Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn Johnson visits with Van & Bonnie on WHO Radio, Des Moines, Iowa.
Friday, November 14, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Unsustainable realty market continues off track
According to the Des Moines Association of Realtors(tm), over the past 30 years, the median price of existing homes has increased an average of 6% every year. And since 2000, the average home sale price has increased more than 25%. Sound sustainable? If the median inflation rate is 3%, then for the past 30 years, homes have outpaced inflation at twice the rate. And in the last decade, the sale prices have skyrocketed. And the only thing that can mean is that people are able afford less home than in years past -- unless, of course, you remove borrowing restrictions and open up mortgages to people who can't pay back the money.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Ads: My first professional gig
My first paid ad was for a place called “Computer Center”, located in Central Plaza in Fort Dodge and I got the gig as a creative contest winner while in college. Their business was computer training and troubleshooting. Their goal was clear; they wanted walk-in business prospects. The spec was for a 15-second ad:
The strengths of the ad were bullet-point branding and memorable audio punctuation. Unfortunately they vacated the campaign in short order and failed altogether by the following year.
(SFX: Downward sweep to bass chord)
“Computer Center will train you. Computer Center will troubleshoot. Computer Center. Computer Center for today's competitive business. Central Plaza. Fort Dodge.”
(SFX: upward sounder)
The strengths of the ad were bullet-point branding and memorable audio punctuation. Unfortunately they vacated the campaign in short order and failed altogether by the following year.
Web 101: it's a sales brochure, stupid!
Hopefully you're already sold on the fact that you need a web site. Now we're planning what should be presented therein.
Remember to give your customers a point of action that’s easy, like visiting your easy-to-remember web site, the half-step between your advertising and your brick-and-mortar store. Therefore, it should identify clear benefits to the visitors.
Every step of marketing is a sales pitch. From the first words in your advertising, you're trying to convince people to stay with you throughout the pitch. Later in the process, you're asking prospects to take specific actions. After they've visited your web site, the next step should be clear: to call, email or visit.
Unless you're closing the deal on an ecommerce web site, its purposes should be as sales literature and a point of contact, not a dumping ground for hard-nosed disclaimer speak, dry facts and boring data that makes legitimate prospects cringe.
Some business people have become hardened by a few unappreciative customers. Don't let your resentment be your prospects' first impression of you. Focus on the same benefits one would find in your printed brochures.
Remember to give your customers a point of action that’s easy, like visiting your easy-to-remember web site, the half-step between your advertising and your brick-and-mortar store. Therefore, it should identify clear benefits to the visitors.
Every step of marketing is a sales pitch. From the first words in your advertising, you're trying to convince people to stay with you throughout the pitch. Later in the process, you're asking prospects to take specific actions. After they've visited your web site, the next step should be clear: to call, email or visit.
Unless you're closing the deal on an ecommerce web site, its purposes should be as sales literature and a point of contact, not a dumping ground for hard-nosed disclaimer speak, dry facts and boring data that makes legitimate prospects cringe.
Some business people have become hardened by a few unappreciative customers. Don't let your resentment be your prospects' first impression of you. Focus on the same benefits one would find in your printed brochures.
Business 101: It's okay to be judgmental
When you run a business and wait on customers who have chosen you over a sea of competitors, you owe it to them to objectively judge how well you're doing.
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer from time to time. Look at the hoops they have to jump through before they’re able to get back to their lives. Pay attention to wait times, and what people see while they're waiting. If someone’s standing at a counter waiting, they're keenly aware of the performance of your employees. They see your people plod along oblivious to customers.
I actively count employees are on the job and compare them to active orders being filled. I tend to resent watching employees perform tasks unrelated to serving customers ahead of me. When nothing is being done to advance orders, the wait seems endless.
It’s frustrating to watch servers stand in one spot as they wait for people who plod along behind the scenes, who have no sense of purpose and who are oblivious to the business at hand -- all the while condiments are depleted, trashes are full and tables are disgusting. The server's job is simple, but requires constant discipline: provide fast, friendly service.
You can't fix problems you don't see. So thank customers first by judging your service.
Put yourself in the shoes of a customer from time to time. Look at the hoops they have to jump through before they’re able to get back to their lives. Pay attention to wait times, and what people see while they're waiting. If someone’s standing at a counter waiting, they're keenly aware of the performance of your employees. They see your people plod along oblivious to customers.
I actively count employees are on the job and compare them to active orders being filled. I tend to resent watching employees perform tasks unrelated to serving customers ahead of me. When nothing is being done to advance orders, the wait seems endless.
It’s frustrating to watch servers stand in one spot as they wait for people who plod along behind the scenes, who have no sense of purpose and who are oblivious to the business at hand -- all the while condiments are depleted, trashes are full and tables are disgusting. The server's job is simple, but requires constant discipline: provide fast, friendly service.
You can't fix problems you don't see. So thank customers first by judging your service.
Ads: Pick radio, it’s more effective
Magazine advertising aside, newspapers get the bulk of ad dollars, far ahead of radio. And in fact, more is spent on Internet ads than radio campaigns by $1 billion. But none of that changes the apples-to-apples demonstration that proves radio’s response is 14 times more effective than newspaper’s when it comes to driving traffic to a web site. Want to see the test?
http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=ThisMemo&MemoID=1768
http://www.mondaymorningmemo.com/?ShowMe=ThisMemo&MemoID=1768
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Ads: replace hype with authentic grabbers
If you're in retail business, don't make the mistake of thinking you're in the entertainment business in your marketing. Awards don't sell snow blowers.
Be cautious not to use cute ideas for cute-sake. Grab attention in an unfamiliar, attention-getting way, but remember to bridge your opening line in a believable way, and support the opening and bridge in your copy.
Opening example: "Now would be a horrible time for a flat tire!"
If you've placed this ad during morning drive, at the height of morning rush hour, you now have seized the attention of every driver on the road at that moment, and each are now imagining what a flat tire would do to their day.
The ad doesn't have to be about tires or tire repair. In fact, that would be too obvious an opening even for a towing service. But now that you have their attention, carefully craft your bridge to bring people into your story.
Bridge example: "You don't have any spare time today and there are probably a pretty good number new tasks waiting for you when you hit the office."
See, a flat tire would be inconvenient because your customers are time-starved like the rest of the free world. This ad now can take any direction it needs to.
Body example: "Since the odds are squarely against your actually getting a flat, you now have a few more seconds to stop at the Barry's Good Java drive-thru to pick up an exotic coffee reward. And when we hand you the cup, we'll also give you a card good for another cup tomorrow -- on us -- as a thank you for trying us out. Barry's Good Java. A few more extras; no nickels & dimes."
Notice how we got attention without hype? Then we bridged into our story. Then we told the story, and made a suggestion that offered a benefit to the morning commuter along the way. Nothing terribly devious, just good clean attention-getting.
PLACEMENT
Now we wouldn't have been terribly selective about which radio station we used to placed the commercial; we're interested in reaching as many people as we can afford to reach. That simple. For this we pay attention to CUME (total weekly station audience) or AQH (total simultaneous listeners within a day part) during the 5a-10a (AMD) day part. Our major focus is on placing one commercial an hour M-F on the station you can afford.
Be cautious not to use cute ideas for cute-sake. Grab attention in an unfamiliar, attention-getting way, but remember to bridge your opening line in a believable way, and support the opening and bridge in your copy.
Opening example: "Now would be a horrible time for a flat tire!"
If you've placed this ad during morning drive, at the height of morning rush hour, you now have seized the attention of every driver on the road at that moment, and each are now imagining what a flat tire would do to their day.
The ad doesn't have to be about tires or tire repair. In fact, that would be too obvious an opening even for a towing service. But now that you have their attention, carefully craft your bridge to bring people into your story.
Bridge example: "You don't have any spare time today and there are probably a pretty good number new tasks waiting for you when you hit the office."
See, a flat tire would be inconvenient because your customers are time-starved like the rest of the free world. This ad now can take any direction it needs to.
Body example: "Since the odds are squarely against your actually getting a flat, you now have a few more seconds to stop at the Barry's Good Java drive-thru to pick up an exotic coffee reward. And when we hand you the cup, we'll also give you a card good for another cup tomorrow -- on us -- as a thank you for trying us out. Barry's Good Java. A few more extras; no nickels & dimes."
Notice how we got attention without hype? Then we bridged into our story. Then we told the story, and made a suggestion that offered a benefit to the morning commuter along the way. Nothing terribly devious, just good clean attention-getting.
PLACEMENT
Now we wouldn't have been terribly selective about which radio station we used to placed the commercial; we're interested in reaching as many people as we can afford to reach. That simple. For this we pay attention to CUME (total weekly station audience) or AQH (total simultaneous listeners within a day part) during the 5a-10a (AMD) day part. Our major focus is on placing one commercial an hour M-F on the station you can afford.
Ads: A clever attempt that fails is not clever
I recently saw part of a silent television commercial for a local car dealer, and I'm frankly surprised I even noticed it. I missed at least the first half of it because I was enthralled by a piece of lint that was hovering in the air at that fleeting moment. Then my advertising brain took note of the spectacle before me.
As a broadcaster for more than twenty-five years, I've learned the power of sounds in advertising. I'm a huge believer that the right sounds are capable of longer life in the mind than a visual. I'd never let a client of mine waste that moment. It was reminiscent of that cable TV channel that's dedicated to placard advertising with some generic music in the background.
Back to the car ad. It was clearly trying to be clever in its silence, but failed miserably in the message, which unsurprisingly I cannot relay to you.
A silent television ad may as well go into a newspaper or on a web site. Use clever audio to get attention if you think it's right, but silence is anything but clever -- unless it's a well-placed pause -- and always a wasted opportunity.
As a broadcaster for more than twenty-five years, I've learned the power of sounds in advertising. I'm a huge believer that the right sounds are capable of longer life in the mind than a visual. I'd never let a client of mine waste that moment. It was reminiscent of that cable TV channel that's dedicated to placard advertising with some generic music in the background.
Back to the car ad. It was clearly trying to be clever in its silence, but failed miserably in the message, which unsurprisingly I cannot relay to you.
A silent television ad may as well go into a newspaper or on a web site. Use clever audio to get attention if you think it's right, but silence is anything but clever -- unless it's a well-placed pause -- and always a wasted opportunity.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Billy McGuigan on KXnO
Billy McGuigan is as comfortable playing Beatles or Buddy Holly music and he demonstrates the ease as he sat down with Larry Cotlar on Cotlar & Company on KXnO. Billy's next stage progect involves Beatles music, which you can see him play here.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
Michael Gartne on Van & Bonnie
HTML clipboardMichael Gartner was the "Designated Bonnie" Monday, September 29 with Van Harden on WHO Radio in Des Moines, Iowa. Michael is a past president of the Iowa Board of Regents; was a sports reporter and eventual president of the Des Moines Register, executive of Gannett and USA Today; writer for the Wall Street Journal and USA Today is currently Chairman of Racoon Baseball, owner of the Iowa Cubs.
Erin Kiernan on Van & Bonnie
Erin Kiernan guest-hosted the WHO Radio morning show along with Van Harden as "Designated Bonnie". Erin is the co-anchor for Channel 13 News at 5, 6, & 10 -- and is married to Des Moines City Council Member Michael Kiernan.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
-
This is clearly not a small thing. Podcasting has unquestionably hit the maintream -- repeatedly. And they're not just 2-5 minute '...
-
Former Minnesota Governor and possible 2012 GOP Presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty was a guest on WHO Radio's Jan Mickelson Friday, Apr...
