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.

 

 

 

No Quick Fix

No Quick Fix

by | Apr 8, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

One of the concerns that I sometimes hear when talking to a business owner about investing in an advertising campaign is how long it will take to get results.

Or a variation is the opposite…

Can we handle all the business we get if we start advertising with your radio station?

My friends, there is usually no quick fix.

Advertising is usually not like a faucet that you turn on and customers come rushing out to buy what you have right away.

It takes time.

How much time?

Depends on how many ads you place and how often they air and a few other important factors.

However to the untrained, it might seem like things are closer than they really are.

Last month my wife and I took a trip to Washington DC to see the Cherry Blossoms and sightsee and along with a memorable trip, I’ve also got material for a few blogposts and podcast episodes.

The first day of our arrival, after checking in to our hotel and enjoying dinner at a local Irish pub, we decided to walk over to the Capitol Building which I knew was about 3 or 4 blocks away.  We could see it from the Irish pub.

Then we glanced over towards the Washington Monument and decided to hike thru the National Mall to the Monument where there were more Cherry Trees and it was my intention to continue to the Jefferson Memorial.

However as we started the first part of our journey it was getting dusk and our perception of distance and the time it would take was off.  We did make it to the Washington Monument, but there was no way we were going to continue that night all the way to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial on foot on Friday night.

A couple days later, with some pre-planning, I made arrangements for us to get a tour of the major sites of Washington DC that included transportation and from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the daylight that Sunday, we could see much more clearly the big picture of how far we were from the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building.

The lessons we learned about quick fixes:

  1. Plan ahead
  2. Understand the journey
  3. Know when to regroup and find a different method
  4. Dress appropriate for the journey

Those same lessons apply to marketing your business, even the last one about dressing appropriately.

Want help? Contact me.

Narrow Minded Marketing

Narrow Minded Marketing

by | Mar 18, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

The goal of your advertising should be to increase both your sales and your brand identity. But all too often we overly focus on analytics or demographics when creating our media plans.  Narrowly targeting often means you are missing the much larger population of people not in your core demographic.

As the “New Media” (digital and social) emerged, many businesses, large and small, made the move to these platforms believing that laser-focused targeting was the answer to their advertising dreams.

Wrong!  In fact, Tide, the #1 selling laundry detergent, found that while they were focusing on the people who fit their “typical profile”, they were missing the much larger target of those who were not using their product. In other words, they were eroding their brand’s awareness and missing the target of “new and future” users. Ultimately, their sales started to decline.

In a swift move, they moved the majority of their budget back to traditional media, and sales and brand identity rebounded.

In another example, it might not seem unreasonable for a baby-products retailer to target “women 18-49 with infants”, but according to the market research firm Scarborough, nearly half of those who bought infants’ clothing, roughly 47%, were from households without children.

The same research from Scarborough found that nearly a quarter of all women’s cosmetics and perfumes, 23.5%, were bought by men.

In Roy Williams’ Twelve Causes of Advertising Failure, #9 is Overconfidence in Qualitative Data. “In reality, saying the wrong thing has killed far more ad campaigns than reaching the wrong people. It is amazing how many people become the ‘Right People’ when you are saying the right thing.”

Being too narrow-minded and focusing on only the core audience is actually eroding your brand. Hundreds and thousands of people are not in the market for your product or service today, or even soon, but someday they will be.

Thinking beyond the traditional demographics your competitors are targeting with their advertising can help you reach untapped markets to increase your sales well into the future.

Click here to read how to reach and influence “purchasers” rather than “demographics”.
 
 
Now I’ve worked in both mass media and niche media.  I’ve done mass appeal and hyper-targeted campaigns.  I would welcome the opportunity to review any advertising proposals that a typical ad salesperson presents to you to see exactly what the focus is and if it’s a good match for what you want to accomplish.
3 Ways To Grow Your Business

3 Ways To Grow Your Business

by | Feb 19, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

Last week subscribers to my SoundADvice email newsletter learned we the advantages of knowing your competitors and finding ways or areas where you can exploit your competitors’ weaknesses and find areas where you can grow your business.

As owners or managers of a business, it’s our responsibility to not only figure out how to keep our business functioning properly and effectively but also how to GROW our business.  Staying even or going backward are not options.  Growth is vital!

Growing a business is not nearly as easy as it may appear and it’s certainly more complicated than just increasing sales.  Understanding that there are only three ways to grow a business is a great place to start.

Regardless of what type of business you have, there are only three ways to grow. They are…

  1. Sell more of what you are currently selling.
  2. Sell what you are currently selling for more money.
  3. Add additional product(s) or service(s) to what you are currently selling.

Regardless of how you slice it, nearly everything you can come up with to grow a business will fall under one of these three headings.

We suggest that you look at each area and identify within your business how you might increase your sales.

  1. Selling more this year than you did last year isn’t as easy as it sounds and simply opening up your doors and hanging a “We’re Open” sign isn’t the answer. What can you do to get the same people, or new people, to buy more of your products or services?
  2. Can you increase prices? If not on every product or service, can you increase the pricing on some of them? Which ones? Identify them!
  3. Adding products or services gets tricky. Think within your business category and then think outside of it. Are there products or services that you can add that won’t distract from or replace your current offerings?

Attracting a customer and getting them to open their wallets can be a difficult and costly process.  But once they’re in your showroom and have their wallets open, an accompanying up-sell is relatively easy.  Once the customer has chosen a new outfit, getting them to consider adding a pair of shoes or belt is relatively easy and it can be a big step towards growing your business.

The formula works regardless of whether your business is retail, service, medical, or professional.

If you would like to see a simple worksheet that can help you start the process of utilizing the three ways to grow your business, click here.

Also if you want to start receiving these Sound ADvice emails free every week in your inbox, let me know.

Your Customers ALWAYS Have A Choice

Your Customers ALWAYS Have A Choice

by | Feb 5, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Only fools believe their business has no competition.

There are multiple ways to think about who your competition is, however, I’m going to define it in the simplest terms for businesses and that is customer money.

If I have a need and you could supply that need for a price, but I choose to satisfy that need by spending my money with someone else, that someone else is your competition.

This weeks Sound ADvice newsletter talks about competition and  I’ll share that with you in a second but first I want to broaden your idea of competition.

Today, I ate breakfast.

I had the choice of eating something I already spent money on and was in my kitchen…

Or I could leave my house and spend money somewhere else.

Often, business owners only look at their direct competition.  Today I spent a couple of bucks for a breakfast burrito and a diet Mt. Dew. Yesterday I spent 6 times that for a breakfast sandwich and white mocha from my favorite coffee shop. Tomorrow, I’ll have a bowl of cereal.

See, sometimes the competition isn’t direct, but an alternative, however they all are ways that involve my money and my desire for breakfast.

Now let’s look at the SoundADvice I’m sending out in my weekly newsletter this week. (and if you want a free copy emailed to you every week, just let me know).

Have you ever heard someone say, “We don’t worry about our competitors, we just focus on what we do”?

Sure you have! It sounds nice, but the truth is that most successful business owners have a very keen eye on their competitors and know as much about them as possible. If not, there is no way to know which cards you can or should play or when to play them.

More than likely you know “who” your competitors are, but “how much” do you know about them? It’s not so much about knowing them so you can be like them, but, the more you know them, the more you can make sure you differentiate your business from theirs.

Motivational and self-help speaker Jim Rohn was known for his witty one-liners. One of his best was directed at people and businesses and it encouraged them to be different.

“Walk away from the 97%. Don’t talk like they talk,
don’t act like they act,
don’t go where they go, don’t do what they do,
don’t specialize in what they specialize in”.

In other words, Jim is saying, be yourself, make your own mark. Make sure you and your business are clearly different than your competitors.

Why is it so important to know your competitors?

In any given market, large, medium, or small, there is only so much business. Capturing your fair share and growing your share is the path to success. Only when you know what their strengths and weaknesses are can we know how you can best position your business to compete with them and grow your share of the market.

When we are armed with this knowledge, we can communicate our true value to consumers, adapt our brand and communications strategy accordingly, and win market share.

“If you know thy enemy and know thyself,
you need not fear the result of a thousand battles”.
– Sun Tzu

Identifying what differentiates your brand, product, or service from other players in the industry is only one of the benefits of analyzing your competitors. It’s crucial to increasing sales with your current customers, building customer loyalty, and attracting new customers. It will also help you identify the following:

  • Understanding industry standards so that you can meet and exceed them.
  • Discovering untapped niche markets.
  • Fulfilling customers’ desires and solving their problems better than competitors.
  • Distinguishing your brand.
  • Standing out in your marketing.

In today’s multifaceted world, competitions come in many forms. Direct competitors are easy to identify. Indirect competitors are sometimes harder to uncover and can come from anywhere. Grocery stores had no idea they would be competing against Amazon. Tire stores and hearing centers didn’t imagine they would be competing with Costco and Sam’s.

While the process of evaluating and knowing your competition can be taxing, the benefits of knowing can open an array of opportunities for your business.

If you would like to see nine ways to help you understand your competition, click here.