When I started doing research on Angel Investing before my book arrived, my first thought was, “is this like Shark Tank?”  While reading these chapters, I am reminded of how important it is to network.  Even in the learning community for this course, you never know who you are going to meet that can completely change your life and the life of your business.  I am also reminded of the book we read in an earlier class, It’s a Jungle in there, where he partnered with the build a bear to make the dinosaurs.  This helped both businesses. 

Networking as said above is important.  These potential angel investors have more than just money, they have resources, a network, and experience to bring to the table.  As an entrepreneur, you have to be willing to give up some of your company for this opportunity.  As stated in the book, you need to know what you are willing to give up and what kind of deal you want to make.  It can be a hard decision giving up part of your business, but you have to look at the big picture.  Where will this deal take you and what will you gain?  You need to think outside the box and be innovative. 

            Doing your research on investors is important as well.  The partnership needs to make since for both parties. This opportunity is to take some of the pressure off of your shoulders, not make it worse.  In order for everyone to be successful, this partnership needs to be strong.  Of course there will be disagreements and stress throughout, but looking at the big picture, knowing that you need this angel investor to succeed, this relationship will hopefully be strong so everyone succeeds. 

            In closing, after this first reading, we see that networking, building relationships and investing is important. If you want to grow your business, but do not have the means to do so, this is the way to go.  I look forward to reading more about angel investing and discussing this with you all.

Reference:

Amis, D., & Stevenson, H. H. (2001). Winning angels: the seven fundamentals of early-stage investing. Financial Times Prentice Hall.

This billboard uses humor to promote their nose trimmers.  They used actual power lines as nose hairs.  In the comments, people loved this billboard even wanting to go see it themselves.  They also suggested you could use this for your ear hairs as well.  This billboard is in Indonesia.

Product: Nose Hair Trimmers, Panasonic

Title: Nose Hair Trimmers

Link: https://www.toxel.com/inspiration/2009/11/27/clever-nose-hair-trimmer-ads/

Date: November 2009

Company: Saatchi & Saatchi

Objective: To show their nose trimmers and its safety cutting system.

Target Market: Anyone with long nose hairs, mostly men

Action: To get customers to get their product          

Value Proposition: Men to keep their nose hairs short and not flying in the wind.

This is probably the neatest billboard I have seen.  McDonald’s took 3 weeks to grow this billboard.  They wanted their customers to see the freshness and watch the 16 different types of lettuce they use for salads grow.

Product: Salads

Title: Fresh Salads

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u57WJzrqzqc, here you can watch a time lapse of the billboard coming to life

Date: December 2008

Company: McDonald’s, Leo Burnett

Objective: This ad reinforces the idea of “freshness” precisely by letting viewers in on a genuine growth process.

Target Market: Anyone who eats salads

Action: They want customers to go to McDonald’s and eat their salads.

Value Proposition: Customers that eat their salads will have the freshest lettuce

These billboards are in Chicago and followed the lettuce billboard.  I think McDonald’s has done a great job.  This egg hatches every day. The egg stays hatched from 6am until 10:30 am.

Product: Eggs/ breakfast at McDonald’s

Title: Giant Egg

Link: https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/mcdonalds-giant-egg

Date: July, 2008

Company: McDonald’s, Leo Burnett

Objective: To keep the audience engaged after the lettuce billboard.  Inform people of their fresh eggs, breakfast and time they serve breakfast.

Target Market: Everyone who eats breakfast

Action: They want people to come in and get their breakfast.

Value Proposition: People will see the hatched egg and they will know they are serving breakfast and go eat with McDonald’s.

Where users expect another flat board, provide a 3D experience that leaves them wondering what the brand is all about. Edina Realty hit a home run on this billboard to catch the eye of people going by it.

Product: Realty Group, Edina Realty

Title: Realty Boxes

Link: https://mnfx.com/stories/out-of-home/edina-realty-billboard

Date: 2020

Company: MNFX

Objective: To catch the eye of people and remember them when they are in the market for a house and or to sell their house.  This also shows they have helped thousands every year and want to help you as well.

Target Market: Potential home sellers and buyers

Action: For people needed to buy and or sell a home to contact them.

Value Proposition: To get your house sold and to purchase one as soon as possible

What a powerful billboard.  This is in London and is an interactive billboard.  As people look at her, her face heals

Product: Domestic Violence awareness

Title: Look at me

Link: https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-trp-001&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=trp&p=look+at+me+billboard&type=Y149_F163_202167_081020#id=1&vid=5e92eb1d42adab355bf8af5883307f49&action=click  Great video on making it and talking about the billboard.  Also shows the face change.

Date: March 2015

Company: WCRS for Woman’s Aid

Objective: To bring awareness to domestic abuse

Target Market: Everyone

Action: They want everyone to open their eyes and look at people.  Be vigilant and do not turn an eye when you think something is off.

Value Proposition: If we all stand up, we can get people out of situations they feel stuck in and even save lives.

 The campaign successfully highlights the ineffectiveness of symptom management and addresses the impact that these treatment failures can have on patients like the Teddys.  I think they did a great job with the teddy bear concept. 

Product: Mirum Pharmaceutical

Title: The Unbearable Itch

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/mirum_pharmaceuticals_the_unbearable_itch

Date: April 14, 2021

Company: McCann Health

Objective: To bring awareness to parents of children with CLD that there is help with the constant itch they have.

Target Market: Parents with children that have CLD

Action: They want parents to reach out to them for help, understanding and education on how to help their child.

Value Proposition: Children may be able to help control their symptoms. 

This ad has a few different pictures that show events and different parts of life we are missing because of COVID.  Mucinex is showing the wearing the mask will allow us to get back to more of a normal sooner than later.

Product: Mucinex

Title: Back to normal is up to you

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/mucinex_back_to_normal_is_up_to_you

Date: August 2020

Company: McCann Health

Objective: To reinforce to the American people how important it is to wear a mask to stop the spread of COVID.

Target Market: Everyone

Action: They want everyone to wear a mask.

Value Proposition: The value of wearing the mask is to get back to as normal of a life as possible.  The mask will help stop the spread.

This ad did make me laugh, and if you have had a few classes with me, you know dogs and animals in general are life.  This ad is showing that the botanical oil can and will help animals from an iguana to a dog or rabbit. These oils are so helpful to pet owners to help control pain and anxiety. I love the humor in these pictures.

Product: CBD oil, NYC Botanics Pet Oil

Title: It Ain’t Reefer, It’s Relief

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/nyc_botanics_pet_oil_it_aint_reefer_its_relief

Date: February 2020

Company: GSW

Objective: To educate pet owners that there is an alternative to giving your pet pills everyday

Target Market: Pet owners

Action: To educate and sell their product to pet owners depending on the need.

Value Proposition: To have happier and healthier pets

Product: Toyota RAV4

Title: RAV4

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/toyota_rav4

Date: May 2019

Company: Saatchi & Saatchi

Objective: To show off the RAV4 and that it can take you anywhere

Target Market: Car owners especially those in the marker for a new vehicle

Action: They want people to come test drive and buy the RAV4

Value Proposition: The vehicle is dependable and can take you anywhere at any time.

These are two very powerful pictures of human trafficking scenes.  So many people do not know about this problem that still.

Title: Heal Trafficking, Human Trafficking

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/heal_trafficking_human_trafficking

Date: May 2019

Company: Grey

Objective: To bring awareness to human trafficking

Target Market: Everyone    

Action: They are hoping this will open the eyes of everyone to look and become aware of their surroundings, not only to protect themselves, but also to look for people who may be victims.

Value Proposition: To save yourself from becoming a victim, and or saving someone else that may be a victim.

Product: Colored TV

Title: Open before Christmas! here’s why: there’s so much going on in NBC BIG COLOR TV… every night!

Link: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/adaccess/TV0422

Date: NBC weekly shows in October 1956

Company: National Broadcasting Company

Objective: To inform the reader of the big color tv coming out

Target Market: Consumers that watch TV

Action: The magazine ad wants people who watch TV know that they have one now that is in color.

Value Proposition: The value is to see things on TV in true color, not black and white.  Also, they can do it now because it is available.  

 Of course I had to choose one with dogs. This advertisement is advertising National Geographic show, The Dog Whisperer. They used humor to get the attention of the viewer to hopefully tune in to the show.

Product: Television show, The Dog Whisperer

Title: Wrong Father

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/national_geographic_wrong_father

Date: February 2012

Company: Ireland Davenport, Johannesburg, South Aftrica

Objective: To the person of a show coming on National Geographic

Target Market: Dog lovers and people who watch TV

Action: To get people to watch The Dog Whisperer

Value Proposition: To entertain people and for those with dogs to possibly teach them something about dogs.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

This is a very powerful scene showing that children are affected by their parent’s
actions.  They suffer more than people probably realize.  This particular
campaign had two other pictures like this with abuse and prostitution.

Title: Drunk

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/fundacion_padre_hurtado_drunk

Date: December 2011

Company: Y&R

Objective: To bring awareness to a problem in this world of
parents drinking too much and their children see and know more than they
realize.

Target Market: Parents and I also believe anyone who is in
contact with kids.  Stay vigilant and
look for signs from children.  They
sometimes have no voice and adults are their voices.

Action: For any adult who drinks too much and have children
to wake up and stop.

Value
Proposition: Children will have a better
relationship with their parents and a better childhood if they are not treated
in this manner.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE

Another powerful ad on what Meth can do to your teeth.  Everyone has seen pictures of people and
their teeth are black or missing.  You can tell they are on Meth.  This bold
statement will hopefully stop those who have never done Meth but want to try it.

Title: Meth

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/industrial_strange_meth

Date: December 2011

Company: P&P Medien

Objective: To bring awareness to everyone what Meth can do
to your teeth

Target Market: Everyone, especially those using Meth, but
also those that have thought about it. 

Action: To stop people from using Meth

Value Proposition: Save lives and teeth

Powerful ad on how important it is to stay of your phone while you are driving.  This shows that you can end up at the bottom of the ocean because you are not paying attention.

Title: Road safety, Social Media

Link: https://www.adsoftheworld.com/media/print/topgear_road_safety_social_media

Date: July 2011

Company: N=5

Objective: To get people to stop using their phone while they are driving.

Target Market: Drivers

Action: People realize they need to focus on the road and not their phone.

Value Proposition: To save lives

In finishing this book, I learned a lot about different leadership styles, what works and what doesn’t and how much goes into the chocolate world.  Hershey and Mars had their fair share of problems, pandemics, and successes.  I feel the largest take away from this book was first leadership and secondly innovation.

I personally was amazed with how Hershey started a whole community with his employees.  He not only employed them, but also had housing, churches, grocery stores, schools, and entertainment in a community for them all.  While this is great to show your employees how valued they are and to keep them long term, was this good?  To me they became very dependent on him and did not realize how the real world worked outside of their community. Once he passed away, no one knew how to make a decision and other people outside of the company began moving in and everything was changing.  The junior college closed, churches suffered because the ones left behind were no longer giving the money to support them.   While I feel his intentions were good for his community, was it really the best for them?  It reminds me more of a parent child relationship than employer/employee relationship. 

                This brings me to talking about the exit plan again.  It is just important.  Business have closed because there was no plan.  Families can be torn apart because they all have their own ideas about what needs to be done.  Have it written out in black and white so there is no question in case you die before you retire.  Just like having a will for your family, you need one for your business.

                Finally, during the earlier years of Hershey and Mars, they fought droughts, too much rain, and shortage of sugar, pest, and so many other pandemics.  In reading about all of that, it reminded me of where I live and the hurricanes we face yearly.  We have had a couple 100-year floods in a two-year period.  They devastated crops, lost cattle, hogs and thousands of turkey’s just miles from my house.  Then, 2020, we have a pandemic.  My point is, even though it has been 50-60 years since their sugar issues, problems do not go away.  You have to plan, think outside of the box, and be ready for whatever lies ahead.  No one saw pandemic coming that would shut down the world for over a year.  Yes, we can kind of plan for hurricanes because we know they come in Eastern North Carolina, but you also have to try to plan for the worst.  I feel that this pandemic opened everyone’s eyes that you can be a booming business one day and be shut down the next at no fault of your own.  Surround yourself with smart, innovative people and keep pushing forward.

There was so much going on in the world of Hershey in these chapters. Hershey did no advertising until the 1970’s and by the 1990’s, they were spending $200 million a year in marketing.  Bill Dearden took over sales for Hershey and in 1976, became CEO.  When he brought on two key players, they made him realize how important marketing was and what it was.  Now he was unable to walk into a grocery store without noticing Mars products at checkout, not theirs.  This was in the Hershey grocery stores.  This also led to training of their sales team.  All they were doing was bringing product to the stores, not looking at the shelves to see if they needed more one week, just brought product. They began a marketing plan, how to put it in play, and how to do it better.  Marketing is so important and goes hand in hand with your employees training.  Everyone needs to understand the goals and how you are going to get there.  If it is valentine’s season, plan for it, bring more candy, do not let the shelves get empty, which is what they were doing.  Keep up with technology.  Make sure your team has what they need to succeed and do their job effectively and efficiently.  It can be a daunting task changing the direction of your business like Hershey did, but they proved that it is worth it.  Fear can cause many people to not push forward and miss out on so much. 

                Another aspect that really got me in these chapters was an exit plan.  Do you have one for your business?  We are not going to live forever.  Reese’s was doing pretty well and the owner died leaving his sons to fight over who would be in charge of the company and of course, they all had different ideas about that.  Hershey ended up purchasing them to save the company. Having an exit plan to me is like having a Will for your family.  Make sure you take care of business even when you are gone. In one of the previous classes that was one of our assignments, what is your exit plan?  I had never really thought about it, but quickly realized its importance.  A good leader will pass on the torch and it should be smooth and effortless.  This should be so well planned that the company is not disrupted more than it should be.  Will there be bumps, of course, but planning the best you can is by far the best plan you can have. 

                These chapters showed that planning and great leadership is important.   Look towards the future and stay ahead of the course.  Being an entrepreneur means juggling every ball in the court and having the right people in place to help you do just that even once you are gone. 

Over these next few chapters, we see Forrest Mars take finally get control of the company years after his father’s death.  He completely changed the company starting with stopping the buying of the hard shell for the M&M from Hershey. He was extremely rash, but knew what he wanted and how he wanted it done.  He expected perfection.  Forrest would go to a store to purchase a piece of candy and make sure it was perfect; if it was not he made sure, it was addressed right away.  Even calling someone at 3:00am and making them go to the factory to address the problem, if the employee did  not like it, he told them he would find someone who would go out at 3:00 am and work. 

                What I would like to talk about is how you treat your employees.  I will tell you, after reading these few chapters; I could not have worked for Mr. Mars.  He was tough and many employees did not respect him.  Many stayed working in the Mars Company because he paid well, even though he would and did slash salaries if the numbers were bad. 

                Is this the type of leader you want to be.  For me that is a hard no.  I want people to respect me just as I respect them.  I worked in Pennsylvania for about six months many-many moons ago.  After being there, I had employees tell me how much they appreciated me because they had never had anyone come in and treat them with respect.  I was blown away.  I cannot imagine treating people as if they were beneath me.  Without employees, your business will not function well. 

                Now granted, Mr. Mars was successful, but at what cost.  He seemed to be out for only the dollar, not to live.  I think as future entrepreneurs, we need to ask ourselves, how we want our business to run.  It can be a fine line, do not let the employees walk all over you, but respect them.  I have found that if you work with your employees, not just become the dictator, you will have a team that will work hard for you and take care of your business.

Over the next few chapters we learn a lot about how Hershey grew his business, worked to obtain loyalty from his employees, and gave back.  To sum up some of the most important parts, Hershey wanted his employees to feel valued and apart of the company.  He went on to create his own town the housed, employed, taught, and entertained everyone.  All of his employees lived in the town.  He created schools for the employees children, gave to all three churches, created museums, and made sure they all had great benefits including insurance in case they got sick. He also encouraged them to buy houses instead of renting. 

                This created trust and even ownership in the company.  He had employees that ran the same wrapping machine for 30 years.  They would come in, check out all the parts, oil it down, and make sure it was working properly before the start of their shift.  Putting into your employees as he did can add so much value. People felt appreciated and safe.

Giving back was very important to Hershey and I feel it paid out very well for him.  He was one that didn’t like to deal with the day to day, but to create, he was a dreamer.  One thing about entrepreneurs is they are always thinking and looking ahead.  This was important when he saw a sugar shortage coming.  Instead of stressing out, he bought 1500 acres of sugarcane.  Now he has a supply.  It is so important to be vigilant and look ahead.  We have discussed over the past few classes about surrounding yourself with people that fill in where you lack.  You wear every hat in your company and that can be exhausting.  Hershey proved that passing responsibilities off and making your employees feel valued is important.  He was able to do the part of the business that he enjoyed while trusting the ones he hired to carry on with the business.  His employees worked hard for him because they respected him as a leader.                 

I have said in the past that having a leader you respect is even more important than one realizes.  I have worked for a boss that was not a leader.  The whole team fell apart and left.  The business has struggled and new employees are in and out monthly.  I now work for a boss that is a fearless leader.  She is one of the hardest working individuals I know.  It makes a difference in productivity.  You work harder for someone you respect