Can Your Business Take A Punch Like Rocky?

Can Your Business Take A Punch Like Rocky?

by | Jan 27, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

At the beginning of January, subscribers to my weekly Sound ADvice newsletter received the information I’m about to share with you today.  If you’d like to receive this in your email inbox, email me and ask for a free subscription.  Scott@ScLoHo.net.

It was 39 years ago that Rocky Balboa fought Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. It was a knock-down drag-out fight with Rocky taking punch after punch and hit after hit, only to get back up time after time and ultimately win the fight!

Rocky was always getting the snot kicked out of him. Intentional or not… it was his style. His opponents would eventually wear down because Rocky could take a hit. And take a hit. And take a hit. 

Sound familiar?  Your business taking hits?… 

…Sales slumps due to the economy, employee troubles, hiring struggles, increased costs, a terrible review, or any other lightning-fast jab, monster hook, or sucker punch.

That’s part of the game though, isn’t it? Getting hit, and always getting back up? Like the Japanese proverb that says, “Fall down seven times, stand up eight.”

But Rocky added a couple of things to that…

“Let me tell you something you already know.  The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it.  You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t how hard you hit; it’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward.  That’s how winning is done! Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hit, and not point fingers saying you ain’t where you are because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that, and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!”   – Rocky Balboa

Did you catch them? 

1) It’s about how hard you can get hit, and 2) keep moving forward.

We’ve all been hit. We’ve all been hit HARD. And if you’re reading this… you picked yourself back up.  But did you move forward?  

Step #1 to recovering from a major punch is, Acknowledge and Accept It.  

Acknowledge the issue that caused you to get “hit”, analyze what went wrong, identify the cause, make a plan to ensure it doesn’t happen again (or as severely), and LEARN from it.

Every negative has the potential to produce a positive.  It might not be immediately obvious, but it’s there. If you always have a “move forward” attitude, pretty soon the hits won’t seem so bad, and you’ll find ways to learn from them and capitalize on them sooner.

Oh sure… easier said than done, right?  Absolutely.  Sometimes, it’s not easy to say to yourself that “everything’s gonna be ok”.  But it’s a mindset.  It’s practice, determination, and an attitude. You might not get the big wins every month or every year… but depending on your industry and what’s happening around us, maybe just staying afloat and weathering a storm is also a big win.

If and when your business takes a punch, click here to see seven steps that can help you get back up and keep moving forward.

 And let me be one of the last to wish you a Happy New Year!  2025 will be ripe with opportunities to grow and learn. For me, for you, for everyone.

Increasing Prices Without Losing Customers

Increasing Prices Without Losing Customers

by | Jan 20, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

There are many challenges in running a business. One of the greatest is knowing when the right time is to raise the price of your products or services. Last month subscribers to my SoundADvice newsletter received this information in their inbox.  I’ll add you to my SoundADvice email newsletter too if you want.  It’s absolutely free, and I don’t pass along your information to anyone.  Just email me, Scott@ScLoHo.net and ask for the SoundADvice newsletter.  It comes most Wednesdays and is written by my friend Rick at ENS media. Now let’s look at the tips that deal with raising prices because most business owners are faced with this decision.

With the increase in competition and all the talk about potential tariffs, there are more and more articles in business trades about the advantages and disadvantages of tariffs, and how they will affect pricing for both products and services.

One known fact is that consumers nearly always remain loyal to name brands and businesses they have an emotional connection to. If your business relationship with your customers is transactional, meaning price is the most important factor, raising prices is especially difficult. However, if your business with customers is relational, it’s much easier to implement price increases.

Simply put, people do business with people they trust, and they purchase products that they trust! If they don’t know you on a relational level, the chance of them staying with you when you raise prices decreases, dramatically!

Have you ever noticed within your company that people who “like” you and “trust” you rarely ask about the price? Whereas the customers or potential customers that you have not yet built a relationship with inquire about pricing significantly more often.

Raising or increasing prices is a struggle for every business owner. The thought of even having to deal with questions from customers about “why” can be exhausting. However, as the cost of goods increases, along with salaries and wages, rent, and all other related costs of business increases, so must your cost of goods or services. The trick is raising prices without raising a ruckus or losing customers.

Tip #7 of our Tips For Raising Your Prices Without Losing Customers is Don’t Promote or Apologize for Price Increase. Even your best and most loyal customers don’t want to hear that you’re increasing the price of your goods or services. But (there is always a “but”), if you must notify your customers, do it quickly, in as few words as possible, and don’t apologize!

Because some of your customers are transactional, rather than relational, even the best-run businesses will lose some customers when they increase prices. However, as your competitors are forced to increase their prices, you too will have an opportunity to gain some new customers as well.

In most business climates, raising prices is a must just to stay even, much less survive. Increasing your prices must be done with careful thought. If you would like some tips on how to approach raising your prices without losing customers, click here.

Human Relationship Marketing Principles

Human Relationship Marketing Principles

by | Jan 13, 2025 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

This week I’m sharing the bare bones foundation of how to build a business marketing plan that works not just now, but for years into the future.

It’s something I’ve been implementing since the 1980’s, when I first made the move to the advertising side of media.

Human Relationship Marketing is the term I either created or developed when I was learning the radio ad business at WMUZ in Detroit where I worked starting in 1986 at the ripe old age of 26.  Ideas came from a number of sources including the weekly sales bullet newsletter from  company president Don Crawford.  This was an internal memo that those of us in the advertising side of the company were given.

I also bought and read a number of books by authors Jack Trout and Al Ries who wrote the classic: Positioning, The battle for your mind and other follow up books.  Harvey Mackay, author of Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive and several additional titles were instrumental in my early sales and ad career education.  Then about 20 years ago Roy H Williams came into my life with a series of books that I also recommend along with Roy’s weekly free email, Monday Morning Memo.

So here’s the quick version of what Human Relationship Marketing Principles are:

  • The closer we get to communicating in our advertising and marketing to traditional Human Relationships, the stronger the campaign and the bond.
  • You have to be genuine, honest and have integrity in your business and in your advertising.
  • The same things we want as human beings from other humans are the same things we want from the people we spend our money with.
  • The more you can mimic these human relationship principles in your marketing, the better your results.

And here’s a few practical was to make this happen:

  • Avoid “ad-speak” and clichés in your  marketing messaging.  Instead talk the way you would to a friend.
  • Build relationships with your current and future customers by being consistent with your ads.  (More on this in the future)

And remember this:

Despite all the advances in technology, it’s still people who are deciding to buy from you or someone else, and those people will make purchases based on their feelings and back it up with data.

More in the weeks ahead.

What to Expect in 2025

What to Expect in 2025

by | Jan 6, 2025 | The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Welcome to a brand new year and for many of us the first full week back from the holidays.

I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this article and podcast episode because we are all busy.

However, I want to share with you what you can expect in 2025.

No, I have no idea about all the details of your life, these expectations are what you can expect from me both online and in-person.

My intentions are to write an article that will be published every Monday morning at 8am eastern time and also record a podcast episode based on that weeks article that will also be live at 8am Mondays.

I’ve had this particular website ScottHoward.me since 2011 and was writing and publishing on blogs for a few years before 2011.  In 2016, my boss asked me if I would be interested in creating a podcast on advertising and marketing.  I work for a group of radio stations and started my career behind the microphone and still voice ads.  I told them yes if I could simply do an audio version of the weekly articles I was already creating for this website and we struck up a deal.

Along with the podcast and the weekly articles I publish here, I also have a newsletter that gets emailed free to subscribers called Sound ADvice.  Sound Advice is written by a friend, Rick from ENS Media and he’s given me permission to share as articles on my website too.  If you’d like to be added to the mailing list, send me an email to Scott@ScLoHo.net.  I promise to not sell or giveaway your information.

Now I know some of you have little information on who I am or what my credentials are, so here’s the 60 second version:

After starting on the radio as a teenage disc jockey, I advanced my on-air career to larger cities and into management. But at the ripe old age of 26 moved my family to Detroit to work on the advertising creation side of radio.  I eventually returned to Indiana and by 2003 started working in advertising sales and marketing consulting.  In 2013 I joined WOWO radio first as a member of the sales team, then 4 years in management before returning to the sales side a little over a year ago.

I also decided to share online media and marketing information several years ago under the nickname ScLoHo.  That’s the first two letters of my first, middle and last names mashed together… ScLoHo which is pronounced Sclow-Hoe.

Anyway, as I look forward at what you can expect from me here, I’ll continue to share some of the Sound ADvice newsletter information, I’ll write about articles that I see that pertain to media and marketing, and I’ll also give you my own unique perspective from someone who’s spent a few decades being curious about the power of media and marketing and how human relationship principles are the real key to success.  More on that next week.

Traditional Radio Relevancy in 2024 & 2025

Traditional Radio Relevancy in 2024 & 2025

by | Dec 30, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

It’s the week between Christmas and New Year and for this weeks update, I found an article that caught my attention back in July. You can read it here.
In the meantime, I’m just going to share a couple of thoughts from that story and what really matters as we move to a new year.

Between ad-supported Spotify or ad-supported Pandora and AM/FM radio, what do most people only listen to? New data courtesy of Edison Research’s “Share of Ear” quarterly study, examined by Pierre Bouvard, Chief Insights Officer of the Cumulus Media/Westwood One Audio Active Group, shares that it is broadcast radio that is the definitive answer to that question.

There are tons of research being done on an ongoing basis that show the power of traditional radio and this is one of them.

With 4,000 Americans surveyed by Edison Research, ad-supported audio was put under the magnifying glass. And, six key findings from the Q1 2024 “Share of Ear” study caught Bouvard’s eye:

 

  • In a typical day, ad-supported digital audio reaches a third of America; AM/FM radio reaches two-thirds of America; Combined, digital audio and AM/FM radio reach 75% of the U.S. daily

Those numbers are referring to daily listening habits which is different from the way Nielsen Research measures listenership for radio stations. Nielsen gives us the number of weekly listeners which has consistently been over 90% of adults.

Items two and three:

  • Between ad-supported Spotify and AM/FM radio, most people only listen to AM/FM radio

  • Between ad-supported Pandora and AM/FM radio, most people only listen to AM/FM radio

Often times, we make the assumption that our own habits and preferences are a reflection of everyone else. So when someone discovers a streaming music platform like Spotify or Pandora and that replaces radio as their music source, they sometimes jump to the conclusion that everyone is abandoning traditional media.  But when you add up the numbers, it’s not really true.   The company I work for, Federated Media operates 5 different stations, and three of 5 are music stations, the other two I work with are talk radio.  The 3 music stations have an impressive number of listeners, many times larger than the local listeners to Pandora and Spotify combined.

Number 4 on his list:

  • The U.S. ad-supported audio clock: Podcasts and AM/FM radio represent nearly 90% of tuning minutes

I would like to see the data behind that statement, but it’s not surprising.  Podcasts have been surging in listenership in the past several years.

Number 5:

  • With a towering in-car share of 86%, AM/FM radio is the primary way to reach consumers on the path to purchase; The proportion of AM/FM radio in-car listening has surged, returning to pre-pandemic norms.

I just turned 65 this month.  I bought my first car when I was 16 and the car was my mobile music machine. Before we had the ability to consume media on demand, we would listen to radio in our cars during what’s called traditional drivetime in the morning and afternoon.  That was radio primetime.  TV primetime was in the evening.   I’ve got some data I’ll share next year about local listening habits but for now, let’s keep going.

The 6th Key Finding:

  • Among registered voters across the political spectrum, AM/FM radio is the dominant ad-supported audio platform.

This article was published before our most recent national election.  Donald Trump won and I can see how the power of talk radio beat the power of Political TV.  Conservative media includes most of the News Talk Broadcast radio stations along with the Fox News TV Network.  Liberal media sources don’t include radio for the most part unless you want to classify public radio as liberal.  Even if you were to do that, the total radio listenership of political talk across the country is heavily conservative.   A few decades ago there was an attempt to create a left-leaning talk radio network but it fell apart because it didn’t have the on-going financial support.  I can’t give all the credit to radio because the viewership of MSNBC and CNN combined are dwarfed by the Fox News TV network, so a combination of conservative talk radio and TV overwhelming beat the liberal progressive media in this years election.

Listenership and viewership are important however what really matters for the businesses I work with are the results we create from the advertising campaigns we run on the radio and our social media channels.

My station, WOWO turns 100 in 2025.  Sister music stations, WMEE, K105 and 98.9 the Bear each have been on the air successfully for decades. I define success as successfully connecting listeners to advertisers and being profitable for all.  More on that in the year to come.