Features Vs Benefits

Features Vs Benefits

by | May 13, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

This month of May I’m sharing a recent articles from my weekly Sound ADvice Newsletter.  It’s free just for the asking and if you want to be added, drop me a note to Scott@ WOWO.com.

Every year there are millions of drills sold across North America. But here’s the crazy thing…not one person who bought a drill wanted a drill! What they really wanted were holes!  If another tool would have made the holes faster, better, easier, or cheaper they would have bought that tool, not the drill.

In most business and product categories, including yours, the same is true. None of your customers want to buy your goods or services. They only want the “benefits” those goods and services deliver.

No one wants to buy insurance; they want to be protected.  Nobody wants an aspirin; they want pain relief.

All traditional sales training courses address the need for selling benefits versus features. It’s pretty basic stuff, yet, we often expect our advertising to sell features to consumers who only care about benefits.

Here is the litmus test that distinguishes features from benefits:  A feature remains true if the customer does not buy.  For example: “John Deere tractors are built better”.

A benefit only occurs if the customer buys.  For example: “Nothing runs like a Deere. Your tractor will have fewer breakdowns, saving you money and time”.

Here is another feature vs. benefit example for a regional auto parts store:

Feature: “A million different auto parts and accessories“.

Benefit: “You’ll get your parts in a day or less”.

Your benefit statement should always answer the question, “What’s in it for me?” from your customer’s perspective.

Look at your next radio script or ad proof. Are your ads only talking about features (you) and not telling what’s in it for them (benefit)? They don’t want a drill; they want a product that makes a hole!

Click here if you’d like me to work with you to uncover the best possible benefit statements for your next advertising campaign.
A Lesson on Advertising from Preachers and Teachers

A Lesson on Advertising from Preachers and Teachers

by | May 6, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

For the month of May I’m sharing recent articles from my weekly Sound ADvice Newsletter.  It’s free just for the asking and if you want to be added, drop me a note to Scott@ WOWO.com.

The goal of every preacher and teacher is to grab the attention of the people they are speaking to and make sure that they not only hear the message but also understand and retain the message.

So, what can preachers and teachers teach advertisers about advertising? The answer is a lot, if you pay attention to the formula preachers and teachers use to get their message across and make it stick!

Going back to the very early 1900s, though not taking credit for it, religious figure J. H. Jowett explained the process of preparing sermons, speaking to the crowd, and how to make sure the lesson was not only taught but understood. He said the three-part formula to help prepare sermons so the layperson could understand was this:

1. Tell them what you are going to tell them.

2. Then tell them.

3. Then tell them what you told them.

Modern-day teachers have been taught and still use this same method. They know that if their students do not get the message in this fashion, three times in a seven-day window, they won’t retain what they’ve learned and will probably fail the test.

Research has proven that your advertising must follow a similar formula. If you want your customers and prospects to retain and remember your advertising message, they must hear your message three times in any given seven-day window. In advertising, this formula is known as “a frequency of three” and it’s one of the 6 Steps to Ads That Stick.

If you think about it, advertising really is a little bit of preaching and a little bit of teaching! Use this formula and your ads will have a better chance of sticking in the listener’s mind.

Click here to read the rest of the 6 Steps to Ads That Stick and make your ads stick in the minds of your prospects.
Once in a Lifetime Eclipse

Once in a Lifetime Eclipse

by | Apr 29, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

It’s been a few weeks but on April 8th millions of us in the United States were in the path of a solar eclipse.

Here in Indiana, the main event was shortly after 3pm as the moon blocked the light from the sun for a few minutes.

Where I live, Ft. Wayne, Indiana, we were in the 99.9% of total blackout and I was going to attend a rooftop viewing party locally.

However a few days before, my daughter who lives in Colorado told me she and her husband and kids were making the trek back home to witness it first hand and they were going to a rural spot south of Ft. Wayne where her in-laws lived and could we join them?

Yes was the answer and like many others we made a drive to see the world go dark in the middle of the afternoon.

It was a cool experience and likely the last solar eclipse I will witness first hand in my lifetime considering the next one for where I live is in 2099 and I’d be well over 100 years+ old.

There were plenty of crazy people predicting the 2nd coming of Jesus, or the rapture, or other things that most of us ignored.   For the most part, this was an event for the masses without any political division or any other of the things that can divide people.

Instead, it was a day where all people could enjoy the same thing without a lot of spin.  Oh there was a lot of hype and some news organizations went overboard warning people to be prepared for the worst.

But it really was nothing more than a natural, predictable occurrence that was available for anyone to witness first hand either in person like we did or on screens like many others did.

And that my friends, was a refreshing change from the multiple divisions this world seems to foster.

I’ll toss in a marketing tidbit… Be honest about how you promote things in your business.  Once in a Lifetime can only occur once every 75 years or so.  And remember the old adage of Underpromise and Overdeliver.  This year’s eclipse was like that for me and hopefully you too.

Lessons from the NCAA Basketball Finals

Lessons from the NCAA Basketball Finals

by | Apr 22, 2024 | ScLoHo Sales Tips, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

It’s been a few weeks and hopefully the sting of your broken bracket has faded enough to apply some lessons from college basketball to our businesses.

Living in Indiana, I was rooting for the Purdue Boilermakers to win it all.  In my family we even have a Purdue grad, my step-daughter.

April 7th and 8th, the top teams played in the Womens and Mens championship games and as I was listening to some of the commentary during and after the games, there was a common theme that the champions had that was different from the runner-ups.

In the Women’s championship game, Iowa had Catlin Clark who was their superstar and has been a media favorite.  She scored 30 points and was the leading scorer of the title game.  Catlin Clark is a college basketball superstar.

The next night, Purdue’s Zach Edey racked up 37 points and outscored everyone of the players from both teams.

Both Catlin Clark and Zach Edey finished their season on the losing team.  Purdue lost by 15 points to UConn and Iowa got beat by a dozen points to South Carolina.

Why is it that Iowa and Purdue, both teams with nationally known superstars lost the most important games of the season?

It’s because Basketball is a team sport.

As I glanced at the scoring stats, this years college champions, both the Men’s and Women’s side, the schools that took home the top trophies had a balanced team that didn’t rely on just one superstar.

The Iowa Hawkeyes had just 5 players that scored while the Women’s champs had 9 players adding to the South Carolina Gamecocks final score.

The UConn Huskies had 7 players contributing points in their win, while Purdue’s Zach Edey, only had 4 teammates sinking the ball.

The day after the Men’s Championship game I was talking with my boss about all of this and applied it to our situation at Federated Media.

My station, WOWO is one of 10 in our company.  5 are in South Bend, Indiana and the other 5, including WOWO are in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  During the 11 years I have been with WOWO, either on the sales team or as the General Sales Manager, WOWO has grown to be the highest scoring revenue station out of all 10.  It’s not the one with the largest audience, and it’s not the one with the most popular music.  They don’t play music, WOWO is a news/talk station.

WOWO’s sales team has depth and balance.  When I was hired in 2013, I was the 5th person on a 5 person team and typically that position is a revolving door.  However in a few years I became 2nd in longevity and when I was promoted to General Sales Manager in 2020.  The year before, in 2019, I was named the top Account Executive in our entire company so my priority was to hire someone to replace myself.  Nearly 4 years later, I hired myself back to the sales team for WOWO and left most of the management duties.

Then and now the WOWO Advertising Sales Team of Account Executives has been filled with strong players.  Tracy has been with us 23 years.  Rob joined 11 years ago and we just added another Federated Media veteran, Brad who spent two decades with our sister station WMEE and returned 6 months ago, this to on the WOWO team.  Having a strong team has helped us nearly triple the revenue results and it doesn’t rest on one person.  Everyone has a slump every once in a while and if you don’t have the others to carry your team through, it can be very challenging.

What about your organization?  How much of the success relies on one person?  Are you vulnerable if something were to happen to that person?  I understand that most companies in the past few decades have become lean and reduced redundancies and back in 2020 with the Covid pandemic, our company did too.   However, we should also create backups for people, not just systems.

Need help on any of this?  Ask me and if it’s not in my portfolio of services, I have connections to people who can assist.

 

 

 

Pitfalls of Pinpoint Targeting

Pitfalls of Pinpoint Targeting

by | Apr 15, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

A little of this and a little of that can work when making cookies in the kitchen.  But when it comes to marketing your business, having the correct “Media Mix” is crucial to capturing your immediate sales, and more importantly, your future sales and market share.

Digital media has made it possible to narrowly target, locate, and reach those precise prospects who are “ready to buy” today but many businesses have fallen victim to the pitfalls of micro-targeting.

People who only promote “micro-targeting” strategies suggest that advertising that reaches the broader market with mass media is a waste of time and money.  They claim that if you are not in the market to purchase today, you’re not worth talking to.

But here’s the thing…What if your competitor has been using mass media effectively to establish a brand and create a pre-need preference for their business over yours before the consumer is ready to buy? Waiting to reach your prospects until they are ready to buy can be too little too late.

The world’s largest advertiser Proctor and Gamble discovered this the hard way.  They learned that by targeting, or niche marketing, via digital and social platforms, they were not reaching their potential future customers.  Therefore, they were actually losing brand identity and ultimately market share.  They quickly re-adjusted their media mix to include even more traditional media (Radio/TV) which turned the tide and grew their sales. (No pun intended as Tide Detergent is a P&G product!)

Last year I was part of a radio masters sales summit conference in Cincinnati, Ohio and one of the presenters was the man who worked for Proctor and Gamble who saw the error of their ways and saved the company by returning to radio and TV.  He has since retired but he is a huge advocate for radio to build and sustain your brand image.

Human beings are stubborn animals. Reaching them when they are ready to buy is of little use, especially when they are biased towards your competitor or unfamiliar with you.

Conversely, if you have created a strong pre-need preference for your business, your competitors’ online and search efforts will be in vain.

Like cookies with added preservatives, the good ole’ traditional advertising (Radio/TV) is what makes your advertising investment last longer.  Of course, it’s not wrong to reach consumers when they are ready to buy, particularly if they are already familiar with you, trust you, and prefer you.

 

To see what the Advertising Research Foundation (a media-neutral organization) says about the right media ingredients, click here. If you would like to visit about your media mix, give me a call and we can visit.  I’ll bring the mixing bowl!

What you just read was sent to subscribers of my weekly Sound ADvice newsletter.  Contact me if you would like a free, no-obligation subscription too.