Let The Battle Begin

Let The Battle Begin


by Robert Hendrickson

I knew exactly what to expect. In fact I could have scripted the entire meeting word for word before we started. I've been asked numerous times by garden center owners to play good cop/bad cop with them and their ad agency. No surprise which cop I play. Even after garden center owners finally realize they've been wasting money, losing momentum and being misled by their ad agency representatives, they still want someone else to do the dirty work. Telling an agency they're no longer needed isn't that difficult. I've done it dozens of times. You send a letter to the CEO and simply say their services are no longer required. But for some reason these same garden center owners feel obligated to schedule a face to face meeting with the agency to share the bad news.

Big mistake.

 

Retail Rules of the Road:



"Never get too chummy with your ad rep. Remember, they go to work each day with the goal of increasing their paycheck and sales for their company, not yours."

Ad agencies have a way of knowing when a client is primed for change. A phone call asking for an unscheduled  meeting is usually enough to raise suspicion. During that call the retailer's rep will probably ask if it's ok to bring their "boss" to the meeting, knowing the CEO is more experienced at saving renegade clients. "Of course", says the retailer, guaranteeing a much longer than necessary get together. Agencies are experienced at saving what they call "billings" and come prepared with arguments and offers unsuspecting retailers often find hard to resist. No one likes to lose business.

The most recent example of me playing the role of bad cop with a garden center and their ad agency occurred simply because I needed compost for my garden. "Bring me a load of compost and I'll take a look at your marketing," was the offer. I learned of the garden center through a Google search, not because their marketing had ever invited me for a visit.

Once the compost was delivered, a look at the marketing plan the center's ad agency had created explained why. It was the typical agency playbook approach that can be summed-up in two marketing terms... Reach vs. Frequency.

Reach - a marketing term that measures the estimated number of potential customers that would see or hear your message at least once as a result of a specific advertising campaign.

Frequency - a marketing term that measures the estimated number of times the same potential customer sees or hears the same marketing message as a result of a specific advertising campaign.

I've spent my entire career arguing with garden center owners and their ad agency representatives on the significant difference between these two words. Inexperienced marketers will bet an entire marketing budget (and their company) on trying to Reach the largest number of people possible.

On the surface this may sound logical. Using a simple hort-inspired analogy similar to the one from Seth Godin's book Permission Marketing, may help explain why this approach pretty much guarantees poor advertising results.

Let's say you have 100 pots of herbs desperately in need of water. Your goal is to keep as many herbs alive as possible over a one week period. But you have a choice to make. You have just enough water to water all the herbs once or 25 of the herbs four times before running out of water. Which approach would provide the best results?

One hundred herbs watered once is Reach. Twenty-five herbs watered four times is Frequency. Creating a marketing campaign that actually works isn't that different from growing a successful crop of herbs. Multiple watering grows both.

I began the good cop/bad cop meeting with the garden center and their ad agency by stating...

"The first thing we need to get clear are our differing views regarding Reach and Frequency. Based on your suggested ad schedule for this garden center, it's obvious your prefer Reach. You have them running generic ads a few times each week on nine different radio stations. They are also paying huge costs to have six year old television ads appear a few times each week on top-rated daytime programs and network evening news. And their newspaper ads are being placed on Sundays. This is a textbook case of striving for Reach regardless of the outcome."

And the agency expected response...

"It's obvious you're not familiar with this market (always the first attack on my credibility) or understand how important it is for this company to be in front of the largest number of people possible. They have a very short selling season which requires getting their message in front of the most potential customers as quickly as possible (another huge mistake) with the limited budget dollars we have to use. In my thirty-year experience (I knew this would pop-up early in the conversation) the more people who hear the message the better chance companies have to create new customers. But since I've heard you're the industry "expert" (with air quotes), what would you have them do?"

"First, I wouldn't run old television commercials on any station. You obviously believe placing outdated ads on the highest priced programs, as long as they have the highest Reach, is a good approach. I'd run new commercials on just one network during early morning news. It's the best way to schedule ads multiple times a week given the budget we have. The money we save by dropping those expensive programs on several stations will more than pay for new spots."

"Next, we should cut the number of radio stations to one or two and increase the number of spots per week. That would mean having at least twenty more ads each week on the stations we use than what's happening now. Since this market doesn't subscribe to Neilson ratings, I don't care which stations. You choose the two that will give us the most number of spots for the lowest cost. And we need to work on new scripts. Generic ads mentioning the company name a few times won't give us the results we need to grow the company."

"And no expensive Sunday newspaper ads. The cost doesn't justify the expense. And why aren't we using customer data information the garden center collects through their POS system? Staying in touch with their best customers with direct mail will give us better results than the ads in glossy high-end magazines they place each month."

"That has to be the dumbest approach to marketing I've heard in my thirty years of experience", screeches the head of the agency. "Give me one good reason why this company should follow your silly advice."

"Because of the size of their parking lot", I calmly reply. "With the right message, one TV station, one radio station, a postcard and social media campaign would be plenty to keep their lot full."

Silence. Garden center owner smiles.

Next time ...
    we'll continue the conversation with a focus on creating that right message.

 

Robert

 
Got questions or need more information about your marketing programs and Reach vs. Frequency? 

 

Give Robert a call or email!
Robert Hendrickson
Cell: 443-255-8282

Email: CLICK HERE

Robert Hendrickson is founder and a service provider for The Garden Center Group and our "guru" for how to best tell your story.

 

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Robert Hendrickson, Steve Bailey, Sid Raisch and Jean Seawright,  are included in your retainer! So what are you waiting for? Take advantage of all that The Group has to offer and give them a call or send an email now!

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Comments on "Let The Battle Begin"

Comments 0-5 of 1

Ken Lain - Monday, May 22, 2017
1000268192

Great advice from the master of marketing. Thanks Robert:)

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