Born into a wealthy family that went from riches to rags virtually overnight in the Great Depression, Albert Kiffer capitalized on his mother’s obsession with shoes—and his knowledge of her collection, given that he was assigned to take care of it as one of his household chores—to find work, and eventually prosper, selling footwear at a now-defunct midtown Manhattan emporium called Fine’s. As he became more and more aware of the subjective factors that influenced his customers’ decisions to buy, he began crafting ads for the products he sold and the store that employed him. His marketing efforts succeeded so well that he moved from sales to advertising.

One of his mother’s original pairs of heels stands in a glass case in the lobby of our New York offices as a testament to where he started and what he accomplished.