Radio Sales Café

I am looking for ideas to get a local furniture store's long term business. This client is on and off the radio all the time, but is in print consistenly. I have offered long term plans, ideas etc. And he says he likes to have flexability to run when he has something to talk about. I have also told him that three out of 4 of his competitors are advertising every month and that they are getting great results. I also told him that his compeitiors are extremley happy he isn't on the air all the time, means they are getting his business... He just laughs and says they are not getting great results, he knows this because he gets information from the furniture reps. We have done promotions with him to do furniture giveaways bringing in tons of traffic to the store.. He complains that they are only there to win free stuff and don't buy.. He wants us to come up with something that will get people to buy on the value of his furniture and not be giving away free stuff... This guy has been in business over 85 years and knows everything.. Just ask him... Anyone working with a client like this? Or have any ideas to share? Your imput is welcome..

Here's a slogan that our locally owned 99 year-old furniture store uses to enhance the image of their family owned store:

"People don't shop at Starcke Furniture because Starcke's is 99 years old. Starcke's is 99 years old because people shop at Starcke Furniture."

May I suggest some music? Not a "come shop at our store" with a sung phone number jingle. But a well crafted catchy song that will become the identifying music. Please listen to the attached. We can create mix-outs that will lend to a classy, long term campaign.

Very nice. Normally I'm not a big fan of the "serving you for __ years" angle, but you've turned it into something meaningful and memorable. Well done, Hal!

Susan,

For years I did radio work for a classy, full-service family-owned furniture store. My client would buy flights for events (the semi-annual Flexsteel or La-Z-Boy sales, that kind of thing), but never cared to be on consistently. So, his results were episodic and sporadic. Theoretically, "everyone knew he was there." But this proved insufficient to keep him going. Eventually he ran out of steam, lost interest in the business, and finally closed his store last year, tired of the hassle. Interestingly, another furniture store in the same town closed their doors at about the same time, leaving just one competitor standing there and another in a different town 8 miles away. There are larger markets 30 and 75 miles away, with many furniture stores to lure shoppers who aren't motivated to shop locally.

That said, I've been working with another store recently on a long-term campaign. The commercials we've done and are planning to do all hammer away at their distinctive niche. It's a price/value message, but without specific price-item examples (to date, anyway). Here are a couple examples:

Susan,
You have a line from your client in your message: "And he says he likes to have flexability to run when he has something to talk about." WOW!
I would hope as a business, especially one wanting to create value would have something to talk about every day. I'd like to visit with you about a process we take clients through we call the Value Story Discovery process. It's founded on the concept that a company needs to know why someone should spend money with them. They know but often the reasons have become buried or trivialized in their minds over the years. We dig down to uncover this info. The other side is that they must know why people currently spend money with them. The majority of small businesses would not be able to give you a difinitive answer to this question. They usually don't have an in-depth conversation with their clients.
When a business see's the content of these two discussions they realize they have a great deal to tell the area consumers and non of it is promotion based. It's all focused on creating value and trust which can only be done, as they'll realize on their own, when they consistently share their message.
I was just in Price Utah visiting with some small busienss owners getting them ready for their Value Story Discovery process. The local station GM, Paul Anderson said to me and his staff, "What was amazing is that Jeff asked the same questions we ask but he got completely different responses."
It's not right and it's not fair but I know from experience that an outside source is often able to uncover more details than the local sales person. What we do is designed for clients just like the one you are talking about. Would you take a minute and give me a call? (402-817-4864) I'd like to give you some more insight on how you can try to do this yourself or perhaps have us contact your client and explain the benefit of this opportunity to him. It's amazing the perception change a client has once they have been taken through this process. They simply become a better radio advertiser and they become a better business so the real winner is their customers.