Two Big Levers

Denver-based personality coach Doug Erickson found and forwarded the following link, accompanied by this thought:

Ever wonder what the marketing budget of the original KHJ was? How about WLS at its zenith? As long as there have been Program Directors, there's been moaning about a lack of marketing. And these days, I'd have to agree most of them are right. But have you ever thought about what your listeners experience IF you actually get them to try your station, if the marketing actually works? Because if they get a very ordinary experience from your station -- and let's face it, we're all more average than we'd like to believe -- how effective will your ads be with those listeners in the future?

When's the last time YOU were amazed at what you were hearing when you tuned into your own station? Why do we expect our listeners to feel any differently?

As this piece from Branding Blog, posted by David Young (Permalink), points out, maybe it's time we applied the same BS meter to our marketing as we do to the spots we see for other products:

In the Advertising Performance Equation, there are two giant factors that will make the difference between a poor-to-middlin' ad campaign and a campaign that will amaze you with its effectiveness. Unfortunately, you cannot necessarily count on your advertising reps or your agency for either of these.

First, is the Personal Experience Factor. Others call it the delight factor, or the wow factor -- the amazing things you do for your customers. In short, if the ACTUAL customer experience exceeds the expectation created by the campaign, you can likely expect repeat business and referrals. HOWEVER, if the experience delivered by you and your staff fall short of expectations, expect us to tune out your subsequent advertising and tell everyone we know that you're "not all that."

Second, once you get your customer experience tuned up, the Impact Quotient of your message is what will cause us to perk up and pay attention. I'm not talking about the kind of schtick usually spouted by the average car dealer. You can yell to get my attention, but once I figure out it's an ad (and a poorly written and executed ad at that) my BS filter kicks in and you never even get to whisper to my prefrontal cortex where buying decisions are made. It's not as simple as just getting my attention. You must keep it. Ah, now that's the hard part.

If you can wrap your arms around both of these principles, your advertising will exceed your expectations.

If you ignore one or the other (or both) the only way to compensate is to spend more money. Lots more. And be prepared to keep spending more, because over time your campaign will diminish in effectiveness as more consumers tune out your ads or figure out your poor experience.