Local Connections Matter

Local Connections Matter

by | May 10, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Last Thursday, a couple things happened that I’m going to share with you.

First off, a little after 6 in the morning, I got a message from an old friend of mine from my youth who told me he was in town and wanted to get together.  He had me pick a place and I selected a local joint that I haven’t dined at in a few months that was also in my friends old neighborhood.  Gene lives out of town and I wanted to treat him to a local favorite, not a national chain.

Before I left to meet him, I realized I needed an update on the website and found this article I wrote 4 years ago but never published and it is still very appropriate today.  The rest of this piece I composed in 2018…

Who do you trust more to give you wisdom and advice… a nationally known celebrity spokesperson or your best friend?

Fred Jacobs and his brother are specialists who formed Jacobs Media in the 1980’s and take credit for the Classic Rock Radio Format.  The other day, Fred wrote about some of the results of a study they conducted pertaining to the Local factor.  Over the years due to deregulation the broadcasting world became a different animal than it was previously.

Ownership rules changed which allowed national media companies to form an own hundreds of stations.  On the radio side, they were able to cut staff and have the same morning show playing in several cities.  Actually they could eliminate all their local staff and fill the airwaves with syndicated programming 24/7.

The upside at first was a higher quality radio program at a lower operational cost.  The downside was that the local feel and flavor disappeared.

Fort Wayne, Indiana currently has over 20 radio stations.  But if you look closely, several of these stations are licenced to neighboring towns. Columbia City, New Haven, Woodburn, Decatur, Churbusco, Huntington, Roanoke, all of these small towns and more had their own radio stations at one time, or perhaps they are the town that the Fort Wayne stations are really licenced to serve.

These small town stations were bought and moved to Fort Wayne and are now part of a larger radio station group(s).

Similar stuff happened in local television too.  WPTA, originally was an ABC affiliate licenced to Roanoke, Indiana.  During the past couple of decades, I’ve watched as multiple changes have taken place.  It used to be WANE was 15 and CBS; WPTA was 21 and ABC; WKJG was 33 and NBC; WFWA was 39 and PBS; and WFFT was 55 and Fox.

Consolidation and reorganization has changed this line up to a degree too.  Most of the Fort Wayne audience was unaware that for awhile, some of our local TV newscasters were also anchoring a newscast in Detroit on a station that was owned by the same company. This was about 10 years ago.

I want to return to my original question and share what Fred Jacobs discovered and how that applies to us in Fort Wayne.

Fred’s article is about Public Radio but we can draw some conclusions that also apply to commercial radio and actually all media.

This  graphic really caught my eye and was this inspiration for today.

For my podcast listeners, I’ll share what I’m looking at.

In response to the statement, “One of radio’s primary advantages is its local feel”, nearly 70% agreed or strongly agreed.

All generations agree that local is what makes radio worth listening to.  Even the youngest surveyed, the Millennials, 4 out of 5 of them. had the highest preference for local content.   7 out of 10 News Talk radio listeners want local content too.

What’s so important about local?  I’ll ask my question again:

Who do you trust more to give you wisdom and advice… a nationally known celebrity spokesperson or your best friend?

See how this all fits together?

One more reason why my radio station, WOWO radio continues to dominate in Fort Wayne, Indiana

Referrals Rule

Referrals Rule

by | May 3, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

When you hear the words “so-and-so referred me/or suggested I see you”, it’s almost like money in the bank!

You’ve probably heard that it can cost five to ten times as much to attract a new customer as it costs to maintain and keep an existing customer.  And, that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers.  While finding new customers is important, finding more new customers and keeping them is the true secret to success!

Bain & Company and Harvard Business School reports that 80% of businesses believe they deliver a superior customer experience to capture repeat and referral business, while only 8% of their customers agree that these companies provide superior service.  They also suggest that a 5 percent increase in customer retention can lead to an increase in profits of between 25 and 95 percent.  Both sets of numbers should grab your attention!

While your customers are bombarded with messages from your competition, it makes sense to craft your advertising to attract new customers, but also keep you front and center with current customers.

Many businesses use internet tools like email or social media to pursue customer loyalty and use intrusive broadcast media to attract new customers. While that strategy is certainly valid, they often under-estimate what intrusive media, like radio, can do to serve as a reminder to their current customer base.

What do you do, or can you do, to provide “over the top” customer service?  And, do you tell people what you do?  Customers expect good service, but it’s when you go over and above that they start to tell their family and friends.

In business, customer perceptions become their realities. If 92% of customers don’t perceive you deliver superior service, they are vulnerable to the aggressive appeals in your competitors’ advertising.

There is a reason that successful businesses like McDonald’s, Home Depot, and GEICO continue to invest more in broadcast advertising…. they understand that to GROW their business they not only need to keep their current clients, but they also need new customers.  New customers come from one of three ways: referrals, advertising, or luck!

Want to get luckier by getting more repeat and referral business?  Click here to read 12 Ways to Generate More Repeat and Referral Business.

Apples, Oranges and Gasoline

Apples, Oranges and Gasoline

by | Mar 8, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights

The main point I’m about to share with you is that not all advertising is the same and that’s good.

Also you need to understand the differences before you say yes to spending anything.

Apple, Oranges, and Gasoline.

At first glance the first two, Apples and Oranges have nothing in common with Gasoline.

However consider this:

Apples, Oranges and Gasoline are all fuels.

Yes, Gasoline is the most obvious fuel because that is what we pump into our cars, but Apples and Oranges are fuel for our bodies.  It is because our forefathers were able to fuel their bodies with food including fruit like Apples and Oranges that the science and technology was invented and created to produce Gasoline.

And now, Gasoline, and other petroleum based fuels are needed to transport the Apples and Oranges from their trees to our homes.

I bet you never thought about Apples, Oranges and Gasoline like this before.

Perhaps you are also wondering what Apples, Oranges and Gasoline have to do with advertising and marketing.

I just used them to create a word picture or two as we dig deeper.

Let’s pretend Apples and Oranges are two different radio stations with different formats.  The Apple station plays Country Music and the Orange station features News and Talk as their format.

The expectation of what you’re going to get when you bite into an apple is very different than a bite of orange.  One isn’t better than the other, they are just different.  Some people prefer one over the other and it may also depend on the person’s mood or time of day.

Same applies to radio stations.  I know some people who only listen to News and Talk radio during the week, but on the weekend, they crank up the music of their favorite station.

Just like their are differences in the chemical and nutritional composition of Apples and Oranges, there are also distinct differences between music based radio stations and news talk radio stations that you should know about before you purchase radio or any broadcast advertising.  It’s not just as simple as picking your favorite fruit.

What about that Gasoline?  In our story today, let’s equate Gasoline with Social Media.

Both Gasoline and Social Media can be very beneficial.  They can both be very dangerous.  The properties of Gasoline that powers our cars are the same properties that can be explosively dangerous.

Same with Social Media.  With the growth of platforms like Facebook, I’ve connected with dozens of people from my past along with made hundreds of new connections.  That’s the good side.  Social Media sites like Facebook have also fueled some terrible things and created divisions and ignited countless negative things too numerous to mention today.

Apples, Oranges and Gasoline can work together for good.  I’ve seen Social Media work in sync with News Talk and Music radio stations too.

My challenge to you as a business owner is what I said at the beginning, that not all advertising is the same so please work with someone that understands how to use each and how not to use each.

It’s more than the cost, it’s the purpose of what you want to accomplish.

I just looked up the cost of a gallon of Apple Juice, gallon of Orange Juice and a gallon of Gasoline and while Gas is still the cheapest of the three, you wouldn’t drink a glass of gasoline as a substitute for your morning O.J. right?

Need some guidance figuring all this out for your business? Contact me.

 

Are You Living In The Past?

Are You Living In The Past?

by | Feb 8, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

There is an old perception among TV people that “everyone watches the Olympics”. Because of this, the old broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox usually air reruns of regular shows instead of new episodes. (NBC is the official network this year).

However there are millions of people who are not going to watch because they either have no interest, or time to watch. Our TV viewing habits from 40 years ago simply are not applicable in 2022.

Live TV viewership is a fraction of what it was. Screentime has increased when you count our phones, laptops and tablets but what we watch and how we watch is radically different.

In the middle of the 2022 Olympics we have the Superbowl. This one live sports event is guaranteed to have more viewers than any single event of the Olympics.

My take away for all this is to question things you are doing that may be outdated but you keep doing them anyway.

And since I write about media and marketing, this caught my attention because the couple of TV programs my wife and I like to watch are in their winter hiatus and it’s going to be a few more weeks before they present new episodes.

No, I’m not going to switch from watching NCIS to Figure Skating this month.  I’ll find something else to do with that hour of my life. Much of the media I consume is by appointment. Not all, but nearly most of it when it comes to TV.

What is “by appointment”?  It’s the ability to watch what I want when I want.  The emphasis is on the when.  As a baby boomer who grew up without this option, I really like it now.  In our house we cut the cord a few years ago an instead use streaming services.

Amazon Prime I’ve had for years originally for the free shipping since we have many family members out of town, but we also use the video platform to watch stuff, “by appointment”.  YouTubeTV is our main replacement for Xfinity and we have a choice to watch something live or recorded.  The shows my wife and I used to watch live, like NCIS, we now watch on the weekend, at a time that works for us “by appointment”.  Because of this, we don’t get any local TV commercials.  If your business is trying to reach me by spending money with the local TV stations, it isn’t working.

My screen time is further divided up between other streaming services including Hulu, Netflix, HBO+, Paramount and Peacock.  No, I don’t watch all of these, but they are coming into my house and maybe my wife has a show that she watches on these streaming services.  The point is, you need to reconsider where you place your advertising and see if the expectations and results that you had in the past are even achievable today.

I’m not just picking on TV by the way.  Printed media has undergone tremendous changes too. Newspapers, magazines and remember the phone book?  Are you still paying for ads in any of these because it’s been traditional and you want to do what Dad and Grandpa did to build the business?

I must caution you however,  there are some value to nearly any kind of marketing you do, but you have to understand the return on investment principles and other factors and not just continue because the advertising salesperson had a slick sales pitch.  I’ll be talking more about some of the specifics in the weeks ahead, and if you want my help now, reach out to me.

 

Adjusting To New Realities In The Workforce

Adjusting To New Realities In The Workforce

by | Jan 11, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights

The saying that we are in a new reality was one that many of us didn’t want to hear last year.

But it’s true and the quicker we see what is happening, the sooner we can adjust.

At the end of the year, I read the Monday Morning Memo from Roy H. Williams that talked about 3 realities we are facing today:

  1. Inflation
  2. Covid
  3. Employee Shortages

I’m not an expert on any of these, but I deal with them just like you do.

The first two are out of our individual hands, we are powerless as individuals to solve the increase in prices of goods and services because many of us we are needing to also raise the prices to pass along the costs that inflation has had on our goods and services.  Covid, well that has turned into a political football that I’m not about to address, and like you, we have limited power to fix.

What Roy mentioned in his Monday Morning Memo was a concept that I’m going to pass along to you to solve the Employee Shortage reality of 2022.

The staffing shortage was entirely predictable.  In the United States of America, the birthrate has been declining for decades.

“For years many demographers have been warning of a permanent worker shortage in the coming decades. It may just be that the pandemic brought the shortage earlier.”

“An important concept in demographics is the ‘replacement birth rate’. This is the birth rate needed to replace deaths and keep the population unchanged. If the actual birth rate is higher than the replacement rate, then the population increases. Demographers estimate the replacement birth rate is 2.1 children per woman. If the birth rate is lower than this replacement rate, then the population decreases. In the case of the latter, a declining population will eventually result in a declining labor force.”

“Statistics show the US birth rate has been steadily declining and is below the replacement rate. The latest birth rate for 2020 is 1.6, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. This means that, based on domestic births alone, the nation’s population would be declining. So far, immigration has prevented this, but there’s no assurance this will continue in the future…”

The specific idea that Roy Williams shares is for a company to offer free private daycare to employees on-site (or close to) the companies location where parents can drop off their young ones with the assurance that they will be taken care of while Mom and Dad are taking care of business.

That idea might actually work for some companies, but it’s not a universal solution right now.

So what is a universal solution?

I have a two part answer:

1st off, you need to become a company that people want to work for. In the past few years, the company I am with has undergone a specific plan to access our company culture and then improve it.  The ideas come from those who are already here.  We looked at those ideas, and found a few that could be implemented and then measured again and asked again.  It’s an ongoing process at Federated Media.

We realize that not everyone who works for us is going to stay forever. Many will leave for many different reasons, but what we want to do is keep the best and hire others that will contribute both to our mission and also our company culture. As a result, I have coworkers who have been here for years, even decades, not because they have to work here, but because they want to.

Personally the real reason I left most of the jobs I had were due to something in the culture.  The real people problem was not that we couldn’t hire enough, but we hired the wrong people at other places I worked. The answer to this for you and your company is to take that same evaluation and find out why people work for you and what can make it even better.  That is what you need to promote in your recruitment messages and ads.

Here’s the 2nd part of my solution to the labor shortage: Change the number of employees you need to run your business.

The reality is there are less people available to be hired as I mentioned at the beginning and so your business model needs to change.

Business models have been evolving and the side effects of the pandemic shut-down just accelerated some of what was going on already.  Several fast food restaurants closed their dining rooms and some are not planning on opening them up.  Instead they have become drive-thru only establishments.  I’ve seen this in my area for nearly two decades as multiple Pizza Huts created this style of restaurant. I’m sure there are others in your area that are undergoing a similar transformation.  Plus ordering online has really taken off.  Last year I went inside to place an order for chicken and was told that I had to either use the app or drive thru.

Grocery stores and other retailers are relying on self serve check out lanes more than ever.  Now instead of a cashier ringing up one customer at a time, it’s common to see one employee overseeing 6 to 10 self serve checkouts.

I’ve got a third bonus tip for you that I almost forgot because I’ve been doing it for so long and our company has been doing it even longer, at least in the Fort Wayne division of Federated Media.  Flexible work life is what we call it, but here’s how it really works…

The advertising salespeople do not have a dedicated workspace at our office.  Instead, there are a couple of hours each week that they come to the office for meetings with their manager.  Where are they the rest of the time?  Working from home, client meetings, working from their favorite internet cafe a.k.a. coffee shop, who knows?  They might be running their kid to the dentist during the middle of the day, or grabbing lunch with a friend.

This sounds like the Covid inspired Work From Home business model, but we’ve been doing it this way for many, many years.  As a General Sales Manager, I have my own office at our Fort Wayne office that I work from nearly every day.  But those on my sales team are given the freedom to do what works best for them.  We have particular items that need done daily, weekly or monthly but the ultimate measure of their success is the revenue they are responsible for with their individual budgets.  Their success is not measured with punches on a time clock.

Yes we have guidelines and Key Performance Indicators that when followed will create individual successes, but reporting to the office just because it’s always been that way, 5 days a week… We abandoned that years ago to focus on productivity.  In other departments, there are similar flexible work arrangements too.  This has become an important part of our culture.

By the way, I am always looking for qualified candidates to join my advertising sales team at WOWO radio in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  We just hired a new team member and I have at least one more opening to fill.  However, I’m going to keep that position open until I find the person that fits us best.  Perhaps that is something you should do with your company too, be picky with who you hire to protect the culture you have in place.

And one last note, if you would like to learn more about the opening I have, here’s a link to the job posting. https://www.wowo.com/wanted-sales-hunter/