Taking a Bite out of a Market Leader: What a Sandwich Chain Can Teach Us

Taking a bite out of a market leader

Shifts in listener and consumer loyalty happen all the time but they always seem newsworthy when “suddenly” a top performer is dethroned.

In reality, many of these abrupt declines may have actually been months, years, or even decades in the making. 

Some of these are the end result of one or more competitors' long and persistent “creep” against a leader, or a leader being too static for too long in a changing marketplace ('slow to react' was one of the points in a recent Washington Post article on Subway that inspired this blog).

Format and market leading stations must continually negotiate the tripwires that can give toe holds or growth opportunities to competitors.

• Commoditization stemming from a growing lack of differentiation in the listener’s POV; that is, listeners don't perceive a sufficient number of particularly unique and important-to-them benefits gained by listening to your station vs. a competitor
• Listeners believe the "listening cost" of your station exceeds its value
• Failure to accurately assess a challenger’s strength or appeal in a timely manner
• A delayed response or inability to adequately respond to "Values Drift;" listener values/standards have evolved but the leader has remained static 
• Time pressures have severely limited creative and/or forward thinking
• The status quo remains status quo for too long;  new services, features, products, or offerings are minimal, or there’s a lack of excitement about initiatives that are launched
• Lack of employee passion for the station, format, listeners or even self
• Eroding relationships with listeners for any of the above reasons

These are rarely intentional over-sights. I haven't walked into a station recently and found GMs, OMs and PDs looking for ways to keep busy. Finding time to just think is a challenge.

Still, in the spirit of ipsa scientia potestas est ("knowledge itself is power"), consider regularly scheduling a meeting of station creatives to talk through these (and other) bullets, share listener Intel, and have a "what if..." discussion.


Do it over a sandwich if you like.

TSL: Profiting from a Limited Time Only Strategy

“The problem with your business,” the consultant explained, “is that your customers are saying, ‘If I don’t buy from you today, I’ll buy from you tomorrow.’”

That discussion wasn’t about radio, but it certainly could have been.

Each time a listener decides to listen tomorrow instead of today, the opportunity for an additional listening occasion is not only gone now, it's a possibility/probability that there won’t be any listening tomorrow either – especially if the decision to not listen today was rooted in too many “average” experiences.

On the one hand, predictability is important:  imaging (packaging), brand personality, talent, delivering and occasionally exceeding expectations, etc.

On the other hand, if the content never changes and yesterday’s show sounds pretty much like last week’s and last month’s and last year’s, a lack of listener enthusiasm can be manifest in “I’ll listen tomorrow” behavior.

The solution? The PSL – Pumpkin Spice Latte.

Metaphorically of course.

The PSL is a Limited Time Only (LTO) event. It gets attention and creates urgency, while combining the familiar, traditional brand expectations with something fresh.

The result for Starbucks is increased traffic.

How much? According to gobankingrates.com, in the 4^th quarter of 2013 Starbucks saw 5% more foot traffic and 7% more sales - roughly $800-million worth of PSLs.

Knowing anything good deserves pre-promotion, Starbucks allowed some of their best customers to buy the drink early.

Taco Bell is also adept at the LTO strategy marrying familiarity with fervor via limited time menu items. They're also pre-promoters. Fans of the Beefy Crunch Burrito already know that its long-awaited return to the menu will happen nationwide on December 20^th. Check it out on Facebook.

Radio’s LTO time line is different of course - it may only be a couple of breaks.

But, like the PSL or Beefy Crunch Burrito, our version of the LTO should:

1. Be in-sync with and polish core values
2. Have sufficient crave-ability to generate traffic and word of mouth
3. Appear on a regular cycle
4. Be well-promoted
5. Have an anticipated arrival and be missed when it's gone

One break or one month of something special, radio LTO’s are anecdotes for to the ennui-driven decision to listen tomorrow instead of today.

Thoughts from the Great Guerrilla Marketer

I don’t remember when I first read something Jay Conrad Levinson wrote.

I do remember though that it made me a fan.

Having read Seth Godin’s blog last night that Jay – a former VP and Creative Director at the J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett advertising agencies - had passed away, I went to the office and pulled out my copy of Jay’s 1990 book “Guerrilla Marketing Weapons.” 

As with any 20+ year old business book, some parts have weathered better than others. Still, the idea of being a guerrilla as well as many of Jay's specific thoughts and observations are as relevant today as ever. 

• You yourself as your company’s ‘packaging’
• The believability of non-generic testimonials
• That being competitive is a non-stop job
• Customer expectations must be understood and managed before they can be met and exceeded
• The value of walk-by/drive-by traffic
• High touch as a "safeguard" against consumer apathy
• The relationship of success to ‘deep and healthy’ community involvement

While “Guerrilla Marketing Weapons” wasn’t written about radio, it's easy to see the applications.

You can read more of Jay’s writing here.

Effective Billboards Part 2: Positioning a Show with a Word and a Gesture

The leaves have fallen and the billboards have risen. It must be the November TV sweeps.

Clean, minimal word count, attention-getting/stand-out-ability, asking for action directly or indirectly, and having a post-impression ‘afterglow’ are traits of effective billboards.

The bright yellow on this Fox 5 board pops, while the iconic gesture and the portmanteau (the “aaayyy” is implied) do an effective job in positioning Good Day New York against its national competitors.

Here's an earlier billboard blog which includes shots of two excellent boards for morning radio. 

And here are two creative and effective transit boards that also might inspire your next campaign. 

Effective Emails Start with Strong Subject Lines

The likelihood of listeners opening up one of your emails is improved with a great subject line.

Here’s a good one from 3-time ACM Station of the Year winner (and long time A&O partner), Cat Country 98.7 in Pensacola, FL.

Subject: OPEN this email and you might win Zac Brown Tickets

A subject line like this plays to a key reason why listeners join radio “Insider” clubs: access to special privileges especially concert tickets – from winning them to being able to buy them early.

The body then reinforced the subject line and the value of being a Cat Country Insider:

Just because you are a Cat Country Insider you have also scored a chance to win General Admission tickets to Deluna Fest to put your "Toes" in the sand with Zac Brown. The Cat Pak will announce the Winner on Wednesday Morning at 840a, but you can only win if you are a reading this email!

This was followed by a “thank you,” an invitation, and signature:

Thanks for being a 'full-time' listener to The Cat. Follow the Cat on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/catcountry987.                              Brent and Candy, The Cat Pack Morning Show

At the very end there was a pitch:

PS: You can buy single day tickets to Deluna Fest at http://www.delunafest.com

How effective was this campaign?

Cat Country’s Brent Lane says it was, “…pretty great. Considering the average 'good' campaign is about 10-15%, this one did 23% as of last check."

Presslaff Interactive’s Ruth Preslaff shared that when open rates jump, “(it) means listeners are just waiting for something to capture their attention and when it hits their inbox, they respond."

Here are six ways to improve your subject lines.

We'd love to hear some of your lines and your techniques.

A + B = $

It’s one thing to use social media to market to people who are aware of who you are and what you’re selling.

But what about those who don’t yet know about you or don't yet know that they need your product?

That’s the subject of this Chris Brogan post, “Two Sides of Marketing,” which could be a great topic for your next sales meeting.

Here’s a snippet.

“Some marketing is designed to convince you that your life would be better if you had this (we’ll call that the A side). Other marketing is designed to find the people who are actually seeking that and give them more education to help them make a decision (this, we’ll call B). When I look at how we use social media more often than not, it’s for B and not A. We usually use social media to listen for the people who are expressing an interest in a product or service that we offer, and then we give them content like blog posts and videos to help them better understand how much better the world would be once you really get the product or service that you want…The A-side of marketing, the “ADVERTISING” side of marketing, still has to sneak in between what we know and what we NEED (being bombastic and smirky here) to know, so that we can then help educate people (the “BRIDGING” side of marketing) that it’s what they want.”

I’ll bet you can find some businesses in your market that would benefit greatly from adding your “A” to their “B.”

GROWING SECOND TIER BRANDS

All brands are not created equal. If you are part of a large cluster, you may know this first hand. Some stations in your building, though they are profitable and deliver a quality product may, because of their position in the cluster, not have access to the resources available to their sister stations.

Lack of funds – at least compared to their larger counterparts – is among the difficulties in growing second-tier brands (this is also true for “Challenger” brands although these brands have other dimensions, issues and strategies than second-tier brands).

From electronics to airlines, there are many second tier brand success stories. Here are two from the food industry that absolutely have radio relevance.

Parsippany, New Jersey’s B&G Foods has assembled a portfolio of quality, second-tier food brands that were languishing at bigger companies. B&G has been quite successful in reviving old product lines and revitalizing newer ones, growing sales from $293-million in 2002 to $487-million in 2008.

Here are five strategies B&G uses to grow their brands:

1. Escalate the roll-out of product innovations
2. Use promotions and events to further improve distribution and promote trial
3. Ride the coattails of a consumer trend or of a bigger brand’s marketing campaign
4. Leverage your stronger brands’ access to improve the distribution of your smaller brands
5. Agree that being number two in a category doesn’t mean you are a bad brand – nor does it mean you won’t be profitable


The former Aurora Foods Inc. (now Pinnacle Foods Corporation) marketed their brands heavily but, a second critical part of their brand strategy was product-related including introducing new products to existing lines, reformulating others and developing new packaging to attract consumer attention or more closely marry the packaging to the product.

If marketing isn’t an option for you right now, what product innovations, promotions, packaging, or distribution changes can you launch to reignite interest in your brand - no matter what its tier?

Remembering (or not) Your Best Christmas Gifts

Reporting that 41% of people can’t remember the best gift they received last Christmas, a company called Excitations.com has set out to change that by selling gifts that won’t easily be forgotten. The company’s ‘experiential gifts’ – gifts that require active participation by the recipient – include balloon and helicopter rides, rafting and skydiving, high performance driving adventures, dinner with an NFL player, gourmet cooking, tea tasting and more.

That got me thinking about some of my own most memorable gifts – those given to me by others and those I’ve given myself. The first ones that came to my mind were ones where I was an active participant rather than a passive recipient. I recalled both my experience and the way that experience made me feel.

It’s not too much of a stretch to think that listeners’ positive experiences with us could improve their recall, too.

That would be a memorable gift to for everyone.