by Paul Weyland, reprinted with permission from www.RBR.com
Some businesses should never spend money on advertising, but unfortunately they usually don’t know it. So, they do it anyway. In many cases, advertising agencies and media companies know these businesses shouldn’t be advertising, but shamefully, they take the money anyway. Whose money? I’m talking about businesses with marketing problems. By marketing problems I mean that for one reason or another, people either will not, or cannot buy from these businesses.
When people find out that I’m in the advertising business, many will cross their arms and say, “Well, I tried advertising and it didn’t work.” In fact, I have heard that statement so many times that I’m now convinced that it’s true, and that’s not an easy thing to admit when you’re an adman, especially when I’ve seen advertising produce fantastic results so many times. But if so many people had one or more experiences with advertising that didn’t work for them, I guess it would be fairer to say that advertising works…when it works.
Many years ago, I became obsessed with why so many advertising campaigns “don’t work”. In fact, I became sort of a forensic pathologist for advertising. As a result, I have identified five basic reasons that most advertising efforts fail, or are at least hobbled before they even start. Let’s look at all five of the reasons that advertising “doesn’t work” but today we’ll concentrate on number five, marketing problems.
1. Wrong demographic- The client is fishing in the wrong pond. This happens over and over again. Just because it’s his favorite publication, radio station, television program or internet site doesn’t mean it is also the favorite for the consumers he is actually trying to attract. If you owned an A/C radio station that played Barbara Streisand, Barry Manilow and Neil Diamond, you would be ill-advised to run an advertising schedule on another radio station playing hard hip-hop and gangsta rap for teens.
2. Horrible creative- I have written at length about this problem in previous articles. But for now, I can tell you that without a shadow of a doubt, bad creative is almost always a major contributor to an unsuccessful advertising attempt. Heck, some creative “bait” stinks so badly that even catfish wouldn’t be attracted to it. The worst creative isn’t necessarily the most offensive, in fact, it’s usually the least offensive. The worst advertising is the kind of advertising that is so blah, boring and cliché-riddled that nobody ever notices it at all.
3. Stingy budget- We have a saying in Texas about stingy people, “He’ll squeeze a nickel until the buffalo craps.” Most advertising efforts are so grossly underfunded that the campaign is doomed before it even begins. There are a variety of reasons for advertising budget stinginess that we will explore fully, but the biggest single reason is the advertising decision maker’s sense that marketing is the “voodoo” part of doing business. It’s the hardest part to qualify and quantify. When times get tough, the first thing that gets cut is advertising.
4. Unreal expectations about results- What this means is that the advertiser never had a good formula for calculating return on advertising investment. Consequently, his expectations about results might have well come from a creature from another planet. Just because the shop owner purchased a live remote broadcast from a radio station, he expected dozens of sales but in reality he only needed three to see a return on his advertising investment.
5. Marketing problems- Advertising a product or service that nobody wants, or is grossly overpriced or hard or impossible to get, is the essence of the “lipstick on a pig” syndrome. But there are plenty of entrepreneurs who find out the hard way that advertising flawed products or services is just throwing good money after bad.
Let’s focus even more on Marketing Problems. You know your client may have marketing problems if his symptoms include:
• Attempting to sell product or services that nobody likes or nobody wants because the product or service idea is stupid, doesn’t work, the concept is too confusing, it doesn’t taste good or it is bad for you or your family.
Speaking of bad for you, the owner of a child daycare center in a small Midwestern community continues to advertise, even after a well-publicized case in which her nearly 40-year-old son pleaded guilty of sexually abusing several of the children in her care.
A restaurant in Texas famous for beautiful sunsets and great margaritas also had a reputation for serving mediocre to horrible food. They tried new recipes, new chefs, but they couldn’t shake the bad food moniker. Finally, they gave up and advertised that people should bring their own food. A few years ago, the place burned to the ground. The next day in the local paper they actually wrote, “Never known for their food…..” Holy Moly! Even in death, the bad food label stuck.
• Pricing issues- You’re attempting to sell merchandise or services at inflated prices that nobody is willing to pay. I know of an antique shop that had this problem. The owner was a proud collector, and his shop was fun to browse, but his prices were exorbitant. I mean, ridiculous. People would laugh and he would throw them out.
Planet Hollywood opened a location in Prague, Czech Republic. We visited the restaurant once. Prices for hamburgers were three or four times what they cost in other restaurants. That was fine at first, as there were many foreign managerial consultants with big salaries living in Prague at the time. But soon, a majority of those ex-patriots were called back home. The restaurant finally had to close down because average Czechs on smaller salaries couldn’t afford to eat there.
• Convenience issues- Consumers cannot or will not buy because it is inconvenient for them to do so. Maybe the client is just too far for most of your audience to drive, especially if you’re a restaurant or a nightclub that sells alcohol. Maybe it’s hard to remember your phone number. Perhaps it’s awkward or even dangerous trying to get to your storefront due to construction or some other problem. Perhaps your client’s Internet address is too long or too confusing, or it ends in something other than .com (sorry, but if your address ends in .org, .net., .tv, .co or whatever, people will still go to .com first). Maybe you’re not open during normal business hours. What if it takes too long for people to buy because lines are too long? You have eight checkout lanes but only two of them have a cashier. What if people want to shop with you but there’s no place for them to park? What if you’re not accessible to elderly or handicapped clients?
• Horrible customer service- The client has a bad reputation. His business fails to do what you claim you’ll do for customers. He’s out of stock for popular items that people want now. People can’t get in touch with her when they need her. When they call the client they go straight to voicemail but they never get a call back. Or just as bad, they get sent to his impossible “phone tree”, where they are passed from extension to extension until they finally get hung up on. Employees are rude and even offensive to customers. People complain about their sub-standard work or their crummy product.
Consumers talk to other consumers. And, these days via the Internet, miffed consumers can get even like never before. New websites spring up every month. Angie’s list, Yelp, ripoffreport.com, complaints.com, etc. the list goes on and on.
• Irrelevance- The client has been made obsolete by disruptive technology.
For example, due primarily to Netflix and their technology, Blockbuster Video is nearly a has-been. Borders Books and other big brick and mortar bookstores are being put out of business by Amazon and their product Kindle. Consumer appliance giant Circuit City went out of business because people perceived that they had horrible customer service and their merchandise was overpriced. Blockbuster Video was shanghaied and made irrelevant by disruptor Netflix. But, Blockbuster was an easy target. People hated the long lines, the overpriced rentals, the narrowing selection and the absolutely ridiculous late fees, which made up 30 percent of Blockbuster’s revenues.
If there is something about your client’s business that you just flat don’t understand then chances are your audience might have trouble understanding it as well. So, ask the client to explain the “elephants in the room” to you. If they can’t, you’re probably looking at a marketing problem. But if you sense a marketing problem, bring it up in the conversation. It’s your job to ask about it. Because, if the client can’t see that he has the problem, he’ll blame you and he’ll blame your station when he cancels his schedule.
--Paul Weyland is a broadcast sales trainer, author, speaker and consultant. He specializes in local direct sales. You can reach Paul at www.paulweyland.com or at 512 236 1222. Buy Paul’s book Successful Local Broadcast Sales at a bookstore or online.
