Living the Life

It's one thing to write, preach, teach and inspire others to do the right thing. It's something else to follow your own advice and Live the Life. This is about someone that Lives the Life.

Over a year ago I wrote to Harvey Mackay about something he wrote on his website. And I forgot about it until this week.

Monday I received a letter of apology from one of his assistants:

Dear Mr. Howard:

I am Harvey Mackay's assistant and I must apologize as I have just now come across a letter Harvey dictated to you last year when you emailed him.

It is totally my responsibility for the late response, so I'd like to briefly explain and hope you will understand.

I lost my dad in February...

And she continues:

...Harvey received tens of thousands of letters and emails every year so you can probably imagine the backlog developed over that time so when your email was sent in April I was already buried. I had been sending his emails to him in mail folders as he is working on a book project due out this year and was out of the office most of the time . . . he then returns enormous amounts of written responses for me to send out...

She also asked for my mailing address so she could send a book and the letter that Harvey dictated last year.

I wrote back and expressed my condolences over her losses, and updated her on what I have being doing with my blog references to Harvey, and also the influence he has had on not only me but also my oldest daughter who is excelling in relationship based sales.

Thursday a package arrived with the letters and some more of Harvey's writings.

Lessons learned:

1. Harvey Mackay still takes the time to respond to those who write to him, despite the enormous volume.
2. Harvey's staff also is living the life example that Harvey lives.
3. It's never too late to do the right thing.

Thank you, so very much.

Matching, the key to successful advertising

Over the past 50 years, the options for where to and how to advertise has grown tremendously. Some people wish for the "good old days" when there were less options and more "mass" to mass media. But like the 50 year old former high school jock that continues to reminisce about winning the "Big Game" half a lifetime ago, it's time to wake up and look at reality today.

I have made a decent living in one of the traditional mass media's know as Radio. AM, FM have been dominate for free music, news and information all of my life. That, however is changing. Technology has changed the way consumers live their lives and that includes cell phones that not only take pictures, but are music players and internet portals. We have gone beyond what the Star Trek generation imagined, (Except for the ability to "beam me up"), or in my case, the Get Smart, Maxwell Smart with his shoe-phone generation imagined.

But no matter what technology brings us, there are certain principles that need to be followed in order to make the most of your advertising dollars, and those principles fall in the category of Matching.

With the growth of new media and the choices available, it offers you the ability to screen your advertising messages to those that best match the people you want as clients and customers.

Along with Matching the Media, you also need to match the method of communication and match it with your available dollars to spend. Remember that you are wanting to reach out to other human beings and create an impression with them so that you will be thought of first, (or be in their short list of 3), when they need what you have to offer. This is the branding side of your marketing.

I'm going to use the word party and send out invitations to your party to help you understand what I have observed as a common shortfall of many business owners. If you were to have a party and do all the prep work, decorate, order special food and entertainment, but never send out any invitations, how many people would show up? Yeah, zero. That's what happens when people open a business but never advertise to let people know they are there.

It's not the biggest audience that you want to invite to your party, you want to invite the select few that will really appreciate what you have to offer. Then those people will tell others and the effectiveness multiplies. But it all starts with Matching and inviting the right people.

Measuring the results of your advertising

Over the many years that I have worked in advertising, I have heard just about every positive and negative comment about advertising. There is one thing that is truly impossible to measure and that is to able to pinpoint the results to a specific form of advertising or marketing.

It used to be coupons were a way to track, because the business owner had a piece of paper (coupon) that they could count at the end of the day. Same thing with Direct Mail.

But what about the Phone Book? Should you advertise in the Yellow Pages? The Yellow Page people will show you stats that show that a big % of the population uses the phone book. What is not asked is why a consumer will choose one business over another. It often is not the Yellow Pages ad, but the other advertising and marketing that plants the name of a business in a consumers mind so that when they see the name and number in the phone book, the business is recognized and then called. Which form of advertising gets the credit for bringing you the customer? The phone book, since that's the last form of advertising that the consumer recalls seeing.

It could be your sign. It could be the ad you place in the church bulletin or school paper. Maybe it's the attention getting billboards or signs on your truck.

If you are doing more than one form of marketing, yes I said marketing, not just advertising, than it is impossible to measure the results with 100% certainty.

Realistically, your customers cannot tell you all of the reasons that they became your customers. We simply don't remember everything.

Then there is the other side of the equation. Business owners and their people don't ask their customers. Have you ever been asked by the check out clerk why you bought a particular brand of soup or pasta sauce? Have you ever been asked by the attendant at the gas station why you picked their station instead of the one across the street? (I don't even see a person when I buy gas, since I pay at the pump.)

So if it is nearly impossible to track your advertising, does that mean it's hopeless?

No, it just means you should be very leary of those advertising sales reps that want to sell you advertising that you can track, unless they have the same insight that I've shared with you today.

I'll write more on this subject in the future.

Recession means opportunity

As I was driving to the office this morning, I heard the news, economists are using the R word.

So should you pack it in, curl up and hide, ride it out, or take advantage of what's going on?

Fight or Flight?

Only you know your risk tolerance.

But it's like the stock market. When prices drop, people instintively sell and they often end up losing money.

The smart people look at dropping prices in the stock market as a sale and buy, then wait for the market to go back up.

Your competitors are going to try and hang on to their money and cut back on their marketing budget.

That means there should be less marketing competition and you should increase your marketing.

After all, the population isn't shrinking, and if the product or service you sell is a need, than you have a chance to increase your market share.

Again this depends on many factors including whether you should even be in business, or stay in business. Perhaps you need to redesign your business model.

But please, now is not the time to follow the leaders that are going down with the ship. Now is the time to think, and plan and act independently and find your way above water.

Why do they play the same songs every hour?

This morning I had breakfast with my carpet cleaner.

Josh owns his own business and he brought up a subject that is dear and near to my life, and that is radio station's playlists.

I've worked for radio stations off and on since I was 16. I was a disc jockey, I programmed the music, I moved to the advertising side slowly and except for learning some of the latest software, could pretty much run the whole thing if I wanted to. So know that you know my qualifying background, here's the answer:

Mass Media is designed to get as big of an audience as possible. Back in the 1950's a couple of guys were watching a waitress in a diner take her tip money and put it in the jukebox. And she kept playing the same songs over and over. She played her favorites and ignored the others.

You and I do this when we go out to eat. Next time you are looking at the menu of your favorite restaurant, count how many items are on the menu. Then count how many of them you have ever ordered. See, we all have our favorites in life.

Back to the jukebox story. These two guys decided to hook up with the jukebox company and get a list of the most played songs each week and play only the very best on the radio. This would (in theory) mean that by playing the very best and most popular music, they would get the biggest audience possible tuning in to listen and then they could sell commercials to the businesses that wanted to invite those radio listeners into their store and spend money buying the stuff they needed. That's how TOP 40 Radio came about.

Dick Clark hosted American Bandstand each week by playing the hits. Casey Kasem and later Rick Dees hosted national radio countdowns each week on American Top 40. In Fort Wayne in the 1960's there was a radio station that 65% or more of the town listened to: WOWO.

As broadcasting changed with the growth of more choices with additional radio stations, television stations, then cable tv and now the internet, there is even more competition than ever to gather an audience.

Some have done this by limiting the number of songs they play, so you'll always hear the most popular songs of the week of a certain genre. Others have taken the other approach and expanded their music library to over 10,000 songs. Which works better?

Think about your restaurant again. If you could pick out 10 of your favorite meals and be served them and only them everyday for the next month for 5 bucks a day would you do it? Or would you rather be served every item on the menu of say 30 items, one each day until you've had all of them, still for 5 bucks a day? Most people stick with their favorites.

With over 20 radio stations in my town, there is a variety of music available. Just push the button to find another station. Still can't find it? Search the internet. Get an Ipod.

Remember that the reason the radio station plays the same songs, is because they want to get the largest share of listeners to attract advertisers that pay to have their commercials played and pay for it all. This is mass media.