The Eight Day Grid

The legendary Ron Chapman at KVIL/Dallas pioneered this approach and personally achieved the kind of legendary long term success to prove it works.

Keeping content moving forward, pulling listeners deeper into the day to day by using an eight week planning grid on your content map.  Set up benchmarks and content in one quarter hour and then advance it tomorrow in the following quarter hour.

Never repeat a benchmark in the same quarter hour two days in a row.

Using the eight day grid means that it will be many weeks before ‘the same thing happens at the same time on the same day.”

Once listeners figure out that by listening just one quarter hour more each day, the payoffs happen and the narratives advance, the sense of spontaneity builds regularity, improves time spent listening and grows loyalty.

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.

If You Don't Understand This, You're Not A Media Buyer Or Planner

"Media is the New Creative", targeting media buyers and planners in English Canada is phase two of the ongoing national multiplatform trade advertising campaign from Canada's Astral Media (click here to watch them all).

The campaign is entirely web based and consists of three videos and one "making of" that all playfully highlight some of the stereotypes of our industry; the messages recognize media planners as the creatives they truly are, but not always recognized for.

Derev Antikacioglu, Director of Branding and Corporate Marketing: "This aims at raising the awareness of media buyers and planners of the near unlimited creative possibilities that Astral offers to reach targeted consumer groups multiple times a day."

Watch 'em and ultimately, I'm betting that like me you need to go back and reread the press release to fully understand what the campaign was trying to communicate ("...that the rapid evolution of today's media landscape is transforming the media planner's role. Media planning and buying has attained creativity in its own right. Being at the table at the onset of the ideation stage, media's involvement in the ideation process is becoming increasingly intimate.")

Here's hoping these creative types don't decide to produce a series designed to "playfully spotlight" the contributions of programming consultants to the biz.

I might have to join that media rep at that bar, just contemplating the possibility.

The mind reels...

Recap Everything

Most of us schedule a recap meeting after the station fronts a big NTR event or music festival.

• Did this work as planned?
• Complaints?
• Comments?
• What could we do to improve or put a spin on to make it better next year?
• What did we like?
• What didn't we like?

This is always a hassle to do, of course, as you write down notes, throw them into the file and pull 'em out the following year. Then, suddenly, you're grateful you took the time to do a recap.

It helps to really make signature events better and better, as those old notes tell you that next time you need more seating, more prizes, a different way to judge a contest.

Hassle or not, do recap meetings with everyone involved producing TV campaigns, major contests, imaging, all of the touch-points with listeners. Improving their experience of everything you do is what winning is all about.

Intelligent strategies, pulled off half-heartedly, get trumped by excellent execution every time.

Plan Now To Have A Hot Summer And Strong Fall

1. PROGRAM DIRECTOR PERSONAL
Goals:
- Demonstrating the knowledge and management skills necessary to run the Department
- Using the available tools and strategies, creating the plan to get ... to the next level
- Using interpersonal skills to create the passion and winning attitude among staff
- Train XXX to handle Asst PD (and XXX) to handle Music responsibilities

2. TO SHARE WITH THE AIR STAFF
Goals:
- Focus all talent with regular one on one aircheck sessions (Full & Part-time)
- Concentrate on Morning show:
- Continue thinking "out of the box"
- Focus, focus, focus
- Get "XXX" (YOU KNOW WHO!) more "in the game" (or explore options)
- Keep "high profile" in media (Goal: at least 1 media coverage event monthly)

- Build Afternoon show profile:
- Take the show out on the streets occasionally
- Become more "listener driven"
- More "stunts" to get people talking

- Have all personalities know, understand and sign job descriptions
- Airstaff meeting at least 1x monthly

3. BUDGETS/BONUSES
Goals:
- Review budget projections for possible areas of savings
- Develop personality bonus structure

4. PROMOTIONAL FORECASTING
Goals:
- Keep "ahead of the game" by advance planning
- Topical promotions:
Memorial Day, Flag Day, Canada Day, July 4th, etc
- Work with Promotions Dept. on Email/Social Network Attacks:
- Up to twice a month, then once a week, then daily with quality appointments
- Use viral ideas to build TSL (and maybe pick up a little more cume too!) through creative contesting
- Get Midday "at work" TSL/TSE up to at least X:XX through increased occasions
- Share Rating into the low X.0's (be realistic) by the end of 4th Qtr. looking towards an incredibly "hot" Summer as the lever (outline what it would take to do this in terms of AQH and Cume growth)
- Increase "In Your Face" marketing
- Work with promotions, consultant and researcher to develop the "Listener Advisory Board," online, etc - research projects

5. STAY FRESH
Goals:
- Use creative Promo and Liners to continue to position ourselves as fresh, creative and surprising
- Have the plan already in place for when the competition counters the position, use two and three stage thinking when developing any image campaign. Expect them to defend. Have contingencies ready.
- Check budgets for implementing the spring and fall campaign
- Keep sweepers Hip, Hot, Local, Topical, Fun, Self-Deprecating, Never Hype
- Stay focused on original strategy

6. SPECIAL PROGRAMMING
Goals:
- Continue to create exciting weekend programming (2 to 3 per month)
- Brainstorm to build daypart programming that is in synch with the strategy or replace dated elements (or whatever) with the normal format. Is special programming driving the audience you need to succeed?
- more produced on the air
- develop "reason to be there" events

7. CUME/TSL MATRIX
Goals:
- Develop CUME/TSL Matrix to track progress
- Cross reference with on-air/outside promotions to determine which were "hot buttons"

8. CONSULTANT VISITS
Goals:
- Schedule at least one visit to town by Jaye Albright or Mike O’Malley during 3rd Qtr.
- Discuss strategies to reach next level
- Include air staff in a meeting with (try to get one on one time with as much of the staff as possible)

9. BRAG
Goals:
- Let A&O know both when you need ideas and when you hit home runs
- Press releases to local media and the trades