With Thanks To All Who’ve Believed in Thomas Marketing Services Corporation For 3 Decades. And In Me.
When I founded Thomas Marketing Services as a freelance writer in 1989, I could not have foreseen the business, and the Corporation, would go on for over 34 years. You see, I had just been fired for the first time in my career, from an ad agency (as we called them then) where I’d helped built a nice client list. My principals, in their great wisdom, were all too happy to take over my accounts when they lost their key clients in a two-week period. It was crazy.
Two of my (now former) clients called me the next day to ask me what happened, and told me I had two months to join another agency or to start my own. I didn’t wait; I chose option B within a week. And so, I began operating out of a small office in Marlborough with charter clients A.L.E. Systems, a manufacturer of pulsed power systems for lasers, and Kurzweil AI, where early-stage voice recognition systems were being developed for Radiology and Emergency Departments.
This office also housed a design studio, Giacobbe Communications, co-owned by artist Margaret (today a globally-known seascape artist, Margaret Gerding) Giacobbe, one of the designers I employed in my first company, and who worked with her husband/co-owner Joe on a bunch of nice accounts.
At age 37, I bought my first computer, a Mac IIC with a whooping 40 mg hard drive, and with the Giacobbe’s desktop designing skill, patience—Joe taught me how to write a letter in Microsoft Word—and their gracious guidance, I was off.
With my then-building luck, just a few months later Velcro USA came to us with a plan to consolidate its Consumer Products Group retail products. It came in via Donna Green, a brilliant marketer and a lovely being with a wonderful sense of humor with whom I had worked well at Kimberly Quality Care in my prior agency.
What an amazing challenge and opportunity! Over the years the Velcro companies had created consumer products across market lines, which required a number of like products to have different package printing. For example, the same simple strap with a Velcro™ brand closure might be marketed into Automotive, Marine and Hardware retailers, thus having 3 different packages and SKU (Store Keeping Units) numbers to price, inventory and handle.
Our charge: to create a single and greatly simplified Velcro® branded Consumer Products CPG (Consumer Page Goods) master design system for the line that would be marketed in The Americas, and Canada, thus qualifying for printing pricing at scale while reducing handling.
Chief among my challenges was writing copy that would be that would be rendered—and proofread with intense scrutiny—in 3 languages: English, French (Canadian dialect) & Spanish (Central America).
We went on to create a packaging design system for these products, which included blister packs, standardized boxes, and clamshells, and reduced the original line of over 300 products and packages to less than half, though we did create some new products in the course of it all, which later inciuded a line of Velcro™ brand toys. Donna, Margaret and Joe were just an incredible team, and with their help I spent many an hour on the road to Manchester, NH—and later flying to Tucson when the Consumer Products Group moved to be closer to their manufacturing. We all burned many a midnight candle on press runs too, sleeping in the waiting room at printers in Rhode Island to Connecticut, as well as at our primary printer, the then Amprint in Holliston, as we awaited press proofs to check all the many details 2-8 color offset printing required.
It was brutal at times. But mostly it was fun. It was the good old days, and I enjoyed being immersed in our growing knowledge base, especially the opportunities given to us on what at times, was simple good faith, by Dr. Tom Potterfield, Dick Kuhl, Manny Cardinale, Alan Koglemeir, Brian Murphy, Karl Hellmann, Julie (Dupei) Wood, Lorrie Piper, Chris Lerra, Daryl Pfaff, Derrick Slowikoski, Justin Ferdinand, and Tori Berube among many others, not the least of whom was Sari Ann Strasburg, Velcro USA’s house counsel, who used to call me “the keeper of the brand,” a privilege and responsibility I took to heart.
Fact was, I found myself pinching myself at times. With such an iconic brand on our client list we seemed to have made the bigs in just a couple years. Or at least big enough to get noticed by the Velcro company’s other business units, from Industrial to Needle Goods to Medical Products, Personal Hygiene, Automotive and Aerospace.
In 1993, we moved out the the Giacobbe Design building to a lakefront office in Marlborough, and added our first staff. I was making decent money too, which was good given I had my first son in 1992 at age 40, and twins five years later.
The long and the short of it is this: I have led a charmed career; it has been my privilege to work on some truly wonderful assignments. And with incredible creatives, such as the brilliant John Francois Gallagher, today a fine artist and painter of growing repute, and one of my best best friends; and Paul Cugno, my first Art Director. And then there was Sue Lister a lovely woman with a remarkable “can-do” attitude, a bright and friendly light. And nobody could have kept us together as did my office manager, Sandra Collins, and Sue Ramsbottom in the years before her. Too, we were so often at the studio or on location with Boston photographer, Jim Kelly, that he surely was a valued member of the team. Same with Felice Katz of Graphics-To-Go, another crack resource and friend. And Chuck Goldstone, our video producer for Velcro™ products, also falls into our extended staff category.
We also had some incredible interns, such as Ryan McMorrow and Jen Green who went on to do great things. When Jen graduated from Syracuse, after interning 2 consecutive summers for us, she came looking for a gig with the agency. “Now Jen, you were the captain of your varsity women’s college soccer team; do you really want to come back and work with some 40-year old guys? Isn’t there some new pro soccer club around to talk to?” was my question to her. A month later she came in to announce she was appointed the first PR Director of the then nascent New England Revolution! I milked her success to it’s fullest when I coached U 10-12 soccers teams for my sons; she got us up close. And today Ryan is in the elite-level strata of the tech world.
When the World Wide Web came a thing, I had the good fortune to connect with Newfangled Web Company, Eric Holter, now of Holter Strategic, and Mark O’Brien, now CEO of Newfangled, along with Chris Butler, the firm’s creative director, Sarah Dooley, my day-to-day coordinator extraordinaire, and Justin Kerr, who’s now Head Pirate at Justin Kerr Design in Providence. They taught us how to wireframe a website’s User Interface (UI) to create the functionality we wanted before creating the design system or lifting pen to copy. They also created a remarkable proprietary Content Management System (CMS) well before WordPress or SquareSpace were a thing, which allowed us free rein to update our sites on the fly without knowing any code. While it may sound unremarkable today, it was 2002 and it was wondrous.
We also broke new grounds producing a 3-D video that helped launch a new line of semiconductor test equipment for what was then Thermo Electron, now Thermo Fisher Scientific. My Creative Director, John Gallagher, rendered it in a 3-D video software using CAD-CAM drawings and a painted cabinet door alone; there wasn’t even an assembled cabinet much less the workings of a very sophisticated tester (see our 3D image of the ZapMaster MK4 to right from video) to shoot.
We worked for over 5 years each with 3 other Thermo business units. I owe my thanks to Kim Baltier, Sharon Halter, Mike Norton, Tricia Harris, and all the engineers who helped me found my specialty to “create understanding across technical and non-technical audiences while maintaining technical context,” as observed by Dave Bennett, a Brit of deep engineering talent and whit.
Good fortune followed when Bill Carew, Brian Driscoll, and their colleague Hanna, approached us to start their first company, Carew Driscoll. As they became more successful and Bill’s brother, John Carew, joined the organization, we built a brand that spawned their next generation business, Ovation Benefits Group, creating a strong brand identity and culture (read Bill Carew’s musing on brand and culture, and how it matters) around it, and whose foundation and principles are found in a number of businesses and brands to this day.
Longtime sailing friend, Peter Caruso, on whose sailboat I crewed to help win the coveted Chapman Bowl (overnight Cape Cod Bay Race) one year, as well as many a PHRF race in Scituate, was also instrumental in the success of Thomas Marketing. I worked on 3 national accounts with Peter, a C-Level captain, including startup AlcoholEDU and Hummel Soccer Team Wear in 1994 the last time the World Cup was in the USA. At the time, Hummel was one of the premier soccer (football) brands in the world, and we created catalogs and advertising of which I’m still proud.
I’m also grateful to Ethan Holmes, the former owner of New England Hydroponics, who gave me a chance after my health challenges as an older adult, and from whom I learned the retail biz. I worked as his (contract) Director of Marketing on tactics ranging from database marketing to merchandising, social media, and online store maintenance. He employed a smart team of nice folks, a couple of whom have become my lifetime friends and rock n’ roll partners in crime at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, where we have season lawn passes.
Then, and most significantly to my career, there has been Dave Manly, who’d engaged my first agency, The Ad Store of Wellesley, to re-stage the Chinet™ Disposable Plate brand. It was my first real CPG (consumer package goods) assignment, which he honcho’d for a name consulting company shortly after he’d been the first Brand Manager for Pringles at Proctor & Gamble.
Dave taught me the P&G discipline of strategic brand marketing, which became the true basis of my brand marketing and operating knowledge from retail to B2B and tech. And, he brought me along with him on his storied career with Boston Whaler™ boats, LoJack™ tracking systems, a couple early-stage dot-coms, Bay State Gas and Energy USA, and finally to Keurig Green Mountain, where we did market research leading to the naming of its second product, the Keurig 2.0!
Without Dave and the rest, including my big agency training by the brilliant Bob Corriveau and support by friend Linda Harvey at Ingalls in Boston, Jud Horner and Wayne MacDonald at the then Horner & MacDonald, and early mentor, Al Buyer and son Chuck of Buyer Advertising, and Steve Lanzilla of European Telephone Company, I would simply not be here today. And all to whom I am grateful beyond words.
But it’s onto what next. At fucking 72. Ha!
The Rise of ZENECIST™
On December 31. 2023, the Board of Directors of Thomas Marketing Services Corporation, voted to cease operations of the Corporation.
I can tell you, after almost 35 years, it’s not been easy to assimilate the thought such a big part of my career is over. In fact it’s been a little shocking. Though I’ve been lucky; I’ve worked for myself for 37 of my 50+ years in the advertising and brand marketing agency business. And I was amply warned (by my dad and his business cronies) about how tough a business it was and is today; and we surely took our knocks. But we had our successes too. I’ve fucking loved it.
Turns out all those people who told me early in my career to do something I loved were right. I still subscribe to the notion.
So it’s with new enthusiasm and interest I’m launching my new company and persona, ZENECIST™. I’m doing what I want to do, or least looking at what I can do given some of the limitations a reasonably pragmatic person of age must keep in mind.
It’s my endgame. And I’m having fun.
“Why start a business (at my age)?” asks my kids. Simple. I enjoy and prefer the creativity and energy of lean startups–way more than rusting out on the couch watching The Price Is Right or seniors golf. That would fucking kill me.
Plus, it’s the start of a new brand story, and it centers on my current interests. In what I believe and know.
You see, I’ve been a man of faith from the Christian tradition, and a keen observer of the cosmos all my life. I’ve also studied zen buddhism through masters Thich Nhat Hanh, whose book, Living Buddha, Living Christ inspired me, and whose book Anger, is always within arm’s reach. And whose lead meditation raised the foundation of Boston’s Copley Plaza one incredible Sunday morning. I’ve heard the Dali Lama, and experienced Baba Ram Das in person; and have read Alan Watts on the wisdom of insecurity.
Though most everything I know about zen, about being here now, I learned from my German Shepherd, Bowie. To enjoy the moment for all it’s worth.
And my logo, my ‘zen sailboat’ is not going away. The “person” who was the Corporation is gone but I’m still here, a Christian-Buddhist, a Buddhist-Christian, or none/all of the above.
Too, I have been influenced by the Christian mystic, Thomas Merton. Like him and his prayer, I often have no idea where I’m going, but have faith in my understanding and guidance of the Divine. I am simply continuing to try. I think that’s our singular mission this short time we have here. To keep trying. And in trying, we can at least hope to find answers. Maybe even some peace.
Through it all, my thought is to keep my dear friend Dr. Tom Potterfield’s “Secret” in our minds and hearts.
“It really is that simple: it all comes down to love – being with people,
work, family from a place of love. That’s the secret.”
– Tom Potterfield (1954-2010)
Here’s the thing. At the moment the business has one simple strategy: to be here now. We don’t have a firm revenue model, and we’re only beginning to fully crystalize ideas on the lifestyle products we’ll offer.
In fact, I only have a strategic business goal (what I plan to do) : to field value-packed (disruptor) products within a minimum viable (lean/agile) brand. And to test, test, test before committing significant resources.
ZENECIST (my word) started with a how-to book about gardening; I’m an indoor gardening enthusiast and after 10 years I’m starting to get good at it. But, my book became dated so fast I unpublished it, having made all of $8 over 6 months on Kindle. I now give the ePub away to anybody who asks, with hopes to update it soon.
Then there was this past fall, when I stated making what I call “understated gentleman rocker jewelry’ after a number of people commented on a simple semi-precious gems necklace I made and wore all last summer while attending Xfinity Center outdoor concerts. While I got a late start for holiday gifting, I sold a couple on Facebook Marketplace, and gave a bunch to family and fellow rockers, and learned a ton.
I will soon offer a limited edition version of my authentic semi-precious gemstone necklaces on ZENECIST.com as part of documenting my trademark application. I may also sell them at music venues this summer, such as “Shakedown Street” the mini-culture at Dead & Co. shows, but as a marketer and not so much as a crafter—I’ll source items made in the USA from the crafter community.
I’m also designing an environmentally-friendly product I’ve been thinking about for years. More on this to come. But there’s nothing else on the market like it, and I’m kind of excited to get a prototype in the works.
For now, ZENECIST.com SEO will be redirected to this next brand chapter as it unfolds. Though as with all brands, customers will define the ZENECIST brand. And so will The Divine as I understand them. I find myself newly-based in my new Unitarian Universalist faith community where I’ve come to believe–or maybe it’s I’m ‘allowed’ to believe–the Divine has pronouns They & Them, and not just he/him.
Thus my first challenge will be to offer a legit reason why anybody should care about any of it. Because what a business does is not enough to gain a loyal following. Why matters.
It’s all in line with my strategic personal goal: to live my best life. Sure, I’d take a good writing assignment if the opportunity presented itself; I really enjoy it. And I never say never about juicy marketing gig—my wife used to call my brand marketing enthusiasm my ‘sickness’—and you know, it still is.
But for the moment, having discovered you can’t be happy without being grateful, I’m simply content to be just that. Grateful. And happy to be here.
To all with whom I’ve worked and known in my role at Thomas Marketing Services, and with all the gratitude in my being, thank you for believing in me, and for your lovely friendships. I appreciate you.
In my life, I’ve loved you all.
Peace, T-
