Tag Archives: market

SOV = SOM = SOM

If you’ve worked in media sales for any time, the formula SOV = SOM = SOM is not new to you.

For those of you that have not seen this before, let me explain and then discuss why we should make sure every business owner understands it and why it is still relevant in today’s new media world.

Share of Voice (SOV) is the percentage of media spending by a company compared to the total media expenditure for the product, service, or category in the market. Share of Mind (SOM) is the level of Brand Identity or TOMA/Top of Mind Awareness that a business has amongst its competitors in the market. Share of Market (SOM) is the percentage of the total amount of business being done in a specific category within their market.

In simple terms, the greater the amount of SOV a specific business has the greater the amount of SOM, or TOMA, they have, and then ultimately the greater amount of SOM they have. Of course, there are underlying factors that can cause Share of Market to be swayed one way or another, but that is for another article.

Having this conversation with your clients and prospects is important for two main reasons:

Most business owners do not equate their share of the market like this. At best, they simply know “which competitors” have “what share” of the business within their market. They don’t necessarily know “how” they got it.
Getting them to understand that having a greater Share of Mind is the end goal to having a greater Share of Market.

In the twenty-four years ENS Media has been conducting TOMA research and surveys, this formula rarely ever fails. The business with the largest and best Share of Voice (SOV) has the greatest TOMA or Share of Mind (SOM) and therefore has the largest percentage of, and an equal and proportionate amount of, Share of Market (SOM).

If I ask you to name a fast-food restaurant, what name comes to the top of your mind?

If I ask you to name a brand of a canned soup, what brand comes to your mind? The top answers to these two questions, by far, are always McDonald’s and Campbell’s.

Who do you think does the majority of the business in the fast food and canned soup categories? You guessed it… McDonald’s and Campbell’s!

Now, name the first local Auto Body Repair Shop (or any other local business category) that comes to the top of your mind? Did the answer(s) that you came up with prove the formula right or wrong? I can assure you, once you complete the formula, it’s almost always right. If they have 8% Share of Mind, they’re probably doing close to 8% of the business in their category.

Do you have clients that want to increase their Share of Market? If so, they must first increase their Share of Mind. I’m hoping you can figure out the last step.

If you would like to find out how a TOMA Survey can help not only generate additional and new revenue for your stations but also train your sellers to use this and other proven practices, strategies, and formulas, give us a call or email me to arrange a time to chat.

Note: If your sales team is not strong at selling long-term strategy-based advertising, a TOMA seminar is not a good fit for you. If this is the case, call me, and let’s talk about training your sales team to be professional media reps.

Don’t Waste Your Breath

Allow me to stand on my soapbox for a minute and speak to something I am very passionate about, or should I say, very passionate against!

Regardless of what size market we drive through, while listening to the radio we still hear the dreaded seven-digit, or worse yet, ten-digit phone numbers.

Yes, it is still happening! Is it happening on your stations?

The ONLY thing that could possibly be an even bigger waste of breath is when they do the unthinkable and repeat the ten-digit phone number.

In recent weeks while driving to see clients, I went through small, medium and even a major market. I would guess that approximately 15-20% of the ads I heard included unmemorable seven and ten-digit phone numbers. Why?

I realize that the business owner is usually the one that says, “I need my phone number in the ad, that’s how people reach out to me”. As media reps, it’s our job to explain to them how our medium is used and instead show them a better way to use those, seven, ten, or twenty words.

The listeners of your stations do not stand by, pen in hand, waiting to write down a phone number from an ad they previously heard that may or may not air again in the next commercial break. It’s simply not how people listen to the radio.

If the message is strong enough and creates enough desire, the interested consumer will find them. Nine times out of ten they will google the business name or speak into their phone and simply say, “Call Joe’s Pizza”.

There are only 5 times we should use phone numbers in radio or TV ads:

1) When the number is very easy to recall –

Example (prefix) – 1-2-3-4 or (prefix) – 20-20 (I’m still skeptical)

2) It’s said in a unique way that makes it very easy to recall –

Example 541- twoooo – sixxxx….seven – eight! (Still skeptical!!)

3) A vanity number –

Example 541–BEDS, or 1-800 – GOT JUNK

4) Direct Response ads – The rule of thumb is to repeat the number 4-6 times.

5) When a business doesn’t have a website or social page. (Shame on them)

Let’s make the world a better place and eliminate phone numbers in radio ads!

O.K., I am now off my soapbox! Thank you for allowing me to vent!

Your Most Valuable Radio Sales Lesson

This is a first! We don’t usually publish an ENS on Sales this time of year because of the low open rates during the holiday period. We’ve made an exception this week for two reasons:

1.) Roy Williams’ last Monday Morning Memo just before Christmas was so profound we wanted to bring it to your attention, and

2.) We’re assuming those who are picking up their emails during the holiday period are the industry’s movers and shakers.

So here is what Roy wrote in his final Monday Morning Memo just before Christmas:

“The thing that makes me look at the ground, shake my head and sigh is the dangerous myth of the Zero Moment of Truth. But then again, Google is the new Yellow Pages, so it shouldn’t surprise us that they’ve repackaged and renamed the old Yellow Pages scare tactic.

The fundamental premise of the Zero Moment of Truth is that the customer is going to go online when they’re ready to purchase what you sell.

I have no argument with that.

But the dangerous, underlying assumption is that all contenders are equal during the Zero Moment of Truth. But that simply isn’t true.

The company most likely to get the click, the call, and the sale is the company the customer has heard of and has good feelings about.

The tortoise patiently wins the hearts of the people long before the race is begun. He says he’s ‘bonding with tomorrow’s customers’.

‘Stupid tortoise,’ says the rabbit, ‘he still believes in branding.’

Have you heard how that race turned out?

‘Knowledge is power’ is another dangerous myth.

It doesn’t matter what you know.
What matters is what you do with what you know.

So what are you going to do?”

-Roy Williams, Monday Morning Memo, December 18, 2017

You know Roy’s words of wisdom are true, but what are you doing to prove it to your local advertisers?

Our local TOMA, Top-of-Mind Awareness, surveys prove what you know to be true, and they open new advertisers’ doors and minds every week.

Roy says, “I’ve long suggested that radio stations fund a TOMA study every two years. Few things are as valuable in the eyes of advertisers as these revealing market snapshots.”

Your local TOMA survey will:

1.) Prove your listeners prefer to click on the businesses they’ve heard of when they do their online search

2.) Prove the link between share of voice, share of mind and share of market

3.) Give your salespeople a powerful tool to capture new business appointments

But wait…there’s more! Click here to arrange an online demo of what our TOMA and SoundADvice radio e-marketing systems can do to increase your sales in the New Year.

How Unique is Your Market?

In last week’s BIA Kelsey Local Media Watch blog, they suggested, “It’s good to think of small markets as unique, rather than as reflections of the national advertising market.”

The article drew the conclusion that different media combinations work differently in every market. And while that may be true, I believe it missed one important variable when trying to rationalize the differences in advertisers’ media use from one market to another.

I suspect the difference has as much to do with the effectiveness of media sales forces in each market, as it does with the effectiveness of the various media in those markets.

The article failed to recognize the role of sales forces in telling their media’s story and capturing market share.

Here is a sample of the local market ad revenue differences they discussed:

Media Market A Share Market B Share Share Difference

Online 12.76% 19.60% 6.84%

Radio 11.43% 7.50% 3.93%

Print 9.96% 12.46% 2.44%

Direct Mail 0.47% 7.10% 6.63%

You can see that Radio captured 52.4% more share of ad dollars in Market A versus Market B, that’s huge! You’ll also note that the more successful radio market appears to do so at the expense of Online, Print and Direct mail in that market.

I haven’t named the markets, but I’m somewhat familiar with both and I suspect the radio sales forces in Market A are much more effective at selling radio’s strategic role in the new media landscape versus Market B. Radio sales execs in Market B obviously fight for station share of tight radio budgets thinking the other radio stations are their competitors rather than understanding how to sell a more dominant role for radio in a media mix.

Click here to arrange an online overview of how our SoundADvice and TOMA Research can educate clients, and train radio account executives, on why radio deserves a larger share of advertising budgets in your market.