Is Your Brand Identity Correct?

by Scott Howard | Oct 28, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

My favorite carbonated beverage is changing their branding.

So I’m going to stop drinking it in protest.

Just kidding.

Mountain Dew is changing their labeling to Mountain Dew.

I know, that sounds weird but it’s a visual change, not a verbal change.

Here’s the story from Mediapost titled:

Mountain Dew Unveils New Logo, Visual Identity

After around 15 years, Mountain Dew has found its vowels again.

The brand unveiled its new logo — eschewing the “Mtn Dew” stylization officially introduced in the U.S. market in 2009 –– in favor of the full brand name, while tying the brand’s visual identity back to mountainous peaks portrayed in the background as it approaches its 75th anniversary. Mountain Dew’s new logo also includes small text reading “Est. 1948” over the “W” in its brand name, a nod to the year the trademark was officially established.

I know, it’s shocking. I say that with a ting of sarcasm.

Because honestly, I don’t recall them dropping the vowels out of Mountain in 2009. I didn’t change my buying habits and I won’t now, or when the new logo comes out in 2025.

I was trying to recall when I started drinking the Dew, and I’m guessing it was in the 90’s as an alternative to coffee. Nothing wrong with coffee but the Dew also replaced Pepsi as my go to cold beverage. I recall having a conversation with my kids when they questioned my drinking Mountain Dew in the morning and I pointed out to them that the second ingredient on the label was concentrated orange juice. Let’s be honest, besides the taste and the O.J. Mountain Dew had more caffeine than Pepsi or Coke and that was the main reason I drank it. Also a little over 20 years ago I switched to the diet versions of soft drinks.

What I just shared was my own story and reasons for drinking Mountain Dew.

It has nothing to do with the name, or the logo. Yet someone in their advertising agency was paid big bucks to revamp their visual image.

I’m not against updates. One of my favorite advertising partners on WOWO radio has done an internal name change this year and we’ve updated his ads and also the visual elements. There was nothing wrong with the previous name, Moore and Associates, but it really didn’t identify his brand. Unless you knew from the advertisements that have aired on WOWO for over 29 years who Chris Moore is and what he does, Moore and Associates could be a law firm, or a plumber or nearly anything.

His new name is much more clear and a much stronger branding statement. Moore Wealth Management. Chris and his team have grown over the past 3 decades and the new name is accurate as it reflects what they do now and what they’ve been doing for years.

With all do respect to my friends who specialize in graphic design and understand the subconscious influences of color and typography including font selection, those are secondary to having a good product and service that people will talk about positively. As a side note, I like Comic Sans. Time to crack open a Diet Mtn Dew.

Success in Sampling

by Scott Howard | Oct 21, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Debbie Fields was only 21 years old when she opened her first Mrs. Fields Cookies store in Palo Alto, California in 1977. Seven short years later, in 1984, the marketing “novice” had 160 stores selling more than $45 million worth of Mrs. Fields Cookies.

There are a lot of lessons we can learn from Debbie’s marketing success. Her passion and determination caused her to succeed even though she had no experience, and was told by friends, family, bankers, and others that her “idea” would not succeed.

The marketing campaign that drew customers to her stores consisted of simply going out into the streets with trays of free cookies for people to sample. If you have a great product, consider finding a way to offer free samples to your customers.

Car dealers know the value of the free test drive, and vendors at local farmers’ markets have learned they sell more produce by offering free samples.

Advertising that you offer free trials or samples also speaks volumes about the confidence you have in your products or services. Mrs. Fields did not wait for customers to come into her store to offer them free samples, she went out into the streets with trays of goodies.

“Free” is one of the most powerful words in advertising and giving samples of your product engages “psychological reciprocity” in the minds of your prospects.

Psychological reciprocity is defined as “a deep-rooted subconscious need to do something for those who do something for us”.

FREE! If you have a product that customers will love, click here to read the 8 Keys to Successful Sampling.

Mrs. Fields Cookies was one of the first franchised cookie shops in the country and we use to have a couple of them here in Fort Wayne Indiana. We don’t anymore due to the changes in consumer behavior and decline of major malls that was going on for awhile but then took a big hit in 2020 with covid.

When Mrs. Fields started in the malls around the country, that was a strategic location move. See, the rent in a mall was usually higher than a smaller strip shopping center. Just the mall itself was a destination, not just specific stores.

So the Mrs. Fields cookie stores took advantage of the foot traffic created by the other well known stores and built their brand that way.

Some of my radio advertising partners have used a free offer that was in response to a genuine need to create increased business in the past few years. Let’s talk and see if there’s something that might be appropriate for your business.

Phone Etiquette!

by Scott Howard | Oct 14, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

They say first impressions say a lot about your business. For many potential new customers, they first interact with or meet your business when they call on the phone.

In today’s tech-savvy society, it seems a machine rather than a human answers more phone calls to businesses. The entire process of answering company phones, from how quickly you respond to how you conclude the call and what is said in between, either with a live person or a voice recording, can determine whether potential customers choose to do business with you… or not!

There’s a saying that goes, “Little things mean a lot”. Far too many businesses take answering the phone for granted. After all, what is so hard about answering the phone? However, having a set policy and procedure for answering the phone not only ensures the phone is answered the way you want it to be, but it also implies to ALL employees that you are a professional organization in ALL areas of your company.

With today’s business climate of limited and multi-tasking staff, there is often little time to answer the phones appropriately. In this case, a professional voicemail should be used in place of a live voice. Just because a customer isn’t able to reach you does not mean they cannot be greeted with a message and feeling that creates a positive impression.

Remember that when someone calls your business they want something and it’s typically an answer to a question. In the 15 Rules to Phone Call Etiquette, Rule #5 is, “Take Notes”. Even if you use a voicemail system, ask the caller if they would prefer to leave a message or be sent to the person’s voicemail. “Little things” do mean a lot!

Having a policy and set procedure on how you expect your phones to be answered is a small but important part of operating a professional business.

If you’d like to see the 15 Rules to Phone Call Etiquette, click here.

What I just shared was from my Sound ADvice email newsletter that subscribers receive nearly every Wednesday. If you’d like a free subscription, drop me a note to Scott@ScLoHo.net

By the way, back in 2003 when I was starting my advertising career in Fort Wayne, I was invited to speak to a group of building contractors at their weekly breakfast meeting. They thought I was going to pitch them on radio advertising but instead, I helped them with the way they converted leads to build trust over the phone and the advice I gave them was very similar to what I just shared with you.

These were small contractors, maybe two or three, perhaps just a solo entrepreneur and caller ID wasn’t standard on cell phones two decades ago. I asked them, “What do you say when you answer your phone?” Most of them said, “Hello”.

My simple advice was to answer it professionally.

Hi, this is Gene from Gene’s plumbing, how can I help you?

This tells the caller that they’ve reached the right number and they are talking to the right person too. 6 months later I visited that group again and asked how many of them changed the way they answered the phone and what the results were.

Those that followed my advice saw an increase in business because they were converting more incoming calls or leads.

Even if you are not a business owner, try that with your own phone too. If you call me, I’ll usually say my name and ask how I can help you.

This advice also applies to your voicemail message too.

POSITIVE Lessons from Political Advertising

by Scott Howard | Oct 7, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Sound ADvice

This was sent to my Sound ADvice Newsletter subscribers last week:

The world of political advertising is in a “world” all its own. The rules of traditional advertising are thrown out the window.

It’s a high-stakes game. It’s estimated that during the 2024 presidential election, candidates will spend nearly $12.32 billion; that’s an increase of almost 30% from the 2020 election cycle.

While I have never met anyone who likes political advertising, there are some proven, and yes positive, tactics that can help you win the vote of public opinion in your business category. First, you must win their hearts and minds. Once you’ve accomplished that, you’ll win their wallets and purses.

Presidential Marketing Tactic Number Ten is to Develop a Proprietary Slogan. In today’s competitive landscape, simply promoting your name is no longer sufficient to develop customer loyalty or attract new business. Your name must stand for something and be associated with an easy-to-remember benefit statement or slogan.

In a few short words, a slogan describes what your business stands for. Whether they were your preferred candidate or not, Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again”, and Kamala Harris’ “We’re Not Going Back” or “When We Fight, We Win” are all compelling slogans.

There is, however, one tactic your advertising needs to adhere to that most political campaigns do not…Tell the Truth!

Don’t make promises you can’t keep if you want to be in business for more than one term.

Click here to see all fourteen Presidential Marketing Tactics that can help place your business at the top of your business category.

If you would like to receive my free Sound ADvice newsletter in your inbox every week, email me Scott@ScLoHo.net

Audio Advertising: Sports Talk on the Radio

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

Continuing a short series focused on Audio Advertising as it’s sometimes called, this week I’m going to highlight a radio format we call Sports Talk.

As a radio veteran of a few decades and a radio listener for even longer, listening to sports on the radio was a part of the my life… forever.

A couple of recent studies present some fresh information on why sports radio is a great choice for businesses to advertise too.

First my personal listening history starting as a kid in the 1970’s…

My next door neighbor was a fan of the Cincinnati Reds and during the summer he blasted the game from 700 WLW as he worked in his backyard. Johnny Bench and Pete Rose were familiar to me then because of the play by play games I heard from over the fence. In the colder months, I listened to the Boston Celtics with Larry Bird on WBZ as I layed in bed with my battery operated transistor radio. Fort Wayne’s WOWO radio, introduced me to the excitement of Komet Hockey with legendary broadcaster Bob Chase. He was still calling the home games when I joined WOWO in 2013.

Another tradition listening to WOWO was Memorial Day weekend and the broadcast of the Indy 500 on Sunday afternoon. Only once have I attended in person but nearly every year I heard the lap by lap coverage as A.J Foyt, Al Unser and Bobby Unser took the checkered flags during my youth.

High school sports on the radio were a mainstay at the first two stations I worked at full time in Marion and Kokomo Indiana. During the time I lived in Detroit, I got to hear the late Ernie Harwell on WJR sharing the Tigers games and even got to meet Ernie when we had him as a guest on our stations Christian Talk Show.

Returning to Indiana and fast forwarding a few years to when my daughter played in the marching band for the Tippecanoe Valley Vikings and I lived about 90 minutes away, I’d listen to the game as I was driving into town to pick her up along with her brother and sister for the weekend as Rita Price did the play by play on WRSW.

I remember all these sports broadcasts clear as day even the ones that are decades old and I’m not a sports junkie. It was exciting to hear the live drama as it happened in the moment.

In the past couple of decades, I’ve worked for stations that carry college sports, pro sports and high school games. Many of the businesses that advertise do it as a passion play. They are fans of a team because they are alumni, or their kid goes to school there. Perhaps it’s the home town pride but there’s something beyond the recognition of having your business as a sports sponsor on the radio that doesn’t get talked about alot.

The ROI of Sports Talk Radio. It’s not always easy, darn near impossible to measure the number of listeners to a specific game on a local radio station because that’s not how rating services work. But there are plenty of antidotal stories from business owners of how advertising on sports talk radio boosts their business.

Here’s some data from a couple of studies that just came out this season.

An analysis of more than 50 locally and nationally advertised brands in seven major U.S. sports markets shows sports-formatted radio stations not only attract listeners who are active fans, but those who are aware of — and are more likely to interact with — advertisers on those stations.

That’s the opening paragraph from an article titled New Research Shows Sports Radio Is ‘A Game-Changer For Brands.’

Here’s more:

Participants in the study — conducted by Vision Insights in July among nearly 2,300 sports fans age 18+ in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Philadelphia, New York and San Francisco — give sports audio an advantage over other electronic media. The survey finds that while nine in 10 sports fans listen equally to sports talk and live game broadcasts, sports radio listeners are four times more likely to catch a brand’s message there than on TV, while 73% of fans spend more time following their favorite teams on sports audio than sports-related digital media.

Did you catch that? Sports talk radio listeners are 4 times more likely to be paying attention to your ads compared to watching sports on TV. Also over 70% of sports fans spend more time following their teams on the radio compared to other sports themed digital media.

There’s more great news for businesses who advertise on sports talk radio:

…the results of a larger-scale Vision Insights survey of more than 100,000 respondents age 13+ conducted between June 2023 and May 2024, showing that fans are four times more likely to trust brands that support their teams, and that brands doing do receive three times more positive feedback. In addition, fans are twice as enthusiastic about brands that align with their teams.

That article concludes with this summary:

“Advertisers aren’t just background noise for sports listeners, they’re part of the action,” “Sports talk listeners pay attention to ads, unlike many TV viewers who scroll TikTok or go for snacks during ad breaks. This boosts awareness for both national and local brands, with fans finding sports talk ads more relevant, trustworthy, and memorable than TV ads.”

One more recent article that has a couple of quotes to share about sports talk and play by play on the radio:

Audio play-by-play listeners are far more sports engaged and passionate versus TV viewers

The TV and AM/FM radio NFL broadcasts have very different audience profiles. The TV audience consists of casual sports fans.

The AM/FM radio play-by-play audience is far more sports passionate and engaged. This distinction has a significant impact on advertising effectiveness.

What should you do with all this information? Contact me Scott Howard because I happen to have access to the only local full time sports talk radio station in Fort Wayne Indiana, 1380 The Fan and we also carry some sports on our news talk station WOWO. Email Scott@WOWO.com

Audio Advertising: Streaming Music versus Traditional Radio

by Scott Howard | Sep 23, 2024 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

I’ve been getting a lot of research and data coming my direction that I’ve decided to share with you in a series of articles I’m labeling Audio Advertising. As a business owner or just a regular consumer, we hear and read various things that we might think are more true than they really are.

One of the ways to identify these types of mis-information is when they include absolute statements such as:

No one listens to music on the radio anymore.

Sports Fans watch all their games on TV or in person.

Podcasts are what everyone is listening to these days.

Or Radio is dead.

The past couple of weeks, I’ve addressed the Radio is Dead rumor with evidence that it’s not. It’s alive and thriving. If you missed those stories, go back and read or listen to the podcast episodes.

Before I joined News/Talk WOWO radio in 2013, I worked primarily for music stations. The past couple of decades pundits were eager to declare that ad supported free AM/FM commercial radio was dying and people were now going to listen to their favorite songs via streaming services. Pandora Music was one of thee first that has it’s roots going back to the year 2000. It was September of 2005 that they officially launched as a subscription ad-free music service but then they added a free service that included advertising, similar to traditional radio.

According to Wikipedia, Pandora grew to around 70 million active monthly users worldwide, but that number comes from 2013.

What does this have to do with advertising?

A couple of things…

Local businesses can pay to run ads on Pandora.

Pandora is not the only music streaming service and others also offer ad placement, Spotify is the most recognized for home/office and Sirius XM for mobile listening in vehicles.

Pandora and these other streaming radio services never have had the number of listeners that traditional radio stations continue to have and a recent study shows that Pandora’s ability to reach local listeners with your advertising message has been declining for years.

Here are some highlights from a report from Westwood One titled What Ever Happened to Pandora:

Here are five key findings:

Since consumer interest in Pandora Radio hit an all-time high in 2008, its audience and profile have significantly collapsed, according to Google Search trends.
A brand-new Advertiser Perceptions study conducted in August 2024 reveals marketers and media agencies need to “take the me out of media” as they wildly overestimate Spotify and Pandora audiences and dramatically understate AM/FM radio’s shares.
AM/FM radio represents the dominant ad-supported audio platform with a 69% overall share and a massive 86% in-car share.
Podcast audiences soar. At a 19% share of ad-supported audio, podcasts now represent one out of every five minutes of U.S. ad-supported audio.
Among registered voters, AM/FM radio leads in ad-supported audience share (69%), followed by podcasts (19%).

I’ll have more on the podcast growth trend in a few weeks. For now, let’s dig into the Pandora data:

Ad-supported Pandora’s daily reach has been cut in half; AM/FM radio streaming is twice as big as ad-supported Pandora and ad-supported Spotify

Since 2017, Edison’s “Share of Ear” reports ad-supported Pandora’s daily reach has plunged from 12% to 6%. At a 63% daily reach, AM/FM radio’s audience is ten times larger than Pandora. Amazingly, the 11% daily reach of AM/FM radio streaming is double that of ad-supported Pandora (6%) and ad-supported Spotify (5%).

Looking at one of the charts, we see that AM/FM radio listenership either over the air or via a stream was 77% of daily listening in 2017 and in 2024 it’s 70%. Meanwhile Pandora dropped from 12% down to 6%, Spotify went up 1% from 4 to 5 while Sirius remains flat at 5% of daily listening.

Most traditional AM/FM radio stations offer additional ways to listen to your favorite station along with a regular AM/FM radio and that’s where the streaming comes in. In my home we have both Alexa and Google Home smart speakers which have replaced the radios in a couple of rooms in our house.

As an experiment for this article, i listened to Pandora for about an hour and never heard any local ads. When I looked at the display ads, again nothing local and nothing targeted to me despite the fact they have that meta data. The job I had before returning to radio in 2013 involved a lot of desk work and I would listen to Pandora for a portion of the work day.

Bottom line is in order to invite local consumers to your business, local radio is still an excellent choice you need to consider.