OHRBACH DEPARTMENT STORE
Began in 1923 as a low end and bargain store of women clothes, Ohrbach had progressively became favorites for many who liked inexpensive but Paris-quality clothes. Unlike its conventional competitors, the store’s merchandising practice was very unique. It did not have its own advertising department; therefore, it relied heavily its advertising effort in the hand of an agency. The store never advertised or announced its promotion or sales. When the store advertised, it only advertised in institutional outlets. Though most of the clothes that Ohrbach sold were marked up to 20 % off from regular retail stores, they came directly from famous designer’s boutiques. However, Ohrbach removed the designer label; and rather than showing its marked up price with its original price, the store issued a new price tag for each item. The owner, N. M. Ohrbach, said that he never considered his store as a discounted store but he viewed it as an underselling store.
Since 1930’s, Grey Advertising handled the advertising for this store. The philosophy of the store, which stressed high fashion and quality at low price, became the guide for the store’s ad campaign. However, when the major players—Bernbach, Cage and Doyle—who handled Ohrbach’s account at Grey Advertising left the agency to form DDB, N. M. Ohrbach followed them and became the financial support for the new agency.
In the hand of DDB’s creative team, Ohrbach’s campaign generated a new interest. The ads did not mention any price or sales. With a slogan, “A business in millions, a profit in pennies,” the ad campaigns were involving. The copy and the visuals were refreshingly witty and made the readers to be engaged in reading it from top to the bottom.
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Ohrbach Ads in the Mid-1950's
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Before 1957, Ohrbach’s ads were reminiscence of Paul Rand’s style of using photography and typography to be worked more as visuals. However, in 1957, Bernbach took the task of initiating a new approach for the campaign. He relied more into a photographic image for its flexibility and effects in the ads. One example is one where an ad showed a cat with a high hat and a cigarette holder in her mouth and a headline of “I know about Joan.” The copy, then, explained that Joan was devilishly stylish because she bargained at Ohrbach. This ad propelled the store’s image as the epicenter of inexpensive chic haven in New York. The ad was only run once but its impact made “the bargain store as familiar to New York shopper as Macy, which spend thirty times more than Ohrbach in its advertising budget” (Fox, 1984).
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The ad won 1959's Art Director's Gold Medal |
OHRBACH ADS
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