Execution

Everything up to this point in the last few days' blog posts is the foundation of your Marketing Strategic Plan. 

Now.  Build in it.  Formulate your action plan.

· F1. What are you trying to accomplish with your marketing?
· F2. What is the focused message content your marketing must convey?
· F3. How will your on-air product evolve to achieve your objectives?
· F4. Very Important: How will your "packaging" achieve your objectives? Be as specific as possible.
· F5. Where are your current or prospective diary-keepers located? (detailed Zip Code +4 mapping not just by In-Tab Distribution but by Listening Value too.)
· F6. How can you best reach them?
· F7. How can you best motivate them?
· F8. How will your on-air promotions reinforce your objectives?
· F9. How will your promotions and advertising be integrated to reinforce each other?
· F10. How much do you have in your marketing budget to accomplish your objective?
· F11. What is the best advertising medium to use to convey your message? Why?
· F12. How will your television advertising help achieve your objectives?
· F13. How will your telemarketing help achieve your objectives?
· F14. How will your direct mail help achieve your objectives?
· F15. How will your outdoor advertising help achieve your objectives?
· F16. How will your social media and other advertising help achieve your objectives?
· F17. How much time have you allotted for each marketing element?
· F18. What station personnel will handle the implementation of each marketing element? (In whole or in part)
· F19. What return do you realistically expect for each of the above?
· F20. How will you share this plan with your department, other departments, and maintain confidentiality?

With all these questions answered, you are now ready to start spending money and taking action.

"The Players'" Role In Your 2014 Plan

This section will help you identify your market's "key players." 

Consider the last three months:
· E1. List all Management changes
· E2. List all Programming changes
· E3. List all Sales changes
· E4. List all Talent changes

Rate High (5) to Low (1) the overall strength of your main competitors':
· E5. Ownership
· E6. Management team
· E7. Sales team
· E8. Programming team
· E9. Air-Talent team
· E10. Engineering team.

· E11. List the key people in each area (listed above) for your competitors.
· E12. What are each key players' significant strengths and weaknesses?
· E13. Who are the key players in Management, Programming, Sales, Air-Talent, Engineering you should recruit?
· E14. Are they under contract? When does it expire?
· E15. Are you aggressively pursuing these key players?

Positioning Statements

Before you decide what to do, you must know what the competition is doing:

· D27. What are the Positioning, Attitude, Attribute, Benefit Statements for each station/competitor?
· D28. What message are each of these image groups (Attitude, Attribute, Benefit, etc.) trying to communicate?
· D29. How do these messages affect your listeners? (appeal/not appeal, attract, cause to act, etc.)
· D30. What are you doing as offense/defense to promote or counter these messages?

Unique Selling Positions / Attributes

More questions for you as you plan for 2014:

· D19. What desirable attributes do you own over your direct competitor (if any)?
· D20. What desirable attributes does your competitor own over you (if any)?
· D21. What desirable attributes are you competing for with your competitor (if any)?
· D22. What is the point of differentiation (USP) between you and your competitor?
· D23. What is the point of differentiation between you and your competitor for each attribute?
· D24. What desirable attributes are not owned by any particular station (if any)?
· D25. What desirable attributes will you move to own over the next three months?  How?
· D26. What undesirable attributes will you move to shed over the next three months?  How?

Image Ownership

This section of 2014 "pre-plan questions" will help you identify your market's "image owners."

Perception is reality. 

Perception is the only reality your listeners can act on.

Rank your market and then your competitor stations for each of the following items (1=Top Dog, 2=Next Dog, etc.)

· D1. Music quantity image? Overall? In each format?
· D2. Music variety image? Overall? In each format?
· D3. Music awareness image?
· D4. Music comfort/familiarity image?
· D5. Benefit images:
· D6. Anti-stress?
· D7. Energizing?
· D8. Feel-good?
· D9. Fun?
· D10. Overall information service image?
· D11. News?
· D12. Traffic?
· D13. Weather?
· D14. Sports?
· D15. Morning information service image?
· D16. Morning entertainment image?
· D17. Overall personality and entertainment image?
· D18. Contesting (in general) image?

Your 2014 Marketing Plan Should Include An Engineering Overview

Winning the ratings war is a deadly game of not just who listens to your station but who can hear your station. This section will help you focus on your the signal strengths and weaknesses of your station and market.

1. What it's like today. 
2. What's changed in the last three months.

· C1. Have there been any recent facility upgrades (Power, Move In, Etc.)?
· C2. Are there any facility upgrades in the works (rumored, applied for)?
· C3. How will your station be affected by these facility upgrades?
· C4. Can you upgrade the coverage/signal quality/loudness of your facility?
· C5. What upside / downside is there for you in this process (list potential rewards
 and costs)?
· C6. Where are your no can hear me dead zones?
· C7. How do these signal dead zones impact your station?
· C8. What can you do to remedy the signal dead zones?
· C9. Are you aggressively pursuing your station's signal improvement?

Opportunities

As you plan 2014 marketing, ask:

· B14. What format opportunities exist in your market?
· B15. How will someone filling these "competitive openings" affect your station?
· B16. What would you do to offensively/defensively against such format opportunities?
· B17. If they aren't occupied.
· B18. If they are occupied.
· B19. What stations are likely to change formats?  To what?

Marketing Plan Q's: Clusters

• B6. Who has the most effective cluster programming? 
• B7. What competitive positions (lifegroups, demos, distribution, etc.) do these multi-opolies occupy? (E.g. classic hits teamed with Softer AC = M+W 45-54) 
• B8. How do these cluster marriages affect your station? 
• B9. What stations are likely to join forces? 
• B10. What stations would be wise to join forces? 
• B11. How will/would those "matches" affect your station? 
• B12. Whom in your market would you best be matched with? 
• B13. Are you aggressively pursuing this match?

Market Overview

This section of your 2014 marketing plan will help you focus on your market.
What it's like today. What's changed in the last three months.

Changes
· B1. List all New stations?
· B2. List all recent Call Letter changes?
· B3. List all recent Slogan ID changes?
· B4. List all recent Formatic direction changes or modifications?
· B5. List all Ownership changes?

Marketing Plan "General Objectives"

This section is designed to help you determine your general, overall goals.

What you want?  Where you are going?

· A1. What is your Long-term Mission/Vision statement? (For the next three years)
· A2. What is your Mid-term Mission/Vision statement? (For the next year)
· A3. What is your Short-term Mission/Vision statement? (For the next rating period)


More tomorrow.

Marketing Plan Questions

Michael Albl has held many titles over the years during his long tenure at Jacor, then Critical Mass Media, then Clear Channel.  His titles over the years range from Program Director to Executive Vice President of Marketing to Vice President/General Manager – Format Lab to Vice President of Mental Warfare.

I have written before that when Michael writes or talks.  I read and listen. 

As budgets for next year begin to take shape, it seems like a great time to dig out a memo he wrote for clients of Critical Mass Media two decades ago to help people who were contemplating marketing refine their needs and goals.

Over the next few days, I'll reprint his blueprint for creating a cogent plan, step by step:

A. General Objectives
B. The Market
C. Engineering
D. Image Ownership
E. The Players
F.  Execution

Once you've gone through all of the pieces of the marketing puzzle, you will be prepared to ask for what you need to create a winning plan.

How To “Make Things Happen”!

Sharing an idea with a co-worker.  Pitching for a new salary.  Trying to land an advertiser.  Motivating your station's Core.  

Whether it be an idea, service, product or point-of-view, the goal is to “make things happen.”   

Here are a few thoughts on selling (anything!) I learned from longtime Clear Channel programmer Michael Albl:

All objections to buying take on one of four forms: 

1.    No need

2.    No money

3.    No authority

4.    No hurry

These objections can be eliminated by using NaB & CaPTuRe:

Need:  Find out the NEED.  Verify, up-front, that your product of service matches, or is very close to matching, your prospect’s wants or needs.  Here you establish yourself as a good and careful listener.  And you will have uncovered an important need.

Budget:  Their budget for this need is your second sales stage discovery.  If they can’t pay, they can’t play!  Then again, if they got the money honey…

Commitment:  Who makes and when will a commitment to purchase be made.  You have to be talking to the right person(s).  And if you aren’t there with close in mouth (as opposed to your hand), when they are ready to buy, you might as well keep your mouth closed.

  

Prescription…without thorough diagnosis is malpractice in both medicine and sales.  An aggressive sales-person wants to go where the action is, not sit around gathering information about prospects needs so their diagnosis of the need is generally superficial.

Take...personal responsibility for making sure everything sold is delivered exactly as specified.  Get right on top of remedying the situation.  When all goes well, credit the support staff.

Return...to the customer within 30 days of delivery to see that all is running well.  When it is, then ask for referrals.