It’s still September as my fingers tap out these words. They are words of Irony and a couple of Marketing lessons for you and me. First, I’ll share with you the full meaning of the title of this article and podcast, followed by a couple of examples and together we can be better with our advertising and marketing.
George Berkeley was an Irish philosopher who lived 300 years ago who is credited with asking the question,
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
The answer we know is yes, but when you apply this to the business world, and we might say no.
If you open your business but don’t tell anyone, do you really have a business?
If your business depends on having paying customers, but you do nothing to invite people to become your paying customers, how long will you have a business?
That’s the reason for my Tree Falling In The Woods title to this piece.
I have been consulting with several businesses that need to hire employees. Business is good, but the unemployment numbers are making it tough to expand. Seems like all the good employees are already working.
However, I know that good employees will change jobs and companies if there is enough of a reason to switch. It happens a lot. But here’s the problem that I keep seeing over and over again. The companies that have openings are not letting people know about the openings. Or they are doing a half-assed effort to let people know. The advice I give them is to create a page on their website that lists openings first, then we can send out invitations to people inviting them to check it out.
Unless you do both of those things, you will fail.
Using the tree analogy…
First you have to have a tree, which in this case is a place online that lists job openings you want to fill.
Then you need to invite people to see the tree and make some noise about it, sort of like the sound of the tree falling.
Now here’s a couple of examples I have observed and I’m going to call out some of my friends.
First, my friend Kevin Mullett. Kevin has been organizing and running a monthly event in Fort Wayne for several years now, called the Social and Marketing Breakfast – Fort Wayne. This event has been going on 11 months out of 12 for quite awhile. It’s almost always the last Tuesday morning of the month from 7:30 until 9am and is held at the same place 10 months each year.
The September event is planned for two days from right now. Remember I am writing this a couple of weeks before you are seeing it or hearing it on the podcast.
As of noon on Sunday not one invitation has been sent. Kevin uses Eventbrite and shares it online with Twitter and Facebook.
The topic for the September breakfast is Marketing Mistakes. Kevin invited me to sit on the panel to field questions and I said yes. Unfortunately, this event has multiple marketing mistakes itself.
The September event is number 81, so Kevin has been hosting these for over 7 years. I used to be a regular, but not so much in the past couple of years. Why? Because I didn’t get the invitation in time.
I’ll do a follow up story on this event and believe me, I love Kevin like a brother, or else I would not call him out on this.
Here’s the lesson to learn for all of us if you have an event or series of events that you want people to attend: Invite. Invite again. Invite as many was as possible. Send reminders. Don’t stop.
Next on my list of real life examples is a restaurant in downtown Fort Wayne. It was the darling of their many patrons for years. The place was called Calhoun Street Soup, Salads and Spirits. The owner Donna and her team created something special out of nothing. It even was nicknamed CS3 and had a back room for special events called the Tiger Room. I’ve been there countless times, it was the place my wife and I would visit about 3 times a month on Saturday nights for dinner, it was that good.
However this summer, Donna lost her lease. The place shut down. End of Story? Not really.
Donna had been working on another place, a tea room with a different kind of vibe to it, right across the street from CS3. Some of the staff joined her at the new place, some stayed behind because the old CS3 was going to be transformed into a new joint.
I visited the new place a few times. They are open for business with a limited menu as they make some upgrades but they will have their grand opening as Welch’s Brew House in October, I’ve been told.
Right now, the place is dead. No outside signage except one small sign on the sidewalk.
There was public outcry when the old CS3 was closing in August. That would have been the prime time to let people know that a new name and menu was coming to let all of those regulars and semi-regulars know that all was not lost.
One of our favorite waitstaff is still there, that’s how I know some of this insider information, but the general public is generally clueless.
I feel sorry for the crew that is working at Welch’s right now. With maybe 10% of the customers they had under the old name and ownership, it’s got to be hard to make a living.
So again, another lesson about invitations. If you don’t invite people to your business, they won’t come. Welch’s missed some excellent opportunities to set the stage for their grand opening and in the meantime, all those old CS3 regulars, about 90% of them have changed their dining and drinking habits by finding a different place to eat and drink. Invite. Invite again. Invite as many was as possible. Send reminders. Don’t stop.
And the last lesson for today applies to me and the people who work directly in either sales, advertising or marketing.
It’s the same lesson: Invite. Invite again. Invite as many was as possible. Send reminders. Don’t stop. If you are like me and looking to connect with potential customers, you have to Invite. Invite again. Invite as many was as possible. Send reminders. Don’t stop.
As a member of the advertising sales team at WOWO radio, I have a whole toolbag of goodies we can use to help you on the radio and online. Let this be your invitation to contact me.
Instead, if growing your business is important, focus on Connections and Relationships.
I do a lot of reading and observing. I take pride in the fact that I have a pretty diverse circle of friends of all ages. Some are in their 70’s pushing 80 and others are just old enough to vote in the next election.
Personally, I have worked in show business and as an entry level material handler in a factory. I enjoy my relationships with millionaires and with people who are working multiple jobs to make ends meet.
What’s this have to do with branding, marketing and advertising your logo?
Let me tell you.
We the people of this United States value a few things over everything else:
Trust
Honesty
Hope
I’ll go deeper.
We want to Trust that when ever we are going to spend money on something, that we are paying the right price, not getting ripped off with a bunch of hype and advertising promises that aren’t really true.
We crave Honesty in our business dealings. We understand that no one is perfect, but when something happens that needs fixed or corrected. don’t weasel your way out of it. Be honest. Do what you can to fix the problem. By the way, you will earn greater loyalty by fixing a problem for someone than if everything went smoothly the first time.
Also we want to be optimistic in this country of ours. No matter what we are buying, we want to have hope that the purchase we are making will improve our lives. This is the Hope I am talking about. The new car, and the box of cereal, both purchases are based on Hope to fill a need or desire.
Here’s a couple of ways to implement these three values:
First off, live them. Not just you, but everyone in your business. The front line clerks and staff that deal with the public, your customers everyday need to convey Trust, Honesty and Hope in their actions and attitude. You need to model it and live it so it can be passed down the line.
This is what builds relationships and relationships build your business.
I call this your Internal Marketing. It’s what you do to give your customers a good feeling about being your customer.
Your External Marketing is about making that initial connection outside of your business location. It’s about inviting people to check you out, inviting them to browse your place and look around. Doesn’t matter if it is online or in person, the same principle applies.
Your External Marketing includes your paid advertising. You need to be consistent in conveying Trust, Honesty, and Hope in your ads that reflect the customer experience that you have built in your company.
I’m going to tell you why I work in the radio industry and not some other form of media or advertising sales. It has a lot to do with what I have just said. And it is more true right now with where I work at WOWO Radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana compared to nearly any other place I have worked in media.
As a former radio personality, I experienced first hand the power of listeners making a connection with the voice on the other end. My first wife and mother of my kids, met me because I was on the radio.
When a radio personality does it correctly, he or she can create an intimacy with individual listeners that is as strong as a lot of in-person friendships.
Television personalities can do this too to a certain degree, but studies have shown that the bond isn’t as personal as radio personalities can create.
What about social media advertising? Billboard advertising? Newspaper, magazine, placemat, direct mail advertising? Those are just ads. There might be a bit of connecting, but certainly not relationship building.
The kind of relationship building via radio advertising with WOWO occurs on many levels. Long time listeners to the station consider WOWO as a trusted source of news and information as they have been a leader in providing that since before I was a kid and have continued the past couple of decades as a news and talk radio station. That trust in the station is also transferred to the businesses that advertise on WOWO.
A deeper level of trust is established when one of our personalities talks about your business, in either a short sponsorship message or as a personal endorsement or testimonial. Man, those types of ads are extremely powerful because they combine all the elements we’ve been talking about today. Trust, Honesty and Hope thru Connections and Relationships.
Want to know more? Let’s talk. Drop me a note to Scott @ScLoHo.net.
Ready to get rid of your staff and replace them with robots, apps, or some other form of technology? Hang on a second and let’s consider The People Process.
John and his wife Kim once owned a successful chain of local coffee shops, called Higher Grounds. Among the most memorable conversations I had with John during his coffee shop days was his commitment to his craft. Higher Grounds grew to multiple locations in Fort Wayne and dominated the local coffee shop scene for quite a while before Starbucks came to town. They dominated simply due to the number of Higher Ground coffee shops they had along with their own roastery. More than anyone else and yet here we are and the only sign of the Higher Grounds Coffee brand is in a few gas stations.
John’s commitment to his craft was an anti-Starbucks commitment. Most people are unaware of how automated the process is at a Starbucks. At Higher Grounds, John insisted that his barista’s learn how to “pull a shot”. That is the process of brewing a shot of espresso that is used in most coffee shop drinks. John insisted that it was a skill worth learning instead of letting a machine do it by pushing a button.
While I appreciated John’s insistence and dedication, I recall challenging him to visit his different Higher Ground Coffee Shops and order a White Mocha, or what ever his favorite coffee drink was, and compare the taste. I knew from experience that even though the Higher Grounds name was on my White Mocha coffee cup, the taste was different at each of his stores because of the slight differences that each barista would do in making my drink.
The commitment to individuals learning a skill was far from a standardize, automated process that could churn out the same beverage every single time.
As I mentioned, Higher Grounds Coffee Shops are no longer around, and it is for other reasons besides the story I just shared with you. Businesses change for numerous reasons. Starbucks did come to Fort Wayne and while they opened more stores than any other coffee shop in town, we still have a few fantastic local coffee shops I visit regularly.
Starbucks has learned one of the lessons of Ray Kroc when he was building the McDonald’s hamburger empire. Brand Consistency. Last year when I visited my son in South Carolina and my daughter in Colorado, Starbucks got my White Mocha Coffee money, because no matter which Starbucks I visited, my White Mocha tasted the same.
Let’s circle back to the topic I started this conversation with… The People Process. While it’s true that automation and technology will continue to replace people’s jobs, it doesn’t mean people are not needed. We just need people to help us differently than a few years ago.
Here’s a quote from the article I was reading:
Among jobs identified … as high risk for automation are cashiers, wait staff, office clerks, restaurant cooks, bus drivers, receptionists, construction labor, bookkeepers, accountants and auditors.
and here’s more:
Among the jobs at the least risk for automation are nursing assistants, home health aides, elementary school teachers, secondary school teachers, human resources specialists, registered nurses, management analysts, software developers, physicians and surgeons.
Even in those professions I just mentioned, there have been tremendous technology advances, so even if the job title sticks around, the actual work is changing.
When I look at the business world from my advertising and marketing perspective, I see how we as humans crave the ability to interact with other people at times. Some companies are doing a decent job of transitioning their staff from one task to a new one. I visited one of the McDonald’s in my city where I placed my order from a kiosk instead of talking to someone behind her computer screen. I can punch in my order as well as a paid order taker. But here’s how the kept the People Process alive. Instead of standing around waiting for them to call my number, I got to take a seat and the former order taker was now delivering my food to me with a smile.
When you incorporate technology advances in your business, keep in mind that there are somethings that will create a difference and make a lasting impression on your customers and the most valuable ones involve this People Process.
It’s part of your overall marketing. Want help on sorting out what could be a good step forward versus a disastrous step into oblivion? It’s part of the services I provide. Let’s connect and talk.
Today, I have a few key tips for anyone in the business of sales, which is not limited to people who sell for a living, but nearly all of us. The three words I want you to remember is: Help People Buy.
This month, the company I work for, Federated Media, experienced a tragic loss with the unexpected death of Charly Butcher, the host of Fort Wayne’s Morning News on WOWO Radio. Charly began his career with Federated Media in the 1980’s on WOWO’s sister station, WMEE. His life touched countless numbers of people as made evident by the stories and tributes.
One story I heard from my coworker Tracy was how a car salesperson was struggling with a sale but then Charly stepped in to Help People Buy:
We were at a remote at Fort Wayne Subaru and they just got in one single BRZ sport coupe in bright red that was stunning. This guy about 23 was looking at it with lust and the sales person just could not close the deal no matter how hard he tried. Charly went to the guy and said “I tell you what…you buy this car now and I will put you on the air live on Monday to brag about it. You can tell all your friends you will be on WOWO Monday morning.” The guy agreed to it on the spot and sure enough he got his 5 minutes of Fame on Charly’s show that Monday. We had a happy customer, happy sales person, happy manager and Charly was so proud of himself.
I’ve recently told you about my most recent car buying experience, which was filled with unnecessary sales pitches, because by the time I went to the dealership, I already decided exactly which car I wanted and all they really had to do was take care of the paperwork.
Today, I’m going to share with you another bad buying experience I had.
The afternoon after attending Charly Butcher’s funeral, I needed to visit some funeral homes for a brother-in-law who was just transferred to hospice care. Yes, it was a dreadful week, but sometimes you have to plow through it to get things done.
I visited 3 places and told each exactly what I was looking for:
I am here to get price information for direct cremation for the upcoming passing of my brother-in-law who is likely in the final week of his life. I am getting this information for my wife who will be making the decision of who we use. No public funeral or additional services are needed, just the bare bone basics. A family memorial will take place in a few months out of town.
That was the story I told all three funeral homes. From what I said, if they were listening, they would know that I am looking only for their price and I was not going to be buying anything today. I told them I was price shopping only.
So what happened?
At funeral home number one, I get what I am looking for, the bottom line price, in writing, but first the guy shows me his powerpoint on who he is, how many funerals they have done over the past 10 years complete with the standard bar chart.
He was not listening to what I said, he was stuck in selling mode. I redirected him to get the info I needed and left.
Funeral home number two was worse. Two guys, teaming up to sell me, after I told them exactly why I was there. They even asked questions about my wife and I that had absolutely nothing to do with why I was there. Like, “how long have you and your wife been married?” I almost walked out. In the end, I got the answers I wanted and a bad taste in my mouth to never do business with these two salespeople.
Funeral home number three was actually the best. When I told him the same story I told the other two, he actually listened and told me that they are not the least expensive for cremation services. I appreciated his honesty instead of his sales pitch and we talked more. I learned a few things that made me want to transfer some of my own business to them in the future.
I learned a few lessons that day about the sales process that I am going to apply to my work, and hopefully you can apply these same lessons in your company:
How to Help People Buy
Listen first to find out what they think they are shopping for so you can focus on what they want.
Ask questions to clarify what they are looking for as an end result.
Answer their questions first, then ask how else you can help them.
Funeral home number two, almost had me walk out in the middle of their sales pitch, can you imagine having a potential customer come to you and then walk out because you were too salesy?
I bet it happens more than we realize.
By the way, I wrote a piece about Charly Butcher and his impact with WOWO and the community, but did not create a podcast for that article because it contains a few videos. I invite you to read and watch by clicking on the link to this article on my website at ScottHoward.me
There are a lot of postings online about the sudden and unexpected passing of my friend and co-worker Charly Butcher. I took some time to find some video’s that give a glimpse into the Charly we all know and love, but first a run-down of what happened in the past 24 hours.
Wednesday evening, August 15th, 2018, I was at home when my phone notified me that a work email arrived. It was the announcement that Federated Media Fort Wayne Market Manager Jim Allgeier sent us:
It’s with a heavy heart that I am sending this email out right now. Charly Butcher has passed away this afternoon. No details as of yet that I can share.
Over the next couple of hours my co-workers in the advertising sales team at WOWO and I were in communication with each other. Numb and shocked were the words that we used as this was totally out of the blue. We wondered how our WOWO News and Programming co-workers would handle this, as Charly worked daily with them in the studio.
A couple hours later, WOWO sent a news alert via text that Charly had died and they posted the initial story on WOWO.com and shared on Facebook and Twitter. Soon the news teams at WANE-TV and WPTA-TV had the news on their websites and I stayed up to see all three local network affiliates, CBS, ABC and NBC lead their local newscast with the shocking news about Charly Butcher. You can search online to find their stories.
Charly was on vacation this week so his usual fill-in host Steve Shine is on the radio all week.
Thursday morning it was all hands on deck at the studios. Many of us wore our WOWO staff shirts all day. The entire morning program, Fort Wayne’s Morning News with Charly Butcher along with the entire afternoon show, The Pat Miller Program were live and local tributes to Charly. Phone calls, emails, text messages, in studio appearances, social media posts were all shared from former Indiana Governor and current Vice President Mike Pence to Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry. Current and former co-workers and others in the media took part. And of course there were plenty of reminiscing moments from listeners and friends of WOWO and WMEE where Charly first built his reputation in Fort Wayne in the 1980’s.
When Charly Butcher joined WMEE in 1983, I was also on the air at WMEE, but it was 30 years later that our paths crossed again when I rejoined Federated Media in 2013. Charly has now firmly in the news/talk business instead of the top 40 radio business and for nearly 5 years now, I’ve had the pleasure of working with him as we would brainstorm ideas for my WOWO advertising partners or just reminisce about our old WMEE days.
Sometimes when you work in local media like Charly did, you don’t realize the impact you are having on peoples lives. Over 3,000 people shared the original Facebook posting and the link on the WOWO.com website crashed as so many people were trying to find out what happened.
A hashtag #RememberCharly is being used on Facebook and Twitter if you care to join in or simply read.
I took some time to find a few videos from the past to share:
Quite a different persona than those who listened to him on WOWO radio, but still the same radio dude.
Here’s at promo clip from when WOWO began our TV simulcast:
As WOWO’s FM signal is now at 107.5FM the TV simulcast is now found on MyTV.
Charly emceeing one of the numerous events in our community from 2009:
Charly never lost his sense of humor at WOWO as evident in this clip from 2011:
Penny Pitch 2013:
Charly got the hang of being both on WOWO and TV:
Charly loved portraying himself as “The Grinch”:
Charly played tribute to another Fort Wayne institution a few years ago:
The last post from Charly on his Facebook page the day before he passed away shows one side of his personality:
Let me leave you with this clip from a couple years ago as Charly tells his story to students at Croninger Elementary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Follow the official post and comment at WOWO.com .
As a member of the WOWO radio advertising sales team, I have some insider information to share with you.
As a member of the Fort Wayne, Indiana community for the past 20 years, I have some insight to share with you.
As a marketing professional who has worked for other media companies, including those that competed with WOWO, I have some perspective to share with you.
As a Baby Boomer who grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where WOWO radio is located, I also have some history to share with you.
At the conclusion of this article, you will have a greater understanding of WOWO, Fort Wayne, and if we should talk about your business using WOWO to invite people to become your customers.
Twice a year, Fort Wayne radio stations receive the results of an independent ratings survey that tells us who listens and when they listen. Not in any scary, meta-data manner, but in demographic and geographic terms. June 29th, I received the results of the Spring 2018 rating survey.
I was not surprised by the data. I look for a couple of things such as the total number of listeners each week. When a business advertises with a radio station, there is a finite number of people that will hear their ads. Same is true with any advertising medium.
So I want to know how many total listeners WOWO has and once again, WOWO is listed as the radio station heard in Fort Wayne that has the largest number of listeners. Over 99,000 every week just in the 6 counties that include Allen County, where Fort Wayne is, and the 5 Indiana counties that are adjacent to Allen. That includes, Adams, Wells, Huntington, Whitley and Dekalb Counties in Indiana.
WOWO has listeners beyond those counties including the Indiana counties of Grant, Wabash, Kosciusko, Noble, Lagrange, Steuben, and several Ohio counties. The listeners in those counties are not included in the survey, but they are there. We know this because of the advertisers and listeners tell us.
The rating survey also tells me that 95% of WOWO’s radio listeners are grown-ups, age 25 and older.
Again WOWO leads the pack, we have nearly 30,000 more grown-ups listening every week compared to the next most popular station that has less than 70,000 listeners aged 25 and older.
Charly Butcher and the Fort Wayne Morning News Team have nearly 50,000 weekly grown-ups listening to WOWO.
So does Glenn Beck, whose 3 hour national talk show comes on at 9am.
Rush Limbaugh’s 3 hour national talk show has over 60,000 weekly listeners on WOWO between noon and 3pm and local WOWO Talk Show host Pat Miller has nearly 55,000 listeners every week between 3 and 6 in the afternoon.
There is no other radio station in Fort Wayne that has this massive number of listeners week after week, of grown-ups. Remember it’s the grown-ups that have the money, not the 13 year olds.
Why is WOWO so popular?
WOWO is a legacy radio station in Fort Wayne. When I was a kid, WOWO played music and the disc jockeys were allowed to be personalities. Bob Sievers, the legendary morning show host would tell me if school was delayed, but hundreds of farmers all across Indiana, Ohio and Michigan also listened to hear the farm reports.
In the evening, I listened to Ron Gregory when I was supposed to be doing my homework and enjoyed his wry sense of humor and puns.
But the WOWO of today is different. Now over 90 years on the air, mostly on 1190am, WOWO has been broadcasting a news and talk format for a couple of decades.
Politically, Northeast Indiana, or “WOWO-Land” as it is called to include the entire tri-state area leans conservative. With the line-up of conservative talk show hosts like our own Pat Miller along with national radio personalities, Glenn, Rush and Sean Hannity and Buck Sexton at night, WOWO has a strong format that attracts grown-up listeners.
We are not totally a conservative part of the country. Our mayor is serving his 3rd term as a member of the Democratic Party and his predecessor also from the Democratic Party served as mayor for two terms. The City and County Councils however lean Republican.
Our Fort Wayne Morning News with Charly Butcher, isn’t really a talk show, more of a news program with interview segments lasting 3 minutes or less, because it’s jam packed with 4 newscasts, 6 traffic and weather reports, 2 sports updates and 2 farm reports every hour! Interview segments with our Mayor and other city and county officials, state government leaders including the Governor and our Congressmen and Senators are featured live each week along with what ever else is timely and appropriate. And yes, just like when I was listening as a kid, WOWO still has school delays and closings in the morning when the weather is bad.
95% of WOWO listener tune in weekdays between 5 in the morning and 6 at night. I call in WOWO Primetime. 70% listen on the weekends.
There are other stations in Fort Wayne that are targeting the same age demographic as WOWO, but they have half as many or even a third as many weekly listeners.
There are also other stations that have a news or talk format, but again their total number of listeners is a tiny fraction of the weekly listeners that WOWO has according to the latest radio survey I’m looking at.
By the way, this dominance of WOWO is not new, it’s been consistent during the 15 plus years I have worked for WOWO and before when I worked for the other radio station companies in Fort Wayne.
All this information is good and great and wonderful, but how does WOWO perform for business that advertise with us?
I’m impressed and that’s not a bunch of hype. Because of all that I have already mentioned, there are certain characteristics and options that I have with WOWO that are not available anywhere else in Fort Wayne that have created phenomenal results for advertisers that partner with us. Nothing is 100%, but compared to other stations I have worked for since 1986, I don’t have to cross my fingers and hope for the best when I have a true advertising partner who takes my guidance, coaching and follows that plan we create together.
Not every business that I talk to however qualifies to work with me. Want to know if you qualify? Hit me up, and let’s connect.
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