ARE DAD'S SEEN AS THEY ARE OR AS THEY ARE PERCIEVED?

Last year, the diaper brand Huggies challenged the capabilities of dad's in handling the needs of their babies when they ran a TV ad campaign called the “Dad test”.  In this commercial, five Moms left their babies with their husbands for five days. Huggies called this ‘The Ultimate Test’ and they showed these Dads in various states of confusion while their wives were out having some well-deserved girl time.

After the ad hit the airwaves, hundreds of stay-at-home Dads went on social media to express their disappointment in the ad and to share the many ways they not only take care of their newborns, but their entire family as well.  After the Twitter/Facebook onslaught and additional online petitions, Huggies pulled the ad. 

There are many marketing questions to ask from this PR debacle.  But could it be that Huggies was actually using this campaign to target Dad's and their decision making role when it comes to buying power in the household?

A look at the most recent census and additional data shows that Dad's have evolved over the decades.  The Dad of the 50's came home from a long day at work, and accepted a drink from his wife while he sat in his chair.  She took care of the rest.  The cooking, the cleaning and the household decision making.  In this century, many things have changed - most importantly the role Dad plays in the decision making and purchasing. Dads are spending more time at home with the kids and in 1/3 of the homes in this country, Dads are the primary caregiver. Whether this was a result of job loss from the economy or the sociological shifts which are occurring, it’s pretty clear that Dads are a new target audience for childcare products, and any additional company that is marketing their products for the house and household.

However, many marketing agencies and companies still subscribe to a number of Dad myths:.

·         Dads don’t shop - Research shows that men are not only taking care of the kids but doing other ‘housewife duties’ including the weekly shopping, managing the budget and taking care of the house.  

·         Dads don’t do brand research - Many agencies still believe that ‘if it's not about cars, sports or games, men don’t really care.’ Today’s fathers use of online research for household and childcare related products are higher than men in a previous generation. The research suggests having kids affects how both parents make purchases, not just Moms.

·           Dads are just the babysitter for the day - Most consumer brands continue to target Moms and show Dads as a bumbling follower in the house. Research, and common sense, confirms that this is just not true.  (Inner Socialmedia-ness Februay 20, 2013)

So how does this information help you as the business owner?  If you want to grow your business and your revenues, you need to market to Dad.  You need to reach him where he is, both at home with the kids and also out enjoying sports and the recreation activities that they enjoy.  You need to have the conversation with them and let them know that they have a very important voice.  You want them to have access to as much information about your product and the easy ability to find it and purchase it.

And you know what?  1010XL knows how to speak to Dad.  In Jacksonville, we are the radio station that Dad is listening to.  We have the personalities that Dad has a relationship with and can be an influential part of his household decision making. 

Want to learn more about how to reach Dad?  Send me an email and I can share with you some great examples and show how you can start conversing with Dad's.  I'm at howardw@1010xl.com.

A key question for any business - Why should you advertise?

You've succeeded.  You have broken out of the rat race and launched your own business.  Got the store front, found a good location, developing a nice client base.  Things are moving in the right direction. 

Now, could they be moving faster?  How can a small business keep growing?  How can I let people know how great the business is and how much I can improve their life/provide them with great service/sell them the product they are looking for/bigger/better/cheaper.

The way to do that is to advertise.  Now many businesses will be afraid to do this, primarily because they have not budgeted for the expense.  That is one of the first mistakes that a business will make.  First, it is not an expense, it is an investment into their business.  Second, you absolutely need to be budgeting a percentage of revenues each month into a marketing fund.  Whether you are printing signs for the store, flyers to pass around the neighborhood or buying a media program from a radio station or newspaper, the funds to cover those costs need to be available and need to be documented and tracked.  You will need to make the correct decisions on what to spend those dollars on, and that is a challenge and a question for another blog post, but it will be important to make this investment to grow your business.

So back to the question, why?  well, there are many strong answers.

Advertising will allow you to reach new customers.  Some may not know your business exists.  Some may have just moved into the area.  Others may have changed their lifestyle and habits and may now have an interest in what you are selling. 

Advertising will allow you to remain in the mind of the shopper during their buying process. While many people make an instant decision, others may postpone their decision to buy for many reasons.  They may look at different stores for the same product.  They may analyze price, quality and shopping experience.  Your marketing message must continue to be top of mind over your competition.

Advertising allows you to remain connected to current customers. Consumers are not as loyal to one store or brand as they once were.  Advertising will allow you to keep pace with both your local and national/big box competition.  

Advertising pays off over a long period. When you are consistent with your advertising campaigns, you have an advantage over your competition when they cut back or cancel advertising. Advertisers who maintain or expand their ad investment over a five year period see their sales increase an average of 100%. Companies who cut advertising over the same period, see average sales decreases of 45%. Advertising is definitely an investment and not an expense.

Advertising allows you to make more sales. Businesses that succeed are usually strong, steady advertisers. The key to creating a great return on an advertising investment is consistency, which drives sales.  

Advertising will create store traffic, which is necessary to grow your customer base and increase revenues.   The more traffic you create the better chance of selling more than what specifically attracted a customer to you. The National Retail Merchants Association states that for every 100 items a shopper plans to buy, they make 30 unanticipated "in the store" purchases.

Advertising allows you to keep pace with your competition, who is also advertising. There are only so many consumers in the market who are ready to buy at any given moment in time. You need to advertise to keep regular customers engaged and to counterbalance competitive advertising. Consistent advertising allows you to maintain or grow your share of customers rather than potentially losing them to more aggressive competitors. If you're not advertising, you're not in the game.

Advertising is a key component to a successful business.  Whether in Jacksonville, or in any other market, you need to make sure you are getting your message out to the public.  You also need to make sure it is the right message.  The integrated marketing experts at 1010XL can help you tailor your message so that your offering or branding will be correctly heard by our engaged listening audience.  And we can do that in many different ways. 

If you have additional questions on why you should be advertising and/or how 1010XL can help you drive more awareness, more customers and, ultimately, more sales, please email me at howardw@1010xl.com.

Sports Marketing and the Role Radio Plays in Engaging the Sports Fan

Sports Marketing is a form of marketing in which brands use sports entities to connect with both a broad and/or targeted group of consumers. Countless companies and/or brands have used sports marketing to build positive brand awareness, support retail and sales promotions and gain an overall advantage in their market. Common examples of sports marketing include athlete endorsements, event marketing and in-stadium advertising.  However, the key ingredient is that these companies are connecting themselves to activity and/or programming that are drawing participation.

In Jacksonville, there are some obvious sports marketing partners, which include the Jacksonville Jaguars and the Jacksonville Suns.  Also included in the professional sports team ranks are the Arena Football League's Jacksonville Sharks, the American Basketball Associations Jacksonville Giants and the Jacksonville Axemen rugby team.  Purchasing signage, creating in game promotions and placing  an ad in their game programs are all methods of sports marketing.

Another way, perhaps even more effective, is to advertise and participate in promotions on a sports radio station.  Sports radio is an interactive source for news and discussion about local and national sports teams and athletes.  In a local market, such as Jacksonville, the conversation all week will be about the local football team - what happened last week, and breaking news about injuries and analysis of the approaching game.  When you have local sports experts who discuss and debate the news issues, take calls from the listening audience and tweet out their additional observations, they become the opinions that the listening audience, the sports fan audience, wants to hear.  They also become the best endorsers of a product.  Their live commercials will bring a boost to a company's marketing campaign.  1010XL has a majority of our commercials voiced by our talent and producers.  Some are even voiced by our sales staff.  This also helps connect the advertiser with the station.  And from the results our advertisers have been receiving, it confirms the financial strength of our listening audience and the influence our stations programming and advertising has on them.

In his Talkers Magazine article of October 20, 2011, Michael Harrison shared the following about sports talk radio.

• Sports talk audiences are predominantly male –– 77%.

• Sports talk audiences are tremendously emotionally engaged and connected to their stations and hosts.  This alone makes them a qualitative goldmine.

• Sports talk radio audiences are, to a significant extent, consumers of ESPN’s television and online platforms.  They are also ardent local newspaper readers –– far more so than the listeners of news/talk stations.  Approximately 20% say that their favorite non-radio source of sports information is their local newspaper.

• Sports talk listeners love baseball, but their favorite sport is football.

• Sports talk listeners are culturally (and ethnically) diverse.  Caucasians constitute only slightly more than half the sports talk audience (51%) followed by African Americans (26%) and Hispanics (19%) making it one of the most multi-ethnic/racial buys in radio.  This is a crucially important aspect/asset of the sports talk audience that for the most part is lost on advertising agencies and radio sales departments which are still glued to selling demos as opposed to mindsets.  The ethnic diversity of sports talk radio’s listenership is a rare and valuable quality of the format that sets it apart from the rest of radio!

• Sports talk listeners are economically diverse.  The curve covering low, middle and high income segments is notably smooth.

• Almost one in five sports talk listeners cite news/talk radio as their second favorite radio format (followed by a tie between country and hip hop/R&B) –– however sports talk skews significantly younger than news/talk as a spoken-word format.

• Sixty-six per cent of the sports talk audience over 18 has attended, are attending, or have graduated from college.

His conclusion is that sports talk radio appeals to vibrant, involved radio listeners and is a powerful tool for advertisers to reach men of a variety of demographics, lifestyles and cultures.

According to Arbitron, the company that provides the ratings and additional statistical data to the radio industry,  41.8 million people listen to sports radio each week.  Arbitron provides a profile of sports radio listeners as follows:  They are 88% male and 12% female.  48% have annual incomes $75,000 and higher.  34% have some college and 48% are college graduates.  They have the male age breakout as

• Ages 12-to-34: 21%

• Ages 35-to-44: 24%

• Ages 45-to-49: 11%

• Ages 50-to-55: 9%

• Age 55 and older: 21%

Sports Business Journal estimates annual sports radio advertising revenues at

$2.2 billion.  Although audiences are dwarfed by market-leading rock stations, broadcast analysts say sports stations are a good vehicle for products aimed at the male audience. According to Interep, a radio sales representation firm, more than 65% of sports-radio listeners are men; 70% are ages 25-to-54. These listeners are 81% more likely than all radio listeners to be college graduates; 67% are more likely to have household income over $75,000.

Mark Fratrik, Vice President of the BIA Financial Network states that “Sports radio stations do better in revenue share than they do in audience share. You think that a station that gets 10% of the audience would get 10% of a market’s revenue. But sports talk does better than that because of the target demographic of 18-to-34 year-old males.  When you’re that young, you don’t really consume that much media, so the media you do consume is very attractive.”  (Sports Marketing 2011).

Radio is a very powerful medium.  An effective and engaging sports radio station is the perfect sports marketing partner and will allow you many opportunities to reach and interact with your prospects that you will not find in other entities.  Let 1010XL show you how you can drive sales, branding and awareness through our promotional and advertising opportunities.  We are always looking for great companies to join our team.  Are you next?