Graphic image that is part of the navigation for Judy Vorfeld's site, www.webgrammar.com

Webgrammar's
Ezine

Education

Aquaria
Arts
Botanical Gardens
Business/Economy
Countries/Areas
Current Events
Education
Grammar
Health
History
Holidays
Literature
Math
Military
Museums
Physical Education
References
Science/Technology
Special Education
Storytelling/Kid Fun
World's Creatures
Zoos

Miscellaneous

Guest Articles

About Bob Hope

Articles by Bob Mills

Everything I Know About Selling I Learned from Bob Hope

I was a script writer for Bob Hope and worked with him almost daily between 1977 and 1992 and during that time I observed him in countless situations doing what he knew best --- SELLING BOB HOPE. He didn't remain on the top of America's popularity charts for generation after generation by chance. Right from his beginnings in vaudeville, he realized that he had a product to sell... himself. How did he go about this? What did he learn to do that made agents sign him, movie producers hire him, networks air his specials and audiences like him enough to return time and time again for more of the same?

Here is what I observed over the years --- an approach to selling that you can start using right now to keep your own products and services in constant demand.

1) KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE (in your case, your potential customers). Bob Hope never appeared on stage anywhere that he hadn't thoroughly researched his audience in advance. By the time he walked on stage to the strains of "Thanks for the Memory," he knew the members of the audience intimately -- their politics, customs, habits, likes, dislikes, even their local scandals!

Before we wrote comedy material for his overseas military shows, we first studied reams of background material on each base or ship where Hope was scheduled to appear. When Bob told his first joke, the audience immediately identified with him as one of their own. How else would he know all those intimate details? The names of all the sleazy bars off-base where everyone loved to hang out -- names and idiosyncrasies of the officers in command? -- even nicknames of notorious members of the platoon, battalion or ship's crew. Bob realized instinctively that the young GI's in his audiences would become his potential fans back home after the wars were over --- the ones who would keep him on television regularly for over forty consecutive years.

In 1978, when we journeyed to Perth Australia to do a two-hour special opening the Aussie's new 8300-seat entertainment center, we had spent weeks pouring over every facit of Australian life -- from the local weather, wildlife, industry, food and recreation to its history, ethnic makeup and language. By the time Bob strode on-stage, he sounded like he'd been living Down Under all of his life. From his very opening line, he had the audience in the palm of his hand. Once you can achieve that, selling anything is easy.

2) PERSONALIZE YOUR PRODUCT: During my 17 years on the road with him, I observed Hope perform for all strata of society -- from captains of industry to union workers, generals to enlisted men. And in every case, he succeeded in making the audience identify with him. He was friendly and non-threatening. He was that favorite uncle who was always welcome and whose company everyone enjoyed. After awhile, the product he was selling -- Bob Hope -- literally sold itself as he collected lifelong fans and admirers. People felt they knew Bob Hope as they know any member of their own family. And it's easy to sell anything to a relative, isn't it? It's interesting to note here that, during all of my years gallivanting around the globe with him from Sydney to Peking, London to Stockholm, I never saw him turn down a request for an autograph. It would be like refusing a favor for a relative and who could do that?

3) MAKE YOUR NAME AS FAMILIAR TO PEOPLE AS THEIR OWN: Bob has admitted to interviewers that he invested the most money during his career on two things --- fresh material and publicity. Top gag writers were engaged to make sure he'd always have a steady supply of the best jokes money could buy and publicists were hired to make sure the seats would be filled with folks anxious to hear them. Over the decades quotes by Bob Hope appeared in all the major columns from Winchell to Drew Pearson to Louella Parsons.

Of all the major stars of his era, Bob Hope maintained as warm a relationship with the press as anyone in the history of show business. He almost never turned down requests for interviews and was available for press conferences whenever asked. No surprise that the press has treated him favorably with kind words and often glowing reviews for over 75 years.

4) PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE: Whenever we had a television special scheduled to air, Hope spent his every waking hour thinking of ways to advertise it. He'd give countless interviews to local TV critics (called "phoners") extolling the delights of the upcoming extravaganza... listing the guest stars, describing the sketches and even telling some of the jokes! On the Friday before any special was scheduled to air, Hope appeared on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show accompanied by the ever-present clip with which to tantalize the audience. After awhile Johnny resented Hope using his show as a billboard, but, since Hope had been with NBC since his Pepsodent days on radio, there wasn't much Johnny could do about it. Whether they'd decide to tune in or not, Hope was determined that, come hell or high-water, people would KNOW ABOUT THE SHOW.

If, after the Neilsen ratings had been posted, a special failed to garner the audience he had expected, he would invariably blame himself for not promoting the show more effectively. (God forbid that our clever jokes may not have been all that funny.)

To this day, the very mention of Bob Hope's name generally elicits a warm, respectful and happy response. Why? Because he was extremely talented (a given) and made sure that the attitude he projected was always positive and friendly. He knew his product intimately and he succeeded in selling it to generations of Americans for over seven decades. Emulate Bob Hope and your sales, too, can soar.

How Bob Hope Learned the Power of Advertising - A Lesson He Never Forgot

During my 15-year tenure writing gags, sketches and parody lyrics for Bob Hope, I spent many hours with him on the road taping TV specials. An inherent and unavoidable byproduct of television and movie production is down time and, whenever we had a few minutes between takes, Bob enjoyed regaling us with stories from his early days in show business -- funny things that happened to him in vaudeville, on radio and during his Paramount Studio road picture days with Bing.

One May, we were at West Point taping a two-hour special for the cadets. During a lull in the shooting as we sat in his Winnebego waiting for his next call, he told us a story which I think better than any other sums up the awesome power of the mass media to sell consumer products. And it's even more true today than it was in the period now so long ago when the events he spoke of took place. Here's the story he told us:

Following glowing reviews in Broadway's "Big Broadcast of 1938," the Pepsodent toothpaste company offered Bob his own radio show to replace their sponsorship of the popular "Amos 'n' Andy." Bob assembled a crack staff of veteran radio writers, directors and actors that included announcer Bill Goodwin, orchestra leader Skinnay Ennis (soon replaced by Les Brown) and a walrus-mustached, former trombonist named Jerry Colonna. The show, which debuted on September 27, 1938, had all the earmarks of a hit, but unexpectedly got off to a rocky start. It took ten or twelve weeks of tinkering with the format before Hope was satisfied with the laughs he was getting from the studio audience (the show would remain on the air for 20 years).

Since radio was still in its infancy, there was as yet no reliable method of measuring listenership. If the live audience appeared to enjoy the show, it was considered a success. Later, the Hooper Ratings, an audience sampling system similar to today's Neilsens, would be used to set advertising rates. But when Hope began his show, the Hoopers were still in their experimental stages and he was forced to wonder from week-to-week how he and his on-air gang were doing. Whenever he approached executives at Pepsodent's ad agency, all he would get was, "Don't worry about it, Bob. You're doing great. Just keep doing what you've been doing." He got the strange feeling they weren't leveling with him.

One day, after the show had been on for almost a year, he was approached by a man on the golf course who had been playing in the foursome ahead of him. "Bob, I want to thank you," said the man. Hope, thinking he was just another fan, returned the compliment and moved on. "No," continued the man. "I want to thank you for making me a millionaire." Of course, Hope had no idea what he was talking about.

It seems that the man had run a small cardboard box factory that he'd inherited from his father. It was a modest business servicing many clients -- including Pepsodent. "About six months ago," explained the man, "Pepsodent doubled their orders, then a week later, tripled them. Eventually, I dropped all my other customers and provided boxes for Pepsodent exclusively. My company became so successful, I ended up selling it for a million dollars. Thanks, Bob." Hope was stunned. No one at Pepsodent had mentioned such a large increase in their production of toothpaste. Completely by accident, Hope had stumbled onto an audience gauge as accurate as the Hooper Ratings would later become.

Hope smiled wryly as he concluded his story. We all sat mesmerized. "Well?" one of us asked, "what did you do then?" "Let's just say," said Bob, "when contract renewal time came along, I negotiated one of the biggest goddamned raises in the history of radio."

The persuasive power of the mass media to sell products couldn't have been driven home more forcefully and Bob Hope never forgot the lesson he learned from it. Over the ensuing years, he would make sure that his name became aligned with major sponsors whose products he would hawk enthusiastically in countless TV commercials -- a practice that some Hollywood stars of Hope's magnitude considered somehow degrading to their "art." After Pepsodent, Hope's name would be linked with Chrysler and, later still, with Texaco, a relationship that culminated in 1974 in a $4 million, five-year television production deal (a sum unheard of at the time). In the mid-1980's, he received $3 million from Southwestern Bell Telephone for a series of TV spots for their "Silver Pages" that took him but three days to film. In California, he appeared in numerous commercials for Cal Fed Bank, in which he was a major stockholder. Fittingly, his final appearance on television, at age 95, was in a commercial for K Mart directed by Penny Marshall.

And it all came about because an appreciative box maker over half a century before had taken the time to say "Thanks." Sometimes, the lessons we learn best come from sources we least expect.

Bob Mills is an attorney-turned-comedy writer who delivers motivational corporate and cruise ship lectures based on his adventures with Bob Hope.

Top of Page

Writing Center

Common Mistakes
Dictionaries & Glossaries
General Resources
Grammar Basics
Grammar Tips
Homonyms, Etc.
Idioms
Writing Center
Writing Resources

References

Language
Library
Printed
State Resources
Tables/Charts
Typography

Web Building

Analysis/Validation
Articles/Tutorials
Browsers
Index
Graphics
Color/Resolution
Design/Promotion
Design: Education
General
HTML
Marketing/Advertising Meta Tags
Newsletters/-groups
Search Engines
Text
Typography

Subscribe