Now, you can market your products

in the blink of an “ear”

Radio advertising is alive and well and getting better. Clear Channel Communications, which owns 1200 stations, in a master stroke of business acumen and listener empathy has launched “Less is More,” a program that reduces clutter and increases effectiveness.

Advertisers can now buy five-second “Adlets” or one or two- second “Blinks.” These innovators were probably greeted with the same skepticism as were the guys who first proposed only charging bridge tolls in one direction.

Will this help Channel land clients? Sure. But to make it more palatable to listeners and advertisers, they’ve cut down the number of ad minutes per hour and the number of commercials in each “Pod.” (Pods are clusters of commercials.) TV crams so many commercials into some pods that you know you’ll have time before programming resumes to go potty, mix another drink, or go out and turn on the garden hose.

Blinks and adlets won’t work for products that need a lot of explaining. But like billboards, they’re another touch point that can make a quick impression, crystallize a unique selling proposition, or direct prospects to your Web site where they’ll get the rest of the story.

Radio is hot, and the cool thing is that rates are often negotiable. A little guy can get a mega bang for his buck with the right timing, audience and creativity. According to industry experts, radio can claim over seven years of uninterrupted revenue growth. Stations must be doing something right---like giving clients a good ROI.

Check out http://www.clearchannel.com/ for all the details on the"Less is More," program.

Now, you can market your products

in the blink of an “ear”

Radio advertising is alive and well and getting better. Clear Channel Communications, which owns 1200 stations, in a master stroke of business acumen and listener empathy has launched “Less is More,” a program that reduces clutter and increases effectiveness.

Advertisers can now buy five-second “Adlets” or one or two- second “Blinks.” These innovators were probably greeted with the same skepticism as were the guys who first proposed only charging bridge tolls in one direction.

Will this help Channel land clients? Sure. But to make it more palatable to listeners and advertisers, they’ve cut down the number of ad minutes per hour and the number of commercials in each “Pod.” (Pods are clusters of commercials.) TV crams so many commercials into some pods that you know you’ll have time before programming resumes to go potty, mix another drink, or go out and turn on the garden hose.

Blinks and adlets won’t work for products that need a lot of explaining. But like billboards, they’re another touch point that can make a quick impression, crystallize a unique selling proposition, or direct prospects to your Web site where they’ll get the rest of the story.

Radio is hot, and the cool thing is that rates are often negotiable. A little guy can get a mega bang for his buck with the right timing, audience and creativity. According to industry experts, radio can claim over seven years of uninterrupted revenue growth. Stations must be doing something right---like giving clients a good ROI.

Check out http://www.clearchannel.com/ for all the details on the"Less is More," program.

Here’s a message for Sales and Marketing:

“Hey guys, we’re all on the same side.”

Why this sibling rivalry between sales and marketing? We’re all part of the same family. When we do well our parents prosper and so do we. We’re all in the business of selling products, ideas and services. Whether it’s belly-to-belly, or through media and collateral, we’re all trying to persuade by providing information needed for buying decisions.

So let’s try to make our parents happy.

A 2004 study by the Chief Marketing Officer’s Council found that up to 40% of typical sales rep’s time was spent customizing materials for his or her job. That should never be. A rep’s valuable time should be devoted to selling. If a company invests $75,000 a year in salary and fringes for him to go sell stuff, he should not be allowed to use up $30,000 worth of selling time just getting ready to make the pitch. (That’s a hell of a wind up.)

Those of us who have run up and down the road for a few decades know how important the right support materials and prep time are to a rep. But we also know it’s far more effective to leverage marcom materials produced by the marketing department than to do it on our own.

The sales staff will argue that the materials aren’t right for them. That’s family discord that should not be allowed. Unless sales and marketing communicate and cooperate in the development of unified messages there will always be costly losses in efficiency, opportunity and productivity.

With today’s technologies, tweaking and customizing sales materials and presentations is best handled by marcom with input from sales.

Business is not an agrarian society. Let’s tear down the silos and cast out any smug occupants who think they have all the answers. It’s time to listen to one another with open minds. Then we’ll be better equipped to influence those who just might want to accept our offers.

Suggestion: Go to http://www.cmocouncil.org/ and read the 2004 special report: “Making Marketing Messaging Meaningful.” Though the study was based on interviews with CMO’s of technology companies, its findings apply to us all.

Marketing Strategy:

Find what works,

then tune it.

The old cliché “here today gone tomorrow” sums up the fragility of many good companies. As Grandma always said, “Stuff happens.” And today it can happen like a lightening bolt.

Business plans and mission statements can be obsolete before you get home from your brainstorming retreat. That’s why a strategy that finds tactics that work, then does more of them, is hard to beat. (Yeah, I know also hard to sell.)

Everybody wants to know where there’re going. We’ve heard if over and over: “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.” Well, look at Columbus. His strategy was wrong, but look where his tactics got him (and us).

We can’t control destiny, the market, or what competitors do. But we can control our response. Colonel Harland Sanders is a good example. At age 65 when a new highway siphoned traffic away from his restaurant he didn’t just close the door. He packed up his chicken recipe, and boogied down the road from Corbin, KY to build one of the Nation’s biggest franchises.

The Colonel’s strategy that built his empire came after he found a tactic that worked.

The marketing clock runs on double time. Today, that good old leisurely bell shaped curve of a product’s life cycle can look more like a rocket followed by a bomb. That’s why a little insecurity is a good thing. It makes you hustle while the competition is still home strategizing.

Tip for big and little guys: Read Bottom-Up Marketing, by Al Ries and Jack Trout. It makes a solid case for why smart marketers should get down in the trenches to discover what must be done.

With Good Public Relations,

Customers Don't Have to See You

To See Your Image

Every nanogram of marcom that radiates from your business is a pixel of perception. Put them together and they present the full-color picture of your company’s soul.

Public relations’ efforts to present a pretty picture are not deception. They’re an honest effort to reflect the personality of those who run the business, and to reflect that personality as someone with whom prospects would like to do business.

Problem is, this effort can break down at any level. A cranky receptionist, a discourteous driver, the checker who forgets to say “Thank you,” the C.E.O whose tongue outruns his brain….The world of commerce is mined with big and little booby traps that can ding, dent, damn or destroy an image.

What’s the Big Deal?

Often associates not directly associated with sales and marketing aren’t aware that they’re part of marketing communications. They too contribute to the total picture. And sometimes their company-centric behavior or cavalier manner earns demerits. Enough little demerits become a big deal. Those who earn them deserve a slap on the wrist to help change their attitude.

PR Is Not Just for Damage Control

Many companies only think of PR when the feces face the fan. Without a program in place, or at least a high degree of public relations literacy on the part of management, it may be too late.

Email, chat rooms, forums--- and now blogs--- have changed the landscape for all. So-o-o-o-o-oh!: You’d better be good. You’d better watch out. You’d better not pout and you’d better not shout. ‘Cause your critics are already in town---and ready to talk.

Some public relations practitioners describe their discipline as the engineering of perception. That sounds a little too manipulative for my approach. Yet how we’re perceived can make or kill our business. Sometimes damage control requires a carefully crafted spin or a mea culpa from the brass. (Well, maybe “engineering” isn’t such a bad choice of words after all.)

In the Bad Old Days…

When I first entered the advertising and public relations business we were more publicists than true counselors. We tended to measure success (and so did our clients) by the amount of free space and air time we garnered. We were more into stunts than studies to check our effectiveness or our ability to change behavior and perception. We wrote speeches and issued press releases. Now, that’s still an important part of public relations, but we were never part of a company’s strategy. Public relations can become marcom's most powerful tool when it’s part of strategy and tactics.

PR , The Big Umbrella

Good public relations are the big umbrella of good marcom. It protects, nourishes, and supports your message. After all, nobody wants to listen to or do business with people they don’t like or trust. What’s more, it’s just as important to the little guy, or start-up as it is to the Donald. He can afford to goof up and rebuild as he has on several occasions.

So, up your image. Be nice. Mean it. Show it. That’s good Public Relations.

Tip for The Little Guy: If you can’t hire a consultant, read one: Power Public Relations by Leonard Saffir with John Tarrant, from NTC Business Books is a good start. Or, get a good PR guy in for a staff meeting to pitch your crew about how important it is to the success of any business.