Yearly Archives: 2009

Packaging Your Brand

© by Wayne Ens

 

          You’re fighting for your life, and you see two surgeons who each offer you totally different solutions.
          The first one shows up at your door unannounced, in a Hawaiian shirt and ill-fitting track pants.  He hands you a generic brochure about your illness along with his biography as he leaves to see the next patient.
          The other surgeon makes an appointment, meets you dressed in a crisp white lab coat, and shows you computer scans of your problem on the latest high–tech equipment.  He gives you a comprehensive written outline of the procedure he proposes to save your life and discusses any questions or concerns you might have.
          Which solution would you have the most confidence in?
          When you’re fighting for your life, the answer is clear, even though the guy in the Hawaiian shirt might have had a better solution.
          Many businesses today are fighting for their lives too.  Their marketing decisions are crucial to their survival.  They’ve cut all of the expenses they can cut, and now they are desperate to increase their sales.
          The image you project can make all the difference in whether the worried decisionmaker chooses your solution or your competitor’s.  It’s all about your brand.
          We know that you create a hard to change impression in the first three seconds a prospect sees you; BEFORE you open your mouth or present your solutions. Does your brand create confidence in your solution?
          Do you make appointments like a professional, or drop in like a peddler?
          We sell our ability to make businesses successful. Does your packaging, from your car to your clothes, make you look successful and instill confidence with would-be investors?
          If your competitors show up in a golf shirt, you need to wear a sports jacket.  If they show up in a sports jacket, you need to wear a suit. And if your competitors are wearing customtailored three piece suits, buy a tux!!
          The image you portray can give a worried advertiser the confidence to buy your solution even though it may not be better than the competition’s.
          And last but not least, does your presentation talk about solving your client’s problems, or about how great your station is?
          You are expected to be a branding expert…the best way to start is by looking after your own brand. 
         
P.S. A funny thing happens when you sculpt a better brand for yourself. You not only look more professional, you feel and act more professional!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Number One

© by Wayne Ens

 

           When we take on a new media client, we generally begin the project with a Market Audit, which includes an Advertiser Perception Study to determine how advertisers perceive the various media in that market.
          One of our survey questions is, “What is the number one benefit you expect from your advertising?”  Nearly 80% of businesses we survey advertise to “increase sales”.
          Part of our Market Audit process also includes sending mystery shoppers into the market to request proposals from every media in the market. And here is one of the most startling revelations…..while nearly 80% of advertisers identify increasing sales as their primary reason for advertising, less than 10% of the media proposals we audit, address how that proposal is going to increase sales!
          Most proposals only address why a particular media is number one and why their audience is number one.  They talk about themselves, rather than demonstrating what they can do for the advertiser.
          A few do discuss building traffic, or image, or awareness, but seldom do they address an advertiser’s number one concern….increasing sales.
          And while advertising does do much more than just increase sales, you owe it to your stations and to your clients to address your prospects’ number one concern in every proposal.
          In my early days in print, I was trained not take responsibility for increasing sales. In fact, we had such little faith in our ability to increase sales we were taught to only take credit for traffic, and that it was the client’s job to sell.
          This lack of confidence in our ability to increase sales resulted in us recommending radio as a ‘back-up’ media so that we wouldn’t have to take all the blame for failure, and we created ads that drew throngs of unqualified traffic for our advertisers.
          When I thought my clients only expected traffic, I once sold a huge promotion to a men’s wear store with a draw for a trip to Disney World. We did generate huge traffic at the store to fill out the Disney ballots, but no one bought a suit. ….they were all there for the trip.
          Later when I went to a radio station in that market, we developed a promotion for a draw for a complete year’s wardrobe at that store.  We drew far less traffic, but sold more suits because everyone who entered wanted a suit.
          Of course, the radio promotion had the added benefit of creating more awareness about the advertiser’s merchandise rather than promoting how wonderful Disney World was.
          Do you have enough confidence in what you are proposing to partner in your client’s sales success? Take a look at every presentation and proposal you make this week and see if they talk about you, or do they address what you can do for the advertiser?
P.S. Our Guided Discovery Selling trains your sales people to produce customer-focused presentations. Contact Wayne if you are interested in learning more.

 

 

 

 

Broadcasting’s Tipping Point

© by Wayne Ens

 

          Imagine you own a moving and storage company.  Choose one of the following two strategies to grow your business;

1.) Be listed in the Yellow Pages with all of my competitors and hope those who come to the Yellow Pages choose my ad over my competitors,
2.) Run an intrusive media campaign to pre-empt my prospects searching the Yellow Pages directory of my competitors and create an awareness and preference for my business.
I think we know which strategy you would choose, and wecertainly know which one would be most effective.
Years ago, when we were fat and lazy, we were content to let the directory of ineffective marketers, the Yellow Pages, eat our lunch!  The Yellow Pages took more revenue out of our local markets than all broadcasters combined….but we didn’t care because we had huge profit margins.
Now we’re at a tipping point.  Consumers are abandoning searching the Yellow Pages in favor of searching the internet if they can’t think of a business in a given category, like a moving and storage company.
So allow me to ask the question again… You own a moving and storage company, which of the following strategies are you going to base your growth upon in the new economy?
1.) Pay Search Engine Optimizers to increase my odds of being among the top ten listings with my top competitors.
2.) Use intrusive media to drive prospects directly to my website rather than have them conduct a search which will reveal my competitors.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are at a tipping point in broadcasting.  We can:
a.) Learn how to sell the value of top of mind awareness, and driving customers directly to marketers’ websites, or,
b.) Let the search engine people take the billions of dollars Yellow Pages have been taking out of our local markets when consumers search for businesses they’ve never heard of.
         There are numerous advantages to strategy ‘a’, not the least of which is, it works better. Just as importantly, advertisers follow each other like sheep….get one on board with you and their competitors will follow.
          Most local businesses found themselves in the directory of ineffective marketers because, “that is where my competitors are”…..the exact reason they should NOT be there!   
Maybe now that we have more competition and we’re not so fat, we won’t make the same mistake with our search engine competitors that we did when the Yellow Pages snuck up on us!
Smart marketers will drive people directly to their websites rather than count on the luck of the draw when prospects Google a page listingtheir top competitors.
 
P.S. If your account executives don’t know how to persuade local marketers to use the power of intrusive media, over the Yellow Pages or Google/Yahoo, contact [email protected].  We can help!
 
 
 
 
 
 

Predictions

Don’t Get Sucked Into the Predictions

 
          When you hear or read the gloomy predictions about advertising sales futures from agencies or big corporation executives, they are talking about national business.
          Executives at the large agency or multi-national corporation level have no idea what’s going on with local advertising, especially in the small and medium-sized markets that are below their radar.
          Hearing the dire predictions from large agencies and CEO’s might lead you to make excuses for local sales as well…..there are no excuses other than you might have a sales force that doesn’t know how to motivate local-direct business.
          Those who do understand local-direct, and how to focus on increasing clients sales instead of focusing on dumping more inventory or packages, are doing well!
          You won’t hear about those successes because they don’t involve nationally-recognized businesses.
          But in case you haven’t figured it out, no matter what happens with the economy, when your roof leaks, you’ll repair it; when your tooth aches, you’ll see a dentist; when your car breaks down, you’ll see a mechanic; when you’re going through a divorce, you’ll see a lawyer, and your funeral can’t wait until after the recession.
          In the past, retail was the low hanging fruit in our industry, but you and your competitors have already picked all of that. Isn’t it time you learned how to speak ‘service sector’ instead of just ‘retail’?
          You have a choice. Use the big national predictions as an excuse for your local-direct failure, or learn how to secure business from the largest and fastest growing sector of our economy, the service sector.
P.S. Need help securing more service sector business?
P.P.S. If you hadn’t noticed, even before the economic downturn, big box stores and online shopping were already eroding your traditional retail base.

What’s Cookin’?

What’s Cooking in this Economy?

          There is a lot cooking in the new economy.  Sales of everything related to cooking are booming! Everything from cooking lessons to cookbooks, and from pots and pans to fresh grocery items are booming.
          According to NPD Group, restaurant sales are taking a hit; down 3% for parties with kids and down 8% in the 18-24 age group. Meanwhile major grocery stores report sales increases because people are cooking more and eating out less.
          Those who grew accustomed to dining out regularly, still want to eat in style at home according to Marketing Daily. They are enrolling in cooking courses that can cost hundreds of dollars in record numbers, and buying small appliances at an ever-increasing rate.
          Borders Group Inc. reports sales of cookbooks have risen 9% over last year’s sales, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reports that sales of house wares were very strong in February.
Have you considered making a specialty grocery store or local restaurant famous by offering cooking tips on air, or promoting cooking classes on location during slow nights?
          For every market that goes down, there is a corresponding market which goes up! Our Selling in the New Media Economy one-day sales workshop, explores the ‘See-Saw Market’ opportunities available to your sales people.
          We also explore other opportunities like the Bullet-Proof Market, the Alternative Message Market, and the Cash Is King Market.  Contact Wayne to learn how you can experience this revenue-reviving workshop in your market.