The Wait is Worth It

by Scott Howard | Sep 20, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom

Are you a patient person?

Or does waiting create anxiety?

For me, it all depends on the why I am waiting.

I’m sure it is that way with you too, to some degree.

At the end of 2019 I was cleaning up my email and found a series of newsletters from Roy H. Williams. Roy goes by the moniker The Wizard of Ads, like my nick name is ScLoHo. Every Monday for several years, Roy’s newsletter arrives in my inbox. It’s called the Monday Morning Memo.

Now there’s nothing but predictability in what I just shared with you. I can count on receiving the appropriately named Monday Morning Memo from Roy Williams on Monday Mornings.

Wouldn’t it be nice to know that all things were predictable?

The Monday Morning Memo dated September 16th, 2019 talks about something I talk about too. I call it the buying cycle, Roy calls it the purchase cycle. Both of us are referring to the same thing. And it has to do with time.

Roy used the example of engagement rings. Roy says:

330 million Americans will purchase 2 million engagement rings this year. This means that 1 American in 165 will buy an engagement ring.

There has been a tendency for digital marketers to emphasize the zero moment of truth. That’s the instant that a person is ready to go out and hand over their credit card for a few thousand to buy that ring. The digital marketers are looking at that as the time to be in your face with their ads for diamonds. After all, for many of us, it’s now or never. Actually in the wedding game, a significant number of us get married more than once, so those diamond ring digital marketers may get a second or third chance down the road.

However the buying cycle or purchase cycle as Roy refers to it, is not the same for everything we buy. I bought gas the other day, something I do about once a week. Filling up my gas tank is a much shorter buying cycle than buying an engagement ring.

Also it is important to recognize that most of us have habits that we follow with many purchases and unless there is a reason to change our habit, we aren’t going to change them.

Earlier this year, my office moved from the northwest side of Fort Wayne, Indiana to the southwest side. I live northeast.

When my commute to the office changed, so did some of my buying habits. Until this move, I never would have used the gas station or grocery store that I use now. A few years ago the breakfast place I would visit stopped selling my favorite beverage so I changed.

Because you just can’t advertise a sale and it will convince everyone to stop what they are doing and go and buy from you right now… that is why you need to move from a self-centered marketing plan to one that is customer-centered. Being there when they need what you can offer is critical. Reminding them and inviting them, every week is what this is all about.

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.

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.

Is Generational Relatability An Issue?

by Scott Howard | Apr 19, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, Really? The Personal ScLoHo, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo

We’re going to talk about generational differences today and how they impact our relationships with others that are older or younger than us.

Last month, Mediapost shared a Quick Refresher on Demographics and that was part of the inspiration for this along with some stuff going on in my own life.

First, I’ll reveal me:

Baby Boomer, graduated from high school in the late 70’s. I was alive when JFK was shot but have no memory of it because I was a toddler. During most of the 60’s, I was not aware of the political turmoil or cultural revolutions that were going on. I was just a kid.

Watergate was the first time I really noticed much about political stuff. When Nixon resigned, I was becoming a teen and was more into teen stuff like girls and music than adult stuff. Musically I was into Top 40 and those songs from the mid 70’s to mid 80’s were the foundation for a couple of reasons. 1st, was listening to the radio as a kid and then I was a teenage disc-jockey from age 16 to 25 on the radio for a decade before moving to the advertising side of broadcasting in Detroit in the late 80’s.

My wife is 8 years older than me and most of her friends are around her age, not mine. We’ve been married for a couple of decades and I would tease her about stuff that happened “before I was born”. Yet as we get older, we’ve realized that those 8 years are not as significant compared to other generations.

Our 5 kids (from our first marriages) were all born in the 80’s and most of them have kids so there’s another generation in our family now.

I recall 20 years ago when I took a break from media and marketing and learned how to run a thermoformer in a plastics plant that the people working for me were closer to my kids age than mine and that was one of the motivating factors to return to radio and get out of the very physically demanding factory world.

Now at the broadcasting company I work for, we are hiring people that are 10 years younger than my kids. While it kind of makes me feel old at times, I’ve also enjoyed the role I play as a leader, mentor, and coach. Plus I can still out perform many of the advertising account executives in our company, but that is not my focus.

So as you and I move forward in 2022 and the years ahead, it’s important to understand some of the differences in generational relatability that I’m about to share. A dozen years ago I was a guest speaker on personal branding to a group of Huntington University students and realized that an example I used of TV personality Larry King was unrelatable, so the following year I updated my presentation to fix that.

Here’s the Mediapost story:

In 2018, the Pew Research Center determined that 1997 was the starting date for Generation Z. Anyone born from 1981 to 1996 is deemed a millennial, and anyone born since 1997 is a Gen-Zer.

At this point, the oldest Gen-Zers are turning 25 this year and the rest are teens or younger. (The cutoff for Gen Z births appears to be 2012.)

Among the differences between Gen Z and millennials (also called Gen Y) are:

–       Most Gen-Zers have little or no memory of 9/11. Instead, they grew up with lines clearly drawn between the political parties after the event.

–       Generation Z is the most ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history. The next most-diverse generation is millennials. Some 52% of Gen Z is white, 25% is Hispanic, and 4% is Asian, again according to Pew.

–       The iPhone launched in 2007, when the oldest Gen-Zers were 10. They came of age as social media, mobile computing and constant connectivity were part of the landscape.

–       According to a 2021 survey, the top brands for Gen Z were Google, Apple and Amazon. Netflix, Chick-Fil-A and Vans came in after that. But that survey is far from definitive. Others have put Nike at No.1, Netflix at No. 2 and YouTube at No. 3.

For millennials, the top brands were Apple, Nike and Amazon, according to marketing firm Moosylvania. Google was No. 8.

In other words, there doesn’t yet appear to be a deep divide between Gen Y and Gen Z. That contrasts with the divide between Gen X and Baby Boomers, which was driven by some big differences. Baby boomers currently comprise 70 million people, versus 65.2 million for Gen X, according to Insider Intelligence. That doesn’t seem like a huge difference, but Gen X was marked by a “baby bust” mentality that sported attitudes of cynicism and skepticism after the euphoria of boomers.

Baby boomers also had a clear starting point (the end of World War II) and ending (1964, when the birth rate began falling). Since then, the delineations between generations seems somewhat arbitrary. As a result, those expecting a huge chasm between Gen Y and Gen Z may come up short.

Some additional insight as you consider all of this is to not make broad assumptions about someone because of the generation they were born into. I am much more active than my son when it comes to online behavior. I was also an early adopter compared to folks 10 to 20 years younger than me. I had to push and pull some of my former co-workers to move forward with certain things that they thought were just a fad, but clearly were much bigger and longer lasting. Twitter is the example that comes to mind.

Want to know more or do you have some insights to share? Contact me.

The Trust Factor

by Scott Howard | Feb 15, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, The Not-So-Secret Writings of ScLoHo, WOWO Fort Wayne Radio Advertising with Scott Howard

A couple of Thursday mornings ago, a couple things happened before 8am.

An email from Insider Radio that included the headline:

Americans May Love Social Media, But Survey Finds It’s Radio That They Trust.

Also it was the beginning of day 2 of a weather-induced work from home day as our area was getting non-stop snow with predictions of well over 15 inches which becomes much more severe when the winds kick in and “drifts up to 4 feet” were predicted by the national weather service.

(I heard that prediction listening to my local news/talk radio station WOWO.) We ended up with a little less and by Friday, I was back at the office and by Monday most of the rest of the city was back to normal.

Social Media has been the darling media that normal Joe’s and Jill’s turned to for communication to the masses. What began with MySpace and then Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram and numerous others became the bright and shiny new place for advertisers to run ads. Promises of “hundreds of people for mere pennies” and “trackable results” along with “targeted ads that produce less waste” were all made and continue to be made.

To which I can say, not really.

Look, I am speaking from a multitude of perspectives. Yes, I’ve spent the majority of my career in radio. However a couple of times I worked full-time in the online world. First time was 2011 when I anticipated never returning to radio and instead I was highly immersed in the digital world where we crafted websites that were built to convert traffic into sales. We looked at, what appeared to be heat-map technology and a deep dive into analytics to design websites that improved the UX or User Experience and so I know how that is done and not just the technology but psychology behind it all.

I also worked full-time for a multi-million dollar world-wide company that transitioned from a print catalog sales model to an e-commerce based outfit. I was one of a half dozen specialists in the Internet Marketing Department and my chief role was Social Media for our multiple brands.

Then there is my own personal success story of creating an online following and connections with the ScLoHo brand identity, so I am a believer in the power of online and if you and your business can’t be found online… well you simply don’t exist. Get your company a website now. Claim your social media profiles for you and your company. LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram at the bare minimum.

However, if that is all you do, the online stuff, you are being short sighted and leaving yourself very vulnerable.

It was just announced that Facebook actually lost members recently. That’s right the biggest Social Media company in the universe, saw a decline.

But that’s not the real reason you are vulnerable. It has to do with the Trust factor.

A dozen years ago I was giving a presentation to students at Huntington University and part of the discussion demonstrated the good stuff that was happening on Facebook. I used the example of my friend Heather who was looking for a new dentist for her family and so she asked for recommendations. Dozens of friends responded with both recommended dentists and a few to avoid. This was modern day word-of-mouth and crowd-sourcing done on a personal level.

However when companies tried to tap into the social networks by running ads, it just wasn’t the same. It was an advertisement, not a personal recommendation. Like so many other forms of advertising, except it started to become annoying because all we wanted to do was see what was going on with our friends and family and instead we were being served ads every few posts on our newsfeeds. I just took a look at my Facebook newsfeed and of the first dozen posts, numbers 2, 7 and 11 were ads.

Another factor creating distrust in Social Media is the political climate for the past several years. I think it has intensified online when we were limited in our ability to gather in-person due to pandemic restrictions.

Here are some quotes from the story I referred to at the beginning of our talk today:

A new MRI-Simmons survey finds that nearly two-thirds of Americans say radio is either “very trustworthy” or “trustworthy” with radio topping every other media type other than newspaper – trailing by a mere one percent difference.

Also:

More than twice as many adults consider radio trustworthy compared to social media. When it comes to fake news, it seems Americans have concluded it is not traditional media outlets that are the source, but rather online media options.

And finally:

In its analysis, Katz says the MRI-Simmons research shows why radio is an “ideal platform” for advertisers looking to make their voice heard and their message count. “Radio is a trusted environment with vested local connections to consumers across demographics, and all types of media users,” it says, adding, “Radio provides the best chance for messaging to break through, resonate, and not be mistrusted by consumers.”

Contact me for more information and insight.

“The 2022 Sales Lift-Off” January 13th

by Scott Howard | Jan 6, 2022 | Marketing and Advertising Insights, ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom, ScLoHo's Media

Are you in the radio business? Join us for this very special national event that I’m honored to be a part of “The 2022 Sales Lift-Off” January 13th !

Join us live on the Clubhouse app next Thursday, January 13, 2022, @ 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific for a revenue-focused, idea-rich sales event for sales managers, market managers, and local sellers.

Loyd Ford from Rainmaker Pathway Consulting Works and Alec Drake will host a sales panel to discuss revenue plans for Q1, recruiting your next salesperson, and actionable items to help you grow revenue in 2022.

OUR January 13th ROUNDTABLE

–> Chuck Wood – VP/GM of Delta Media Corp., a multi-media company comprised of seven television and nine radio stations in Broussard, Louisiana
–> Scott Howard – General Sales Manager at WOWO Radio/Federated Media, Ft. Wayne, Indiana

– Actionable sales ideas – Recruiting Strategies – Get Your 22 Momentum

OUR January 13th ROUNDTABLE

–> Chuck Wood – VP/GM of Delta Media Corp., a multi-media company comprised of seven television and nine radio stations in Broussard, Louisiana

–> Scott Howard – General Sales Manager at WOWO Radio/Federated Media, Ft. Wayne, Indiana

– Actionable sales ideas – Recruiting Strategies – Get Your 22 Momentum

If you don’t have the app, go here: https://www.clubhouse.com/