John Francis "Jack" Trout (January 31, 1935 – June 4, 2017) was an American
advertising executive and an owner of Trout & Partners, a
consulting firm. He was one of the founders and pioneers of
positioning Positioning may refer to:
* Positioning (marketing), creating an identity in the minds of a target market
* Positioning theory, a theory in social psychology
* Positioning (critical literacy), reader context
* Positioning (telecommunications), a t ...
theory and also
marketing warfare theory.
Career
Trout started his business career in the advertising department of
General Electric. From there he went on to become a divisional advertising manager at Uniroyal.
He then joined
Al Ries in the advertising agency and marketing strategy firm where they worked together for over twenty-six years.
He was the
founder and president of the
international marketing strategy firm "Trout and Partners". The firm is represented in offices in many countries worldwide including
emerging markets.
Trout worked with a number of different client companies, including
AT&T,
Apple,
Citicorp,
General Electric,
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
,
IBM,
Pfizer,
Procter & Gamble,
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co., typically referred to as Southwest, is one of the major airlines of the United States and the world's largest low-cost carrier. It is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, and has scheduled service to 121 destinations in the U ...
, and
Xerox. When working with
pizza
Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...
chain
Papa John's, Trout was majorly involved in the invention of the chain's slogan "better ingredients, better pizza."
In the fall of 2002, Trout began working with the
United States Department of State in order to "train new diplomats in the art of projecting a positive image of America overseas" as a part of the ''Brand America'' campaign, which sought to improve public opinion about the upcoming
Iraq War.
Trout died of intestinal cancer at his home in
Old Greenwich,
Connecticut, at the age of 82.
Family
He was survived by his wife Patricia, their six children and 15 grandchildren, and four siblings.
Books
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With
Steve Rivkin
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With
Al Ries
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References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trout, Jack
1935 births
2017 deaths
Writers from Manhattan
Iona University alumni
Marketing theorists
Marketing people
American marketing people
Advertising theorists
Branding theorists
American business theorists
Deaths from cancer in Connecticut
Deaths from colorectal cancer
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
20th-century American writers