J. Walter Thompson: building trust in troubled times

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand how J. Walter Thompson (JWT) utilized its private forums for its executives over the period 1936‐1938 to build trust both within its own organization as well as with the public in the 1930s. This was a time when the advertising industry was under public scrutiny resulting from using what consumers considered emotional and irrational appeals in their advertising practices.

Design/methodology/approach

This archival research examines the meeting minutes of these forums to discover what topics were most important to the leaders of JWT at this time. The archives are located at the Hartman Center at Duke University.

Findings

This paper highlights the importance of these forums that were led by the top management team and attended by the creative staff of JWT. These forums played an important role in strengthening the culture of JWT, by building organizational trust and fostering organizational communication with a new generation of JWT leadership.

Originality/value

This paper utilized primary data sources – the meeting minutes from 1936 to 1938 – to uncover the values of JWT and how those values were disseminated to their employees, as well as how it impacted their work with their clients and ultimately the public.

Citation

Mishra, K.E. (2009), "J. Walter Thompson: building trust in troubled times", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 246-269. https://doi.org/10.1108/17557500910974604