Rich Feldman was seven years old when he learned about Frito-Lay’s famous character Frito Bandito at a boy scout event and realized he wanted to go into marketing.

“An accountant for Frito-Lay was there,” said Feldman, managing partner of marketing services firm Source Marketing. “The more I sat there, with this guy presenting how they came up with this Frito Bandito thing, I was just mesmerized.”

Feldman, a 1981 Syracuse University graduate, spoke to students as part of the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ Eric Mower Advertising Forum.

Feldman’s presentation, titled “The Five Most Important Words in Marketing Today,” walked students through five key points to success in marketing.

He began the presentation with a brief summary of how he ended up at Source Marketing.

Feldman started his career at SU where he created his own position as vice president of marketing for University Union. During his senior year, he helped raise money to build a proper student union at a time when the Schine Student Center didn’t exist.

After graduation, Feldman worked at several different agencies and organizations. Eventually, he “caught the entrepreneurial itch” and bought into source marketing, he said.

Feldman then launched into his main presentation. He said the marketing industry could be broken into five essential points: conflict, passion, drama, simplicity and procurement.

“All marketing is addressing a consumer need,” Feldman said.

Needs are based on a conflict, Feldman said, and marketing teams must recognize which conflict will persuade the consumer to purchase a product.

Marketing and advertising executives must tap into the passion of the consumer and make the product something he or she must have, Feldman said.

Cici Huang, a sophomore advertising and entrepreneurship and emerging enterprises major, said she found Feldman’s words on passion “inspiring.”

“When he was talking about passion, it’s like my passion for advertising,” Huang said.

Feldman also emphasized the importance of drama when creating a marketing campaign.

“If it’s not dramatic, it won’t get noticed,” he said.

When discussing simplicity, Feldman stressed the importance of not providing too many choices. Feldman said providing consumers with too many choices can be negative in an era when consumers constantly receiving messages.

“If you’ve got 10 words, make it nine,” Feldman said. “If you’ve got nine words, make it eight.”

Feldman said two years ago he would have told students entering the job market was a bad idea, but today, there is significant improvement. Many agencies, he said, laid off too many people and are now feeling the negative effects of these layoffs.

Feldman told students interested in advertising that they needed to remain optimistic.

Said Feldman: “Keep hope alive.”

 

Published on October 4, 2012 at 2:04 am

Contact Rikki: rischnei@syr.edu