"No One Listens to Your Station"

    • 8 posts
    May 14, 2009 1:19 PM PDT
    I had been working on the owner/manager of a medium-sized supermarket for what seemed like forever and he used virtually every stall or argument in the book. Finally, he looked me staight in the face and said "Bruce, admit it - no one listens to your station." We're a small market - and not rated. So.... I looked him straight back and said "Marcel, you're right. I hate to admit it, but you're right. No one listens to us.....(pause for effect)....that's why what I'm going to do tomorrow morning isn't going to matter." "Tomorrow morning, at 8 o'clock, I'm going to take 30 seconds and tell everyone that you're selling T-bone steaks for 15 cents a pound - limit of five steaks per customer." "YOU CAN'T DO THAT" he hollered. "Sure I can," I replied "and I'll pay the difference on the first fifty steaks myself - maybe the first hundred if the boss will go for it. It shouldn't take more than that. After all, no one listens to us" Once he stopped laughing, he agreed to a six month campaign - which turned into several great years until he sold the place. On a regular basis, he'd ask if anyone was listening to the station yet....and I'd say "Nope.......wanna put some of those steaks on sale?"
    • 993 posts
    May 14, 2009 1:35 PM PDT
    Hi, Bruce - Glad to see you here! Great story. It always comes back to the message, doesn't it? Chris Lytle used to say (I'm paraphrasing), "This isn't a test of my station. We're on the air and everything's working fine. This is a test of your offer, to see whether anybody's interested in it. How compelling is your offer?" But to the extent that we've created or allowed cliché-ridden chest-thumping ads to air for our clients, instead of investing the time and effort to create clear and compelling commercials, we've all too often painted ourselves into that corner - "Your Station Doesn't Work." Different subject. Does anybody in your market sell really good steaks - you know, the corn-fed-well-marbled-heart-attack-on-a-plate ribeyes and such? They're hard to find in stores these days. (Folks who live in the midwest can still find them, of course, but in my neck of the woods, they're scarce.) Anyhow, did a steak ad for a local grocer with a service meat counter. You might enjoy it. Here's a link: http://budurl.com/SteakPlace
    • 8 posts
    May 14, 2009 1:59 PM PDT
    Great spot....and suddenly tonight's meal plan went from a nicel green salad and grilled chicken to a big 'ol piece of beef or bison. I'll be putting the blame on you, Rod.

    (When Chris visited with us a number of years ago, his line was "Marcoi 'tested' radio. It worked." Great guy.)
    • 993 posts
    May 15, 2009 11:18 AM PDT
    Joel,

    Your mention of the late Jim Williams brought a smile to my face, remembering my first "Williams Boot Camp" back in '75. At the time there were only two of us in the sales department, Harry Hastings and me. We flew to Casper, Wyoming for 4 days that changed our lives. Williams became the stations' sales trainer and over the next few years our sales department grew from two to 15 or more, counting part-timers. One super saleslady joined the staff because she was impressed by all the ads running on the air - she figured something special was happening there. And she was right. Good memories of a formative period for me personally.

    I wonder if we should start a Jim Williams discussion thread? :>)
    • 1 posts
    June 11, 2009 3:28 PM PDT
    We have great steaks here in West Texas, but that ad had me wanting to go get one from Dissmores IGA in Pullman. Haha!