationed in Chicago, Illinois, and is one of the few dominating agencies in the United States not stationed in New York City. Leo Burnett as an advertising agency is most famous for its usage of mascots to personify the products they are promoting, and hence contributed to the development of the “Chicago-style” advertising. Successful mascots created by Leo Burnett include “Tony the Tiger” with the tagline, “It’s G-r-r-eat!”, the “Jolly Green Giant”, the “Marlboro Man”, and “Uncle Ben”. This company’s main competitors include J. Walter Thompson, commonly known as JWT, and Grey Global Group, both stationed in New York. The company’s competitive advantage over newer companies such as Grey Global Group lies within the fact that it has withstood the test of time. Leo Burnett has been around since 1935, from having three clients at the very beginning, to its internationally acknowledged ranking in the advertising world nowadays. The fact that the company has been fulfilling the desires of their clients for many years gives confidence to newer, potential clients. Leo Burnett is also an international advertising agency that utilizes IMC (Integrated Marketing Communications), which means it has connections around the globe and can efficiently satisfy its client’s needs to be known internationally. Lastly, Leo Burnett’s continual success in the advertising industry is well-known. Its publicity is one of its most valuable assets. For instance, Marlboro was able to raise the sales of its cigarettes by almost 300% with the help of Leo Burnett’s new masculine approach to the product at the time, and this success marked Leo Burnett as one of the top advertising companies. One way Leo Burnett stays ahead of its competitors is by adopting a new belief. The new value this company honors is “HumanKind”, launched in 2010. Leo Burnett focuses on the serving of human needs and being purposeful in its advertising. They aim to create ideas that can “move people” and change the way the world thinks. This innovative approach greatly contrasts with the previous product-first approach, where the clients’ needs were placed before the audiences. Leo Burnett promises that the promotion it provides will embody the vision of changing the future for the better in its new campaign. Personally, I believe that the customers’ desires and convenience should be placed above all other aspects. In regards to the “HumanKind” approach, I agree that in the innovative, high-tech society today, we can no longer depend on traditional media and marketing strategies. Letting the audience have a say in products directed towards them is a very valuable aspect to advertising and marketing companies. Leo Burnett is a part of the Publicis Groupe, along with Saatchi and Saatchi and numerous agencies. The Publicis Groupe’s last fiscal quarter witnessed a rise in revenue, with 1,286 million euro, which is a 10.7% raise from the prior fiscal quarter. Publicis and Leo Burnett are planning on focusing on China as its new market, and hope to double the business conducted with or in China by 2013. Recent news about Leo Burnett includes being named the “Best Place to Work” by Advertising Ages, which is based on how engaged and content the workers are. Recently in August of 2011, the account for Fifth-Third Bank was transferred to Leo Burnett from Olson, which is an independent, fast-rising competitor from Minneapolis. Regarding the gaining of Fifth-Third Bank as a new client, I am interested in knowing what Fifth-Third Bank hopes to gain from the switch over to Leo Burnett. Leo Burnett is an international agency, and is largely different from Olson’s more local, independent way of advertising. In addition, I noticed that Leo Burnett has been the reason why IKEA is so popular in Hong Kong. I hope to learn more about how Leo Burnett will focus more on Mainland China within these two years. I am very interested as to how it plans on promoting its own name in China. I am currently a member of the American Marketing Association here in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I will be gaining hands-on experience on how to promote ideas and products. In my high school years, I served as my school’s Asian American Club Public Relations, and I learned how to incorporate the public’s ideas without losing sight of the original plan. I hope to contribute my own experience and creativity to Leo Burnett in the near future.