Radio Sales Café

 

 

I have a DISH TV client who has been experiencing a "larger than normal" slowdown the past three months. He has been very successful over the past five years and has a strong marketing/advertising campaign. We rely on DISH TV co-op which limits our copy approach although we are inserting it into a custom musical image (jingle) for the client to help his company's marketing position.

I was wondering if anyone else is having the same problem and if there are any ideas to break out of the slump.

Industry has slowed to a trickle for more than a few years. Most dealers from five or six years ago, have vaporized. It's a mature business now, and the only new activations are for HD programming. DISH uses
an unpopular compression system for their HD pictures for local channels, which makes many customers unhappy, as well. DirecTV is also in the same slump. After the low-ball intro price wears off, the satellite
customers are paying within a dollar or two of cable. Cable is offering internet and phone as part of their bundles now, making attracting new customers, very hard to do. The reason they are so strict with staying with their scripts, is they are offering up to $50 per activation in co-op reimbursement, a large amount in many folks view. Little more I can add.

Rick,

I asked a good client of mine today about his DISH Network business. He's been holding steady or growing YTD, both with new signups and upgrades. A little slower last month, he said, but nothing close to what your account seems to be experiencing. We're in a university community (two land-grant institutions 8 miles apart), so summers tend to be slower than the rest of the year.

This client is a strong, consistent radio advertiser (over 90% of his budget) -- sells appliances, bedding and TVs -- and is on the air every day, every week with a current DISH promotion (I write the copy; he submits for pre-approval and voices it; we wrap it in his jingle).

Is your DISH guy's slowdown related to competitive pressure from the cable company? One angle we came close to using a couple years back, when the local cable company was bashing DISH and DirectTV and offering a special deal for people who turned in their satellite dishes, was to remind people that the cable company itself gets its TV programs from...a satellite dish. But the cable company backed down, actually did some business with my client (bought some TV sets), so we put that gun back in its holster. For the time being.

I could post or email you a sample of the client's current DISH ad, if it would be useful to you.

Rod,
Thanks for the extra effort and input. It will be very helpful in getting my friend/client back on track.
Great ideas!
Rick

We have a Dish dealer in Indiana that is also experiencing a slow-down. He blames it partly on the lack of support for individual dealers on the part of Dish Network. Much of Dish's advertising promotes a toll-free number to Dish itself, which then assigns an installer which is often from out of our local area. He promotes "don't call Dish when you get those mailers from who knows where, call US, your local authorized Dish Network dealer. This kind of works, but people are people and too many calls are going to either competitors or Dish itself. My observation: dealers who want to continue to be dealers need to be very aggressive in the face of increased competition from Direct TV, Cable, phone companies, Netflix instant download, and who know what's next!

I agree with the approach taken by Mike Petersen's client. If the local Dish dealer/installer wants to stay in business he must become THE Dish dealer that people think about when they get the mailers or see the national advertising. Co-op money is great, but not if a dealer can't generate enough identification for his company. He may have to spend some money in addition to the co-op to establish a local presence.

In addition to his advertising I'd suggest that he get involved with some sort of community activity where his company name can be highly visible with his association with Dish secondary. Sponsoring something like the Race for the Cure for example sure wouldn't hurt.

Hal,
Thanks so much for the input. Sounds like we are doing most everything right and may be experience a business cycle. For what it's worth, we use our co-op by inserting it in the bed of a custom jingle for the business so we can get the association.
Rick

Mike,
I really like this thought as I had been considering this already. He is very addicted to his co-op but, with sales so far off, his accruals are drained so now may be the time to test that water.
Thanks, again, for the input.
Rick