Well you may be able to name quite a few, if you actually work in the field, but figures that are recognisable at all to the public or the media..?
Of course there was one in the past, Gerald Durrell, amongst other things, perhaps the zoo world’s most sucessful marketeer. Because he ‘got it’. Ultimately, people don’t relate, cannot really latch onto products, services, things. They hook onto other people, and the stories, images, adventures, values these people represent.
So why does no zoo in the world market itself through an iconic personality? I mean, lets face it zoo directors are all fairly ‘idiosyncratic’ in the first place, so we have a head start.
But what am I saying??? ‘Professional’ marketing is not about projection of an individual, is it? It can only ever be limited to sales promotions, TV advertising, deals with coach companies ( plod, plod, plod), etc., right? No serious business figure, no major marketing talent, would ever be so crude as promote their business by promoting themselves, right….?
