Modern Marvels

I was sitting at the breakfast table with my wife Lauren this morning and we were talking about the events of the past 24 hours.

We were watching Facebook yesterday as our many Iowa friends were posting pictures of the violent weather. Fierce storms rolled through dumping lots of rain, downing trees and perhaps even killing a person in Cedar Rapids.

I got a call from my clients in Cedar Rapids asking me if I could do them a favor. They were running on generator power which only keeps the on-air studios up and running. Since I have a production studio in our home, they asked if I could voice and send them a couple of things that needed to be done pronto. Of course I said yes. The copy was emailed an hour later and the finished product was emailed back to them a half-hour after that.

It turns out the announcement was for one of the electric companies instructing folks what to do if they come across downed power lines and damaged transformers. Julie, the general manager there (she posted the picture below) said they were thinking about people who still had power who could produce the announcement. She suggested me, despite the fact I'm a thousand miles away in Massachusetts. It doesn't matter anymore.

The KZIA Studios

As Lauren and I talked this morning we couldn't help but remember the "old" days. What we did yesterday would have been impossible 20 years ago. I can do more in my home studio with a very fast PC, Adobe Audition, Audacity and several video editing programs, than I could do in any million-dollar radio studio I ever worked in.

The situation also pointed out how quickly we can move data from one place to another. I remember when we had to get something on-air right away from a remote location, the physical magnetic tape had to be hand carried either via FEDEX or a local delivery service. Now it's a touch of the button.

I'm glad we can do all those things now and I'm not nostalgic for the old days. I was never very good with a razor blade and editing tape, but I'm really good with a mouse and keyboard. I'm just amazed at how far it's all come in such a short time and glad I'm part of the evolution. Can't wait to see where it goes next!

To my friends in Cedar Rapids I wish for no more rain for a while, plenty of sun and knee high by the Fourth of July.

Z102.9 and KGYM Advertising Animals: Hey Cable, At Least a Band was Playing When the Ti...

Z102.9 and KGYM Advertising Animals: Hey Cable, At Least a Band was Playing When the Ti...: By Glen Gardner /CEO Glen Gardner and Associates If you are considering sinking a lot of money into cable TV, consider this; A recent...

Z102.9 and KGYM Advertising Animals: Time to Tell Your Story

Z102.9 and KGYM Advertising Animals: Time to Tell Your Story: By Glen Gardner / CEO Glen Gardner and Associates   How long should my marketing message be? That is a question that I get asked a lot ...

Z102.9 and KGYM Advertising Animals: Getting the Word Out

Z102.9 and KGYM Advertising Animals: Getting the Word Out: By Glen Gardner /marketing consultant Back in the day there was limited choice when it came to putting your message in front of a potenti...

For Pete’s Sake, Stop With the Phone Numbers Already

If you are making great use of a phone number as a “call to action” in your marketing, you should probably rethink that. We just don’t use and remember phone numbers the way we used to. Fact of the matter is our phones, which are smart, do it for us.

I was driving by an electronic billboard today and what I saw really made me laugh and then I thought about all the money this business was wasting and it almost made me cry. On this electronic billboard was a huge picture of a rather average looking man with a long phone number under it. Perhaps the name of the business was on the previous panel, but I was only exposed to the pixelated picture and the 800 number, which of course I can’t remember.

As a matter of fact, I can’t even remember my wife’s phone number anymore. The only phone number I can remember is the one we had when I was a kid. Technology has made “remembering” phone numbers irrelevant. All I have to do now is say “Lauren” and the phone connects me to my wife via voice or text. Putting a phone number on a billboard, in a radio commercial or on TV is becoming a very difficult ask. Not only do we not remember a number, we don’t even remember how to memorize it. Asking someone to remember a phone number is akin to outfitting them with a bear skin and a stone knife in the year 2013AD.

I have become so impatient that the mere act of having to “dial” a phone number feels like Hannibal’s trek across the Alps. I get past the area code and start forgetting where I need to go next. Can’t I just click on something or tell the phone to do something? What a drag.

Even in print phone numbers are a tough sell. That’s why you see more layouts that feature elements that can simply be scanned with a smart phone or tablet. The smart marketers know that phone numbers as a recall item are nearly cooked. The world has moved on, get over it.

In the electronic media and billboards a much better call to action is an easy-to-remember URL. A good case in point would be the board with the average looking guy. Instead of 1-800-xxx-xxxx, it should have be www.averagelookingguy.com, I would remember that and out of morbid curiosity I probably would have checked it out.

Marketing Lesson of the Election: You Can’t Polish a Turd

Billions of dollars were spent on marketing various candidates over the past several months aimed at trying to convince voters. Now that the dust has settled, the question of how effective those billions of dollars were looms large. More than $1.5-billion was spent by outside groups on both sides trying to influence the outcome of the vote. That doesn’t count the billions spent by the campaigns. Most of that money was spent on television advertising.

So, what did all that spending accomplish? Before the election the Democrats held the White House and Senate. Republicans held the House of Representatives. Billions later the Democrats still hold the White House and Senate. Republicans control the House. I think you get the message. Sometimes we get so involved in polls, demographics, psychographics and the like, that we forget to look at the end result. Nothing really changed!

Much of the money spent on television ads was wasted because some of the basic rules of marketing were violated and some assumptions were made that just aren’t true.

Bad assumption: If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it. In this campaign many lies were repeated very often on all sides. So often and so obvious that virtually no one believed them by the time they voted. This bad assumption is proven wrong every day when you look at your email. Have you contacted that poor soul in Nigeria that just needs a couple of thousand to access a million that you can have half of? Have you given the Euro Lotto your Social Security number because you’re the grand prize winner? Those lies are repeated all the time, but they just aren’t believable like many of the ads you’ve been subjected to. You just hit the delete button in your head.

Just as is the case with the email scams, these political marketers believe they can steal votes by repeating lies. Just show the opponent in black-and-white and have them moving in slow motion while an ominous voice tells you that person is responsible for everything from an early winter to the NFL ref lockout. DELETE!

Broken marketing rule: Make sure the product is solid before you spend money. Herein lays a very basic marketing principle that played big in the failure of all those billions of dollars. In the case of this election, the product is the candidate. If your product isn’t ready for prime-time, you can save the money. If you look at many of the candidates who lost on both sides, the common thread is they were flawed. Spend all the money you want, but the majority of people won’t buy a flawed product.

The lesson for anyone selling anything is; don’t lie and don’t spend a cent until your product is right.

As an old marketing professor of mine once said, “You can’t polish a turd. It’s still a turd.”

The Prime Directives of Marketing Apply to All

Many times when I’m engaged by a company, it’s to help figure out why a campaign isn't working. In many cases it’s because a company or organization broke a basic marketing rule. One of those basic rules is never over-promise and under-deliver. It’s always far better to under-promise and over-deliver.

This rule has played out in a big way for Apple over the past several weeks, and it proves that even a marketing and engineering dynamo like Apple can pay a huge price when they stumble. The Guardian estimates the latest debacles involving Apple mapping technology and problems with Siri voice recognition have cost the company $30 billion in stock valuation.

Prior to the release of the iPhone 5, the Guardian reported Apple set the bar very high with the words they used to promote the new technology. “Designed by Apple from the ground up, maps gives you turn-by-turn spoken directions, interactive 3D views, and the stunning flyover feature. All of which may just make this app the most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.”

The experience of many Apple customers has been far from the “most beautiful, powerful mapping service ever.” There have been widespread reports of glitches and mistakes that have frustrated Apple users accustomed to the buttoned-down service from Google that used to be part of the Apple offerings for iPhone.

Apple executives were quick to acknowledge the mistakes and apologize, but much of the damage had already been done and they could offer no real immediate fix. They suggested using the phone’s web browser to access Google Maps, but that doesn’t offer turn-by-turn voice nav.

The lesson to be learned is never over-promise and under-deliver. Remember, even a company as big as Apple feels the bite when they ignore the marketing basics. It could be a fatal mistake for smaller companies with fewer resources.