by Scott Howard | Aug 26, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom
My how things have changed but stayed the same too.
I’ve pulled another article from the ScLoHo 2008 archives. This was just before the 2008 Republican Convention. We now have the hindsight to see what happened.
Some thoughts from Laura Ries:
This Presidential race has stacked up to be a true test of branding might.
McCain/Maverick vs. Obama/Change.
Both parties have found their footing and have refocused their campaigns and their message. It will be a true test of two brands that are now totally focused.
What each has to do now is dig in deep on their position, their word and their message.
The Democrats put on an excellent convention that stayed on-message and on-course. As the party out of power in DC, they have a tremendous advantage in being able to claim change as their theme. The power of one word, one sign, one message was evident at the convention this week. The Clinton’s were not easily beat, but with one word (Change) a relatively unknown guy took them down.
What the Republicans need to do most at their convention next week is to showcase one word, one sign, one look. It is not about being better than the Democrats (nobody could put on a better show than Obama did Thursday night) it is about being different in a clear and focused way.
The difficulity in politics is that you need 51% of the vote to win, trying to appeal too broadly is a temptation. But in the end, the winner is the candidate that can attach himself or herself to a powerful idea in the mind.
My biggest concern for McCain is this: What will the signs say and will they all be the same. If McCain nails that, then this could be a race to remember and he might even win.
by Scott Howard | Aug 25, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom
From the ScLoHo 2008 archives:
From the Business Turn Around site:
Providing a good customer experience isn’t always about what you add to your business. Sometimes it’s about what you take away – like the potential for a customer’s embarrassment.
Meet “Abby” in the photo to the left. While shopping …
with Abby at our neighborhood pet store, Frances saw these cleanup stations at the end of several aisles, as well as one at the entrance.
Are there potentially embarrassing moments for your customers in your business? Breakables displayed too low so that a customer’s jacket can brush them off into the floor. Extension cords across the floor that could trip up a customer. No paper in the washroom.
Inviting pet owners to bring their pets into the store is also an invitation for an accident. Petco knows that. But, when it happens to your pet, it’s still embarrassing. Petco tries to minimize that embarrassment by making it as easy as possible for the customer to clean it up.
by Scott Howard | Aug 21, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I noticed a profound turn of the tables on the employment front this year. Back in March after a trip to Michigan, I started seeing help wanted signs everywhere. A friend of mine started a Facebook Group to match employers with job seekers and now has over 6,000 members!
Unemployment in Allen County, Indiana where Fort Wayne is located is under 5% this summer. The best employees have jobs. The ways to fill your openings with the best employees is not to look for the unemployed, but to reach out to those who are already getting a paycheck, in most cases. 
I know from personal experience that while the size of a paycheck is important, there are plenty of other reasons people leave and take other positions including the work environment, people they work with, promotional opportunities and the like… are reasons for someone to consider a change.
Today in 2015, people are not going to hang on to a job they hate just for the money. But they may not be actively looking on the job boards either.
You as an employer need to be proactive and reach them where they are. And here’s where they are:
Over 90% of adults listen to local radio every week according to RAB.com.
The Fort Wayne radio station with the largest number of adults ages 21 to 64? WOWO radio.
And there are plenty of folks working beyond age 64. I know several in their 70’s and older.
WOWO has another distinct advantage over other local stations. WOWO is a news/talk radio station. People tune in to listen to the talking. It is Brain Food. Compare this to music radio stations which people tune in to for music, not talking. Talk on a music station is irritating. And unfortunately commercials are talk.
Right now, I have a few recruitment solutions for companies that need to find the best employees available in the Fort Wayne area. With over 100,000 adults listening to WOWO every week, we can help you invite them to apply and work for you.
Those solutions include WOWO’s radio broadcasts, along with several digital elements that we can add to target your ideal candidates.
It doesn’t matter if you are hosting your own job fair or need to find employees on an ongoing basis. Part time, full time, seasonal, I can help you design a recruitment campaign for your company needs. Call or text me at 260-255-4357 or email Scott@WOWO.com and let’s get going!
by Scott Howard | Aug 20, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
I mentioned this a few months ago, that there is a difference in buying advertising and forming an advertising partnership. Recently I have been really focusing on developing those advertising partnerships and committing them to paper in our agreement.
In the proposal to start an advertising program with me (Scott Howard) and WOWO Radio, I include these words:
This advertising partnership is a commitment from me:
- To meet regularly, every 2 to 6 weeks, as needed
- To keep our advertising messages updated regularly
- To offer additional opportunities to use the services and marketing platforms offered by WOWO Radio, Federated Media, Federated Entertainment and Federated Digital Solutions
- To be a creative resource and consultant for all your marketing efforts
- To offer suggestions and feedback as the relationship continues
This advertising partnership is also a commitment from you:
- To be available for regular meetings and communication
- To keep me updated when changes and/or new services are offered that we might include in your marketing.
- To set up a tracking system to assist in identifying results from our campaign
- To stay current with monthly payments as outlined
- To inform me of both successes and concerns as we move forward.
While some of these elements are adjusted, such as the advertising partner that is 100 miles away, so we communicate by phone and email every couple of weeks, this is the basis for a healthy advertising partnership.
I am unaware of anyone else (besides my coworkers) in Fort Wayne who lays it on the line, in writing like this. I am aware of plenty of others who do not want to make this type of investment and commitment into their clients.
If you as a business owner or manager would like to have this kind of advertising partnership, contact me.
by Scott Howard | Aug 19, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard
Yesterday I left you with:
So how do you deal with Return On Investment as a way to measure the success of your advertising campaign and more importantly how do you feel good about spending money on advertising?
Ask the right questions.
Know the limitations.
Deal with trustworthy people.
Today we’ll dig deeper.
Ask the right questions of anyone who is attempting to sell you advertising. You want to find out what the reach is of your advertising using that particular form of advertising and you want as many details as possible.
My radio station, WOWO, has over 100,000 adults listeners every week according to the independent data and research. No other Fort Wayne radio station has that large of an adult audience.
Newspapers know how big their readership is because they know how many papers they publish.
Billboard companies get traffic counts from the highway departments that tell them how many people drive by each of their signs.
Websites can measure visitor traffic and a whole bunch of data too.
These are only measurements of the potential reach or maximum number of people who will be exposed to your advertising message. Using radio as an example, WOWO has 112,156 adult listeners over the age of 25 according to the data. That’s how big the lake is if you decide to fish in it. When you ask the right questions you can compare the size of WOWO’s adult audience with other stations. For example WLDE has 62,262 weekly listeners that are age 25 and older. The WLDE lake is half the size of the WOWO lake. The potential number of people you could ever reach advertising on WLDE is less than 1/2 the number as WOWO.
Knowing the limitations is just as important. We just saw that the maximum number of WLDE listeners you could reach is half the maximum number of WOWO listeners. But the real numbers that your advertising will reach is always going to be less than the maximum, no matter what station or any other media you use.
With radio we can use the same data we get about our total number of listeners to come up with an estimate of how many listeners your advertising schedule will reach. That’s not really possible with newspapers or billboards.
I can create an advertising schedule that will reach 30,000 people. Or one that reaches 50,000 people, or 80,000 people. All because I am starting with a lake that is filled with over 100,000.
And one extremely important side note, is that everyone who is exposed to your advertising is not going to be your customer. It will be a small percentage no matter what. Here’s the advantage that having a large lake to fish in: More potential customers. If you are likely to get 1% of the people who you advertise to who become customers each year, it makes sense to fish in that larger lake.
None of this talk about numbers will ultimately make you feel good if you don’t trust the person you are negotiating with.
Which is the reason for my third point, Deal with Trustworthy People.
There is absolutely no reason to spend your advertising money with people you don’t trust. You don’t want employees that you can’t trust and you certainly want the people you are investing your advertising dollars with to also be trustworthy.
A simple test is the focus of the person who is offering you something to buy. Are they looking out for your best interests or just theirs? It’s okay if they are looking out for both your interests and their own, but they should never sacrifice yours for theirs.
This is why I look for advertising partners, not just people to buy advertising. Tomorrow, I will share with you how I define on paper what it means to form an advertising partnership.
by Scott Howard | Aug 18, 2015 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo
When I talk to business owners and managers about advertising options, they want to feel good about the money they are going to spend.
Did you see that?
They want to feel good.
They want to feel smart, confident, happy and wise.
Often times this feeling comes from examining facts and figures and from calculating the Return On Investment they will get from spending (investing) in advertising.
This is such an imperfect science that we should eliminate it all together but like I said, people want to feel good when they are going to spend money.
I was talking with a friend recently and we came up with a return on investment that looks like this:
For every $3000 he spends, he needs 3 sales to break even and the 4th sale produces a profit. This is based on 3 years of being in business and the knowledge that he has of his average sale, expenses and those operating numbers.
Great information, I wish more business owners knew this.
What we don’t know is how to accurately track the Return On Investment of each individual advertising and marketing message he has out there.
Here’s why: His truck is logoed up and has his contact info. When he is driving down the road or sitting in traffic, his truck is planting marketing seeds (impressions) on future customers. You can’t accurately measure the Return On Investment of his vehicle wrap can you?
He takes part in some consumer trade shows. Hundreds of people have seen his display and dozens have spoken with him each year. Only a small percentage of the people who see his display (the ones he talks to and gets contact info from) are trackable for Return On Investment measurement.
Advertising and marketing messages overlap. We are exposed to a business via multiple methods which nullifies the results of tracking the Return on Investment of each individual advertising and marketing message.
The web was supposed to be the ultimate source of accurate and fool proof tracking, but it falls victim to the same limitations of measurement that off line marketing has.
You could try combining the two which might help, or produce some really weird and useless ad campaigns like this one from 2012 that tried combining Billboards with QR codes:
The Unscanable QR Code
So how do you deal with Return On Investment as a way to measure the success of your advertising campaign and more importantly how do you feel good about spending money on advertising?
Ask the right questions.
Know the limitations.
Deal with trustworthy people.
More on this Wednesday.
Providing a good customer experience isn’t always about what you add to your business. Sometimes it’s about what you take away – like the potential for a customer’s embarrassment.
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