The Marketing Blender

The Smallest, Fastest Ad on TV

One of the hottest advertising properties these days is advertising space on a NASCAR race car. A quick look at the cars that will line up for the Daytona 500 this weekend proves the point.

Given the soaring popularity of NASCAR over the last ten years or so, it’s no surprise that companies are lining up to promote their brands with a decal or sticker on the body of one of the brightly decorated stock cars that whip around in circles a few hundred times every weekend.

The association is obvious for some companies. Bud, Pepsi, Valvoline … all of these brands are long time NASCAR sponsors, drawing on its mass appeal to drive sales for their mass marketed brands. Even Viagra sponsors a car.

So here’s my question – how much did the company pay for the small red ad in front of the tire on this car (pictured below):

When the car flies past the camera, can you even seen this ad? I can't even see it in this still picture.

I wonder what the phone call between the brand manager who bought the ad and their boss would sound like.

“Yes, we can get our ad on the car…no, not the hood….no, not the roof…..yeah it’s sort of near the tire….you can see it clearly when the car is just sitting in the pits and the camera zooms in on the tire guy….”

Here’s how I look at sponsorship marketing:

• If you have the cash and it makes sense, go ahead and plaster your brand identity on an event/concept/race car, etc
• If you don’t have the cash, don’t settle for the equivalent of buying the ad by the tire. Be a big fish in a smaller pond – as an added bonus you might find that the smaller pond is also more narrowly targeted.

 

“You want a new engine with that oil change…?”

Measuring the wrong thing can be deadly for your business.

Everytime I drive into my local drive through oil change retailer, I feel like I’ve walked into a low budget electronics store where everyone is on 100% commission.

For those of you who haven’t had the experience, while the technician is changing your oil, the other employees come to your window two or three times to offer you additional services that your car might need like a fuel injector cleaning, radiator flush, and so on. These services are typically overpriced and your car may or may not actually need them.

Now I’m all for having employees offer multiple services to clients to drive incremental revenue -- but their dogged, relentless pursuit of that one extra sale in the in oil change bay is probably pushing some customers not to come back. 

It makes me wonder if some businesses are measuring/teaching/rewarding the wrong things.

In this case, the local oil change franchise seems to be measuring:

Incremental sales revenue per car, achieved by aggressive sales tactics

Perhaps they should be measuring:

Incremental sales revenue per car, achieved by aggressive sales tactics

MINUS

Lost oil change revenue from clients who made one visit in the last 12 months, refused extra services, and did not return.

I wonder if there’s a profitable niche out there for car owners who actually want just an oil change when they go to get their oil changed?

I wonder if clients would pay a premium for faster, hassle free service where nobody tried to hard sell you anything else?

The lesson I took away from my experience is that businesses need to watch more than just one metric to gauge overall success.

That, and customers have long memories.

Radio Advertising for Small Business Owners – Part 3

If you didn't catch Parts 2 and 2 in this series, you can find them in the archives on the right hand side of the blog...

So you’ve committed to a multi-week radio advertising campaign. Now what?

You’ll need to create your ad. Most stations will put the ad together for you in house, and in many cases they’ll do it at no extra charge. But…you get what you pay for.

If you opt for an in house ad produced by the station, here are some guidelines to get the best ad for your money:

Use a Popular Station Personality – instead of a nameless announcer, try to line up one of the stations regular on-air personalities to record your ad. My local sports radio station runs an ad for a shoe store featuring the popular afternoon talk show host – and it’s one of the few ads I remember because of his distinctive voice and the implied endorsement.

Use your Own Voice – you can be the star of your own radio ads, and you don’t need a great booming radio voice – but you do need character. Your voice needs to be different, folksy, friendly, deep, etc.

Be in Charge of the Message – you can’t expect the local radio station to “get” your brand message after a 3 minute talk with you. Give them any marketing materials you can to give them further insight into your brand and your target market. If you have an idea, give it to them in explicit detail. This is not intended to knock those who create ads for radio stations – it’s more a recognition that they are put in a hopeless predicament and need as much info as possible to create an ad that you’d actually want your customers to hear.

Radio can be an affordable advertising option for small businesses -- following the tips in this series will help you get your campaign off on the right foot.

Radio Advertising for Small Business Owners – Part 2

In the first part of this series on radio advertising, I talked about some high level considerations for small business owners when getting into radio advertising.

If you think radio advertising is a good move for your small business, you’ll probably find yourself talking to a sales rep. Here’s what to expect, and some tips for getting the most for your money:

Radio is sold in Bulk – a 13 week campaign is fairly standard in radio. Your sales rep will tell you that you need at least 13 weeks to break through the clutter in the market, (and they are probably right). Buying a few radio ads here and there is largely a waste of your money – success depends on repetition.

The Price is Negotiable – unsold advertising time generates exactly $0 in revenue for the station. Don’t agree to anything right away and you may find that the price for your campaign magically drops as the potential start date draws closer. I’ve seen the price drop 10% to 40% depending on the station and the amount of business you are bringing to the table.

What you get is Negotiable – if you can’t get the rep to move on their price very much, get them to give you more air time for the same price. There’s a catch here – as I told you in Part 1 of this series, ads outside of the morning and evening drive times aren’t really worth much, so don’t be fooled when the rep tries to give you a boatload of “free” ads on Sunday morning. Those ads won’t add much value to your campaign.

It bears repeating that you must get as many ads as possible from your campaign in the morning and evening drive dayparts.

More tomorrow on putting your radio ad together…

Radio Advertising for Small Business Owners – Part 1

Radio is a popular choice for small business owners who are looking to make a splash in their local market, or for those who are making their first big venture into the world of paid advertising.

Radio advertising is much less expensive than TV, but still gives your business that “as seen on TV” credibility that many small business owners are looking for.

As someone who has been pitched by radio sales reps more than once, I thought I would share some tips with small business owners about radio advertising.

First, an overview of the keys to success in radio ads:

Targeting is Key – like any form of advertising, you must consider your target market when choosing a station as a potential advertising partner. If you contact a station and speak to one of their sales reps, they’ll probably try to find out who you are targeting, and then they’ll make a case for why their station would be a great choice to help you reach your target market (side note – in many larger cities, media conglomerates now own multiple stations, so don’t be surprised if a rep steers you towards a different station than the one you called about)

Ads only Count During Rush Hour – Radio is broken up into “dayparts” – and the only dayparts that really matter are morning drive and evening drive. That’s when everyone is in their car, caught in a traffic snarl, listening to the radio as they grind their way home. During the day people are busy at work, and even with the radio on in the background they aren’t paying much attention. The more ads you get in the right dayparts, the better off you are.

Act locally, Think Globally – Radio is naturally a local medium (well, not satellite radio but that’s another story). It will perform best for you if you are promoting something that is particularly relevant for a local audience. That’s why local retailers are typically the biggest radio advertisers – chances are you know where their store is, and if you don’t, you will after the ad is over. If you are thinking of radio ads to promote a website on financial advice that has nothing to do with the city you are advertising in, you may want to reconsider your choice of medium.

More in tomorrow’s post about having that first conversation with your local radio advertising sales rep.

Super Bowl Aftermath – The Best Tire Ever?

With the SuperBowl now a few days behind us, the buzz in the advertising industry is focused on who “won” the battle of the Super Bowl Ads.

On surprising entrant into the fray was a pair of ads from Bridgestone tires.

In case you didn’t see them:

The first Bridgestone Ad is here…

The second is here…

Funny stuff for sure. I laughed out loud at the second one.

But was it worth the $2.7 million it cost Bridgestone to run these two ads on TV’s biggest day?

They certainly received plently of exposure – Sunday’s game was the most watched SuperBowl ever. And these days, the ads get all kinds of buzz and YouTube hits in the days that follow the big game.

But….I am no closer to buying Bridgestone tires today after seeing these ads. Sure, the tires have great traction, but that’s been a common angle in tire ads for years.

Come to think of it, I don’t know what brand of tires I have on my cars right now. Do you?

Buying “exposure” isn’t the right approach for every brand. Bud buys exposure, but their brand and their category relies on constant reminders of the superiority of the Budweiser name. It’s an essential part of their brand identity. They are a good fit with the mass audience that a Super Bowl attracts.

Outside of Goodyear, I don’t think many other tire companies have established a strong brand identity. And I’m not sure two (funny) ads about traction and Richard Simmons are going to change that.

When the buzz settles, perhaps Bridgestone will wish they’d run a trade promotion instead.

The Diaper Store that Died

A few years ago, my wife and I lived in a small town north of the city. Our daughter was still in diapers, so when a small diaper store opened in town I was intrigued (from a business perspective).

Why?....because there are no "diaper stores". People buy diapers at Wal-Mart or the drug store when they are buying other items. They generally don't go to the "diaper store" any more than they would go to the "Tylenol store".

I dropped in, and met the very, very nice owner. He gave me an enthusiastic (and well rehearsed) sales pitch about the diapers they sold (not a national brand), and how I could save money if I bought them in bulk from his store. In surveying the merchandise, I determined that most of it could be found at any major discount retailer.

As a marketer, I had a bad feeling. You know the feeling you get when you meet someone very well intentioned who seems headed down a slippery slope. My concerns:

* There was no point of differentiation in the product mix

* People generally don't buy in bulk from a small local store. If they are bulk buyers, they get a membership at Costco and buy everything in bulk, not just diapers.   

* There were four stores within a 5 minute drive where customers could buy any of merchandise for less.

A few weeks later, I saw a half page display ad in the local newspaper - a sure sign the business was close to failure. Short of traffic after just a few weeks, the owner turned to expensive advertising to drive revenue. But the ad mirrored the in-store experience - promoting diapers and products that were readily available anywhere else.

I wondered why the owner didn't push the environmental angle of cloth diapers - or some other aspect of his service that would change the way local residents looked at diapers.

A few weeks after that, the store was closed.

A hard working, dedicated owner committed to a great service experience + no point of difference + readily available substitutes = a bad outcome.

Service and effort are usually not enough. Customers need a reason to buy from you.   

Go Ahead – Cut your Price!

It’s ok to discount once in a while.

There, I said it.

One of the principles of small business marketing is that you can’t compete on price with your larger competitors. The overuse of discounting lowers the value of your product or service in the eyes of the market (when was the last time you paid full price for anything at Sears?).

Many small business owners have been scared straight when it comes to discounting – in fact many are now afraid to offer any kind of discount for fear of slipping into the bottomless pit of price competition. 

I agree that you should not rely on discounting to stay in business, because it simply won’t work over the long term (unless you have a long run cost advantage like Wal- Mart)

But, there’s nothing wrong with having some kind of sale or discount offer every now and again.

Temporary price reductions have a number of benefits, like:

- forcing “fence-sitters” to take action and buy the product that they’ve been thinking about for a while (especially valuable for products or services with a premium price)

- driving short term volume and sales revenue (this can be very important during seasonal slow downs)

- drawing attention to your business and your product/service

To avoid the trap of being perceived as a discounter and effectively lowering the price clients will pay for your product or service, consider the following guidelines:

- run discount offers on a short term, time-limited basis

- end the sale when you said you would -- don’t fall into the trap of extending the offer “by popular demand”…over and over again

- run sales infrequently, and promote this fact on those rare occasions when you do lower you price or make a special offer.

Don’t be afraid of price cuts – but use them strategically and don’t become addicted to them, or else your customers will as well.

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