Effective Radio Imaging is ‘Brand Advertising’

One of the biggest misconceptions of what radio imaging is, is that it’s ‘marketing’ when in fact it isn’t at all, it’s ‘advertising’.

The difference between marketing and advertising is that marketing talks about the company (in this case the radio station) where advertising talks about the consumer (in this case the listener) selling the positive attributes of the product, your radio station!

Radio listeners are a hardened bunch, which comes from years and years of being bombarded with messages not just through the radio, but through the TV, on billboards, even in public bathrooms. Everywhere they go someone is trying to sell them something! Radio listeners have become quite adept at using their bullshit alarms, when they hear BS it shuts out the message. Radio imaging that takes the ‘marketing’ route is automatically ‘STOPPED’ from entering the brain and your message that you are “The Rock Station the REALLY Rocks!” is lost in the ether.

There are two kinds of advertising:

• ”call to action’ advertising and
• ”brand’ advertising.

In the case of radio imaging ‘call to action’ ads are your typical:  “Listen at 5 for the Drive at Five” or “coming up in the next 30 minutes your chance to win…” a message that asks the listener to do something (listen) at a particular time of the day or to do something specifically as it relates to the radio station.

Effective radio imaging is ‘brand’ advertising

In order to do effective brand advertising you need to first understand how you are perceived by your listeners. I’ve said it many times before “Branding starts in the listeners mind”. Once you understand that you can build on that and then help the listener to expand what he believes to be true about your station with each progressive imaging linerЕwith each progressive imaging campaign.
If you want to win the hearts of your listeners you need to get into their minds. And the key to getting into their mind is not through marketing…it’s through brand advertising.

Consumers don’t buy products anymore they buy brands. What are you doing to build your radio station’s brand?

Communicating Through Social Media

Well, I’ve finally gone and done it, I’ve just stepped on to the Twitter stage. After months of considering adding it to my social media network I gave in to the urge. Whether you’re already in it or considering adding social media to your mix of communication devices here are 3 simple rules to remember:

1. Pull, don’t push. Social-media newbies often make the mistake of being too aggressive. Some people might respond to new Twitter followers with a ‘Thanks for following. Visit my Web site for a free … [insert whatever promotional message you've seen.].’ Social networks are about conversations that build relationships, not indiscriminate come-ons.

2. Forget about social-network omnipresence. No one expects you to be everywhere, choose the sites frequented by your customers/clients. At minimum, establish a presence at the big three. Think of them this way: LinkedIn is your business suit, Facebook is business casual, and Twitter is the 24/7 ongoing cocktail party.

3. Be yourself. If it’s still available, use your own name as a handle and your headshot as an avatar, even if you’re networking on behalf of your company. I believe that in social media people would rather relate to and build trust with other PEOPLE, rather than brands.

As quickly as social networking  media is developing so are the rules of the game. Making yourself familiar with online protocol will smooth your path to online success.

Join me on LinkedIn, Facebook and now Twitter.

Keeping it Simple: Car Wash $10

It was a beautiful spring morning in Montréal, the kind we had dreamt about all winter long, the smell of Saturday was calling out, the birds were singing their morning song, the smell of freshly cut grass occasionally blew in.
My wife, sons and I decided to go out for brunch at a local restaurant. As we sat there on the terrace I noticed a group of teenagers across the street who were holding a car wash.

Whether they were a softball team, soccer team, school band I wasn’t quite sure. It was obvious however, that they were having quite a difficult time attracting anyone despite the fact that there had been a downpour the night before. They were waving their signs, yelling and jumping up and down but to no avail. After watching this scene for maybe half an hour and as our waitress cleared the table I had an idea…was it a need to help or just my own selfish desire to prove a point? I don’t know.

I grabbed a black Sharpie from the car and ran across the street. After introducing myself and my idea I took 4 of their signs, flipped them over and simply wrote: “Car Wash $10”. I headed back to the restaurant to enjoy my freshly frothed cappuccino and to see my plan unfold.
Sure enough, before I could get past the foam topping, cars had started to pull into the parking lot and by the time I had paid the bill, there was a lineup! All in a days work I thought as I piled my family into the car to head home…just like I had told one of my clients the week before ‘the simpler the message the better’!
While the kids had thought to bring all of their buckets, wash cloths, hoses, soap and a change of cloths all the elements you need for a successful car wash they hadn’t thought about how they were going to attract their customer. Their attempts were confusing at best, each one of their signs had different messages each explaining in a different way what the car wash was for, why they should stop and let them wash their car, etc. What they needed was one simple and clear message to attract customers “Car Wash $10”.

Think It Through
So how does this apply to branding your radio station? Think about it, you’ve spent millions of dollars buying and setting up a transmitter, setting up a radio station, hiring the right people and picking the right music, but how much thought have put into the message you’re using to attract customers.

It has been said that radio people are so close to their radio station that all they see are the trees. Radio listeners on the other hand, see the forest, the bigger picture. Well, these days in our over communicated world I’ll take it a further step back: Radio listeners today are seeing that forest as they fly down the highway of life doing 100 mph!! So how do you expect them to see what it is you’re selling amidst a landscape filled with messages?
We have to create a message that is so simple, so clear that nobody can miss its intention. “Car Wash $10”.

What’s Your Message?
Some products can be as easily identified by there positioning statement as by the brand name or logo. Here are some examples:
• “The Real Thing”
• “Mm’mm Good”
• “I’m lovin’ it”
• “Eat Fresh”
• “Just Do It”

So what message are you giving to your listeners?

• Your Favourites of the 70’s 80’s 90’s and Today
• The Rock Station That Really Rocks
• Give us 30 minutes. We’ll give you an incredible variety of songs
• The only radio station that gives you 50-minute music hours
• All your favourite songs from all your favourite stars

All very nice but memorable? No.

You need to pick a word or short phrase and own it. Make it signify what your station is in the mind of your listener. Your message needs to be sharpened to the point where it can cut through the clutter of our over communicated world.

Keep it simple, keep it focused, keep it clear, keep it consistent and you’ll get them lining up around the corner.

Back to School We Go

 

Well, as I get ready to go back to school to start teaching some of the things I’ve learned over the years as a small business owner along comes this new book called ”Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy,” by marketing wizard Martin Lindstrom. The book is based on a research project that Lindstrom conducted over three years. He and his team used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) technology to understand what happens in consumers’ brains as they are exposed to advertising and specific brands. This research falls under a body of marketing called neuromarketing. And hold on to your hat because it shatters some previously hardcore beliefs about marketing!

Fear sells, sex doesn’t. Our primal instinct as human beings is to survive; therefore, fear and sex are key. Fear relates to our survival: Do I have enough to eat? Will I have enough money when I retire? Is that product safe? Sex relates to procreation. In this respect, Lindstrom claims that political fear-based advertising is effective because it taps into our primal concerns of survival. Sex-based advertising, however, overwhelms us physically, so all we take away is the sexual part and we disregard the brand associated with it.

Pass the cigarettes, please. Did you know that global cigarette smoking has increased 13 percent and that warning labels are part of the reason? In fact, Lindstrom’s findings suggested that the warning labels stimulate the nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain that increases cravings. Tobacco companies have actually been able to increase sales even though cigarette advertising has been banned in most countries.

Forget product placements. This is a hard one to swallow, but according to the research 99 percent of product placements are completely ineffective. What about the 1 percent? The only effective product placements integrate into the content in a completely meaningful way. Here’s a way to test it out: if your brand can be replaced with any other brand and it wouldn’t make any difference, your sponsorship or product placement is probably a waste of money. However, if the addition or removal of your brand would affect the environment’s context, you’re probably on the right track. Think of “American Idol.” AT&T is a good integration, Coca-Cola is ok, but Ford isn’t good at all.

Logos are meaningless. In many cases, it’s preferable to not even have a logo on your advertising.

Advertising agencies should hire rabbis, priests, and imams as consultants. Lindstrom claims that strong brands are like religions and how a Catholic feels when viewing an image of the Virgin Mary is how a brand evangelist feels when experiencing his brand affinity. Brands should try to create rituals that are similar to religious rituals. Think about green bean casserole and Thanksgiving. The two are so connected that one of the key ingredients, French Fried Onions, probably wouldn’t even exist if it wasn’t for this holiday and the classic American dish.