The Media Professional

Revenue in newspapers is down. Circulation in newspapers is down. Stock prices in newspapers are down. Concern about the future of newspapers is the only thing that is up.

And yet…newspapers are the last of the great, mass media. The story needs to be told.

Look first at newspapers’ two historic competitors. Television gets more fragmented each year with hundreds of outlets now available to most people. Broadcast radio may soon be eclipsed by subscription satellite services to vehicles where most people traditionally listen. Radio and television are mere shadows of their former selves.

But the local newspaper is still ordered and read in more than thirty percent of the homes in most markets.

Are the numbers down? Yes, certainly. Is newspaper out? Certainly not. At this particular time, the daily newspaper is the only medium left that can deliver a high percentage of the homes in a market at a reasonable cost.

It’s the last of the great, mass media.

If you have examined advertising media lately, you have heard a lot about how targeted particular media are. “Our (Magazine, website, channel, bathroom stall message board, etc.) reaches (Name the market) more effectively than anyone else.” Or, “Only people who want to buy your product are reading your message. There is no wasted coverage.”

Such claims are coded messages that their reach is shallow. Many media have so few readers or viewers or visitors that they have to fall back on the old target market argument. It’s really all they have.

Newspapers, on the other hand, are still a mass medium. All of those homes that get the newspaper represent potential customers for whatever is being sold, even if no-one in the home knew the product even existed before the paper landed on the driveway this morning.

The power to influence buying decisions is great, but the power to influence people beyond the limited cluster of folks who have already decided to buy is awesome.

And only a mass medium like newspaper can still do that.

That’s the story that needs to be told. Newspapers are the last of the great, mass media.

Tags: Advertising, Broadcast by admin
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Making political hay from the difficulties caused by Vioxx and other drugs, Congresswomen Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut, chairwoman of the Drug Administration Appropriations Subcommittee, and Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri introduced the Responsibility in Drug and Device Advertising Act of 2008 (H.R. 6151), to the House of Representatives in May, 2008.

Their own press release, dated May 22, 2008, explains what they want the act to do:

1.Establish a three year moratorium on direct-to-consumer ads for new medicines with a possible waiver if the product is proven to to be of affirmative value to public health;
2.Provide authority to require corrective materials to be distributed if drug companies violate the advertising moratorium;
3.Include strong civil penalties that apply to all violations of the ad provisions or other requirements of the Act;
4.Require the advertising to prominently display information about the potential drug and device side effects;
5.Call for a public education campaign on the risks of certain drugs.

This ill-conceived plan deprives pharmaceutical companies of the chance for a reasonable return on their research and development investments.

Such moratoria, while cynically claimed to protect the public, shorten the period of time that innovative medical products can be marketed before manufacturers lose patent protection.

They allow competitors three years to create products to compete with the innovators.

They keep the innovator from establishing market dominance with a product even if the innovation itself creates the category.

How will American manufacturers be able to continue to lead the world in innovation and development if politicians are allowed to interfere in the marketplace?

Let’s suggest a moratorium on all advertising by incumbent politicians until they prove themselves not to be dangerous to the body politic.

J.David Knepper Audio Version

Tags: Advertising, Agency, Broadcast, Major Media, New Media by admin
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The principles of advertising have never changed.

New media explode onto the scene with amazing regularity. New schemes promise new ways of manipulating the behavior of groups. New ideas demand their places in media budgets.

But there are certain constants that must be considered. Groups are made up of individuals. Individuals are not defined by the groups they populate. Individuals act as individuals for individual reasons. They need to be convinced, not manipulated.

Proper advertising convinces individuals reached through a mass medium. The message should outlast the medium.

Why? Because…

…the principles of advertising have never changed.

J.David Knepper

Audio version

Tags: Advertising, Agency, Broadcast, Major Media, New Media by admin
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Is there anything in media sales for which to aspire anymore?

In olden times, a person joined the sales staff of a company and looked forward to a long and fruitful association. Older sales professionals, also known as those who had made the cut time after time, were generally paid more than folks entering the workforce. Young people working with seasoned veterans would learn about the business and see the rewards of working hard and remaining loyal to the company.

That was then. This is now.

Today it’s fashionable for management to design compensation schemes that ‘level the playing field’ or ‘are performance driven’. The problem is that the level playing field is on the lowest level and the performance measured is usually short term.

Hence, a youngster entering the workplace often earns more money than seasoned professionals. Worse than that, the compensation plans actually punish experience and productivity.

For example, goal trending is currently a popular compensation feature. However, it punishes success with higher goals both in the near future and again at the anniversary of the success.

Longevity, client building and strategic planning are clearly not rewarded under many modern sales compensation plans.

Instead, short-sighted management (SSM) will look for schemes that will boost revenue, usually with no consideration of the strategic ramifications.

Many of the ‘new concepts’ in newspaper and television advertising are nothing more than elaborate rate concessions. SSM is seduced by consultants who promise great increases in revenue if only SSM will,

1.Give the consultants control of their sales force for a period of time;
2.Follow the consultants’ instructions to the letter;
3.Give the consultants extensive client contact information;
4.Agree to take responsibility if the plan fails to produce as promised, and, finally,
5.Give the consultants dramatically lower rates than are otherwise available.

The plans often seem to work. Contracts are signed. Revenue projections are made.

Project completed, the consultants high five the SSM and leave for home with pockets stuffed with money. SSM report to their superiors that they have managed yet another successful revenue generating program.

What is overlooked is that for the time that the sales people were working the consultants’ plan, they were not serving their clients and some of those clients became clients of competitors.

Sales people, told to follow the consultants’ instructions to the letter, were often forced to work counter intuitively and against their clients’ interests.

The extraordinarily low rates sold under such plans become the basis for all future negotiations with clients who hear about them.

And it is very hard indeed to show clients such plans without their buying them with money they would have spent anyway.

These unmeasured costs can be huge.

In short, when management chooses to implement a special program offered by outside consultants, the program should be analyzed very carefully to prevent its being misused.

Look at your last project. Can you honestly measure how much revenue was switched from other products and plans? Can you say that you got more business from a consultants’ plan than you would have generated by simply lowering your rates? Can you prove that your clients were truly well-served by the plan? Or that salespeople didn’t learn bad practices from their time on the project?

There are costs to making decisions in business.

The costs that aren’t readily apparent can be the highest costs of all.

For a view of this matter from an executive’s perspective see the article Consultants Hidden Costs.

J.David Knepper
Audio version

Tags: Advertising, Amendment Five, Broadcast, Major Media, New Media by admin
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Small business owners need to determine how they want their their advertising handled; like a casual Lotto ticket purchase or a crucial business investment.

Consider this. So many times, small businessmen and women decide to ‘try’ advertising in the newspaper. They want to see if it works. They want to put a little bit into the effort to see if they get enough bang for the buck. They don’t have money to waste like big companies.

Here is the truth backed up by hundreds of years of experience by a mature industry.

If done properly, advertising in the newspaper will bring a business the customers it needs. If done properly, advertising in the newspaper will show a large return on investment. If done properly, advertising in the newspaper will make all other advertising efforts more successful.

Much advertising by small business follows a pattern of buying an ad in the paper and trying to determine whether there are enough customers coming through the door to pay for it. If there is an immediate response to the ad, everything is fine. The effort continues until the first downturn in sales.

At that point, the advertiser becomes vulnerable to the first media person to step through the door with an offer of something else.

That medium is tried. Again, if it is perceived as immediately successful, it replaces the former effort. And again, the effort is continued until the next downturn in sales when it is replaced by yet another, according to its sales rep, sure fire advertising medium.

This cycle is repeated endlessly in many small businesses. But when the business finally closes, the owner returns to the newspaper to advertise his going out of business sale.

His approach is much like buying a Lotto ticket. He gets immediate feedback as to whether the investment produced a return. As long as he’s winning, everything is fine with buying Lotto tickets.

But if he loses money at Lotto for a while, what do he do? He switches. He tries scratch-offs or on-line betting or visits the casinos. He tries different things to find out what works.

Here’s a secret. The big companies didn’t get that way by wasting advertising dollars on every exciting new concept that is presented to them. They stick with mainline media for one reason only. They sell product. They know that the message is more important than the medium that delivers it.

Pick an established medium. Craft an excellent message or pay someone to craft an excellent message. Run it as much as you can afford to run it.

That way, you’re treating your advertising like an investment and can expect a return on your investment that will last for years.

J.David Knepper
Audio version

Tags: Advertising, Agency, Amendment Five, Broadcast, Major Media, New Media by admin
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I met Earl Welde when I was hired into a sales position at WFLA-TV in 1975. My first office was in St. Petersburg where Earl was the Manager. Earl was a good man who could tell jokes better than almost anyone I’ve ever known.

In the late 1960’s, Earl was 4th District Governor of the American Advertising Federation. So, when 4th District had a meeting in St. Petersburg in early May of this year, I called Earl to wish him well.

Colleen told me that he had passed away last December.

Anyone who knew Father Welde knows that the world is a little less funny without him.

He was without a doubt…

J.David Knepper Audio version

Tags: Advertising, Amendment Five, Broadcast, New Media by admin
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Many years ago, when computerized traffic was just being introduced to the broadcast industry, wise broadcast executives realized that strict inventory control was an essential element of client service.

Any advertiser should be able to buy spot in a particular program up until the week of the log.

Furthermore, if a client were willing to commit to a time slot when inventory was wide open, he would enjoy a more favorable rate.

Rates for a program or time period were a function of inventory and time left until log closing.

If availabilities dried up before that time, inventory was considered mismanaged. If positions went unsold, inventory was considered mismanaged.

Today, stations will claim to be sold out months in advance. Is this evidence of a strong demand for that particular station?

Or is it inventory mismanagement?

Tags: Broadcast by admin
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