Hello,
Thank you for accepting me into this group. My name is Roxana Montoya Hill and I am the new Sales Manager for VALENTINE RADIO in Valentine, Texas. We are a small market radio station. I am new to radio sales, and I would like to know if anyone can point me in the right direction in regards to Dollar General and/or Family Dollar. I have contacted their corporate office many times, and I have been directed to someone's voicemail, but never get a call back. I have also emailed them in regards to radio advertising, but they have not responded.
For any of you radio sales veterans, are there any tips or pointers you can provide in order to help me reach out to someone? I am sure they would love to be advertised in a small market station.
Thank you!!!
Roxana Hill
at February 15, 2024 3:06 PM PST
From Shawn: I have been in contact with Dollar General as well and I am in a smaller rated market as well. I have had no luck with them as of yet, but if you end up having success with them or what they are looking for in a marketing plan, let me know. I stopped trying to connect because some larger companies that have advertising handled by agencies are just unwilling to go into a smaller market unfortunately.
at September 25, 2017 12:10 PM PDT
From Joy Orr via the RSC Facebook page: Last year I talked with VP of marketing. He kindly told me to quit wasting time. They do not advertise. They stand on their price and product. Kindly [asked] me not to call anymore.
From Robert E. Lee via the RSC Facebook page: Large nationwide companies like Dollar General or Family Dollar are most likely to place their advertising through an agency, if they advertise on radio, at all. It's just too inefficient for a big company like those to deal with radio stations individually, and especially in a small market. However, I am not all bad news. Years ago, before Walmart finally started advertising on radio (though, today, it is still through agencies), I was in your position, wanting the one local Walmart to advertise on our small-market stations. I was not able to get a regular spot schedule of any kind, but, the store manager/director agreed to spend a few hundred dollars out of her 'petty cash' fund to pay for a station remote. She suggested that I also approach several of her vendors to see if they would also help pay for the remote. In exchange, the vendors who chipped in for the remote were named in the pre-event promotional spots for the remote, along with several live mentions during the remote. The store manager also agreed to give the participating vendors favorable store placement of their products for about a week. While I was with the stations, as my client, Walmart ended up doing about 2 or 3 of these remotes per year. If I recall, I brought in about $1,000 per remote, plus the talent fee for the air personality who helmed the remote. (This was back in the late '90s/early 2000s period.) Also, in exchange for on-air mentions during the remote, one of my restaurant clients would provide pizza or some other food for folks at the remote site. So, there are creative, NTR ways to make some money from large, national chains like Dollar General and Family Dollar. But, you will not, sorry to say, receive spot schedule dollars from them.
at September 25, 2017 12:09 PM PDT
From Michael Norris via the RSC Facebook page: 3 attempts then move on. Many others to contact. Your time is a commodity!
at September 25, 2017 12:10 PM PDT
From Beverly Newman via the RSC Facebook page: Up until about 5 years ago Family Dollar would do Grand Openings with a remote and 1 week schedule. It was thru an agency and I was told recently that they no longer do grand openings or other local radio.
From Mark Heller via the RSC Facebook page: They love 1.5 cent INSERTS. They use 100% of their CO-OP in inserts. If you can figure a way to insert a radio in the weekend Sunday paper or weekly shopper, you might have a 'shot'.
From Steven E Braun via the RSC Facebook page: We are in a small market out here on the Oregon Coast and in the last year we have done a remote for Local Dollar General as well as been asked to do one that just did a grand opening in Smith River California...so there is still money on the table....all agency buys which in our corporate model all goes to the owner no matter who uncovers the funds......lots of DG growth in the Pacific Northwest....
From Jay Fisher via the RSC Facebook page: They don't locally advertise after maybe a grand opening.
From Lisa Sutherland Kirkman via the RSC Facebook page: They used to do one week for a grand opening and a remote (which we dont sell anymore because they dont work). Now they dont buy. Might hear them via network but not likely. Sorry. Find some other fish to fry.
From Larry Fuss via the RSC Facebook page: I've never had any luck with Dollar General or Family Dollar. They seem to just not give a damn about smaller markets. They'll spent money on newspaper inserts, the vast majority of which end up in the trash, but no radio.
From what I understand, Valentine Radio is primarily an online station. I may be wrong about that. I tell radio stations to consider all your marketing venues for your clients. If you have a website, use it to help clients just as you do the airwaves. Mostly, radio stations have much more than just their signal to sell.
In my experience Family Dollar and Dollar General do not buy radio. In general, they and many other 'nationals' and 'regionals' do not buy to support a 'stand alone' store in a small market.
That does not mean they cannot mean money to you, but you have to be really creative.
Think marriage between paying clients and those businesses that do not buy. Frequently you can acquire gift certificates, merchandise and such from non-advertisers for promotions that you sell your paying customers. For example, I had a flower shop that was so low volume they could not afford a meaningful schedule on my station. I grouped this business with a local Mariachi band that was looking for gigs but would never buy radio advertising to promote that fact. I used both of these non-paying clients for a Valentine's Day promotion for a restaurant. The flower shop got mentions in the client's ad and so did the mariachi band. The flower shop 'paid' by offering an employee to gift a flower (not always a rose but whatever a female diner might like on Valentine's Day) to each lady entering the restaurant. The Mariachi band played in the dining room and roamed around to serenade tables. It helped make the restaurant's offering special and led to a very successful campaign. You might be limited to the amount in the local store's 'petty cash'. You will also be loved by the non-cash client who gets benefit from this and perhaps when they can buy, you'll be at the top of the list because you tried to help.
Now, should you want to play 'dirty', I have done this: talk to the local manager. In one instance, a clothing store with only one location locally had all the store's advertising dollars directed to the metro newspaper about 150 miles away that was distributed locally. The manager told me his store was a part of a district that included the 8 stores in that particular metro. Every quarter the company held a promotion where the store manager with the most improved store sales in each district got a cash bonus or some other perk. When the manager learned he was competing with stores that had local advertising support, he called his supervisor. The supervisor pulled some strings and got him some local ad dollars directed to my station. I found out that managers in the far flung stores need to be a select breed that can operate with a lower level of supervision. In a nutshell, they're not a dime a dozen and of those with these qualities, many don't want to be off in the middle of nowhere, so keeping such a manager happy is priority one.
In another instance, a franchisee was contributing 7% to the national marketing fund. Some of that fund was to be spent locally. Like the above scenario, the ad agency used the distant metro paper for inserts for stores in single store cities. In other words, not a dime spent in local media. The franchisee owner became so upset after learning that he quit submitting his 7% and threatened to sue for recovery of all the ad dollars he had sent in. It only took a day for the ad agency in New York City to place a buy on my station. And the local daily paper got regular inserts.
With changing buying habits, radio can successfully get buys through roundabout ways. I have had clients enamored with online but not radio. We emphasized online presence with radio tossed in to drive the listener online. This made online clients believers in radio as well. Sure, I had to do plenty of bonusing on radio but I was after the long term relationship, feeling the value of radio would be understood as the venue that brings them online.
