One thing makes people resistant to change…and that is fear!   Fear is the most debilitating emotion of all and is the number one cause of secondary emotions, including anger. The only feeling strong enough to cause real change is pain. When pain becomes heavier and greater than the fear, then real change is imminent. The question of course is, where do we fall on this line of fear versus pain? Think of the poor frog sitting in the pot of water. If you start to boil the water slowly, the frog will not jump out; despite the fact, that he will die as the water boils. That’s because the need to change his environment has created no perception of pain. Of course, if you threw him into boiling water he would immediately try to jump out. (Please, trust me on this and do not be cruel by experimenting with a real frog!)

Did you know that if you have a herd of cows in a barren pasture with no water, and another green pasture with fresh water within sight; divided only by a fence and a three foot open gate, the cows will not go thru the opening?  The fear of change is greater than their need. Only when the rancher forces them through the gate, will the pain become great enough to move. The point of course is, it usually takes some intervention that creates pain to affect any change.

The same is true for people who suffer from substance abuse, or other addictions. They can see the better life on the other side, but the fear prevents any change until their personal pain is greater than their fear. How does all this relate to our industry? The news reports everyday suggest a definitive need for immediate change. The trickle down effect can become a gusher if we don’t intercede and consider some real change. Change for ourselves and change for our customers.

None of this is related to your political affiliation. This change in how we do things can help reinvent ourselves in a new emerging type of economy. The growth of the internet is part of this new economy.  For example, it is often less expensive to buy a product online than it is from a a traditional retailer? The online store has much lower operating costs including no cost for retail space. Less pain! The consumer often finds it more attractive than having to get in their car and drive to a store, when gas prices are on the rise again… Less pain!

One thing we can do, is help our traditional retail advertisers relieve the pain of their consumers, in an attempt to change behavior. How about creating programs and co-sponsorships for free or discounted gas cards to shoppers at an area Mall, with $5 or $10 in free gas for every $100 purchase. You handle the marketing and advertising on air while they pick up the costs and distribute them at the POP.  This type of program incentives your listeners, increases traffic for your advertisers, and in turn improves your relationships on both levels…AND it’s delivered on a totally interactive platform!

Remember when Jeep was offering gas at a reduced price for three years when you bought a Jeep! That’s a perfect example of easing pain that could otherwise cause the customer to choose someone else. We created change ourselves at PMW. We now offer the Digital Music Test Online to eliminate the pain of our clients when pricing becomes the #1 issue.  This change also helps prevent our own serious pain of less business. We now offer a method of digital dial testing with equal reliability (and several advantages) but without the need for high priced venues, travel costs, and high incentives for respondents. Less pain!

The truth for us though is that many are resistant to change simply because that change represents pain that is not yet great enough to force them to look for new alternatives. There is a responsibility that lies within us all, everyday. We all need to be reinventing ourselves in ways that not only ease our own pain but trickles down to our consumers and advertisers on an interactive level.

Radio will always be a place people go for entertainment, information, and relief. This need for change could be the perfect time to use to some advantage, and in turn create an even stronger relationship with our listeners and advertisers on every level. We can all prevent the extreme pain that our parents and grandparents experienced 80 years ago, but it will take some real change. Let’s all be prepared to help move ourselves and our clients through the gate before the pain becomes too great. How great is your pain?

Robert Lawrence

Create Your Badge

If you’re reading this you’re already interactive in at least a few ways. You’re obviously, on the web and chances are you have accounts you use everyday on Facebook and Twitter. Chances are you know all about tiny urls and use sites such as hootsuite.com to shrink your links. Chances are you text and email all day long; and you IM people on AIM, Google, or Yahoo, BUT chances are… your station is not nearly as wired and interactive as you!

The question isn’t whether you have a good website or whether you have a facebook page and twitter the station. The question is are you creating true portals of entertainment and information via all available interactive means of transportation? It begins on air; using that brand to expand the relationships, promises, and experiences you created between you and your consumers.

It can no longer be an after thought. The plane is at full throttle and the end of the runway is approaching! The web and every social activity on it should become part of your culture and take on the brands you have worked so hard to create. To go a step further, it should expand the brand in an effort to become the “home page” for your consumer. Notice I am not saying “listeners”, rather I am using the word “consumers” since your brand extends well beyond your radio station when you are fully, and successfully Interactive.

In the research PMW does everyday, upwards of 80% of 25-49 year old radio listeners access the internet at least once a day, yet less than 10% of them visit radio station websites on a daily basis. (This even includes those stations which stream audio).  There is simply little perceived value and benefit and in the end, no virtual portal to the information they seek and desire.

There have been several companies out there who have begun this type of initiative. One that jumps out is a smaller group but nonetheless, one with great vision and insight into the importance of creating compelling content that not only integrates with their 40 plus stations, but has begun focusing on developing these portals of interaction, and even better, knows how to monetize their efforts.

Midwest Communications out of Green Bay, Wisconsin has an incredible team of people working on this process. It is indeed a process – but one that has become essential. Michael Wright and Lori Lewis have been leading the charge in this area. This year, they began to lay the foundation of an infrastructure for the future.

The goal is to bring people to their own sites instead of TMZ, AOL, MSN, People, or whatever! They know that their consumers come to them everyday for music, news, information, and entertainment. They also know the time has come to create these informational portals on an interactive level that go well beyond just radio. Then, like newspapers which are moving online, and most every site you go to for this type of information, it can be fully monetized and become a very profitable stream of revenue. Sometimes many tend to forget, they aren’t working for radio companies… They are working for media companies.

So, what do you need? First, you need to share the vision of those like Michael Wright and Lori Lewis to help bring it to fruition. Then you need a strong webmaster, content manager, and sales manager, along with programmers and brand managers who will begin to integrate it into the process on air.  My advice? Jump on the train…before it leaves without you.

Robert Lawrence

Create Your Badge

From marketresearchworld.net…

Firms That Build Brand Value Will Be Recession Survivors
Written by Millward Brown

A change is occcuring in attitudes towards branding and marketing.
The traditional view — that brands are about logos and packaging, and only meaningful for consumer products’ businesses — is on its way out.

As recently as 1980, the majority of corporate value was tangible value — contained in property, plant and equipment. Today, intangible assets account for over 70 percent of the value of the Fortune 500. Of the intangibles, brand is one of the most valuable.

These economic facts have generated recognition among the accounting and finance community that brand is a valuable business asset of a corporation.
A brand should be treated like any other asset.  This means it must be invested in, put to work to generate value and held accountable for the results.

This article explores the:

Reasons for valuing brands.

Different valuation methods available and the components needed for a robust brand valuation.

Results of the Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2009 (1) Strategies used by some of the world’s most successful brands to build their brand value.

Click here to read the full article by Joanna Seddon, Global Head of Millward Brown Optimor.

This article appeared in the May edition of Admap.

Robert Lawrence

Create Your Badge