LIFE MAGAZINE by Peter F. Drucker

“Your innovation is business-focused, not brand-focused. But at the same time, there is a big challenge for a company like yours to reestablish the brand as a consumer, I would say, necessity. . . That has been very deeply eroded by the growth of those big distribution chains and channels. . .

Go back 60 years, the great financial success of 1935 or 1936 was LIFE Magazine. You have heard of it?. . . One of Luce’s basic innovations, and your biggest advertising medium, was still print. And while LIFE went into the hands of the housewife, the ad was meant—the target was to distribute to a retailer as advertised in LIFE became the retailer. You can’t get fired by buying something advertised in LIFE for the retail buyer. . . That established a brand on the shelves.

There is need to establish or reestablish the brands with the ultimate consumer, so as to give you a counterweight to the retailer. . . To enable you to exploit rapidly changing distribution channels, whether it’s the internet or what.”