Norman B. Norman

Norman B. Norman was born to a Jewish family[2][3] in New York City. In 1934, he graduated from Columbia University.[1] After school, he worked as an unpaid assistant at the Biow Agency founded by Milton H. Biow.[1] After six months, he was given a salary of $5 a week, and after two years, he was making $25 per week.[1] While at the Biow Agency, he worked in all areas of the business including research, new business, and account management.[1] In 1942, he joined the United States Navy where he served during World War II on a minesweeper as a lieutenant; he was awarded a Bronze Star.[1]

After the war, he worked for the Norman A. Mack & Company as an executive vice president and then in 1948, he accepted a position with the William H. Weintraub & Company.[1] In 1955, he along with fellow Weintraub co-workers, Eugene H. Kummel and Walter Craig, bought the William H. Weintraub agency and renamed it Norman, Craig & Kummel.[1][3] In 1957, he was elected president of the agency[1] and pioneered the concept of what he called "emotional advertising" aimed at having the reader find himself inside the advertisement.[3] The tenets were summed up in one word: P-E-O-P-L-E: Put people in the sell; Excitingly different look and sound; Open the way through the heart-not the head; Put in an important reason why; Living visuals people will talk about; Eliminate any non-preemptive selling proposition.[4] The firm won many major clients including Colgate-Palmolive, Revlon, Ronson, Chanel, Liggett & Myers, and Olin Corporation.[1] In 1956, the firm won the U.S. Democratic National Committee account and its presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, going head-to-head with its rival Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn.[4]

In 1961, the firm was renamed the NCK Organization.[4] In 1979, he retired as president and chairman of the board; he served as honorary chairman until 1985.[1] By 1982, the NCK Organization had 1,184 employees in 32 offices worldwide with $433 million in sales and $70 million in income.[4] In 1983, the firm merged with Foote, Cone & Belding Communications and ceased to exist under its own name.[4]

Norman served as the director of the Association for a Better New York and as a trustee of the New York Police Foundation.[1]

Norman was married to Gail Snyder; they had two children: Peter Norman and Susan Norman Blumenthal.[1] They had homes in Woodstock, Vermont, in Fairfield, Connecticut, in the Cotswolds of England, and in Key Largo, Florida.[1] Norman died in Miami at the age of 77.[1]

• Norman B. Norman at Find a Grave