The Story of Kozell Boren: How One Man Changed the American Economy

The Whole Market and the Hole in the Market

Shel St Clair

Some 50 years ago a man by the name of Kozy Boren had a vision; he saw a hole in a market, and he found it in an industry that exists solely to make its own customers money.  I point this out because both of these are unique and Kozy touched each in a manner that affected thousands of people individually and the entire U.S. Economy.  Rarely does a man find himself in the exact position on the earth to understand the alignment of the stars and see into the future.  However that club is not as exclusive as the one whose members are made up of those who did something about it and had a positively impact.  This is a truly special man.   

In the U.S., the development and growth of small business is encouraged because of the way our economy is tied to the greater philosophy of individual freedom.  Small business is the American way.  This covers the entire spectrum of representative citizens regardless of background, education, advantage, or standing in society.  The daughter of a millionaire who just graduated from Harvard Law School and decides to set up her own practice in International Business Law in NYC, faces the same challenges as the illegal immigrant who feels forced to start his own auto repair shop because he doesn’t make enough to support his family working for someone else.  Both feel the urge to stand on their own, the entrepreneurial spirit driving them to own a business is personally identified with their unique way of doing business.  They want to serve their clients and customers in a manner that reflects positively on them individually, they want to impact the local economy in their city, and they want to control the quality of the product or service that is being delivered; they want to succeed.  Most importantly, they want to make money!

Anyone who starts a business feels these desires and responds to them, but herein lays the double-edged sword.  No matter how educated, or uneducated, a business owner is, they all face the same challenges, and with their first few businesses, make the same mistakes.  I say first few businesses because, once someone has experienced the exhilaration of entrepreneurship, only the faint of heart willingly shrink back into employeedom. 

So what are the hurdles that owners of new businesses face and how do they relate to Kozy Boren?  When someone decides to start a business, they have a product, or service that is needed or wanted by the public.  Often they are an expert in their field; they know so much about what they do that they feel customers will just flock to them.  They think customers will tell their friends and family about how great they are and business will be booming.  Another myth is, “great location,” They think because they rented a spot on a main corner they will generate enough traffic to get rich.  Why do they think this?  Well, 100 years ago the disciplines of marketing and advertising were in their nascent stages and if you needed a haircut you actually did ask someone where a barber was located.  Today neither of these are true; “word of mouth” became words coming out of the mouth of a famous spokesperson and “location” became best location with a BIG sign.  Today a woman would no more ask her neighbor where to have her hair cut than she would ask where to have her OB checkup.  Today, if you have a shop on the corner of Main and 1^st in the middle of downtown and you are not properly advertised, customers will not do business with you because of perceptions created by the advertising of large chains.  Today, unless you are the ONLY grocery store in 100 mile radius, in the middle of a greatly populated desert, and you sell ice, your business will not grow properly from a good location, word of mouth, or the combination or the two.  Advertising forms people’s opinions.  So what did Kozy Boren see in his moment of genius revelation?  What larger businesses know, what experienced business owners know, what small business owners DON’T know; how to drive customers to a business?

New business owners don’t know how to get customers.  What is worse, they don’t know that they don’t know this.  They frequently think that if they provide value and service that the customers will come.  The greatest prank ever played on unsuspecting man was the myth that, “Word of mouth is the best advertising.”  So new, small businesses spend all of their time and investment trying to provide an excellent customer experience and almost none of it on marketing and advertising.

This is what Kozy Boren saw; over the first part of the 20^th century customers had changed, advertising had become the trusted emotional authority that formed their buying decision, and without effective advertising the small business would not survive.   This was the stroke of genius, to bring an effective method of attracting attention to a small business that gave the potential customer the same warm confident feeling that they got when responding to the advertising of large corporations.  Advertising makes people feel good; they like the feeling that they can take their kids to McDonalds because they have watched the commercial 1000 times and the happy people in the commercial seem to be having fun.  They feel good.  So how does a small business compete with that?  Make a better hamburger?  That may not be hard to do, but who would ever know about it?  That is the first part of the hole Kozy found; the second is pretty simple, marketing and advertising companies do not target small businesses as customers.  They may say they do, but they don’t.  Small businesses usually don’t have an advertising budget because of issues I have already discussed; so advertising companies focus their efforts on corporations that can afford them.  The small business owner did not see the need, and the advertising company did not seek them out as a customer.  This created a hole which Kozy Boren set out to fill.

The Alignment of the Stars

Kozell Boren was raised in the panhandle of Texas as the son of a blacksmith.  This is a free and fiercely independent life that engenders a man with strength of character born from the hard work of sheer survival.  He learned metal working in his father’s small business.  Had he himself not been the son of a business owner his genius may have applied itself another way.  The adventure of his life began at a young age when he joined the navy as a machinist, which ultimately led him to Long Beach CA.  In Long Beach, Kozy worked in a machine shop and got his first taste of entrepreneurship; after two years as an employee he bought out the owner.  But stars were shifting and the universe had something else in mind.  Kozy needed a job so he went to work for a small sign company named Gulf Development in Los Angeles.  I have often looked in wonder at events like this, how they change and shape the history of man yet go largely unnoticed.  If someone ever writes a definitive history book about the success or failure of small business in America, Kozy Boren getting a sales job at Gulf Development and meeting the sales manager Conrad Escalante would have to be compared to Washington crossing the Delaware to winter at Fort Ticonderoga.  Kozy was raw and green in that way that promises tremendous strength and true growth, Conrad was seasoned and talented with true direction and the soul of a winning coach.  Both men had vision and hearts large enough to include the other in their plans.  Conrad taught Kozy to sell and they bonded over their successes.

In the 1950’s lighted signage was too expensive for a small business and yet the need was desperate.  Both men believed that small businesses needed something affordable to give them an edge of professionalism and attract the right kind of attention.  They formed Superior Outdoor Display and the Superior Arrow was born.  In case you are unaware the Superior Arrow is one of the greatest inventions of the 20^th century.  This was a small electric sign shaped like an arrow that was intended to be attached to an existing, frequently hand-painted, wood, sign.  Brilliant!  In that age this was high tech and high class.  The arrow’s purpose was to point to the business thus drawing the customer’s eye and interest.  Boy did it work!  It was a huge success with business owners and customers alike.

This may seem like a small feat but reflect on the deeper impact.  This one innovation kept thousands of small businesses open and because of that, fed families, created jobs, supported communities, and put kids through college.  Somewhere out there, in the fabric of America, is a Doctor who is saving lives and his education was paid for by the revenue produced by the Superior Arrow above the sign at his mother’s restaurant.  Throughout the film history of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s they appear everywhere in scenes shot in large cities, small towns, deserted crossroads.  That arrow defines a certain attitude exemplified by small business itself, look at me, I can win!  Kozy Boren and Conrad Escalante made this possible.

It was only a few years later then the heavens shook their dust down on Kozy again, Gulf Development, the sign company where the partners had met became available.  The acquisition of Gulf made a new type of growth available and Kozy’s genius began to shine.  Now they could begin to develop new products aimed at the same section of the market.  The customer that was targeted by Gulf Development was completely ignored by all other exterior advertising companies.  Larger sign companies that saw themselves as important were developing Las Vegas, Broadway, Madison Avenue and seeking large accounts like Continental Airlines and McDonalds.  If you were Tom’s Barbecue, you were going to buy a sign from a small local company and you were at the mercy of their talent for design and fabrication.  The local sign company knew that they had you and the costs were astronomical.  So the small, or new, business owner would hang his painted board out front and rely on how good he cooked.  That’s great, but that guy driving by at 35 miles per hour can’t smell the sauce and ahead he sees the golden arches.  This type of business owner constituted 90% of the business population when Kozy took over the ownership of Gulf and he lost no time in developing a line of products specifically for them and fortifying  America with and army of salesmen carrying a lighted sample and a briefcase to design right on the spot.  Business boomed.  Yes, Gulf’s business, but advertising drives sales.  Customers began to think in a different way, first radio and then television had begun to impact the essential ways in which Americans felt about themselves and the world around them.  Buying felt good, but buying something that was advertised felt better.  Retailers and suppliers scrambled to be identified with developing name brands and trending products.  Small business owners held on for dear life as they saw the emergence of “The Chain.”  Grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores, and automotive repair: all of these had pioneers in their industry driving development into nationally recognized branded chains that commanded customer loyalty.  This was promoted by evermore sophisticated advertising that was always out of the reach of the small business.  And then along came the Gulf salesman, sample in hand, ready to right the wrong and even the playing field.  Kozell Boren made this possible; this was his vision, his passion, exterior advertising to promote the growth and sustainability of a small business.  Through Gulf, Kozy promoted the dream of every entrepreneur, to have a business as unique and as individual as its owner, and make a good living doing it.