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Discovering the ConsumerMarket Research, Product Innovation, and the

Creation of Brand Loyalty in Britain and the United States in the Interwar
Years

Article  in  Journal of Macromarketing · March 2009

DOI: 10.1177/0276146708327615

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 Journal of Macromarketing
Volume 29 Number 1
March 2009 8-20
# 2009 Sage Publications
Discovering the Consumer 10.1177/0276146708327615
http://jmmk.sagepub.com
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
Market Research, Product Innovation, and the Creation
of Brand Loyalty in Britain and the United States in the
Interwar Years
Stefan Schwarzkopf
Queen Mary College, University of London

This article discusses the use of market and consumer research at Lever/Unilever and its advertising agency in Britain and
the United States, J. Walter Thompson (JWT), in the interwar period. Research surveys conducted by JWT in the 1920s and
1930s helped Lever reposition its international soap brand Lux. The case demonstrates that Lever deployed qualitative
market research techniques much earlier than usually acknowledged. Qualitative and quantitative consumer research
methods allowed marketers at Lever and JWT to take account of autonomous consumer practices that limited the scope
of management. The article also shows that marketing’s cultural practices often predate its conceptualization and
academic theorization.

Keywords: marketing history; market research; consumer culture; J Walter Thompson; Unilever

Market Research and its Place in the memory of those who shaped early market research
Marketing History during the first three decades of the twentieth century,
acknowledged that the systematic study of consumer opi-
One of the most fascinating subjects in the history of nions and behaviors originated in the rapidly moderniz-
marketing is the remarkable rise of consumer and market ing business administration processes of the American
research in the twentieth century. Understanding the fac- progressive era (Bartels 1941, 1976; Lockley 1950).
tors leading to this rise helps historians and marketing During the 1980s, this insight of earlier authors seemed
researchers alike to gain a better picture of the various to have given way to a consensus that the earliest forms
roles that consumers, brands, manufacturers, retailers, of market and consumer research came about in response
and marketers played in transforming the marketplace to the economic crisis of the 1930s (Marchand 1985,
during the last century. This is of course of tremendous 1998) but that the socially more relevant, ‘‘interesting’’
importance for the study of macromarketing, an intellec- forms of research, that is, qualitative consumer studies,
tual endeavor that defines marketing not only as a set of had their origins in the postwar era (Chandler 1977,
activities executed by professional managers but as a 1990; Converse 1987; Tedlow 1990; de Grazia 2005;
sphere where consumer opinions, social attitudes, and Silberer and Büttner 2007). Most historians surveyed
desires interact with and shape corporate marketing pol- here acknowledge the existence of turn-of-the-century
icy. In as much as macromarketing addresses the issues advertising psychology emanating from the studies
at the nexus between marketing and society, the voice of Harlow Gale, Walter Dill Scott, and Harry Levi
of the consumer ought to be at the heart of this intellec- Hollingworth between the 1890s and the 1920s. Yet,
tual endeavor of studying marketing within the widest there seems to be a strong historical consensus that these
possible framework of culture and society (Shultz 2007). early advertising psychological discourses remained
Market and consumer research, understood as an largely confined to the realms of academia and hardly
umbrella term encompassing various activities that allow
consumers to establish a ‘‘voice’’ in the market place
Author’s Note: Please address correspondence to Stefan
and corporations to ‘‘listen’’ to that voice, has attracted Schwarzkopf, School of Business and Management, Queen Mary
the curiosity of numerous historians of marketing and College, University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS,
market cultures. Earlier authors, directly influenced by United Kingdom; e-mail: s.schwarzkopf@qmul.ac.uk.

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 Schwarzkopf / Discovering the Consumer 9

influenced corporate marketing and advertising commu- standardization of products and their communication.
nication strategy before the advent of market segmen- Chandler’s is mostly a story of railways, industrial che-
tation techniques and consumer psychographics in the micals, rubber, oil, and electrical equipment, while
1950s and 1960s. In this view, there emerge clear histor- Tedlow’s model of stages stresses consumer goods sec-
ical stages in the history of market and consumer tors (soft drinks, automobiles, grocery retailing) that
research leading from the merely quantitative analysis were largely confined to the American mass market
of markets based on consumers’ income and class status before the 1950s. Unsurprisingly, both locate the arrival
during the interwar years to qualitative consumer studies of market research and related segmentation techniques
based on psychographic segmentation techniques and in the postwar period (Chandler 1977, 476–83; 1990,
consumers’ activities, interests, and opinions (AIO) dur- 619; Tedlow 1990, 8–9). The Unilever industrial combi-
ing the 1960s (Harrison and Mitchell 1936; Richards, nation and the JWT advertising agency, however, do not
MacRury, and Botterill 2000, 26; Leiss et al. 2005, 157). easily fit into the mold created by Tedlow and Chandler.
Arvidsson (2006, 48) summarized this when he argued Although the soap giant and the ad agency envisioned
that market research before the 1960s used only and benefitted from the emergence of nationally unified
one variable—income—and ‘‘employed a conventional mass markets, both were also multidomestic interna-
understanding of class-based consumer cultures as a tional firms which during the interwar years began to
backdrop to its production of knowledge.’’ operate globally through decentralized structures consist-
ing of largely independent, national subunits and sub-
sidiaries. As Bartlett and Ghoshal have argued, the
Lever, JWT, and Market Research in the main strategic thrust of multidomestic international firms
Interwar Era is to respond to national differences (Bartlett and Goshal
1989; Harzing 2000). The decentralized, multidomestic
In this article, the author will test these assumptions nature of Lever and JWT made both organizations
using the case of the Lever conglomerate and its interna- acutely aware of the internationally and regionally vastly
tional advertising agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT). different consumer preferences for vegetable oil–based
Both companies became first connected when the and fat-based products such as soap or margarine.
American Lever subsidiary Lever Brothers entrusted its At the same time, Lever’s consumer-oriented brand-
advertising of the soap product Lux to JWT in the North ing policy also became the backdrop to its interest both
American market in 1915 (Account Histories 1926; in the vastness of the North American market and in the
‘‘Little stories behind our accounts’’ 1935; Wilson then leading American advertising agency JWT. Lever’s
1954; Jones and Richardson 2007). The case of the Lux approach to international marketing allowed its subsid-
brand and its positioning in the North American and iaries in individual countries high levels of independence
British markets will show that qualitative market and in deciding on the creative execution of brand messages.
consumer research played a far greater role in strategic The low level of centralization and integration allowed
brand management during the interwar years than usu- local decision makers to make use of their local expertise
ally acknowledged. During the 1920s, JWT conducted and develop ‘‘social embeddedness.’’ All of these fac-
large-scale and detailed consumer behavior investiga- tors resulted in a much higher interest at Lever and JWT
tions in relation to soap products and began to segment in market and consumer research already in the 1920s.
the market for cleaning products to position Lux in the Lux soap flakes were initially advertised by Lever’s
mind of consumers. In these investigations, JWT research- in-house advertising department and introduced to the
ers used segmentation, targeting, and positioning tech- United States in 1906. In 1915, the account was handed
niques far earlier than Tedlow’s models of stages in over to the JWT advertising agency, which in 1925
marketing history would allow for (Tedlow 1990, 5–8). advised Lever Brothers to extend the brand by producing
Rather than exposing consumers to a purely sales- Lux toilet soap. This product was introduced in the
oriented, mass marketing style of product communication, British market in 1928, where JWT had become Lever’s
the market research conducted by JWT and Lever puts only advertising agency in addition to the in-house ser-
consumers in a more powerful position. vice Lever International Advertising Service (Sharpe
In their seminal work on the rise of large-scale corpo- 1964). JWT, in turn, was the first truly globally active
rations and mass marketing, Tedlow and Chandler advertising agency. Between 1925 and 1929 alone, it
focused on companies that either concentrated in their opened more than twenty new local dependencies in
growth strategies on the relatively homogenous American twenty-five countries around the globe (JWT News
home market or specialized in markets that favored the Bulletin 1928; de Grazia 2005). Apart from Lever, JWT

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10 Journal of Macromarketing

serviced other international clients such as General department as early as 1915 (Kreshel 1989, 212–49).
Motors, Pond’s, Gillette, Kellogg’s, Wrigley, Frigidaire, In the early 1920s, JWT raided Ivy League universities
Sun-Maid Raisins, and Libby’s. Offering unique organi- in search of scientific talent that could be of help with
zational capabilities, it was well placed to accompany the researching and analyzing consumer behavior. New hires
various trans-Atlantic market introductions and line included Harvard marketing professor Paul Cherington
extensions which the Lux brand experienced between and from John Hopkins the psychologist John Broadus
1925 and the mid-1930s. The JWT agency followed Watson (Kreshel 1990). After expanding to Britain, JWT
a distinct business model whereby it focused on conducted the first large-scale investigations between
servicing a selected number of large clients whose adver- 1923 and 1925 for Sun-Maid Raisins and Pear’s Soap
tising expenditures were well above the market average by asking several hundred housewives, wholesalers, and
and who would be interested in buying a number of shopkeepers where, why, and when these products were
lucrative extra services, such as planning, market sold and bought, by whom, and for what purpose
research, radio production, and so on. Following this (Downham 1993). In 1933, the market research unit of
model, JWT soon gained a unique position among JWT London had become so large that it was separated
American advertising agencies for its planned and ‘‘aca- as a company and became the British Market Research
demic’’ approach to advertising services (West 1988; Bureau (BMRB). The BMRB was one of Britain’s first
Silva 1996; Merron 1999). market research companies and was unique in the way
JWT had opened a small dependency in London that it offered its services also to nonclients of JWT
in 1899, which had to be closed in response to the London. By 1924, the New York head office of JWT had
outbreak of World War I. Its London office was reo- also developed an experimental kitchen where women
pened in 1919 and by the late 1920s JWT established would test and compare products and invent new recipes.
itself in the British market as one of the top five adver- In the late 1920s, this research innovation was adopted
tising agencies as regards advertising billings and had by the London office at Bush House (‘‘Agency in
acquired a unique capability to conduct large-scale Action’’ 1936; ‘‘JWT London: dates and data’’ 1959;
market research surveys. It is important to remember Downham 1993).
that JWT was not the first or only advertising agency The consumer goods giant Lever had equally been an
in the British market to offer such services. However, early adopter of consumer and product research tech-
its organizational culture, its conceptualization of the niques. In 1920, a Research Department was established
market and the consumer, and its sheer size allowed at Port Sunlight. In 1925, Lever set up its own advertis-
JWT to be the first advertising agency in Britain in the ing agency, which by 1930 had evolved into Lintas.
mid-1920s able to offer market research techniques as a Lintas did not always enjoy a harmonious relationship
regular part of its campaign planning. with JWT in the British market. After 1935, market
These market research techniques—readership research was carried out at Port Sunlight on a regular
surveys, consumer investigations into the uses of products, basis under Harry Munt. In the 1960s, Lintas became one
panel surveys on consumer habits and beliefs, and so on— of the main innovators in the use of computer technology
became the working basis of JWT’s campaign planning. for the analysis of psychographic and lifestyle data in
The techniques that JWT used reveal the extent to which market research (Digg 1966; Jones 2005). Lever and
this advertising agency gained from the employment JWT developed a different outlook on the market and
of Paul Cherington, the former Harvard Business therefore developed different rationales for market
School professor in marketing. At JWT in New York, research. Lever and Lintas tended to be more interested
Cherington had introduced the idea to construct adver- in using market research for the tabulation of sales data
tising text and slogans in a way that aided the market to gain quantifiable measurements of which income
penetration and the market expansion of a product. In bracket of the consumer body bought which product how
other words, advertisements at JWT were written to give often and through which channel at what price (Stewart
consumers a ‘‘reason-why’’ to purchase the product. 1930). This attitude toward the possibilities of market
JWT advertisements helped consumers rationalize their research can be interpreted as a response by the manufac-
choice and constantly suggested new uses to which the turer to the challenges of industrial capitalism in an age
product could be put (Cherington 1924, 1927; ‘‘Consumers of mass production and mass selling (Arvidsson 2006).
decide’’ 1926). JWT was similarly interested in the quantitative side
The consistent use of market research by JWT London of market research to discover new uses for the products
from the mid-1920s is indeed surprising. At its New it advertised and new themes and consumer interests that
York headquarters, the agency had created a research could be exploited in advertisements. This focus on

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 Schwarzkopf / Discovering the Consumer 11

actual consumer behavior in the home, however, allowed The Brand: Lux Soap Flakes
JWT to transgress the boundaries of a purely statistical
interest in market research. Unlike their colleagues at One of Lever’s earliest product innovations was a pro-
Lever and Lintas, the JWT researchers were much more duction technique developed in 1889, which allowed
interested in qualitative data on how consumers behaved soap to be produced in forms of flakes. The resulting
in the shops and at home, how they made sense of prod- product, soap flakes, made washing easier and preserved
ucts, and why they accepted or rejected brands. As an the garments as women did not have to rub clothes with
advertising agency, JWT was of course interested in the hard soap bar. In 1900, Lever’s product came on the
gaining qualitative data to develop advertisements that market as ‘‘Lux soap flakes.’’ The product, with its dis-
were both useful and exiting ‘‘news’’ for consumers. tinctive brand name (derived from the Latin word for
This, in turn, enabled the agency to carve out spaces of light ‘‘lux,’’ which in English also suggested ‘‘luxury’’)
market and consumer knowledge through research that and packaging was one of the first attempts at integrated
seemed inaccessible to its clients in the manufacturing marketing in the United Kingdom. Lux became a brand
sector. Market research, especially of the qualitative targeted at high- and middle-income consumers who
type, allowed JWT to justify its mediating role as a wanted to preserve expensive clothing. The brand
communication specialist between manufacturer and became associated with care and gentleness but also with
consumer and alleviate the anxiety of its clients about the idea of expensive lifestyles. Moreover, the product
the ever more choosey and elusive consumer body was positioned as a problem solver (Levitt 1960); if con-
(Marchand 1985; Lears 1994; Lury and Warde 1997). sumers were rich enough to buy expensive clothes, they
There is another factor that made this agency some- also had problems which low-income groups did not
what unique. Most advertising agencies at that time— have, that is, the preservation of silk or other expensive
both in Britain and in the United States—were driven clothes. Lux helped solve these problems.
by male copywriters, who often celebrated themselves In 1906, Lever began to export Lux soap flakes to the
as ‘‘stars’’ of a new era of mass communication United States. There, its advertising agency JWT sug-
(Marchand 1985; Fried 2005). At JWT, copywriters for gested that the traditional positioning of Lux as a product
soap and cosmetic product advertisements were often to be used to wash woollen garments (see slogan in fig. 1:
women. Female ‘‘ad-smiths’’ had a better understanding ‘‘Lux won’t shrink woollens’’) should be widened so
of the needs, fears, dreams, and desires of their almost that consumers saw Lux as a product that could be used
exclusively female audience (Weil Davis 2000). In the for all fine fabrics. This repositioning followed a typical
interwar and the postwar years, it was also common prac- strategy applied by JWT. Its advertisements often fol-
tice to have female members of staff conducting the lowed an aggressive market expansion strategy for their
interviews, while male research staff worked on the tabu- products; by suggesting a wider framework of possible
lation of the data. This practice, while slanted by the fact uses for a given product both the customer base and the
that members of JWT often came from privileged back- usage rate of a product could be increased (Ansoff 1957).
grounds far removed from the ‘‘mass’’ of consumers For its client Lever Brothers, this strategy resulted in
they studied and communicated with, ensured that the increased sales from 10,000 cases in 1915 to over one
social space of market research was formed by women million cases in 1918 (‘‘The history of Lux Flakes’’
talking to other women in a relaxed atmosphere at 1950; Lovett 1970). This strategic marketing orientation
home about brands, shopping patterns, and family life. of JWT’s advertising is further exemplified in its deci-
Contemporary advertising and psychology textbooks sion to use advertisements in 1922 to promote the use
presented the target group of advertisers of household of Lux for the washing of dishes.
products—that is, women—often as irrational and sug- In the early 1920s, the Lux advertising campaign in
gestible by the lure of advertising texts if these were the American market took a crucial turn toward dialogic
themselves prepared by women who observed and consumer engagement. In 1924, JWT invited American
recorded attitudes, interests, opinions, and behavior housewives to submit testimonials for Lux soap flakes.
(Frederick 1929; ‘‘Helen Lansdowne Resor’’ 1964; These letters, of which about 53,000 arrived at the JWT
Reekie 1991). JWT market researchers, therefore, went headquarters, were used by the agency to conduct a sur-
well beyond the traditional conceptualization of market vey of consumer habits. It turned out that consumers had
research as the study of quantifiable consumer behavior independently begun to use the flakes for the washing of
linked to the stratification of the ‘‘ABCD’’ income their hands, for baths, for their babies, and for washing
groups and social classes. their hands and hair. This effectively created brand

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12 Journal of Macromarketing

Figure 1
Lux Soap Flakes Advertisement, UK 1910

Source: Reproduced with kind permission of Unilever from an original in Unilever Archives.

extensions into new product lines (toilet soap, shampoo, American Lord & Thomas advertising agency. By the
etc.). These findings encouraged Lever Brothers to mid-1930s, Palmolive had diversified into shampoo
extend the brand and offer consumers a Lux toilet soap, soap, shaving cream, and face powder (‘‘Statistical
which was launched on the American market in 1925 and Review of Press Advertising’’ 1937; Edwards 1962).
three years later on the British market (‘‘Lux Flakes What added to this competitive pressure were Lever’s
Account History’’ 1950). limitations in strategically positioning its own brands
In 1927, Lever decided to reposition the Lux brand on in a crowded market. Soon after World War I, Lever had
the British market, too. In a highly volatile market, the managed to acquire a quasi monopoly in the British soap
expensive quality product Lux had begun to lose market market and produced some 60 percent of all soap
share to generic soap flake products which were sold in consumed in the United Kingdom (Edwards 1962). By
bulk. Moreover, in 1924, Colgate’s Palmolive toilet soap 1930, Rinso, Persil, Sunlight Soap, Lifebuoy, the Monkey
was introduced in the United Kingdom supported by the Brand, Pear’s, and Lux were all part of the Lever Empire.

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 Schwarzkopf / Discovering the Consumer 13

As low-involvement products, all these brands had to target market. Crucially, this type of research also
be heavily advertised to gain consumers’ top-of-mind involved the interviewing of retailers and shopkeepers,
awareness and, thus, cannibalized each others’ market who were recognized by JWT as important gatekeepers
shares, incurring large advertising costs on Lever. in the integrated marketing process. In the interviews,
Accordingly, Lever became much more interested JWT found that grocers feared that the soap smell
than other producers of fast-moving consumer goods in ‘‘would get into the butter’’ and other animal fat-based
Britain to obtain strategically relevant information about products stored in what to an American agency often
consumer behavior and its own competition. In 1927, the looked like crowded, old-fashioned little shops in the
need to revitalize the Lux brand had become so acute United Kingdom (‘‘Summary of investigation’’ 1930).
that the soap giant advised its advertising agency JWT It therefore advised Lever to redesign the packaging of
to find out exactly what kind of consumers bought Lux Lux so that grocers were reassured that the product
and how the brand was positioned in their minds. JWT would not ‘‘interfere’’ with what they saw as their
approached this problem by conducting a market research staple trade—the selling of foodstuffs. The agency
survey on a scale formerly unknown in British marketing. researchers also interviewed the Lever sales manager
In late 1927 and early 1928, JWT researchers interviewed about their experiences with retailers in the country and
3,200 housewives in twenty towns and cities across on how the product sold over the year. This interest of
England about their attitudes toward washing generally JWT in the retail end of the marketing process again sup-
and their habits in using soap brands in particular (‘‘Lux ports the idea that for this agency market research was a
England 1928’’ 1927; ‘‘Lux Flakes—3,195 Consumers’’ necessary part of an integrated marketing approach,
1928; ‘‘Special interviews on washing habits’’ 1930). which had to complete the advertising-driven ‘‘pull’’
The driving question behind this research was to find of consumer demand by creating retail acceptance of a
out how the consumption of soap in general could be new product (‘‘push’’).
increased. Among other factors, the research surveys JWT’s market research gave a great deal of attention
identified the use of washing soda (soda ash) as substi- as to how the whole product category of soap was used
tute for soap, especially in low-income households, as by the prospective target market and how Lux soap
a behavioral market barrier to all soap products. The sur- flakes in particular could be woven into that network
veys also studied the details of how soap products—and of washing habits and everyday life behavior. The JWT
Lux soap flakes in particular—were used in the different researchers for example observed in detail how women
types of families. Here, the studies found out that the washed their clothes, how much soap was being applied
greatest resistance to the use of Lux soap flakes was of to what kind of garments, how women opened and stored
course its high price but that this was combined with a the pack, the average water temperatures they applied,
lack of knowledge on the side of the female consumer the techniques of ironing, and so on. The questionnaires
as to the possible household uses of the product. Those used by JWT also allowed women to reflect on what
housewives that were attached to the brand mostly came washing meant for their bodies (ageing, destruction of
from a high-income segment or saved a pack of Lux skin by soda products) and on the social meaning of
flakes for the occasional laundering of expensive under- ‘‘washing day.’’ JWT studied the local conditions that
wear. In recognition of the difference among the ‘‘initia- influenced the sales of soap. It recognized that the typi-
tor,’’ the ‘‘decision maker,’’ and the ‘‘buyer’’ within the cally hard water of England’s southern counties created
decision-making unit of the buying process, JWT also a different set of needs and problems for housewives in
asked which person within the family actually made the comparison to those housewives living in the soft-water
decision to switch from Lux to a cheaper soap brand. areas. Similar regional differences were exploited when
By talking to thousands of housewives, JWT found JWT advised Lever that the use of woollens in the predo-
out that the actual competitive advantage of Lux lay in minantly working class North of England and the com-
its superior quality, and its unique selling proposition paratively higher consumption of silk in England’s
(USP) was that by using flakes the housewives did not rather middle-class South provided an opportunity for
have to rub precious garments with the hard soap bar. Lux’s core product features (care and gentleness) to be
The market researchers also found that for every one communicated in a differentiated and more targeted way.
visit to the pharmacy, housewives made six visits to the The market research reports produced by JWT as well
grocer. Because soap and shampoo at that time would as the face of the campaign later in 1928 suggest that the
only be stocked by pharmacies, JWT advised Lever to basis of the whole campaign was a quasiethnological
push the Lux product line into grocers and other retail analysis of modern housewives’ washing habits. These
outlets to facilitate the take-up of the product by the findings directly refute assertions that market research

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14 Journal of Macromarketing

before the 1960s only used one variable—class status, prestige, and glamor. The ultimate aim of the campaign
that is, income—and showed little interest in the rich was to turn the perception of the product from being
data that extensive, qualitative analysis was able to pro- ‘‘simply a different kind of laundry soap’’ into a ‘‘magi-
duce. Rather than just asking which income bracket— cal kind of product’’ (‘‘Lux Press Campaign’’ 1927;
ABCD—among consumers purchased the product, how ‘‘Lux advertising during 1928’’ 1928). The new Lux
often and where, the JWT team clearly attempted to chart campaign that started in March 1928 broke with the
a map of behavioral patterns connected to the consump- traditions of soap advertising, which until then tended
tion of soap products in the household. Based on the opi- to stress the product attributes in a ‘‘slice-of-life’’ sur-
nions that consumers expressed at experimental washing rounding characterized by housewives shown at work
sessions, JWT found out that a lot of women used wash- in the kitchen or in the bathroom. In the new Lux cam-
ing soda as a cheap and aggressive substitute for more paign, the female reader was no longer confronted with
expensive soaps but often ruined the skin of their arms real-life images of healthy children and happy house-
and hands with it. In the background of this discovery wives, but instead with stylish, thin, and modernist draw-
of consumers’ behavioral and psychic dispositions ings of living fashion-dolls in expensive clothes. To
toward brands stood the discovery in the mid-1920s of attach the new USP of Lux—keeping female consumers’
the fact that brands invoked images in people’s minds most treasured clothes like new—and to surround Lux
and mainly existed as collections of social attributes. with an air of distinguished lifestyle, JWT simply used
At a 1924 account planning conference, a female JWT the fashion-doll drawings so familiar from retail
copywriter for example clearly described the Lux brand advertising.
in terms of its image and its brand personality when she What is important about this repositioning exercise is
wrote: ‘‘I think of Lux as a member of the lesser nobility. that by directing all the mental energy of the captive
She is probably a Marquise. She is gay, spontaneous, advertising audience toward the idea of keeping one’s
care-free. If you met her in the flesh she would greet you most expensive clothing like new, JWT reinvented Lux
with squeals of delight and trills of laughter. She had a as one of Britain’s first lifestyle brands or what Douglas
home. . . . But her home gave her no anxiety. She Holt has called an ‘‘identity brand’’ (Holt 2004). The
whisked her handsome woollen blankets through the rich skillful design of the fashion-styled advertisements
lather and out they come like new. Husband she must translated the tangible USP of Lux into an emotional
have had, but he never appears. Maybe he follows the selling proposition (ESP). Although the brand communi-
sea or maybe he couldn’t stand the pace’’ (‘‘Conference cation of all other soap products told consumers what the
Miss Flemming’’ 1924). product did to their clothing (cleaning) and how it helped
The results of the continuous investigations by JWT women care for their families (‘‘Lifebuoy soap for
London were directly translated into a campaign plan health’’; ‘‘the shortest way on washing day: the Rinso
on the British market for 1928–1929. JWT came to the way’’; ‘‘sunlight: not yet one and washing done’’; ‘‘vic-
following conclusions about advertising the product: the tory–won by Persil’’; ‘‘Persil washes whiter’’), Lux
campaign had to overcome the chief resistance to Lux— advertising told female audiences what the product did
the high price—and give housewives with lower or for their personality. Other than Rinso or Persil or the
average incomes a clear set of reasons as to why buying plethora of unbranded products that were available to
Lux made sense economically and how Lux could be British and American housewives, Lux became a brand
made part of their laundering work. The main thrust of that based its very identity on the narrative of transfor-
the research seemed to indicate that the buying power mation and rejuvenation; the use of Lux in the household
among British consumers existed but that Lever needed promised to turn a simple ‘‘housewife’’ into a style
to understand its consumers better. The advertising mes- savvy, adorable, fashion goddess. The key to this
sages, therefore, had to concentrate on the uses of Lux as narrative were the findings of JWT’s behavior- and iden-
a product in those parts of life where the least resistance tity-oriented market research (figures 2 and 3).
to its price would be encountered, that is, the washing of Apart from recasting the values the brand offered to its
very fine fabrics and baby garments. consumers, JWT directly translated the results of their
To carve out a unique position for Lux and to differ- investigations of the various market segments and their
entiate the product from its competitors, JWT recom- mental habits into advice that focused on marketing mix
mended that all advertisements should be based on the decisions. Amongst other things, JWT suggested that
theme of fashion. To increase the relevance of the Lux soap flakes not only needed to be communicated
product to the target group, JWT devised advertisements in a new, more ‘‘fashionable’’ way but also needed a
which conveyed ‘‘news’’ about the world of style, new, fresher pack design. It advised Lever to offer the

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 Schwarzkopf / Discovering the Consumer 15

Figure 2
Lux Soap Flakes Advertisement, UK 1928

Source: Reproduced with kind permission of Unilever from an original in Unilever Archives.

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16 Journal of Macromarketing

Figure 3
Lux Soap Flakes Advertisement, UK 1928

Source: Reproduced with kind permission of Unilever from an original in Unilever Archives.

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 Schwarzkopf / Discovering the Consumer 17

product in smaller, more affordable packs which invited psychographic and behavioral segmentation based on the
consumers to try the product and later purchase the larger idea of fashion as a new ‘‘way of life’’ for young and
packs. Moreover, the market investigations conducted by middle-aged women in the 1920s. This created a set of
JWT in the years after 1928 also led to the recommenda- ‘‘thick descriptions’’ of consumer behavior that helped
tion to extend the brand and offer Lux in form of toilet position Lux as a lifestyle brand that responded to highly
soap and as a shampoo in different variations (‘‘Short differentiated consumer needs. Therefore, the begin-
brand histories’’ 1952; ‘‘Lux Shampoo’’ 1929; ‘‘Lux nings—however humble—of qualitative consumer
1928/1939’’ 1939). As an early example of market research are to be sought in 1920s market research prac-
development, JWT advised Lever to create and exploit tice and neither in the academic discussion of motivation
new markets for Lux by pushing the product into the research between the 1930s and 1950s nor in the multi-
formerly ignored retail channel of grocers and devise factor analysis of 1960s psychographics.
advertising messages that induced consumers to try the Yet most importantly, market research was used by
soap flakes for the washing of dishes (figures 4 and 5). Lever and JWT not just to map consumer behavior. The
extensive surveys gave thousands of interwar consumers
a chance to talk back to the Lever industrial conglomer-
Consumer Research and Marketing ate. The consumer response measured by JWT forced
Innovation Lever to redesign parts of its product line and communi-
cate products in a different way. Lever’s marketing in the
By engaging with consumer practices and by inviting late 1920s therefore allowed consumers to coauthor prod-
consumers to share their subjective knowledge with the ucts rather than passively consume them. This ‘‘new’’
agency, JWT exhibited an acute sense for the limitations consumer was thus empowered on two levels: financially
of managerial knowledge as well as the poverty of a (higher household incomes) and also socially as a ‘‘prosu-
purely quantitative approach to consumer research. The mer’’ who coauthored the brand. Here, in the subjective
agency researchers at JWT London and New York also realm of daily practices, the term consumer power
had an unusual understanding of the opportunities acquired a new meaning. Rather than simply referring to
which marketing communication in general and market the traditional idea of choice, which allowed consumers
research in particular offered for creating a dialogue with to spend their money either on product ‘‘x’’ or product
their target groups. By fostering this dialogue, consumer ‘‘y,’’ consumer power was discovered by JWT as the abil-
investigations changed the nature of the market place and ity of consumers to use products in ways which neither
redefined the consumer as a proactive partner in the mar- manufacturers nor advertisers intended, thus changing
keting process. Lever and JWT discovered the consumer market structures and marketing conditions.
as a source for marketing and product innovation. Thus, JWT began to engage in what Holt (2002) and others
the emergence of market research needs to be understood have described as ‘‘feedback loop’’ in which advertising
as a major reorientation in the mid-twentieth-century agencies have to look at how consumers use and interpret
marketing management. This assessment, in turn, supports brands to create values that fit in with increasingly frag-
Bakker (2003), Jones (2007), Church and Godley (2003), mented lifestyles. Lever and JWT constantly observed
Fitzgerald (2005), Fullerton (1988), and Hollander how consumers changed the uses of their products and
(1986), who questioned the idea of a lack of marketing the meaning of Lever brands. Lever remained competi-
orientation in what has often been called the ‘‘production tive in the interwar period not by telling consumers how
era’’ of early twentieth-century industrial societies. to behave, what to buy, and how to use products, but by
The above case study shows that rising incomes of the scrutinizing what consumers did with the purchased
middle- and working-class consumers in the interwar products within their respective social environments.
years and the increased choice between products pushed By the mid-1920s, both Lever and its advertising agency
companies in the consumer goods sector into adopting a had realized that the survival of a brand in a mature
more consumer-focused outlook on the marketing pro- market depended on handing over parts of the control
cess. The case of the Lux brand also shows that Lever over the meaning of a brand to the consumer (de Cher-
and its international advertising agency JWT began to natony and McDonald 2003). The early interest of JWT
pursue market segmentation strategies far earlier than and Lever in market research and consumer behavior
recognized in the traditional model of stages in market- helped Lever readjust its marketing philosophy from a
ing history. In addition, Lever and JWT did not only seg- product-oriented to a consumer-oriented outlook. Market
ment the market for soap products in terms of traditional and consumer research therefore needs to be understood
demographic factors but engaged in an early form of as a major innovation in the early twentieth-century

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18 Journal of Macromarketing

Figure 4
Strategic Brand Management of Lux Soap Flakes, UK1927-1935

Consumer research

Product • New packaging design; variety of smaller

packs for lower price; brand extension into
Segmentation – shampoo
Targeting –
Positioning
Place • Lux soap flakes, toilet soap, and shampoo
sold in groceries, not only in pharmacies
• Push toward the working−class north of
England (more woollen garments)
Marketing mix
decisions
Promotion • New advertising platform: Fashion and
style; new media vehicles: Careful selection
of up−market periodicals; copy testing; push
versus pull messages

Price • Value pricing, but cascading to make

product more affordable in smaller packs:
induce trial and up−selling

Figure 5
Lux soap flakes advertisement, USA 1925

Source: Reproduced with kind permission ofDownloaded

Unilever from from an original
jmk.sagepub.com in Unilever
at Copenhagen Archives.
Business School on July 20, 2015
 Schwarzkopf / Discovering the Consumer 19

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Box 694 (typescript) (JWT papers, History of Advertising Trust advertising industry in particular. He is a Lecturer in Marketing at
Archive, Norwich). Queen Mary College, University of London.

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