I've read and categorized my favorite "Calvin and Hobbes" cartoons. Read each and everyone more than twice.
American artist Bill Watterson was the author and creator of “Calvin and Hobbes.”
The cartoon strip was syndicated from 1985 to 1995.
Watterson could have made millions on product licensing and merchandise but he had only one lone licensed t-shirt in 1991. In ’91, the Smithsonian and Ohio State University put together an exhibit “Great American Comics: 100 Years of Cartoon Art.” I took a special trip to OSU to see the cartoon museum featuring "Calvin & Hobbes."
Bill Watterson allowed only one Sunday strip with Calvin and Hobbes’ making faces at a camera. It was a t-shirt to promote the exhibit.
You can find many, allegedly illegal and unlicensed products for sale on the web.
Watterson stopped drawing Calvin and Hobbes at the end of 1995, and during the ten years, Watterson was well known for his negative views on the licensing of his comic.
I read each of the 3,160 cartoons in order (first strip in November 18, 1985) and have read a pretty good book “Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Conventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip.” This book was researched and written by Nevin Martell.
I also visited Chagrin Falls, Ohio where Watterson’s family relocated to in 1965 when Bill was six years old.
First strip: November 18, 1985

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I like Marketing. I like Promotion, one of my nine P's of Marketing.
I like advertising, which is one of the eight components under Promotion in my 9P's of Marketing.
I like copy and selling points. I like finding Marketing opportunities and solving Marketing problems using the nine P's of Marketing. I like teaching them.
I use my 9P's to illustrate Marketing examples in the classroom, in court as an expert witness, in seminars and to solve Marketing problems and to find opportunities.
My 9P's of Marketing do include these important concepts, practices and components:
I am using the 9P's with Planning, People, Product, Price, Promotion, Place, Partners, Presentation and Passion to illustrate an unusual insight or example. To find opportunities and problems in Marketing.
- Planning and Research.
- Finding copy points is part of the creative and promotional planning.
- Planning for marketing activities, objectives, strategies and tactics. Viewership, revenue, sales. All sales, whether in services, fashion, sports, amusement parks, hotels, resorts, autos, fast food, retail sales or tires, refreshments or cereal, as three examples.
- From the founder of Intuit, Scott Cook, said: " A brand is no longer what we tell the consumer it is -- (maybe from Marketing Research never was is my comment) it is what consumers (“People” in the 9P’s) tell each other it is.
- People (Segmentation and Targeting)
- Consumers and users, as in shoppers. Fashion consumers. Add travelers.
- In my 9P's, I stress that firms need to look and analyze potential, new, existing and repeat customers and users.
- Product and Services, includes airports, sports teams, people and celebrities too. I teach that perfection resides in quality, not quantity.
- Place (Distribution), includes retail and online. How about locations of airports, team stadiums, amusement parks and resorts?
- Price or Pricing, many contingency plans needed.
- Promotion:
- There are eight (8) major, strategic components or communication elements which are personal and non-personal communication activities.
- The activities that communicate the merits of the overall product include:
- Personal Selling/ Sales Force: Sales persons
- Listen more than you talk. People who listen more, learn more, plus helps you position your service/product/solution or offering.
- Advertising:
Like Super Bowl advertising in February for Super Bowl. Think about this expression "It is only creative if the product or service sells." I wanted to add "It is only good media spending if it sells."- Sales Promotion, advertising mascots can fit here, too. Signage would fit here.
- Collateral Materials
- Direct Marketing (also referred to as Action or Direct Response Advertising)
- Interactive/Internet/Web, Digital Media, Social Media:
- Events and Experiences, sampling
- Public Relations/PR
- One stop shopping is more important than ever.
- Partners/Alliances, can be one of the most powerful of the 9P's if researched, performed and handled well.
- There should be moving forward towards shared goals or goals.
- Plenty of opportunities, but you can respect the decisions made by Sam Watterson.
- Presentation:
- The act or acts of strategically presenting any of the different 9P’s© and/or components to your customers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, sales force, marketing intermediaries, clients, employees, partners, and/or others.
Presentation aspects may be signs, symbols or images that represent something; a descriptive or persuasive account (as a sales person of the product or service). Something set forth for the attention of mind of your targets ("People") and media audiences. I've added "culture," too. I'm adding "culture," too.
- Passion, including consumers and employees. Think about the lines sometimes of consumers waiting for a new Apple product
I am an experienced, senior Forensic Marketing Expert, Advertising expert, Advertising/ Marketing consultant with Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.
I created the 9P's. I own a copyright for these Nine P’s/9 P's of Marketing©2007 concepts and Marketing practices, which augment the 1960's Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) or the 4P’s by the American Marketing Association (AMA), Neil Borden and Jerome McCarthy in the study and practice of Marketing. It's sixty years later and we are in the digital age. Now.
The Nine P's/9P's of Marketing help identify marketing problems in a number of strategic areas and help develop profitable marketing’s objectives, strategies, tactics and solutions. The 9P's are insightful. The nine P's were created for the digital age.
Or for more fun, marketing strategies/tactics and facts: Go to Marketing Trivia with more than 70 stimulating questions and answers at Londre Marketing Consultants, LLC.