Obit: John E. (“Jack”) Lewis, former PG Editor
John E. (“Jack”) Lewis, 86, a former Progressive Grocer editor and president of Marketing Resources, Inc., a marketing agency serving the food, retailing and CPG industries, died earlier this month in Escondido, Calif.
Lewis’s impact on the food, consumer package goods and retailing industries was both diverse and profound. He began his career at Scott Paper as a regional sales representative and later joined advertising agency J. Walter Thompson, where he worked on the Philip Morris account for Marlboro, including close involvement in creating and spearheading “The Marlboro Man” to global prominence while catapulting the brand to become the top seller in the world.
Lewis left JWT to organize and implement the Dillon Study in 1960 for Progressive Grocer, which set the stage for the early framework of category management while underscoring the importance of supermarket health and beauty departments and end-cap displays.
After the Dillon Study, August Bush III called on Lewis to help Anheuser-Busch stem diminishing shelf space and sales volumes nationwide, which subsequently gave rise to Bud Light and several other lifestyle brands that grew A-B’s market share significantly.
His work with A-B lead to the formation of Marketing Resources and the advancement of a computerized system for shelf management and product bar coding.
In 1992, Lewis returned his focus to the food retailing industry as the managing director of the 1992 Marsh Super Study. As a sequel to his earlier work with the Dillon Study, the Marsh Study measured sales, space, and profit across five Marsh stores for sixty-five weeks and was published in successive issues of Progressive Grocer. The series later became the source of a Harvard Business School case study still in academic use today.
Lewis is survived by three children, who will join with friends and family at a remembrance celebration in his honor in San Diego on June 23.
For additional information on the memorial event, contact Dave McGuigan at 858-699-6727.