Marketing and Advertising Insights | The Genuine ScLoHo aka Scott Howard

The Demise of the Newspaper

by Scott Howard | Sep 6, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Media, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

I bought my local newspaper on a recent Monday and was saddened by how tiny it has become.

About 8 years ago, I was able to get custom circulation reports for the two local daily newspapers from my connections at the Radio Advertising Bureau. I watched as the number of readers dropped and the advertising rates climbed to make up for the loss of revenue.

The numbers for the morning paper showed that between 2009 and 2014, circulation had dropped 34% while ads rates climbed 18% in just 5 years. The morning paper has being delivered to only 25% of the households by 2014.

The numbers for the afternoon paper were worse. In those same 5 years, their circulation dropped 40% while ad prices climbed over 18%. The afternoon paper was being delivered to just 8% of the households by 2014.

The reason all this sadden me is that my parents were big fans of the paper. I was a paperboy as a kid, delivering my route after school.

Local journalism had it’s home in print. Sure, we had broadcast media too with TV stations staffed with reporters and some radio stations had a decent news department also, but the newspapers, they were the ones that had the time and space to print the in-depth stories beyond headlines.

The reason the afternoon paper stopped publishing was revenue which was related to circulation. My numbers show they had less than 13,000 subscribers in 2014 and even with the higher ad rates, they couldn’t sell enough to keep the paper alive. I’m not sure how the morning paper stays alive these days. I know the number of readers have continued to drop since 2014. Those numbers are no longer available for me to research but it’s obvious by the size of the paper. August 29th the paper had a total of 16 pages, divided into two sections. The first section had 4 advertisers, plus 2 pages of classified ads. The other section had zero regular ads, just a paid legal notice.

Why does advertising matter? According to Media Landscapes, 80% of the revenue comes from ad sales, not subscriptions. I paid $1.50 for my 16 page newspaper last month and even thought that is outrageous, it’s not enough to sustain them.

If your business was one of those that used to rely on print ads, you’ve likely switched to something else. Digital ads or something online has been a favorite experiment for many. And while I have used digital and bought because of online ads, unless you know what you’re doing, you can get lost. Also the rules are always changing in the online world as they evolve. I’ll save my thoughts on digital for another day.

I will however put a plug in for another old time media that is still going strong despite the repeated predictions of its demise. I’m referring to radio. National numbers say 92% of the population tunes in to a radio station every week. That’s a far cry from those 8% or 25% numbers I shared a few moments ago referring to newspapers.

My team at WOWO or myself can give you details on what’s been working for the businesses that advertise on WOWO and create similar success for you too. Just contact me, Scott@WOWO.com.

Make The Right Adjustments

by Scott Howard | Aug 30, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Fort Wayne, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

“We gotta do something”

That’s been the theme for 2022 from many business people.

So they prepare to Make Adjustments.

Making Adjustments is neither good or bad. Actually it is something that all of us are doing all the time.

The question that often comes up is “What adjustments are we going to do?”

I urge you to stop for a moment and take a few deep breaths before making any decisions.

As hard as it is, now, more than ever, is time to remove emotions from your decision making process.

Emotions can be temporary, and decisions can have lasting consequences.

If you are running a business and you don’t have a strategic plan in place, it’s time to create one.

If you have a plan, but it was created before March 2020, it’s time to review it and see if it needs updated.

If the plan you created isn’t working right now, it’s time to see why and take a look at the whole picture.

For nearly 6 years I have served on the Board of Directors of Homebound Meals of Fort Wayne and I am in my final 6 months. Besides myself, there is one other board member who has been there as long as me and his term expires early next year like mine. The organization has been around since 1971 and during that time there have been dozens of board members, hundreds of volunteers, and thousands of recipients of the lunch time meal program.

Their mission has never changed. The strategy and tactics used to fulfil the mission have certainly evolved over time including the last few years. I am confident that the partnership between the board and Executive Director will keep the organization around for many more decades as people come and go.

Making the right adjustments is also something I have seen take place at the church my wife and I attend. We’ve been members for nearly 20 years and have seen numerous changes take place in leadership as some Pastors retire or are called to other places to serve. Besides the church, we also have a school and they have had people changes too over the past 77 years too. This summer their Executive Director, Mark Lange stepped down to move forward with other areas he and his wife Sue are being called.

I bring up Mark’s name specifically because I’ve known him and his wife Sue since I was 13 years old and we went to the same high school. Our church and school, Holy Cross Lutheran in Fort Wayne was going thru some transitions that many older churches have gone thru and that was simply changes in the make-up of the congregation that was part of what was going to have an impact on the finances of the church and school.

A few years ago, I was one of a dozen who were asked to serve on a task force to explore the future needs and future circumstances using demographic studies, internal surveys, and antidotal stories. Mark showed me how each year we had a financial plan and each week he would release numbers that showed how our income compared to the plan. He also included the actual expenses which were the reality of what was spent and I learned in my conversations with Mark how we were making adjustments as the year progressed. Besides having the initial plan or budget, we also had a plan on what adjustments to make as needed.

No matter what business you are in, there are a few things you need to always include in your plan:

Products and Services to sell
Have the People and Infrastructure to create those Products and Services
Invitations to potential customers to buy your stuff and ongoing marketing to keep those customers.

Some of you have had to change the portfolio of products or services you sell. I’m not talking about completely abandoning everything, I’m talking about making adjustments. Fast Food places that were short staffed ran drive-thru only and closed their dining rooms for awhile. Some restaurants limited their menu to their best sellers.

I’ve also seen some of you expand and not shrink. Two ways to do this have been to add more products to sell to your customers. One company added a second business that went hand in hand with their primary business and it’s created more opportunities.

The other way to expand has been to raise prices. Too many businesses have been afraid to pass along increases to their customers because they were afraid of losing customers. But inflation is one of the biggest headlines of 2022 and you really need to pass along your additional costs to your customers. They are expecting it. No, they won’t like it, but they will understand, (most of them). You will also lose some. A few years ago I told one of my clients that she needed to raise her prices which she resisted at first for those same reasons. However this is the ideal time to do it.

Some of the adjustments you may be tempted to make is to cut your advertising. To which I say, maybe. However the answer is probably maybe not.

It really depends on your overall strategic plan, not just current circumstances. While I sell advertising on WOWO Radio and lead a team of advertising sales pros, I’m also a marketing and advertising consultant. I want what is best for you and your company now and for the future. If we can help with using the advertising resources of WOWO radio and our online options… great. But I don’t want you to buy advertising from us or anyone that isn’t in your best interest.

More on what happens when you cut advertising in a future article. For now, I urge you to Make the Right Adjustments for the Right Reasons, based on a Strategic Plan, not emotion. Need help? Contact me.

WOWO’s Baby Boomers Still Want to Spend Money With You

by Scott Howard | Aug 23, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

6 years ago, May 2016, I wrote an article titled, WOWO’s Baby Boomer Audience Wants To Spend Money with You.

It’s still true.

Despite all that has happened the past 6 years with the economy, with politics, with.. well, you name it… the WOWO Radio Audience has money to spend and they are spending it every week.

I’m getting some fresh research into our audience and the audiences of other media and it is fascinating. I also have more than 6 years of antidotal stories of businesses using WOWO than I had when I first wrote the original story. What follows is what I wrote in 2016 with a few updates.

I’m going to lay this out for you, Mr/Ms Business Owner in the Fort Wayne area:

WOWO’s Baby Boomer Audience Wants To Spend Money With You

A lot of attention is given to the under 50 crowd because, well, people over 50 are nearly dead, Or dead broke. Or drooling toothlessly in their soup, or…

I wonder what other myths you have about Baby Boomers? I found an article that addresses some of them. We’re going to look at them in a second.

First the relationship between WOWO & Baby Boomers. WOWO radio was the radio station we listened to as school kids to find out if we had to go to school or if old man winter caused the school’s to close or delay. As a 6 year old when my family first moved here, we learned that Bob Siever’s was Mr. WOWO with all the answers in the 60’s and 70’s, (my youth).

Now in 2022 WOWO continues to have the most loyal audience in town of adults over 21 years old and the biggest chunk of those 60,000 weekly listeners are baby boomers.

Let’s break some Baby Boomer myths from the article:

Who’s got the money to spend? Boomers accounted for 70% of the disposable income in the United States in 2012, and they will continue to be the wealthiest generation in the country until at least 2030, when they’ll still have nearly 45% of the disposable income. Ten years later, in 2022, Baby Boomers still have more than half the wealth in the United States according to the Federal Reserve.

Here’s 3 more from the article:

1. Baby boomers are not tech-savvy.

Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were born in the boomer years, and their generation was the first to experience the massive productivity increases that technology can drive.

Baby boomers are just as tech-oriented as are younger generations. Eighty-two percent of Boomers use Facebook, with 15.5% spending more than 11 hours per week on the site. Boomer women are also one of the fastest-growing categories on Pinterest. They also spend more time consuming and sharing content online than do other demographics.

In 2022, Boomers are also using Instagram, and doing online shopping. Boomers are even teaching their grandkids how to use technology!

2. Baby boomers are reluctant to spend money.

Adults 55-64 consistently outspending the average consumer in nearly every category.

In fact, if taken as their own economy, the 100 million Americans who are aged 50 and over would rank the third largest in the world behind the U.S. and China. When it does come to retirement, however, two-thirds plan to spend more time doing things like shopping, traveling and entertaining.

And some more numbers from 2022:

Baby boomers account for about 38 percent of pet spending. [Source: Pet Business Professor]
Baby boomers increased their spending on new clothes by 28 percent compared to before the pandemic. [Source: Retail Dive]
59 percent of baby boomers are willing to pay extra for socially compliant, sustainable products. [Source: Deloitte]

3. Baby boomers are old fashioned.

A recent study called Baby boomers “media-loving, eternally optimistic, self-indulgent consumers.” Now that they’re rid of burdens like college tuition, mortgages, and child care expenses, they’re looking to re-tool themselves and re-define their lives. Now rid of debts and obligations, they have the means to do it.

My 2022 update: Baby boomers are no longer the largest generation, but they do possess more wealth than Gen Xers, millennials and Gen Zers. With high average spending and a propensity to indulge in luxury purchases, baby boomers have an outsized effect on the overall health of the economy.

Want some examples of Boomers? Boomers are not your elderly grandparents. Prince was a baby boomer. So was David Bowie. George Clooney, Barak Obama, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Paula Abdul, Jeff Bezos, Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Kenny Loggins, Brad Pitt, Jerry Seinfeld, Demi Moore, Madonna, Oprah … all baby boomers. Not a single, crotchety, old fogy among them.

Adding to the clear proof of Boomers’ immense consumer power, they drive almost 50% of all retail sales whereas Millennials represent a mere 10%.

Here’s the opportunity that you have with WOWO Radio. Want to see how it can work for your business? Contact me.

How To Build Instant Trust For Your Business

by Scott Howard | Aug 9, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

If there was only a way to get someone to trust you instantly…

Actually we were born that way. We trust from the very start. Then as we experience life, we discover that things aren’t always trustworthy.

Depending on a persons life experiences and outlook, we develop either an optimistic or pessimistic attitude. Most of us are a blend of both depending on the situation.

As I’ve talked about in the past, Trust is one of the key foundations of our lives and this applies to everything.

I’m going to focus on the necessity of trust in business and marketing including your advertising.

I’m also going to share with you examples that you can use today to create “Instant Trust”.

Trust is an emotion first, and logic second. No matter what the data says, you have to win the heart, not just the mind.

Certain forms of media are trustworthy for different people.

A century ago, newspapers were the trusted source of information.

Half a century ago, TV was, especially CBS News Anchor Walter Cronkite who would end his nightly broadcasts with his signature sign-off, “And That’s The Way It Is”.

All of this was before the online world which gave anyone and everyone a voice.

The most trusted media people in my city are now the local radio and television personalities.

But they are not all equally trusted.

Particular stations and networks have their own brand and people put trust in that brand. If your business advertises on a particular station that is trusted, there is a transfer of trust that spreads to your business.

In the TV world, we have newscasts on 4 stations and over the past couple of decades there has been a changing of the guard so-to-speak as some TV veterans retired and others took their place. TV viewership has eroded as alternative sources of news and entertainment have continued to become available. I no longer have to sit down at the appointed time to watch the evening news to see what happened while I was at the office. I get news instantly from the apps on my phone, whenever I want. I have not watched a single local newscast from start to finish this year and I see no reason for that to change.

The radio world in Fort Wayne has nearly 2 dozen radio stations. The oldest is WGL which I worked for a couple of times. Listenership is very small according to the rating data I have access to and the format has changed numerous times. The next oldest is WOWO.

WOWO will be a century old in 2025 and for more than a quarter century has been a news and talk radio station. In December I will have completed 9 years at WOWO with many more to come. When I was a kid I listened to WOWO and it was the most listened to station with over 70% of all of the listeners tuning in each morning. WOWO is still one of the few stations with over 100,000 weekly listeners.

Federated Media bought WOWO in the 1990’s and owns and operates other heritage stations in Fort Wayne including WMEE, which I once worked for a few decades ago. 98.9 The Bear and K-105 are the other two Fed Med stations that have huge audiences in Fort Wayne and have earned the trust of our listeners.

One of the things that makes WOWO unique however is the whole news/talk format and how listeners interact with WOWO. When you listen to a music station, you pick the station that plays the music you enjoy listening to. The radio personalities are there to complement the music and add to your listening pleasure. 70% or more of what your favorite music station plays is music. Music is the main emotional connection.

With WOWO being a news and talk radio station, we don’t play music. We talk instead. In the morning, it’s news, weather, sports, traffic, farm reports, and interviews. The rest of the day the newscasts are twice an hour with talk filling in the rest of the hour. People listen to WOWO to hear people talk. Big difference.

WOWO Listeners Trust the WOWO Brand.

WOWO Listeners are not annoyed by talking the way they can get annoyed by too much talk on a music station.

WOWO’s advertisers are trusted simply because those businesses are on WOWO. There is an implied trust and emotional bond that businesses get that advertise on WOWO. But that’s not all.

WOWO cranks it up two more levels for our advertising partners.

There is what I refer to as a Platinum Level for WOWO Advertisers. We all know that the Gold Standard is the highest level of any business. This is a step above the Gold Standard.

Platinum Level Sponsorship on WOWO is the personal endorsement or testimonial of one of either or afternoon host Pat Miller or morning host Kayla Blakeslee. This is the trust factor on steroids that no other station in Fort Wayne offers. A Pat or Kayla endorsement campaign means they will be your local spokesperson and do live 60 second ads for your business.

They receive a talent fee for this and WOWO charges a premium for that minute of airtime. But it’s well worth it. I’ll give you a couple of examples in a moment.

These live ads are exclusive for a business category. For example, Pat Miller endorses Fairhaven Funeral Homes. Fairhaven will be the only funeral service provider Pat will endorse. Other funeral homes can advertise, but none will have Pat’s voice on them, endorsing them as long as Fairhaven continues. Kayla Blakeslee endorses Shield Exterior Roofing and so while other roofers can advertise on WOWO, none will have Kayla as their spokesperson.

WOWO Listeners have an emotional bond with Pat and Kayla and they are trusted by their listeners. When Pat and Kayla are talking about something political, you bet their listeners are emotionally invested. That emotional trust carries over to our listeners when they also talk about the businesses they endorse.

A few years after I started at WOWO, before Kayla was hosting Fort Wayne’s Morning News, she was the news director and news anchor in the morning. Charly Butcher was our Fort Wayne Morning News Host until he suddenly passed away 4 years ago this week. I worked with a small specialty shop that was going to have a special open house on a Saturday and they bought a ton of radio ads on a music station and just 3 or 4 ads with Charly’s endorsement. After the event, the owner continued with WOWO because he heard customer after customer tell him that Saturday they were at the open house because Charly told them to come. The music station’s ads did nearly nothing apparently.

Before I wrap this up, I mentioned two levels of trust building beyond the regular ads on WOWO. The 2nd one is something I started using a lot of when I came to WOWO and they create an implied endorsement of a business to our listeners. We have news and weather sponsorships that are done live by the WOWO local newscasters. We have local news 13 hours every weekday starting at 5am, so there are plenty of these “embedded” sponsorship mentions that are live 10 second messages. This was my secret sauce for success for my advertising partners when I came to WOWO.

Instant Trust? Hmmm, not quite but pretty close. Contact me for more details.

You Have To Be Trust-Worthy

by Scott Howard | Aug 2, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

Now I know that Trustworthy is one word, however I want to dig a little deeper into this idea and what it means to the success of your business. That is why I hyphenated Trust-Worthy in the title of this article and podcast.

If you’ve been listening to the past few podcast episodes or reading these articles, you may have picked up on the importance of Trust.

The Trust Factor is a foundational Human Relationship Principle that needs to be included in your marketing.

Well, last month I saw a story from MarketingCharts.com:

For Many Americans, Trust in Businesses Must Be Earned

Before my time, I’m talking 50 or 60 years ago, I think we were a more trusting country. At least that is my perception. In the past couple of decades, since 9/11/2001, Americans attitudes have become further clouded as a country regarding Trust.

That overall skepticism is an attitude that has spread to business, especially big business. Also the past two years we have been through a tremendous number of events that have made us less trusting.

Even those of us who are generally optimistic have struggles trusting in things like, “Will the restaurant I want to go to be open today?” I had that challenge last week when I discovered that my usual Monday lunch spot was now closed on Monday’s as a way to cope with staffing issues.

Here’s a few numbers from the article:

In its survey of 2,200 US adults, Morning Consult found that 42% agreed with the statement: “I tend to trust companies. They must do something bad to lose my trust.” By comparison, an almost equal share (39%) agreed more with the statement: “I tend to not trust companies. They must earn my trust.” The remaining fifth (20% share) said they either didn’t know or did not have an opinion.

And:

In the US, businesses that are trusted will be rewarded… Some 39% share of respondents in the US agreed that when they trust a company, they go out of their way to purchase from them.

Here’s a couple more stats from this survey:

There are penalties from consumers’ loss of trust in brands. Slightly more than half (54%) in the US said they have lost trust in a company or brand, and among those 42% stopped using them and started using their competitors’ products, while 39% stopped using them and claimed they will never use them again.

About a year ago, I was on a lunch break at a restaurant that was busy but they didn’t indicate their would be an extraordinary wait time. Turns out that was a big mistake. We sat for over 20 minutes before anyone took our order and finally when our food arrived we had them pack it to go because we were there over an hour and had to get to our next meeting.

Multiple times we attempted to flag down a host or waiter and were told they would be “right back”. After placing our order, we were still not given any warning that they were slammed and understaffed.

We left hungry, with a bad attitude and have not returned since.

One more quote from the story:

Factors That Build Trust

Within the US, two factors stand out as being the most important in building trust: good value for price; and high-quality products and services.

This survey was about brands, not individual businesses but the same principles apply:

Over communicate if things are not what is typical for your business.
Don’t ignore problems, there are long term ramifications to the health and success of your business if you do.
You need to do everything possible to earn the trust of your customers and clients, all the time.
We don’t expect perfection, but please own up to mistakes and problems.

That is how you become worthy of trust.

Are you Trust-Worthy? Next time, I’ll share a way to let others know.

Word Of Mouth Advertising With A Bigger Mouth

by Scott Howard | Jul 26, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

The very best form of marketing is what we call Word Of Mouth.

Why?

Because it is from the heart, from one person to another and it includes implicitly, the Human Relationship factor we all need: Trust.

Several years ago, I wrote about the Word Of Mouth advantage that my radio station has and you can read what I wrote in January 2018 here.

I found that article by Googling the term, “Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth” and only a few articles popped up, both attributed to me.

I honestly don’t think I coined that term despite what the Google gods say.

Here’s the backstory:

From my teen years to age 26, I spent all of my radio life working on the radio. I was an overnight radio disc jockey. That’s how I met my first wife and mother of our three kids.

I also did other shifts on the radio and became the Program Director of one of the stations I worked for. That meant I was the guy in charge of the music, the format, the air personalities, basically anything except for the advertising.

Most radio ads were forgettable. The ones that I had to voice and produce were usually written by an advertising sales person and most were lousy, in my opinion. So every once in awhile, I would use my creativity and write ads for local businesses that were different from the usual stuff I was told to read and record.

However in 1986, I moved from the on-air side of radio to the advertising side when I joined Crawford Broadcasting in Detroit as an advertising campaign Master Producer. I worked hand in hand with a couple of WMUZ advertising sales people and created some pretty successful ad campaigns for our clients.

WMUZ also was very advertiser friendly. When I was there for about eight years, our live radio hosts would give a 10 second endorsement for every local business on their show. They were called Rolling Endorsements. The way it worked is there would always be a 30 second or 1 minute recorded ad that was immediately followed by a brief live endorsement. Robin Sullivan was one of the most popular afternoon radio hosts at the time I was there and when Robin endorsed Hilton Mortgage, her listeners took her recommendation as seriously as if their best friend had recommended Hilton Mortgage.

That’s because of the relationship Robin built with her audience on WMUZ, they trusted Robin as best friends trust each other.

That Trust Factor in both the radio station and the radio host is what becomes as powerful as Word Of Mouth Advertising. Except with the size of the radio audience, it’s not just a one to one Word Of Mouth, but Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth.

Fast forward to 2003. I’m returning to radio in the advertising world but in a different city than I did it previously. In the 80’s and 90’s I was in Detroit and now I was back in my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Interestingly the Fort Wayne radio stations I joined two decades ago don’t exist anymore. All have changed formats. At the end of 2013 however I joined WOWO Radio which is nearly a century old and has been a news and talk station for more than a couple decades.

With the history of WOWO and the longevity of WOWO as a news and talk station with live and local radio hosts and news personalities, the Trust Factor is alive and thriving.

First off, WOWO itself is trusted by our core listeners. Over 100,000 weekly listeners make it one of the most listened to stations in Fort Wayne.

Next is the implied endorsement that any local advertiser has simply by being on WOWO.

We can take it a step further with a couple of options that really fit the “Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth” model. Similar to when I first learned it at WMUZ ind Detroit in the 80’s but unique to Fort Wayne.

We have live 10 second embedded sponsorship mentions read by the show hosts or newscasters available during live programming. Since WOWO has live and local newscasts 13 hours daily, Monday thru Friday, twice an hour, that is one option.

The other is a step up from what I saw at WMUZ. Live Testimonial Endorsement Ads with our morning show host, Kayla or our afternoon host Pat. Instead of a recorded ad followed by a brief live endorsement, the entire ad by Kayla or Pat is live. This is our Platinum Level of Advertising that is also limited to only a few Trusted Businesses.

In the weeks ahead, I’ll divulge even more details about this Word Of Mouth With A Bigger Mouth on WOWO radio and how we use Human Relationship Marketing Principles to create the Trust Factor including the emotional connection that includes transfer of credibility.

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