oh i agree that the fan theory that motown simply abandoned the 70s supremes is misleading. The first several albums had considerable promotion behind them and only did lukewarm at best.
What i'd love to see though is the total marketing budget allotted to the group each year. and how was that money then budgeted out. Sure we can still find today the Billboard ads. But there's much more to it than that. how much was paid for on-air ads? I have a bootleg copy of the radio ad for Sup 75. but just because an ad was recorded doesn't guarantee airplay. you buy that. Also what was done to promote more directly to djs, station managers and program managers? were the girls at as many industry conventions hob knobbing with these guys? were the girls granting as many on-air [[or pre taped) interviews?
And what about the marketing and promotion to record stores? how much was spent on large cardboard displays? window treatments, clings and posters? what was done to court the merchandise buyers for these stores and chains? What was done with store managers to encourage them to have the lps playing in the stores during peak times?
none of these can be deciphered by the availability of copies of old billboard ads. the only way to truly understand the promotional activity would be to see the budgets. what was spent, where and was that the best use of resources
Bookmarks