Need a New Ad in a Hurry? Try Radio

It was Monday afternoon, and the stock market had just closed. Down nearly 778 points. I was in my car, listening to one of my news/talk competitors, KXL Radio in Portland, Oregon. Within about 15 minutes of the closing bell, as everyone tried to figure out if the end of the world was upon us, Talk Show Host Lars Larson had to do a live spot for a mattress store.

He began the pitch this way (I’m paraphrasing here): “Now that the stock market’s just had the biggest one-day drop in its history, you could probably use a good night’s sleep. And you can get one, on a Sleep Number Bed By Select Comfort.”

I’m not much of a Lars Larson fan. And every advertising dollar that goes to KXL is a dollar that I didn’t get.

But sitting in the Starbucks parking lot, I had to applaud. Because Lars had beautifully illustrated an advantage radio advertising has over just about every other medium — the ability to quickly change the message to reflect changes in the marketplace.

Over the years, I’ve quickly come up with new creative when storms hit; when the product a retailer was advertising ran out; when concerts sold out; and when a representative of Oregon Department of Justice informed me that a car dealer’s offer was illegal. In each of these cases, a new commercial was on the air within hours — and sometimes within less than an hour — of the change that prompted it.

Newspaper can’t do that; neither can direct mail, or television. The Yellow Pages? Fuhgeddiboutit. Each of these media has advantages of its own. But if you need to change something in a hurry, you can’t beat radio.

My name is Phil Bernstein, and I approved this message.

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Business Book Review: Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling

In 2008, there’s no excuse for walking into a sales call and saying to the prospect, “Tell me about your business”. The Age of the Internet dictates that you should know something about the prospect’s business before you arrive for the first meeting.

I’ve long since learned to look at the company web site, and to Google the prospect, when preparing for a meeting. What I didn’t know is that there are some simple, easy tricks to dig up additional information — from the search engines, and from an “Invisible Web” that the search engines can’t get to.

Sam Richter’s “Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling” is subtitled “Web Search Secrets for the Inside Info on Companies, Industries, and People.” I’ve had the book for a couple of weeks now, and have found myself referring to it often as I do my research. Among the tips I’ve already put to use:

1. Many decision-makers have someone screen their calls — but they read emails themselves. Having been unsuccessful in getting past the gatekeeper on the phone, I’ve used a technique from the book to smoke out an email address and then emailed the prospects directly. It’s gotten me two meetings so far.

2. Preparing for a meeting with a new General Manager at an auto dealership, I found a newspaper article on his previous dealership in California. This turned out to be a great conversation-starter. The article didn’t show up in Google or Yahoo, but the book pointed me to another source I hadn’t heard of.

3. I found out that my local public library offered free access to several “pay” information services, and that I could log on from my office computer.

You’ll find that not every technique works every time — you’ll go down some blind alleys as you try out the methods in the book. But if you want to be fully prepared on a sales call, the Internet is an indispensable tool. And Take the Cold Out of Cold Calling is an extremely valuable guide to getting the most out of the Web as efficiently as possible.

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How to Handle a Bad Month

Ed Ridgway is a marketing consultant to the dental industry. Based in Pennsylvania, Ridgway consults with dental practices all over the country. He also publishes a blog called The Dental Marketer.

June was a rough month for many dentists. Some reacted by scaling back their marketing, and others stuck with the plan they had in place. Ridgway recently dealt with the issue on his blog. Although he is specifically addressing dentists, his advice applies to just about anyone reading this newsletter.

The efficient marketer realizes that ROI success and failure is measured over years, not just a month at a time. Your long term efforts are rewarded by an established position in the mind of the consumer. People still need dentistry, even if some are postponing purely cosmetic procedures. Don’t be the office that disappears. Be the practice that’s been around forever – the one everyone knows. You do that with consistency.

The dental practices who maintained or increased their marketing after the tough month of June rebounded with a strong July. This illustrates the wisdom of long-term planning, and confirms the efficiency of sticking to a plan. Yes we need to track, evaluate and adapt – and we don’t throw good money after bad being stubborn. But a good plan remains a good plan, and a bad month doesn’t change that.

You can read the complete post here.

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The Knitting Curmudgeon Flies Off the Handle

My wife, who knits, tipped me off to a lovely little dispute in the world of knitting blogs. It’s been resolved [UPDATE: the original resolution has since been reversed. See below], but since I’ll do just about anything to generate weekend traffic, I thought I’d stir it up again here.

The short version is that a blog called The Knitting Curmudgeon has, for years, used the subhead “Shut Up, I’m Counting”. Last year, another knitter started a blog called “Shut Up, I’m Counting.”

Ms. Curmudgeon found out about this, and very publicly called the newer blogger out — accusing her of copyright violation and threatening legal action. She later admitted to over-reacting, but this would appear to be an understatement. Especially since the US Copyright office has this to say on the issue:

Names, titles, and short phrases or expressions are not subject to copyright protection. Even if a name, title, or short phrase is novel or distinctive or if it lends itself to a play on words, it cannot be protected by copyright. The Copyright Office cannot register claims to exclusive rights in brief combinations of words such as:

  • Names of products or services
  • Names of businesses, organizations, or groups (including the name of a group of performers)
  • Names of pseudonyms of individuals (including pen name or stage name)
  • Titles of works
  • Catchwords, catchphrases, mottoes, slogans, or short advertising expressions
  • Mere listings of ingredients, as in recipes, labels, or formulas. When a recipe or formula is accompanied by explanation or directions, the text directions may be copyrightable, but the recipe or formula itself remains uncopyrightable.

It appears to me that not only was Ms. Curmudgeon way-beyond-justifiably-cranky (she might have at least asked a few questions before accusing a complete stranger of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby) — she was also legally in the wrong.

On the other hand, I never went to law school. So I’m asking — did The Knitting Curmudgeon have any case at all, copyright-wise?

Thoughts? Comments? Bring ’em on!

UPDATE 9/6/08, 2:35pm Pacific: All rights reserved, all wrongs reversed. Miz Curmudgeon has apologized to Miz Shut Up I’m Counting, and has removed her original diatribe from her blog. Miz Shut Up I’m Counting, who had originally agreed to change the name of her blog, has now decided to keep it just the way it was.

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LPGA Backs Off English-Only Rule — Fixing a Bad Fix

When I worked in marketing for the New York Mets, one of my responsibilities was to get our players to interact with our sponsors. This was tougher than it sounds — although one might think that the players would realize that sponsor revenue was in part responsible for the exhorbitant salaries they receive, the fact was that most of the players just wanted to play baseball, play cards (this was in the pre-video game era) and chase women. Anything that interrupted their pursuit of these objectives was unwelcome.

Sometimes they would show up and make it clear that they would rather be anywhere else. Sometimes they wouldn’t show up at all. And there wasn’t much we could do about it — the contract language was vague, the team was winning, and Dwight Gooden had more leverage in these matters than Phil Bernstein.

So when the LPGA announced that beginning in 2009, all of their players would have to either learn English or find another way to make a living, I understood their reasoning, and sympathized — even as I knew that the policy would never stick.

A significant component of the LPGA’s marketing is pro-am events, in which golfers pay large sums to play a round with the professionals. The association makes a lot of money from the fees, and also hopes to gain positive word-of-mouth.

Part of the deal is establishing an atmosphere in which it all feels like a regular foursome. If the “ams” and the “pros” don’t speak the same language, they can’t interact much. Apparently the LPGA had been receiving some heat from amateurs who’d written large checks and then felt ignored on the course.

So the LPGA decided to force everyone to learn English. Which is kind of like burning down the house because there are ants in the kitchen. Kills the ants and creates all sorts of new problems.

The new policy angered many of the golfers, 121 of whom come from outside the United States. It created some bad feelings among major sponsors, many of whom have significant non-Anglo customer bases. And it got the attention of several governmental agencies, and probably would have wound up in court quickly.

So, inevitably, the LPGA announced yesterday that it was reversing course and revoking the rule.

Which means that they’re back to their original problem — pro-am events in which the pros can’t, or won’t, talk to the ams. It’s a problem they can’t just ignore. But if the players won’t learn to speak English, and the amateurs won’t learn to speak Korean, what’s the answer?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. In particular, I’d love to hear from the hundreds of new readers I’ve obtained by writing about Sarah Palin — even those who call her Sara Pailin.

Comments and suggestions from all are welcome — leave ’em in the Comments field below.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call me at 503-323-6553.