Home » Archives for Jay Nachlis » Page 22

Author: Jay Nachlis

Blog

Holiday Gratitude

Comment

Tuesdays With Coleman

For the final blog post of 2017, our three Senior Consultants—Warren Kurtzman, John Boyne, and Sam Milkman—sat down for a roundtable chat to reflect on some things they are thankful for this holiday season.

Coleman Insights Warren Kurtzman Jon Coleman John Boyne Sam Milkman

Executive VP/Senior Consultant Sam Milkman, Founder Jon Coleman, Executive VP/Senior Consultant John Boyne, and President/Senior Consultant Warren Kurtzman

SAM MILKMAN:

We have very special relationships with our clients who treat us like partners – and often like family. I’m grateful for our partnership with all of them.

WARREN KURTZMAN:

For all the missed connections in airports, late nights analyzing data…

SAM MILKMAN:

Wouldn’t trade it for anything.

JOHN BOYNE:

You mentioned the partnership, Sam. That really is what makes this rewarding, right? I feel grateful that so many clients consider us to be part of their strategic brain trusts. I love it when they reach out in between projects to get my outside perspective on things.

SAM MILKMAN:

That’s what it’s all about. Of course, I love rolling up our sleeves with our clients and helping them find a clearer path to success. When it all comes together – we follow a plan, invest in marketing an idea both on and off the air.

JOHN BOYNE:

Marketing is a great point. We’ll often have client calls to discuss marketing strategy. It helps to ensure that the message is aligned with the insights gleaned through research, but it’s also fun to bounce ideas around with others who are intimately familiar with “The Plan.” These conversations happen no matter what the level of marketing resources are at that time. Within the past couple of days, I’ve had a couple of clients calling to talk about their Q1 marketing message.

WARREN KURTZMAN:

I’m also grateful that we can tap into the brainpower of our founder, Jon Coleman. He’s seen so many scenarios, in virtually every format, and we’re not shy about asking his opinion when it comes to data interpretation and developing strategic plans. It’s pretty amazing to have the opportunity to learn from him every day.

SAM MILKMAN:

I’m grateful that consumers continue to rely on radio, even in the face of rapidly expanding entertainment options.

JOHN BOYNE:

We feel very fortunate that radio companies are investing in the growth of their product through research. There’s never a dull moment. There are always new things to learn, new ways to get better.

SAM MILKMAN:

And I’m grateful we’ve been able to invest as well!

WARREN KURTZMAN:

We’ll continue to invest in new technology and new ways to glean insights from consumers. We added three Associate Consultants to our team over the past year—Jessica Lichtenfeld, Meghan Campbell, and Jay Nachlis. As I’ve mentioned before, we’re bullish on the radio industry and are thrilled that we were able to add more brainpower to the team and another layer of service for our clients. On that note, I have a huge level of gratitude for everyone that works at Coleman Insights. We have a team of more than 20 individuals dedicated to providing our clients with the deepest insights and the highest levels of quality and service in the industry and I’m very proud of them.

SAM MILKMAN:

Coming back to our clients, I appreciate that we have the kind of clients who push us to question our assumptions. My father used to tell me, “No one has a monopoly on the truth.” He was trying to teach me that there isn’t just one way to see things, that you need to look at things from lots of different angles to find a solution. And I think our clients demand the same sort of intellectual vigor.

WARREN KURTZMAN:

Ultimately, that pushes us to challenge ourselves, and invest in new ways of doing things.

 

For January’s first blog, Warren, Jon and Sam will continue their discussion by sharing their thoughts on radio and research in 2018.

From everyone at Coleman Insights, have a festive and safe holiday season and  Happy New Year!

Blog

What’s My Brand Again?

Comment

Tuesdays With Coleman

Which radio station plays Classic Rock?

Which radio station plays Hip Hop and R&B?

Which radio station plays new hit music?

Chances are, you have a perceptual image in mind for one radio station that occupies each of these positions in your market.

It’s also true there’s likely more than one radio station in your market that plays Classic Rock, more than one that plays Hip Hop, and more than one that plays new hit music.

It is the one that is top of mind, the one you think of first, that builds brand ownership. In those moments when listeners choose a radio station to fill an instantaneous need, it is better to be top of mind.

Because more than one radio station plays these styles of music, it simply isn’t enough to play them. You must tell the audience, and you have to tell them often. That’s why simplicity is often the best way and slogans like “The Classic Rock Station”, “#1 for Hip Hop and R&B”, and “The Hit Music Station” just make sense. It’s what we call owning a Base Music Position on the Image Pyramid.

It takes a long time to build a brand. So when a change is made to a brand, it is even more paramount for the audience to be clearly informed of the change.

Let’s say my radio station plays mostly music from the 90s and 2000s, but research has identified an opportunity to play more 80s music. So, I significantly drop the percentage of 90s and 2000s music and inject a boost of 80s onto the station. Everyone says the station sounds great.

But did your audience really notice?

On a micro level, you may pick up some listening here and there and the audience may subliminally notice a change. But if you really want to get credit for the branding shift, just playing some extra 80s songs isn’t going to cut the mustard. You have to tell them. Over and over again.  Something like “The 80s Music Station” or “Nobody Plays more 80s” would make the change clear. Don’t forget, your station was playing music predominantly from the 90s and 2000s, so the audience’s top-of-mind perception of your brand is likely just that. You have to tell them you made the change to build the image you want.

What brand comes to mind when I say “baby food”?

Almost certainly the answer is Gerber. And Gerber still leads the U.S. market in baby food sales. But, like in other segments of the food industry, natural and organic disruptors have changed the game. Here’s a recent organic (pun intended) Google search of “Organic Baby Food”:

  • Earth’s Best
  • Plum Organics
  • Beech-Nut
  • Gerber

It shouldn’t be surprising that the brands that sound natural and organic lead the pack. What may come as a surprise is that Gerber has been making organic baby food since the 1990s, always used non-GMO fruits and vegetables in its purees, and has direct farmer relationships.

Yet it is Earth’s Best that says “No Genetically Engineered Ingredients” and Plum that put the word “organic” in its name.

Gerber has recognized the need to include the messaging in its marketing as part of a brand overhaul.

They’ve learned, even as the market leader, it isn’t enough to just do something. You must also tell your audience about it.

Over and over and over again.

Blog

Seth Godin’s Lessons for Radio

Comment

In his opening keynote speech at Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC on November 15th, it only took author/marketing guru Seth Godin about five minutes before mentioning radio and the music industry.

According to Godin, 1972 was the perfect year for the music business. The reason? Scarcity of choice.

If you wanted to purchase an album, you had to go to a brick and mortar record store.

If you loaned someone your album, you generally needed to go buy another one.

If you wanted to discover new music, you had to hear it on a radio station.

The spokes of the music industry wheel all benefited from exclusivity – the record stores, radio stations and record companies.

Today, of course, you can download music and stream music from a seemingly endless potpourri of providers. You can watch videos for free on YouTube.

Like so many other industries, scarcity of choice has been replaced with abundance.

While Seth Godin doesn’t provide a prescription for the music industry, he does preach differentiation and content. Marketing conferences send out a parade of thought leaders all selling one thing in many different packages.

Stand out with content, content, content.

When Godin first self-published his 2003 breakthrough book, “Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable”, the title was printed sideways and it was delivered in a milk carton if ordered by mail. Naturally, it was also very purple.

Radio’s been doing this kind of thing for a very long time.

Flashback to 1974 Los Angeles. Shadoe Stevens was hired to program KMET, an underperforming free-form rock station. Stevens differentiated the station by adding high energy production value and jingles, and placing billboards and stickers all around town with the logo in reverse and upside down. Sound familiar?

Godin provides great examples of companies coming up with unique ideas to differentiate. A lawn service that uses GPS to provide homeowners with exact pricing based on the size of their yard. Tesla calling their 0-60 in 2.2 seconds technology “Ludicrous Mode”.

The fact of the matter is, while everyone is currently trying to figure out content creation, radio professionals have been masters at this for decades. Radio stations are innovation labs for promotions, imaging, production, format creation and much more. Air talent comes up with fresh content for their stations on a daily basis.

If the path to differentiation is content, radio has the people that are up to the challenge.

What’s your milk carton?

Blog

5 “Stranger Things” You Didn’t Know About Radio

Comment

In honor of the release of Stranger Things 2  on Netflix today, here are 5 “stranger things” you didn’t know about radio:

  1. Radio saved the Eiffel Tower from destruction. The Parisian government planned to disassemble the tower for scrap metal. To prove it could be used as a strategic utility, designer Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel built an antenna stop the tower and funded experiments with wireless telegraphy in 1898. Today, more than 100 antennae on the tower broadcast radio and TV signals around the world. *History.com (3/31/14) 
  2. More Americans 6+ listen to radio (93%) each week than watch TV (89%), use a smartphone (83%), PC (50%) or tablet (37%). *2017 Nielsen Audio Today (6/22/17)
  3. Nikola Tesla, not Marconi, invented the radio. As early as 1892, Nikola Tesla created a basic design for radio. However, Marconi claimed all the first patents. The U.S. Supreme Court declared Marconi’s patents invalid and awarded them to Tesla in 1943, six months after Tesla’s death. Marconi generally still gets the credit. *Radiobroadcaster.org (2/24/14)
  4. Marconi was the great-grandson of John Jameson, founder of Jameson Irish Whiskey. *Clifdenheritage.org (12/1/10)
  5. Officially, from 1922-1971 you could not listen to radio in the UK without having a license. The government wanted citizens to pay ten schillings to get a license. *Radiolicence.org.uk
Blog

Twitter Tests its Character(s)

Comment

On September 26, Twitter announced it would test extending the text limit of a post from 140 to 280 characters. In a blog post Twitter explained, “When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some room to spare, we see more people tweeting.”

Uh-oh.

Twitter is even trying to devalue the 140 character limit by explaining that, when they launched 11 years ago, they had no choice. Co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted, “140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit”.

If you were describing Twitter to someone for the first time, might it sound something like this?

Twitter is a social media platform on which people share their thoughts in 140 characters or less in real-time.

Whether Twitter likes it or not, 140 characters is a core part of the fabric of their brand perception.

Now, clearly Twitter has identified a need and apparently has data to back it up. As indicated above, in their blog post, Twitter sees more usage when they expand the character limit. It’s nothing new for companies to identify a need and attempt to fill it, while utilizing a brand with an already established (and different) perception.

There are plenty of examples of companies that launched failed brand extensions that conflicted with consumer perceptions.  These include:

  • Colgate launching frozen dinners
  • Zippo launching perfume
  • Harley-Davidson launching cake decorating kits

This perhaps feels a little more like Little Caesar’s launching its ultimately failed delivery service in 1995. You save money because Little Caesar’s doesn’t deliver (and everyone else does). You use Twitter because it forces you to get to the point, not because you can’t ramble. It is, and always has been Twitter’s point of differentiation.

Users and potential users of your product have to understand, before learning anything else about your product, what it’s all about. It’s the reason why we encourage radio stations we work with to utilize our Image PyramidSM. The Image Pyramid instructs radio stations to focus on their base music position (or talk position if it’s a spoken word-based station) before secondary attributes, like personalities, contesting and specialty programming.

What do you think would happen if you started playing deep tracks on “The #1 Hit Music Station”? Or new music on “The Classic Rock Station”? Would it erode your brand?

What would happen if you allowed long messages on a social media platform known for short messages?