The purpose of this book is not to prove that my viewpoint or strategy right, and everybody else is wrong. Nor is it the purpose to indicate that there is only one way to run an effective ad campaign. The purpose however, is to shed a new light on an old subject, based on proven successes, formulas, and the ways in which the human mind works.

The purpose to look at some different perspectives, and more scientific ways of achieving greater advertising success. Unfortunately, as with any industry, the masses start heading down a certain advertising road, not knowing why, or where they are going, or even who they are following. They do it simply because everybody else is doing it. The norm becomes institutionalized simply because it has been done by so many, for so long, and nobody has bothered to ask why, or to look for better ways.

This book will provide answers as to why dealers have fallen into the advertising rut they have, as well as look at new and better alternatives that yield greater returns when done properly. Sometimes it takes a maverick to say “wait a minute, why are we settling for this stale tradition of advertising with mediocre results, when we can have so much more!”

Although it may appear that I am against pure price and product ads by the tone of this book, I assure that I am not. In fact, I enjoy creating some of the best promotional price and product ads. This book was created to tell the other side of the advertising story, to argue a point, and to support a position with facts, logic and reasoning. When making a point, one must often take a hard stand to drive it home.

The topic of this book is how to advertise using a branding campaign. There certainly are other ways to advertise, and other ways to write ad copy, and I use them all, but for long-term growth, market dominance, and creating an equity position in the minds of the consumer, I do not think there is a better strategy than a true long-term, consistent branding campaign.

I believe that Roy H. Williams, in his books “The Wizard of Ads” and “Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads” did the most masterful job ever of describing what branding, value, and echoic recall is all about. I also give all of the credit to Mr. Williams for his brilliance and eloquence in describing the power of radio, frequency, and consistency. If you are at all serious about advertising, you must read his books, for he is a true master of radio advertising.

What is the purpose of advertising? Why do we do it? How do we do it? Does it even work?

The stated purpose of advertising, and how to go about it, seems to vary from one author to the next, and from one institutions aspirations to the next. To most local business people, the purpose of advertising is a mixed bag of objectives. And this is one reason why we see so many poorly produced ads, poorly executed strategies, and ads with unclear or un-motivating messages that produce little to no results.

When people say “I tried advertising, and it doesn’t work for me.” Or “I tried radio, and I didn’t see any results.” What they are really saying, is that they do not clearly know how to advertise, who they are advertising to, what to say, how to create effective ads, or how to buy media properly.

In a broad sense, my definition of the purpose of advertising is to: “communicate effectively with the actual and/or potential consumer, with a message that conveys your USP in a precise fashion, supported by believable facts and logic, which cuts through the competitive clutter, stirs the emotions, makes the consumer feel good about your company and product, and motivates the consumer to purchase from you when they are in the market for your product.”

If you can do this on a consistent basis, to a targeted and identifiable demographic group that is best suited for your product, you will absolutely succeed. As long as you deliver on the experience that you promise in your advertising.

The essential elements of a powerful branding campaign:

1. Great production quality to cut through the clutter, make a positive impression about your company and product, and deliver your message without the distraction of poor quality in the sound, image, photography, editing, lighting, or effects.

2. Stellar copy that talks with and about the consumer. Copy that uses present tense verbs, emotional appeal, logical support, and unusual words used in unusual combinations.

3. A real USP that the public actually wants and desires, that your competitors do not, or cannot offer, and that you can actually deliver in a consistent manner.

4. Adequate reach to hit at least 70% of your target market with a 3 frequency per week.

5. Total commitment to your objectives and strategy.

6. The ability to track your results, cost per lead and cost per sale by each media outlet.

7. The ability to adequately follow-up on every lead generated, in a timely and thorough fashion.

8. The ability to buy the proper media schedule at the lowest cost possible.

9. The ability to deliver to the customer a consistent and integrated message in all media used, and in every contact point they have with the company.

10. The ability to deliver an experience that is consistent with what is promised in the ads, so that they do not experience “cognitive dissonance.” (An experience which is inconsistent with their expectations, causing disappointment and discomfort).

11. The ability to deliver a perceived “value.” (The actual cost is less than the anticipated cost).

It’s no wonder so many business people are befuddled by the lack of advertising success. They rarely have any three of these eleven requirements operating at the same time.

Advertising is not a part-time thing, nor is it to be taken lightly. The wimps and half-hearted should stay home. Being great at advertising is like being great at anything. You have to take it seriously, commit the time and resources to it, stretch yourself, learn everything you can about it, study and research it, learn the fundamental principles and rules, test and experiment, track and monitor, and spend money on the right things.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on your media reps for help. Their job is to sell, and they know little or nothing about how to advertise, and rarely does anybody else in their organization. Media outlets are not advertising experts. As far as your ads are concerned, the media outlets job is to sell you ad space, produce your ads (as quickly and cheaply as possible), and air or distribute your ads, and that’s about it.

If you want your ads to look and sound like ads (the same garbage everybody else is doing that doesn’t work, or doesn’t work well), than you should have the newspaper, or the TV or radio station produce them. But if you want super quality production and real results, you need to become an expert, or hire one.

The 12 C’s Of Effective Advertising

This chapter was taken from an article I wrote under the same title for eDealerNews. It received an award for one of the best written and most popular articles on the topic of advertising for the year 2001. It has however, been modified and expanded for this book.

You have no doubt heard of the 4 C’s of selecting a diamond (Cut, Clarity, Color, and Carrot). Well, I have created the 12 C’s of advertising. And when these 12 elements are used together, you will have effective and efficient power advertising that works every time!

Cut: First and foremost, you need to cut through the competitive clutter and get noticed and remembered in a positive way. Your copy, offer and creative execution must be enticing, exciting, moving, and believable. You need to stand out, and offer something stunning that people want. Like exceptionally friendly and personable service, super convenient location, huge variety and product selection, value-added services, etc.

Remember, that people are more often concerned with convenience, saving time, their image and ego, than they are with the saving of money.

Clarity: Your message, offer, and Unique Selling Proposition (USP) must be clear, concise and easy to understand quickly. Keep it simple and powerful, both in design execution and message.

Color: Use only full color ads. Color increases credibility, enhances communication, and cuts through a sea of non-color ads. Use colors in your logo and color schemes that fit your image and message. Use them consistently. Use color pictures, graphics, charts, or any imagery that will enhance and communicate your message and offer. In a two color ad, the most powerful attention grabbing color combinations are red copy on a solid yellow background (Kodak logo), yellow copy on a red background (McDonald’s logo), or black copy on a yellow background.

Carrot: You need a hook, a carrot or an offer that is going to motivate the audience to act now. You need a call to action, like “come in today and receive a free_______”. Or a self-liquidator, which is a popular item that you can buy in bulk at a huge discount, and sell them for what you paid, just to get people into your dealership. Self-liquidators work great as traffic builders, as long as what you are offering is clearly in demand, you can sell it for less than what the retail market price is, and you advertise it so that people know about it.

Communication: You need to establish a dialog with your customers and prospects, which requires a direct response device (phone number, self addressed and postage paid reply card, e-mail, etc.). From these responses, build a database of information about these people, and a timely follow-up system, with additional and current information beneficial to the recipient.

Commitment: You must stay committed to your advertising campaign, your USP, your media schedule, your look, your logo, color scheme, and your branding message. Otherwise you lose the equity position you created.

Consistency: There are two conflicting theories in advertising. One is the theory of “frequency,” which is based on the theory that people must see or hear an ad at least three times before they will take significant notice of it. Actually, in a branding type ad campaign, where you are creating top of mind awareness in your product category for market dominance, a 3 frequency is required each and every week, 52 weeks a year.

The other or competing theory is “recency.” The recency theory claims that only one impression is required, if it is made upon a person that is actually in the market to buy today. The recency theory assumes that if you are in the market to buy a DVD player for example, and you see an ad with a good price, on a quality name brand that you like, with the features and specs you are looking for, at a store you trust, and is convenient to you, why do you need to see that same ad 3 times before you will act on it? As the recency theory goes, if you are actually in the market, and you see the ad once, and if all the elements make sense, you will act on it.

Recency theory then, simply states that it is far more important to cast a wide net to reach that small percentage of people that are ready to buy today, than to keep beating your message over the heads of a smaller audience with frequency, because statistically, you will be talking to fewer people who are in the market.

The recency theory is precisely why classified newspaper advertising works so well for dealers. Despite the fact that newspapers are losing readers and market share every year, and the average age of the daily subscribers is going up each year, outpacing the average age of the population. And the fact that people spend less time reading the paper than ever before. The fact is that the few people who are reading the automotive classifieds are those who are actually in the market. And the recency theory says they only need to see your ad once before they act.

Recency theory does not account for the fact that the audience first needs to be sold on the retailer and the product. They need to be comfortable with the idea of doing business with you in the first place, regardless of need and price. This requires the transference of familiarity, trust, credibility, and what you will do for them (save time, offer convenience, etc). This is best accomplished through time and repetition, before they are ever in the market to buy.

You can use price and product print ads effectively to reach those people in the market today (recency). But they work far better when you use branding ads in the electronic media to convince them to do business with you in the first place.

The recency theory then assumes that the consumer of the single ad impression already has a positive perception of the retailer and the product. And this, in most situations, requires a branding campaign. So you see, as with any advertising issue, it is not all that simple. The frequency theory would say that in order to get people to respond to a sale event price and product ad, they first must be sold on the retailer with a convincing branding campaign, which only works with frequency.

As Roy Williams would say, “you can reach 100% of the people (with recency) and convince them 10% of the way, or you can reach 10% of the people (with frequency) and convince them 100% of the way.”

The recency theory is only applicable for price and product sale event advertising, and it does not work at all for a branding campaign. Branding is not to be confused with “name awareness” or “institutional” advertising. Which I personally believe is a waste of money in most situations.

My guess is that 99% of advertisers, 95% of media reps, and 90% of ad agencies have no idea what branding really is, or how to do it. And that is another reason there is so much poor advertising, frustration among advertisers, misunderstanding, empty promises, lies, unrealistic expectations, and wasted dollars in the advertising industry.

Combination: In order to maximize sales, you need to get in front of as many potential buyers as possible (recency) on a regular basis (frequency). This requires a media mix, consisting of a 7x15 full color ad in the automotive classified section of the major daily newspaper every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which serves as the recency component, and a regular broadcast TV schedule (not cable), consisting of at least 100 Household Gross Rating Points per week, and/or a radio schedule on as many stations as you can afford, with at least 3 spots per day, Monday through Sunday, with an equal rotation from 6AM-7PM. Twenty-one spots per week will give you a 3 frequency on most stations.

Cost: Your media schedule must be professionally planned and negotiated. An expert professional approach will take into account strict cost efficiency objectives of buying the schedule at the lowest Cost Per Point (CPP) and Cost Per Thousand (CPM). As well as generate more reach and more frequency than a media schedule that is placed by a layman. More money is wasted in advertising than you can ever imagine, simply by paying too much, buying the wrong media outlets, the wrong schedules, and the wrong programs. There are specific methods, strategies, and formulas to buying and negotiating media at rates 30-70% less than you are paying currently. You can learn them, or hire someone who has the training, and the proven and documented ability to do so.

Caliber: Your ad must be of a high caliber that will reflect positively on your dealership. The only thing that the prospect knows feels or sees about your company, is the image that you portray in your ads. If your ads are a cheap, slapped together low quality production, what does that say about your company, your image and your product? The quality of your advertising production, like your clothes, your house and your car, are a direct reflection on who you are, your company values, the types of customers you attract and serve, and where you are going in the future. Advertising is the same as courting a beautiful lady. You absolutely must put your best foot forward in order to win the hand of that lovely lady. Don’t skimp on production if you can at all help it. In fact, reserve about 15-20% of your entire monthly advertising budget for print and electronic media production.

Copy: Use advertising copy that entices, that describes your USP or benefits in word pictures, stirs the emotions, supports your claims with logic, and SELLS! Make every single word count. No self-puffery. Your job is to capture their attention, peak their interest, stir their soul, motivate and sell in only a few seconds. Again, the caliber of production is critical. If you don’t have a really good copy writer who can write to move and sell, your sunk. Budget for quality production and quality copy writing.

Cute: Avoid cute kids, pets, models, jingles or jokes if they are not absolutely critical to the selling message and motivation to buy. These are known as “attention vampires” and they actually rob from your advertising impact by taking the focus off of your critical selling message and offer. There is a time and place, and a very effective way to use them, but only when they are essential to the very message itself. Michelin Tires does a wonderful job of the proper usage of cute babies and animals in their ads. Simply because their entire message is the safety and protection of your most precious cargo. If the message were anything different, the cute baby and animals would not have worked for a tire company.

Caution: There is a an overwhelming tendency to oversimplify, undervalue, and gloss-over the very complex world of advertising. Everyone is looking for the easy to understand, easy to implement, and low-budget solution to advertising. They want a quick decision, quick production, a quick fix, and a quick response. And that is why we see so many shot-in-arm, flash-in-the-pan events like the “$5 Sale,” the “Slasher Sale,” and all the other short-term sale events that have no long-term benefits, positioning, equity building, or real growth strategies behind them.

I strongly recommend that you implement a real strategy for market dominance and long-term growth, by using a combination of 30-40% of your budget on sale events, and 60-70% of your budget on a real branding campaign that causes people to buy from you regardless of the sale events, the blow-outs, the liquidation sales, the rebates, and the inflatable gorilla on the roof.

These instant results tactics may work for about 30% of the population, but they do not generally work for the 70% of the population who are intelligent, and who see through all the hype and shouting. Why not capture 100% of the market, instead of competing for the same 30% everybody else is attracting? Why not own the hearts and minds of the market before they ever see your sale event ads? Doesn’t it make sense that this strategy would ensure the success of your price and product sale ads, because the public will br pre-disposed to shop from you based on the positive impression they have of you through your branding campaign. Branding is really a mental set-up for the future sale.

You set-up the public to feel good about you with a really effective and consistent branding campaign with tons of frequency so they can’t forget your emotionally charged message and USP. Now that they feel good about you, and your name has category dominance in their minds, you can occasionally hit them with a sale event to further stimulate sales. However, you will find, that sale events are required less and less, as the public will automatically buy from you based on the branding ads. Doesn’t this sound like Nordstrom?

The Importance of a Proper Media Mix

Why we don’t want to concentrate more money in print advertising, at the expense of electronic.

• When you add an electronic media form, you accelerate reach accumulation beyond what could be obtained by using more of the same media form (print). By adding an electronic medium, you extend the reach curve before it begins to flatten.

• To reach people who do not consume a newspaper, or who are only lightly exposed to print.

• To provide additional repeat exposure (frequency) in a different and more impactful format.

• To utilize the intrinsic values of an electronic medium (sound, motion, sight, emotion).

• To create echoic recall through the use of an intrusive medium (TV or radio).

• To address a different target audience. (Print skews older, more educated, and higher income).

• To address a broader demographic audience profile.

• To reduce the effects of duplication and burnout among heavy users of print.

• To bring about synergism. An effect produced when the sum of the parts is greater than that expected by adding together the individual components.

• When different advertising vehicles are used in combination, audience delivery increases—both in gross rating points and gross impressions, as well as total reach.

• To improve the effects of Recency.

• To confuse the competition.

• To increase the volume and variety of value-added advertising.

• To build a brand image, which can ONLY be done with TV and/or radio.

• To pull people into the market who are not “now buyers.”

• To create an equity position in the minds of a large audience.

• To leverage the value-added benefits of electronic mediums.

• To make your print ads work better.

When Branding Works

“Branding” is one of those modern marketing buzz words that few “experts,” ad agencies or media reps really understand, but they are all trying to make a buck off of it anyway. They don’t know what it is, how to do it, or what the benefits of creating a branding campaign are.

What is branding? How do you define it? Why is it so important to long-term growth and profitability? What is the difference between “branding” and a “brand”? Do I need to pursue a branding campaign?

Is branding the consistent use of a specific combination of colors, shapes or visuals in my advertising? Is it the regular use of a slogan, a jingle, or a logo? Is branding just another word for top of mind awareness in a product category? The answer is no to all of these by themselves, but all of these are part of a branding campaign.

A brand is not the result of branding. A brand is simply a registered and trademarked product name and logo.

Branding on the other hand, is a process of positioning the product or company name in the mind of the consumer, in such a way that when they think of the name, they think of it in the positive light in which it was intentionally positioned by the ad campaign.

The core concept of branding is rooted in behavioral psychology and neuroscience. In short, the actual process of branding is the result of using echoic memory recall (the memory of things heard) to implant an associative memory (a new memory you create with your specially created branding message), that has become linked to a positive memory already anchored in the individuals mind, and then recalling that anchored memory on demand (and thus the desired response), with a recall cue or stimulus (your branding ad which is the associative memory now linked to the anchored memory).

Therefore, the hearing of your branding ad, which is the recall cue (the new associative memory), automatically pulls-up the positive pre-existing anchored memory. Because this anchored memory is positive, a positive feeling is associated with your name upon hearing the recall cue.

Oh yes, this is the good stuff. The stuff that keeps me awake at night.

Branding can also be achieved using iconic memory as a recall stimulus (memory of things seen), but this is much more difficult, time consuming, and expensive, as the human brain is easier to train and condition using sounds over sight alone. To the brain, spoken words seem to carry far more emotional impact than written words. And the greater you can make the emotional impact, the deeper rooted the associative memory, or recall stimulus becomes. The deeper rooted the associative memory becomes, the easier and more reliable it is to stimulate on demand, and the more likely it is to be permanently linked to the desired anchored memory.

A desirable anchored memory can be that of a very pleasant feeling (love, security, adventure, freedom, inner peace, social acceptance, joy, accomplishment, etc). An associative memory must be created through consistency and massive repetition (at least 3 times per week, 52 weeks per year, over at least a one year period) using powerful, emotional words, sometimes unusual words in unusual combinations, that break through the competitive advertising clutter to stimulate the mind in such a way that the words are tied into, or linked to the anchored memory.

Most songs are a perfect example of an associative memory (not the head banging base thumping crap some kids listen to, but real songs written for real people). Songs are basically poems with music. Poems are specifically written to be thought provoking, and to stir the emotions.

Poems do this by using powerful words, and often unusual words used in unusual combinations. Because of this, they cut through the brains pre-occupation with life’s trivia, and they get remembered. Sometimes even unconsciously. In fact, it has been said that the average person, with the help of another associative memory or stimulus (the music), can remember a significant portion of nearly 1,000 songs. These are songs we never intended or tried to remember, but through consistency and massive repetition, they became permanently embedded in our echoic memory.

If you read the lyrics to songs, you will find that most of them in fact read like poetry, and most of them refer to one or more of the following positive anchored memories, or deep felt thoughts, or desires of: sex, love, close family relationships, success/power/wealth, duty/faith/commitment, beauty/acceptance/approval, or fun/fantasy/pleasure. These are universal anchors, because every adult has them, thinks about them, wants them, and has strong feelings toward them, and deep rooted memories of them.

Why do you think music is so popular, emotional, and universal? Why do young women literally cry on a regular basis when they see their favorite recording artist sing their favorite song live? It is literally an uncontrollable outpouring of massive, deep felt emotions. Why do so many people like to make love to their favorite songs? Because the song heightens the emotional impact of the act of lovemaking. Yes, songs are poetry written to music, and poetry stirs the soul.

Exceptional ad copy is painstakingly crafted like fine poetry. Each word carefully appointed for its impassioned effect. It bores through the competitive chaos with penetrating emotional force, stirs the soul, and becomes associated in the brain with a favorable, pre-existing anchored memory.

Like I said, this— is the good stuff.

The associative memory you create may be accomplished through spoken words alone, or in combination with a specific and consistent music bed, or it may be done with an exceptional jingle, or an entire song written and scored just for you. Remember the popular 70's song “Kodachrome?” That song was originally written as an ad for Kodak’s Kodachrome film.

Of course, your ad copy still needs to include a credible Unique Selling Proposition based on believable logic, and one that people actually feel is a real benefit to them. And you still need to sell what people want to buy, with a level of customer service that they expect, and are willing to pay for.

When branding works, the individual will hear the message, and automatically think of your dealership in a positive light. And when they are in the market for your product, they will automatically think of you first. Since they have all kinds of positive associations of your dealership in their minds after hearing your branding message so many times, they will be far less price sensitive, and more likely to buy exclusively from you. Assuming of course that the experience you deliver is exactly what the customer anticipated as a result of your ads. This is where Integrated Marketing comes into play.

Why You Need A Branding Campaign

A branding campaign is a series of similar ads with a strategic continuity, usually four or more, each one like a different chapter in a book. Each ad within the branding campaign series, has the same tempo, feel, and direction. The Motel 6 branding campaign for example, with the legendary Tom Bodet ran for at least 14 years on radio.

A true branding campaign provides the listener with a positive mental image of the product, the experience, and the company/dealership.

The branding ad also provides a mental escape, so it pulls the listener in. Their defenses are down, their imagining themselves in this wonderful experience, and before they know it, it’s an ad for a dealership. But it’s not pounding our chest, it’s all about what’s in it for them. It’s about the experiences they will or can have. They don’t care about us. They only care about themselves. So we don’t talk about us, we talk about, and directly to them.
Typical ads that sound like ads get subconsciously tuned-out, because people are bombarded and overloaded by thousands of similar ads every day, from every direction. They’re tired of ads. They hate ads. Ads that answer the question nobody is asking (who, what, when, where). Ads that speak to them, but not about them. Ads that talk about the company, and the sale price, but never stir the soul, speak to the heart, fire the imagination, solve the yearning, or create a desire for the experience that the product can deliver.

A true branding ad is a welcome sound. An escape from the mundane, from the ordinary, from the predictable. It reads like poetry, using unpredictable words in unpredictable ways. Causing it to lodge deeply in the memory. To be recalled easily when the individual is in the market for a car. To be thought of in a positive light. Like a song, which is really just poetry written to music.

Advertising is not about screaming, it’s about seducing. The screamers are amateurs, the seducers are masters. Masters use powerful words with emotional impact. They use verbs, and they place the listener inside of their story, their temporary escape from all that is dreaded in the toil of daily life.

A branding campaign will include a series of similar ads, all pulling the listener in, and ever closer in heart and mind to the dealer who knows their plight, and understands their needs and desires.

In order to make a branding campaign work, you need a 3 frequency per week, 52 weeks per year, on as many radio or TV stations as you can afford. If done properly, it will take about 3 months to see the benefits of the campaign. And the sales will steadily build every month from there.

A branding campaign builds “equity” and creates a “position”in the mind of the audience. A strong equity and positioning message creates a positive mental image, which is essential to product category dominance in the mind of the consumer. When you have an equity position, the consumer thinks of you first in that category, and tends to shop you first, and refer other people to you.

By creating a positive image and perception of your dealership before the public is even in the market, they have become persuaded to not only shop you first, but to be less price sensitive when they do.

With a branding campaign in place, your price & product sale ads will be far more effective. Why? Because now you enjoy the power of top of mind awareness, an equity position in the mind, and a positive feeling about your company, before they even see your print ad.

Branding Ads vs. Sale Ads

Studies have shown that despite all their efforts and expense, companies who only run “Sale Event” ads do not build top of mind awareness, equity or positioning in the mind. Time sensitive urgency type ads are not retained in the long-term memory. There is no long-term echoic recall of a time sensitive sale event ad.

Another concern with only running sale ads, is what happens to the validity of the MSRP when everything is always “on sale.” MSRP becomes meaningless when it’s just one continuous sale. In other words, the anticipated “sale” price becomes the beginning point of negotiations, instead of the MSRP.

Constant sales may also erode the credibility of future sales and the real deal.

Consider what may happen to CSI when the consumer is constantly being exposed to ads that tout huge discounts, low prices, low payments, and high trade values, and then their first pencil is at full MSRP? And the only way to get their payment even close to affordable, is to present a 72 month payment. Yes they are sold on the car, and they are emotionally committed to driving it home. Except now, two things happen. They are locked out of trading for another 4-5 years, and once the reality sets in as to what they are paying, and for how long, they feel manipulated, and give you a poor CSI.

Sales that aren’t really sales may falsely raise expectations to un-attainable levels, and thereby reduce CSI. When your advertising causes people to expect big savings, a smooth wonderful experience, and excellent service, and they don’t get it, they experience what is known as “cognitive dissonance,” or what I call “reverse value.”

Cognitive dissonance occurs when all along you are lead to believe something to be true, and you are comfortable with that belief, and counting on it to be real. And then a new experience causes the foundation of your belief to be false. This causes an emotional discomfort and anxiety as a result of having two contradictory, or incompatible thoughts or beliefs.

I am not at all passing any judgement on the strategy of constant and heavy sale advertising with steep discounts, and then starting every deal possible at full MSRP. This can be a very profitable approach if handled properly. However, I wonder hypothetically, what the adverse affects of this strategy may have on CSI, and how long it can last, before word gets out, and the repeat business and referrals stop coming. Food for thought is all.

The bottom line, is that if you can charge, or at least start with full MSRP, and still make your customers completely happy with the vehicle, the payment, and the experience, all the better. After all, it’s a business, and a business should make money. The more money you make, the better you can service and provide for your customers.

Satisfaction after all is a relative and a personal thing. An individual can be completely satisfied, even elated paying full price, if they felt they purchased a great product, and were treated in such a manner that justified the price. Like a fine dinning experience. You expect to pay the price, and you are happy to pay it, as long as the food, the ambiance, and the service justified the cost.

A Branding Campaign is Part of the Value Equation

“Value” is the difference between the actual price, and the anticipated price. With constant sale advertising, we actually create a “reverse value.” Reverse value is when the actual price is higher than the anticipated price.

To create value on the other hand, we must create an upscale environment and experience that causes the consumer to actually expect and anticipate a higher price. Then, when they pay close to MSRP, they are actually surprised at the low price. Nordstrom does a great job of building “value.” They created a classy , rich environment, with elegant lighting, furnishings, decor, displays, and well dressed, well groomed, and well mannered employees. Supported with excellent customer service, and good quality products. All delivered at prices that seem surprisingly low for the overall ambiance and experience. This is value. Because the consumer expected to pay more, and were pleasantly surprised when they paid less.

Creating a branding campaign, with an actual experience that delivers value, will cut through the competitive clutter, stand apart from the competition, increase referrals, profitability, and improve CSI.

A reverse value, or cognitive dissonance on the other hand, will always erode CSI, reduce retention, and referrals.

Integrated Marketing Communications
Is Critical To Branding

A branding campaign is most likely going to include a unique selling proposition (USP), promise a certain level of service, experience, selection, quality, speed, convenience, ambiance, etc. It is critical that the customer experiences whatever is promised when they call or visit your business as a result of the advertising message.

Every customer contact point must be in unison, and delivering the same level of service in a fully integrated and consistent manner. See “Integrated Marketing Communications Is Your Competitive Advantage” online at djsprague.com, by Duane Sprague.

Why We Don’t Create Branding Ads

Who has the kahunas to actually create an ad that doesn’t sound like an ad? An ad that doesn’t repeat our name 5 times, our address and phone number 3 times, and doesn’t answer who, what, when and where? Our other dealer buddies and “car guys” will think we were insane. We would be laughed at, ridiculed, and embarrassed.

Ads are supposed to sound like slick ads. Yell, scream, and make lot’s of noise like all the other ads. Make unbelievable claims and hope we aren’t held accountable. But maybe we can’t read the label from inside the bottle. Maybe we are too close to our own industry to see what the public sees.

Maybe we are so impressed with our own story, message, and cleaver offers, and those of other dealers, that we say just what we want to say, and not what the consumer wants or needs to hear. Is this possible? Are we too biased to see what the consumer sees? Could this be partially responsible for so many public opinion surveys ranking car dealers at or among the lowest in terms of credibility, sincerity, integrity, and honesty? Have we in fact created this ourselves through our own advertising that creates unrealistic expectations?

We talk to your sales people about managing the customers expectations in terms of payments and trade value, yet we set them up for the exact opposite with our un-attainable low price ads. With our $49 down and $49 a month. Food for thought.

Another reason we don’t create branding ads, is because we compare all forms of advertising to the newspaper. It’s true that the paper gets immediate results, simply because that’s where the “now buyers” are looking. But newspaper will get all the results it’s ever going to get immediately. However, there is no building of equity, little or no pulling people into the market, and little or no reach beyond the now buyers. With print, there is no use of the power of intrusiveness, which is only available with TV or radio.

Newspaper will only build a business and market share as large as the now market is. The now market is only a tiny fraction of the population. For the automotive industry, only one-half of one percent (.5%) of the adult population will buy a new or used vehicle in the average week, in the average market, in average economic conditions.

Based on an 11 year national average, of the .5% of adults who will purchase a vehicle in the average week, 31% of those will be new vehicle sales, and 68% of the .5% will be used vehicle sales. Of the 68% that are used vehicles sales, 28% of those will be purchased from consumers by consumers, 38% from franchise dealers, and 34% from independent dealers.

This gives you an idea of just how tiny the now buyer segment is for both new and used sales for the franchise dealer. And yet, the average dealer spends 52% of their entire ad budget in newspaper, exclusively for the now buyer. Almost completely ignoring the other 99.5% of the adult population.

TV and radio on the other hand, has the potential to reach virtually 100% of the adult population, and build equity through echoic recall for future sales. Electronic advertising also drives more traffic to the paper, giving your print ads a turbo boost, and drives even more traffic to your dealership that will never read the paper. Electronic creates reach and frequency beyond the limits of the paper. Electronic reaches the younger demo not reached by the paper. Electronic potentially reaches everybody, including the less educated and the less affluent, also not reached by the paper. Electronic also has the ability to pull people into the market, that otherwise may not have been.

Because electronic advertising uses the unmatched power of the spoken word, it has emotional impact. Print does not. It has been proven time and again both in sales and advertising, that people need to be motivated through emotions, and shown how they can justify their decisions with logic. The paper is all about logic (price & product), but lacks the motivating power of sound and emotion.

Motion Requires Emotion

Too often, we think of advertising and sales as two separate and distinct functions. When in fact, advertising is simply the precursor to sales. Great advertising sets-up the sale. It creates the initial emotional impact that stirs the soul. Great advertising using a branding approach in electronic media, will increase the effectiveness of price and product advertising in the print media. A branding campaign in electronic media predisposes the reader to favor your newspaper ad.

Advertising tells the audience what to expect in the sales experience. It sets them up. It manages their expectations. Therefore, be careful what you say, and what you commit to.

We know from basic sales training, psychology, common sense and experience, that in order to be successful at sales, you must first:

• Do a proper “meet and greet” in order to make the prospect feel comfortable (make an initial “emotional” connection).
• Ask a lot of questions about their needs, preferences, wants, and desires (uncover their “emotional” hot buttons).
• Communicate with, talk with, relate to, and find common ground with your prospect (make a deeper “emotional” connection).
• Get them to like and trust you (“emotional” feeling).
• Look them in the eye, and call them by name (“emotional” connection).
• Sell the benefits more than the features (“emotion” more than logic).
• Instill a sense of fear or loss if they don’t act or buy now (“stir their emotions”).
• Boost their ego by showing them how smart they are for making the right choice (tap their “emotions”).

When someone is not committing or buying, we often say “they’re not moving on this” or “I can’t get them to move any further.” What we are saying then, is that sales requires “motion,” and motion is fueled by “emotion.” Every sale is made based on an emotional appeal or emotional charge, and then justified using logical facts and data.

So I ask you, why is it that when it comes to advertising, we throw all emotional appeal out the window, and simply rely on who, what, when and where? How exciting and emotionally charged is that? How is a logical ad going to stir the emotions?

Have we completely lost the subtle art of persuasion and seduction when it comes to advertising? Are we so stuck on price and product ads that we have completely lost touch with the human psyche? Have we forgotten that people are purely emotional, pleasure seeking, ego gratifying, narcissistic, acceptance oriented creatures?

Now I ask, who is easier to sell, and do so at a descent profit, the person who walks in holding a price and product loss leader ad with payment and terms, and says “I want this truck right here, and I’m not paying a dime more.” Or the person who walks in and says, “I’m looking for a new truck to pull my boat.”

Emotion Requires Sound

In order to appeal to the emotions, you must utilize the intrusive power of sound.
To motivate emotionally, you need to utilize words with emotional impact, verbs, and unusual words used in unusual combinations.

You need to tell a story that places the listener inside of the action. You need to speak to the listener, and about the listener. You need to cut through the clutter of ads, and break into the listeners subconscious mind with powerful imagery.

Print advertising is passive, and cannot generate the reach, frequency, or emotional impact, which is available only through the power of sound.

The long-term recall of ad slogans, jingles and songs is proof positive that the intrusive nature of sound, combined with frequency and consistency will create an equity position in the listeners mind.

Echoic Recall Requires Frequency

In order to establish a top of mind awareness in your product category, you must have at least three repetitions per week, every week of the year. Which is exactly how you remember the lyrics to popular songs on the radio. You simply hear them over and over.

The General Population
100% of the Market

Market Responds To/Requires:
? Branding
? Top of Mind Awareness (TOMA)
? Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
? Equity Position

Creates:
? Product Category Dominance
? Competitive Posturing
? Long-Term Growth

With:
? Echoic Recall
? TV
? Radio

Requires:
U 3 Weekly Frequency, 52 weeks per year
U Emotional Impact
U Strategic Consistency
U Integrated Marketing Communications
U Value Creation

2 Completely Different Markets

Everyone is in one market or the other, and they move back and forth.

A branding campaign on TV and/or radio, makes the price & product ads work better.

The “Now Buyer”
1.3% of Adult Population
per week

Market Responds To/Requires:
? Reticular Activator (stimulates embedded thought or memory)

Creates:
? Immediate, but Short-Term Results

With:
? Iconic or Echoic Stimulation of Reticular Activator
? Newspaper
? Auto Trader/Auto Mart
? Internet
? Direct Mail

Requires:
UPrice & Product
U Sale Event
U Promotion

Why Ad Agencies Don’t Make the Best Media Buys,
and Why “Volume Buying Power”
Does Not Equate to Client Savings

This chapter is not designed to undermine the value, skills, creativity, resources and talent that ad agencies bring to the table. It is simply here to shed some light on an area of weakness in the vast majority of agencies. As with any type of business or individual, you cannot be excellent at everything. You have only so many hours and resources to devote to any specific area, and therefore some areas are going to be overlooked or ignored more than others.

For ad agencies, media buying (not planning) seems to be the area that gets overlooked the most. Why? Because for most ad people, it is not exciting, sexy, or creative. Therefore, media buying suffers for the following reasons:

• Agencies typically work on a 15% commission of the total media buy. A cost savings to the client would therefore reduce their own commissionable income. So why break your back to save the client money?

• Agencies see themselves as “media buyers” instead of “idea sellers”. In order to be a truly exceptional media buyer, who can extract every last bit of bonus, value added, and the very best rates obtainable, with an optimal schedule, you need to know how to sell your ideas better than the rep knows how to sell their time or space. This caliber of person does not exist in the agency media buyer.

• Agencies typically buy and negotiate over the phone instead of in person. This is the worst possible way to negotiate a media buy.

• Agencies make annual buys out of convenience and time savings for themselves. And justify it to the client by saying that it saves them money. When in fact, the primary benefit to an annual buy is to guarantee placement. And the only way to guarantee placement is to pay a higher, non-pre-emptable annual rate. An annual buy can save money over a quarterly buy, but all too often, I have seen the agency buy considerably higher than it could have been bought for.

• Agencies rarely drive the boards they are buying or negotiating on. If they did, their clients would not be on a sizable percentage of the boards they are, and their vinyl would be in better condition.

• Agencies typically make media budget allocation decisions based on a national formula, that does not allow for local market conditions and anomalies. (Salt Lake City for example has only a 52% cable penetration compared to the 79% national average).

• The media buyers in an agency are some of the lowest paid, least trained, least educated, and least respected in the company, and consequently they have the highest turnover. The vast majority of top agency executives are promoted from Account Executive positions, and a few from creative, but virtually never from the media buying department. Since media buyers are in a dead-end job, with low pay, no incentives, relatively high turnover, little training and little respect, how good of job do you expect them to do?

• Smaller and local agencies many times make media buying decisions based on incentive trips for themselves, and not what is in the best interest for the client.

• The smaller agencies may also make a package media buy that is beneficial to one client, and detrimental to another. For example, they may commit to buying $500,000 on a particular network or cable system for the year in order to get a better rate and qualify for a big trip. They will then place all their clients ads on that particular network. However, that particular network may not contain the best audience composition, or reach the best geographic market area, or offer the lowest cost per point or cost per thousand for the other clients.

Another game they will play, is to buy a huge block of time on a network or station in order to please their biggest client with better rates. And then force their smaller clients onto that station in order to fulfill their contract.

• In short, agencies that work on a commission basis are typically self serving, and will never look out for the best interests of their clients, and look for every opportunity to save their clients as much money as possible. Why? Because squeezing every last dollar in additional value for the client is time consuming, tedious, and requires a great deal of skill and experience.

• The other built-in problem with agencies, is that they are typically egotistical creative shops driven to produce ultra creative cutesy commercials to win awards and gain recognition from their peers. The problem is, that the most creative award winning commercials have almost always been the biggest failures in terms of generating sales and results for their clients. In fact, almost every agency that won an award for their clients commercial, lost the client within a year due to lack of ROI. Creative does not sell product, effective communication to the right audience delivered consistently over time in a variety of media formats does.

• Another reason agencies put so much pressure and emphasis on super slick and ultra creative commercials recorded on film instead of digital video (which when done properly by people who know how to use the equipment, can produce the same or better quality as film, at a fraction of the cost), is because they typically mark-up all production by 18%. And obviously they stand to make a lot more on a $30,000 commercial as they would on a $5,000 spot.

• The media buyers in an agency are not trained in high-level negotiation skills, sales techniques, communication skills, marketing concepts, promotions, or the basic principals of advertising. So how in the world are they supposed to have a solid understanding or skill base in which to effectively do their job?

• The media buyers are typically the most removed from the client, and have the least understanding of their budget, history, objectives, targets demos, competitive pressures, market conditions, USP, etc.

As an example, when the agency for Oldsmobile planned their target demo for the new campaign “It’s not your fathers Oldsmobile”, the media planners specifically did not want to target the typical Oldsmobile buyer, the 45 plus crowd. Instead, they wanted to target the younger driver. However, when it came down to the media buyers, they bought the same programming on the same networks they have always bought, thereby not only missing their target demo with a new spunky campaign, but they also isolated their existing buyer with a message belittling to them. And where is Oldsmobile today?

The actual buy is far more critical than most agencies give credit.
Another example, is when a local agency/promotional company put together the radio buy for a Dodge dealers tent sale. They bought all of the stations in a particular radio group because they were able to get better rates and more remotes by concentrating their dollars with one group. However, they never thought to look at the station formats, their audience profiles, or the qualitative data to see if those stations even made sense for Dodge owners or prospects. In fact, half the stations did not.

• With the large agencies, all the media buying is typically concentrated in one office in one city. How much does someone in Denver or Chicago really know about Modesto California or Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania in terms of local media market conditions and opportunities? Unless of course they perform their due diligence and spend a few days in the local market to uncover the nuances, and meet face to face with the local media reps.

I can assure you, that most media buyers from large agencies do not travel to the local market.

• Agency Account Executives spend too much time and resources on “client relations” and not enough time on research, negotiations, tracking, testing, and working for the good of the clients advertising budget. By the way, who do you think really pays for all those lunches, golf outings, event tickets, and other gifts? You do of course. There is no free lunch.

Defining the Issues

In order to be successful in business, as well as in advertising and marketing, everything must be done for a very specific and objective reason, to reach a defined and measurable goal, and it must be the quickest, cheapest, or best way of reaching it possible.

Decisions that are made on a whim, off the cuff, or without proper research, contemplation, and analysis, will surely be inferior ones. Following is a step by step process used for making good advertising and marketing decisions. Although a lot more goes into than meets the eye, this is a great place to start.

1. The TOWS or SWOT analysis:

Before you make any advertising or marketing (positioning or branding) decisions, you need to clearly understand the arena in which you are playing. A good place to start is with the TOWS analysis. Conduct this analysis both internally and externally:

Threats: Internal or external issues that may pose a risk to short or long-term profitability, growth, sales, expansion, a new product launch, positioning, etc. May be a competitor, legislation, market conditions, technology limitations, human or capital resources, training, facility, location, etc.

Opportunities: Internal or external trends, opportunities, market conditions, unmet desires or needs in the market, new technology, departed competitors, new growth areas, new advertising mechanisms, resources, etc.

Weaknesses: Internal or external problems or barriers that may prevent you from capitalizing on the opportunity, goal, or objective.

Strengths: Internal or external advantages, systems, processes, technology, patents, extra-ordinary human capital, product line, etc., that may allow you to capitalize on an opportunity, or reach an objective.

2. GOAST Analysis:

Once you have defined the current threats, opportunities, weaknesses, and strengths existing within and outside of your organization, and you feel that you have a realistic perspective of what you are capable of, conduct a GOAST analysis.

Goals: What exactly do you want to accomplish in the short and long-term? And in what time frame? The more specifics and details you can commit to paper, the better.

Objectives: Who will be involved or affected? What will the outcome look like? How will you measure or define success? When will you start? Where will it take place? What will it cost, both in hard dollars, and in lost opportunity cost (what other options or opportunities will you have to forgo to achieve it)?

Audiences: Who will be targeted? Will it be customers, prospects, suppliers, vendors, wholesalers, retailers? Define your customers or prospects demographically, geographically or psychographically. What information and databases do you have, and what is available? What are the needs, wants, and desires of the target audience? What are their media consumption patterns? Who do they currently buy from and why?

Strategy: What is the overall philosophy, concept, process or approach? What is the game plan?

Tactics: What are the specific methods, tools and executable processes? What are the check lists, time tables, to do lists, and specific tasks that need to be done? What are the mechanics?

3. The Creative Brief:

O.K. Now that the concerns, issues, and goals have been defined, it’s time for the Creative Brief. This is where you will actually begin the process of defining the campaign, and the ads themselves. No ad should ever be made in a vacuum. Every word, every visual, every nuance must be mapped out and crafted as part of the bigger picture. And every ad must be part of a bigger campaign. A campaign is a series of similar ads, all of which support the central theme, message, and branding objectives.

Every ad must be integrated and consistent with every ad in every other medium. They must work in harmony, as a unified force, all supporting and building on eachother. Standards must be defined and adhered to in terms of graphics, copy, USP, theme, call to action, emotional appeal, and logical support. No ad is an island, or a single event.

Define the Subject: The product or service to be advertised (who, what, when, where, why, how).

The Personality: What are the attributes or characteristics of the product. What are the emotional and logical aspects that can be exploited? How does it make people feel or look? How does it affect their lives?

Current Market Situation: What are the market trends, conditions, competitive activity, advertising spending, strong holds, and opportunities?

The Consumer: Who are they? What do they know about the category? What are their demographic, psychographic, and geographic profiles, lifestyles, and purchase behavior?

Consumer Perceptions: How does the target consumer perceive the product, the competition, you? What do they perceive their options to be?

What Do We Want Consumers To Believe? About the product, the service, the company, the image, the cache?

Why Should They Believe It? What evidence do we have? What has been their previous experience? What USP do we offer? Can we explain our USP in a simple, logical and believable way?

Why Should They Care? Why is our benefit, offer or USP more relevant than our competitors?

What Should They Do? What action do we want them to take after seeing our communication and offer? What should they think? How should they feel?

Mandatory Information: What are the advertising mediums to be used and why, what are the time tables, budgets, specs, logo usage, graphic standards, response device, etc.

4. The Advertising Plan:

Next, put together your Advertising Plan:

Communication Goals: What do you want to say and to whom? What will the feeling and tempo be?

Positioning Statement: How will you position the product in the consumer’s mind? What category will you try to own or dominate? What words or images will be most effective in establishing the position?

Creative Strategy: What graphics, images, analogies, comparisons, visual support, sounds, colors, angles, settings, etc. will you use to project the proper feeling, position and message? How will you break through the clutter with a compelling, interesting, informative, and believable message that is succinct?

Media Strategy: Which mediums will you use to deliver your message? When will they be used, with how many gross impressions, over what time frame, and with what frequency?

What is your goal for TRPs, GRPs, reach and frequency? What is your goal for cost per point and cost per thousand by daypart, by medium, and by quarter? What are these goals based on?

Will you focus on reach or frequency? Will you buy a vertical or a horizontal schedule, or both? Why? Will you buy a consistent schedule or will you flight? Why? Will you buy early week or late week? Why?

Will you base your media mix decision on? Will it be audience duplication, unique audiences, geographic reach or audience reach, cost per impression? Why? Which mediums will be used for reach, and which for frequency? Which mediums will be used for the now buyer, and which for branding? What percentage of the budget will you use for each? Why? What are the unique strengths and attributes of each medium that you will use to base your decision on?

Is a media mix required at all? Will you be better off as a dominant force in a single medium?

What quantitative and objective data will you use to support and justify your media decisions, scheduling, and budget? What subjective and qualitative data will you use?

Once you feel comfortable with your answers, you’re ready to begin writing your ad copy, producing your ads, and buying your media schedule.

Who said advertising was easy.

Summary and Outline of Power Advertising Principles:

• Minimum of 3 frequency per week on Tv and/or radio, 52 weeks per year in good times and bad, for category dominance, and echoic memory recall.

• As sales and income increase, add one station on top of the other, don’t switch around, or you lose equity.

• Maintain consistency in the campaign style, look, USP, sound and theme. You can change copy, but maintain a thread of continuity. Motel 6 and Tom Bodet are an example of a 14 year long, extremely successful radio branding campaign.

• Sunday through Wednesday has less clutter, and can usually be bought for less.

• Don’t skimp on the quality of your strategy development, copy writing and ad production. Remember, your ads are an extension of your store, and they must reflect who you are, what you stand for, your USP, and the experience the customer can expect to have. Your ads must instill a feeling of confidence, professionalism, and convey a strong benefit to the customer, with emotional impact.

• Use newspapers for immediate results this weekend, with sale events and price and product. Don’t buy more than a full color 7x15 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Use classified liners for used cars Fri-Mon. Use a reverse block for your logo in classifieds. Advertise 20 to 35 used cars in classifieds at a time. Include your web address.

• Use TV and radio for branding. Remember, branding is not “name awareness,” or “institutional” advertising.

• Use radio for echoic branding, frequency, and a low CPM.

• TV should support the radio branding campaign.

• Use outdoor for support of your USP message and echoic imagery, and directional.

The true secret of advertising success, is to say the right thing to as many people as you can afford to reach over and over. Write good copy with emotional impact, using unusual words in unusual combinations. Use verbs, and speak directly to and about the listener. Place the listener in your ad. Advertise consistently and with strong frequency.

It’s not as important who you reach, as it is what you say. It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you, and how they feel about you.

A major university conducted a comprehensive advertising study with hundreds of businesses over a seven year period. In their 2,500 page report, they came to 3 conclusions. One of those conclusions was that two identical businesses, selling the same products, using the same stations, and with the same frequency, can have radically different results, based entirely on the advertising message.

McDonald’s became the world leader in fast food sales. And the thrust of their advertising, positioning and merchandising does not even target the decision maker, they target the influencers (kids).

The average listener on the average station will hear 1 out of every 7 spots aired M-Sun 6A-7P (5A-8P on the East or West Coast). Therefor, on the average station you need to run 21 spots (plus or minus 2) per week, M-Sun 6A-7P. This will deliver three-quarters of the stations weekly cume.

If you have a special event, run 1 spot every half-hour, beginning at the time the event starts, and then working backwards until you get to 6A, or until you run out of money. If you get to 6A and you still have money, buy overnights (12Mid-6A), and buy in the previous day, also working backwards. If you still have money left, buy another station in the same fashion. To really drive the success of the event, buy 1 spot per hour for 13 hours per day (6A-7P) for the 5 days prior to the event. And buy as many stations as you can afford. Negotiate bonus spots and :10 promo spots to run after 7P.

Every dealership thinks they have to target the male demo 25-49, or 25-54. While the female buyer and influencer is wide-open, as well as the kids. Kids have a big impact on the final decision of a family vehicle. Not only that, but men are typically more difficult and more expensive to reach. Own the minds of the women and the kids in your product category, and you will eventually own the market. But don’t give up on the men, they can be had easily enough in the classifieds and one or two radio stations.

Those who buy GRPs almost always reach too many people, with too little frequency.

The business owner is uniquely unqualified to see their own products, and advertising message objectively.

Branding:
• Use an emotional appeal with strong copy
• Involve the listener with the use of “you” and verbs
• Tell your unique story that benefits the listener
• Use the intrusive power of sound
• Build frequency, consistency, and continuity
• Use a USP and IMC
• Build value

Create an emotional message that can link (associative memory) to an established anchored memory, and then use frequency and consistency to embed the associative memory so deep in the mind that it becomes a recall cue.

The goal of branding, is to establish category dominance in the mind of the consumer way before they are in the market, so that when they think of your category, they immediately think of you, and in a positive way. These people become influencers before they ever become customers.

You must take a stand, and be known for something positive.

By running 3 good branding spots per day, 6A-7P, 52 weeks per year, you can dominate a category with nearly 66% of the entire cumulative audience of 2 or 3 radio stations. Which is a whole lot more profitable than making no real impact on the entire market with the typical shot-gun approach.

Win the heart, and the mind will follow.

Short-term sprint advertising (sale and event spike advertising) is a race for fools. It is a poor marketing strategy, because it trains your customers to wait for the next sale, which is always right around the corner. With a good branding campaign, they will automatically think of you in a positive way whenever they think of your category.

Newspaper is a sprint medium. It only reaches that 1% with a price & product message, who are actively in the market today. The other 99% of your ad dollars are completely wasted. You will see immediate results, but those results will not increase over time. There is no building process, no share of mind, and no lasting impact. Plus, you are not using the emotional, long-term memory impact of sound.

When you have to dump excess inventory, or you need to raise cash immediately, but don’t want to train your customers to wait for the next big sale event, run a 7x15 full color newspaper ad. Make the product, price, and time limit very large, and your company name very small.

The Yellow Pages is a service directory for those people who have no preference whatsoever over who they do business with. These are price shoppers.

Broadcast, with power of sound, wins the heart and minds of the public long before they are in the market for your product. These people are less price sensitive, they are more pre-disposed to buy from you, and will shop you first.

Don’t keep changing your target demo, media schedule, media mix, and message. Buy it properly from the beginning, for the right reasons, with a solid 3 weekly frequency, and a great campaign of similar spots, and leave it alone. You don’t build a foundation by laying 3 bricks down, removing 2, laying 3, and removing 2. You build by laying one brick after another, cementing them in, and laying another.

In building a brand name that will endure and generate profits year after year, there is no quick fix that has any permanency. Sale events are quick fixes, but do not build a brand name or permanent name awareness. They deliver everything they are capable of delivering instantly, and that’s it.

Advertising schedules should be proposed and considered according to their reach and frequency, and then, if all else is relatively equal, they should be compared against each other on their CPP or CPM.

An advertiser can dominate a single medium (newspaper, TV, radio) in a small to mid-size market with one million dollars per year ($83,300 per month). Each additional medium costs another million per year. However, depending on the market, a dealer should be able to spend $40-60k per month on print for price & product, and $70-75k on radio or TV for branding, plus $4-5k per month on a quarterly mailing to the customer database for service & sales retention.

When you truly understand what advertising is all about, you realize that advertising, marketing, PR, merchandising, sales training, follow-up, tracking, POP, signage, packaging, even the phone system, are all interrelated and interdependent.
The success of one, relies on the success of the other.

It’s called Integrated Marketing Communications, and every element, every customer contact point must be singing the same tune on key, or the song will sound terrible to the customer. And that my friend, is why people hate dealing with car dealers. Their song sounds awful. The ad says one thing, the sales person says another. The ad promises one experience, the customer gets an altogether different experience.

Writing Effective Branding Advertising Copy:

• Write in a poetic style, using unusual words in unusual ways.

• Powerful First Mental Image (FMI). Support copy builds on the FMI. Ending with a powerful Last Mental Image (LMI). Tie the FMI and LMI together, so that the LMI brings you back to the FMI, but with a unique perspective.

• Use words that have an emotional impact.

• Engage the imagination.

• Use verbs in the present tense (action words).

• Justify your claims with logic. Support your claims with facts and logic that make sense, and then guarantee them.

• Explain how you can save the listener time.

• Create and promote your USP. Your USP must be a true and valuable benefit to the listener.

• If you use a jingle, use only top-notch professional ones (there are very few), that support the copy and USP.

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC):

• The customers experience must reflect the promise and USP conveyed in your ads. This makes for a high CSI.

• Create value. The customer must feel that they received a good value for their money. Value is created when the anticipated price is lower than the actual price. The anticipated price is based on the level and quality of the service, the staff, merchandising, ambiance, displays, lighting, furnishings, product presentation, value-added etc.

• The first contact point to the last must be consistent in the quality of the experience.

• The advertising message and theme must be consistent across all mediums.

• The advertising, marketing, PR, merchandising, facility, staff, etc. must all work together to create consistency in the look, feel, and experience.

Other:

• Create your strategy and branding campaign such that you are in the game for the long-haul. Plan on a slow, but steady growth at first, and then a doubling of your business every year after the first year. Plant apples, not straw.

• Expect the “regression to the mean.” This is nothing to panic about.

• Invest in training.

• Always make room for the best people.

• Sell what people want to buy, and provide the level of service they expect. Which is the same level of service you want for yourself, and your family.

• When your shooting for the very top, plan for some failures, set-backs, cost overruns, and dead-ends. It happens to the best people, with the best laid plans.

• Study, analyze, and learn from past mistakes and successes. These are the predictors of the future more than anything else.

• Change in all things, markets and situations is predictable, so plan for it, embrace it, and go for the gold. There is no safety in “playing it safe.” As the world will move on without you.