Ron Primm majored in advertising design and graduated from The New York - Phoenix School of Design (now a division of Pratt Institute), in New York City.   He worked as a designer for Donald Deskey Associates, New York, where his accounts included Proctor and Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Glenmore Distillers, among many others.

Returning to Virginia, he worked for Landmark Communications in the advertising, public relations, and advertising sales promotion departments. His last position was manager of the creative department before leaving to found Creative House, which became The Primm Company in 1974.

In thousands of assignments for hundreds of clients, Primm has developed a keen sense of how to best use the capabilities of media marketing to achieve each client’s goals with pin-point accuracy and efficient use of the clients’ marketing budgets.

Primm has served on the boards, and in volunteer advisory capacities for many organizations, including Nautical Adventures, Norfolk Yacht & Country Club, The Azalea Festival, The Elizabeth River Project, Festevents, and Harborfest.  He designed and taught advertising courses for the Old Dominion University Professional Program and for the City of Chesapeake Adult Education Department.

Ron Says...

“It wasn’t my intention to own an advertising agency.  The mission of my first business, Creative House, was to serve the creative needs of advertising agencies.  After five years, though, Creative House morphed into The Primm Company.

“Working with agencies was fun, but I observed then, as I observe now in many other agencies, a disconnect between the clients’ goals and the agency creatives’ goals.  Blame it on the awards competitions (as many do), the subversive nature of creative people, or whatever you choose. I knew I didn’t want that attitude to invade The Primm Company.  In that regard, we’ve succeeded.  We take pride in our creative product; but take more pleasure in the success the client realizes from our efforts.

“Consequently, we have attracted clients that are fairly conservative, watch the budget closely, give good value to their customers, expect good service and most of all, demand results.  Clients tend to stay with Primm for many years--up to 30 years, and counting.  In a world where change is a constant, we believe in consistency.  We know that when we’re sick to death of a creative approach, the public is just becoming aware of it.

“I’ve never been a fan of advertising that draws attention to itself.  I want our advertising to draw attention to the client.  People never refer to our ads by anything other than the client’s name.  I find clients interesting. I don’t try to layer creative ideas over their message.  Rather, I work to present the client’s message in the clearest, most compelling and customer-conscious manner.  Some of what I see other agencies, even national agencies, do to clients drives me crazy.

“Our clients generally don’t have extra dollars to “play” with their advertising.  They want advertising that reflects well on them; but most of all, they need it to work.

“Obviously, I’ve been doing this for a long time.  My family, and that includes the people here at Primm, as well as my wife, children, in-laws, grandkids, friends, and clients, keep me in touch.  When targeting a message, I can always come up with a real person who represents the target consumer, and speak to them, metaphorically, or actually.  I used to use my mother, the cynic, figuring if I could sell her, I could sell anyone.  Although gone now, she’s still in the mix.

“I keep up with things.  Marketing needs to be current; it needs to speak to the times.  I’ll keep a brand image forever, but the message has a shelf life and needs refreshing, lest it lose relevancy.  Also, we always need to be wary of those pesky competitors.

“On the other hand, I’ve got an old (circa 1902) house, an old (circa 1912) office building, an aging (circa 1985) sailboat, and I’m not as young (circa – never mind) as I used to be.  When not “keeping up” with buildings, boat, family, friends, the news, and work, I sail.  Sailing isn’t exactly relaxation, and that’s fine with me.  Sailing is for people who like to work.  The sailor’s motto is also a good business analogy: “I can’t control the wind, but I can adjust my sails.”

“Working with a boat crew teaches a lot about resource management; and speaking of crew, I really like the Primm crew.  They’re a great mix of ages, experience, and talent; fun to be with, and very good at what they do.

“Thirty years in business, and it gets better all the time.”