News Marketing as Local Car Advertising
by Graeme Newell
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A comment and question from last week's article "What Cable Networks Can Teach Us About News Branding."
"Cable takes a Madison Avenue advertising approach while local TV takes their cue from local car dealerships. I know I exaggerate, but I see and have made a few too many of these “we have more cars (news) and best prices (coverage).” So my question is—with all that we know about branding and core emotional drivers, how did local TV get stuck on bragging and the patting-itself-on-the-back approach to advertising? I never liked “that guy.”
-A Frustrated TV Manager
Why do we do it? Because it's easy - identify a feature, and spit it back to the audience. For most of our history, broadcasting has been a license to print money. You could do mushy marketing and still cash in. But no more.
Like so many other industries, broadcasting has played what marketing experts call the feature/price marketing game. Regrettably, it is the ugliest, meanest marketing game in the business world. In TV that game is a familiar one: My doppler can beat up your doppler. I cover more breaking news than the next guy.
This is also the game played by industries that have commoditized their products. The customer experience has been marginalized, and the marketing has eroded to a strategy that trumpets the most product features at the lowest price. It is a race to the bottom by all the vendors as they fight amongst themselves in a continual game of one-upmanship. Each claims to give you better features than the next guy, and for less.
Because broadcasting's product is free, the broadcasting version of price/feature marketing has just one dimension - features. In the old days, newscasts often had very dramatic feature differences. That doppler was a lot more powerful. That station had an army of muckraking investigative types skulking around every corner. But as newsrooms continue to cut expenses, lay off investigative teams, and cut weather hardware budgets, most of the products are quickly moving to the center.
Feature/price marketing is rampant in the nastiest sectors of the business world, and is often characterized by customers who HATE most of the companies offering the service: airlines, cell providers, power companies, hotels, insurance, oil companies, rental cars, banks, and healthcare providers.
Most of the traditional airlines have reduced the flying experience to a single product attribute - cost. Most airlines have forgotten that a flight is the first step on a travel adventure. Of course, any airline must have a competitive price to be in the game, but a few airlines have managed to generate genuine affection and consumer loyalty by providing a good price, yet still tapping the best reasons customers fly. They market a customer experience, not just a price.
Southwest airlines turned the price/feature model on its head and refocused its brand back on the customer experience. Sure, it provides a low cost seat, but it champions the fun of travel. Virgin Airlines gets customers across the Pond for a good price, yet instills a sense of outlaw adventure.
United, Continental, American, US Air and the rest of the herd gave up decades ago, and became the villains of the skies. When was the last time you heard someone say, "It's so great that I'm flying United today!" ? Why is there so much contempt? Because their marketing is more focused on competitors than customers. They have turned what they sell into a commodity.
Don't get me wrong, there are some companies where cost/feature marketing works incredibly well. Companies that introduce revolutionary new features or develop amazing cost efficiencies SHOULD be in this game. But the hard truth is most companies perform these product miracles only occasionally, and rarely consistently. Being a player in the product innovation game is wickedly expensive. Continual expense cutting makes for a damned miserable place to work.
Apple is the poster child for product innovation, yet even they don't build their brand on product innovation. They build their brand on the customer feelings that surround innovation. Their innovations demonstrate their brand of techno cool.
Sure, all companies sell product features, but the best ones do not make it the sole focus of their brand. These companies did the hard and expensive emotional research on their customer's experience of their products, then turned those feelings into an evangelistic company passion. They have flipped the marketing equation. They don't brand their features. Instead, they use features as one of many elements that prove an amazingly strong customer-devoted experience. For example, they don't brand their investigative team. They brand using anger and let the investigative team be a catalyst for that experience.
So ask yourself, why does my audience like breaking news? Most stations assume that breaking news has intrinsic value, but it doesn't. Are your viewer's drawn to a spirit of adventure? Voyeurism? Fear? A strategic, customer-focused marketing plan won't mechanically spit out breaking news factoids, it will turn the entire station operation into one big adventure thrill ride, because that's the experience of THE VIEWER. It will get beyond buzz-word branding and create a station mission that leaves the audience aching to come on board. It will create an emotional juggernaut that compels participation.
The athletic shoe industry realized this long ago. Take the logo off the shoes and most of us couldn't tell the difference between Nike, New Balance and Adidas, even at gunpoint. Yet, we are strangely compelled to buy Nikes, because that company has turned their marketing into a mirror of the customer's most passionate dreams. When we buy Nikes, we aren't buying shoes, we're buying youth, perseverance, tenacity, and that virulent feeling we had in high school.
So are your newscasts caught up in that same product feature race to the bottom? If your product features are truly revolutionary, then you can play that game for a little while, but how long? The news industry has begun a decade of cost cutting that is just beginning. There will be much more pain to come. It is a rule of marketing - you won't win the product feature comparison game if your product isn't REMARKABLY different.
What is the passion of your audience? In their wildest dreams, who do they want to be? How can your brand tap into that passion? Starbucks, Red Bull, Gatorade, Southwest Airlines, Aveda, Prada, and Google all sell commodity products, but none them let their products define their brand. These companies are on a mission from God, and every day they empower their customers to write the gospel.
Graeme Newell is a broadcast and cable marketing consultant who specializes in relationship branding using core emotional drivers. He guarantees that his teasing seminar will immediately increase your news ratings or his workshop is free. Find out more here. |
What the Cable Networks Can Teach Us About News Branding
by Graeme Newell
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How will local TV branding change in the coming years? If you want to get a good look at where we're headed, the national cable business can teach us a few things. National cable channels like Discovery, TBS, Lifetime and CNN have been through major marketing changes that broadcasting has yet to face. In the late 90s cable TV went through a series of hard-fought battles that left scores of channels dead by the road. Cable marketers struggled to deal with two major marketing roadblocks that would reshape the business: withering competition and the challenges of brand expansion.
Today, there are so many cable channels littering each of the major genres that a two rating is considered a superstar success on even the biggest channels. You want women's programming? There are no less than 37 channels that cater to women's interests. Cable channels must scratch and claw for every tenth of a point. Any cable channel that didn't quickly establish a constantly evolving customer-based branding strategy simply died. It quickly became evident that good programming could get viewers to sample, but carefully crafted branding was the only way to keep them coming back.
Think it's tough competing against four or five other stations in the local news category? Just imagine how tough it is for the TV Azteca or The Word Network to compete on digital cable channels 292 and 349? Almost no one is going to surf by and happen to sample the programming.
Local TV has yet to experience this kind of intense competition, but web streaming, VOD, and the ever-expanding roster of digital channels mean this same challenge will be on broadcasting's doorstep soon. Despite all its woes, local TV is still a license to print money with incredible margins. You can still do a delightfully mediocre job of marketing your local station and still make a boatload of cash.
I do a lot of work with both cable and broadcast TV, and I find that each starts the branding process from radically different places. Cable marketers have learned the hard way that the battle is won through incredibly strategic marketing and a brand identity that seamlessly integrates that marketing into every pore of the operation. In most broadcast TV stations, the marketing and product camps are still miles apart. Broadcast TV starts with its own personal vision of a product, then builds in the marketing later. Cable programmers bake the marketing right into the product from the get go.
Both cable and broadcast have so much in common. Both want to attract viewing. Both have control of their programming specifics. Both are focused on a narrow niche audience. The History Channel buys and creates shows that appeal to history buffs. Local news handcrafts community stories targeted at fickle news viewers.
The difference between the cable TV mindset and the local TV mindset shows up most prominently in the very first question I ask - what is your brand position? Ask a broadcast manager this question and they will describe their product priorities. For example, "Our news is all about breaking news, in-depth weather coverage and local investigations."
If you ask this question to cable managers, they typically don't talk about their program specifics. They talk about their audience's mindset and needs. For example, a Discovery Channel manager might reply, "We help bored and frustrated people escape their common routine. We empower them to feel like Indiana Jones explorers and feed their hunger for adventure and exploration."
A History Channel manager might respond, "We help our audience feel smart and knowledgeable. We reinforce our audience's high opinion of their own intellect and superiority." Sure, these cable managers will describe the landmark features of their programming somewhere in their branding one-sheet, but most of them always start with a core emotional drivers, not a product feature. History Channel managers don't just talk about making smart shows, they talk about making smart viewers.
You will find the same vantage point with most major advertisers. If you were to look at the branding one sheet for Nike you won't see lines like "we manufacture quality footwear and apparel." If you look at Harley Davidson's marketing description you won't find "we create stylish motorcycles that provide a pleasant touring experience." Harley's affluent owners are willing to plop down 20 grand for a souped up hog because it is a chance for aging, pot-bellied executives to kid themselves into thinking they are outlaws. The actual bike is only a part of the experience. All the marketing centers on the desperado thrill these paunchy mid-life pencil pushers feel when frightened bystanders lock their doors as a leathered-up Harley rumbles by.
Yet in TV news, "look at me" advertising tends to pervade. A typical television news branding one-sheet will center on product feature statements like, "Our brand focuses on in-depth coverage of major local news events," and "our branding priority is accurate coverage of major weather." Is there any station in your market that doesn't have pretty much the same basic coverage goal?
Try to imagine a Harley ad that bragged about the stopping power of the brakes and the plushness of the leather seat. Try to envision a Nike ad campaign that glorified the durability of the shoe's sole and the strength of the laces. Try to contemplate a Johnson's Baby Powder ad that trumpeted the merits of the talc consistency.
Test your branding. First, pull out your own branding plan. Next, get out a separate sheet of paper and a pen. Draw a line down the middle of the piece of paper to create two columns. At the top of one column put the word "me" and at the top of the other column put the word "customer." Now go through each line of the plan and keep score. Put a hash mark in the "me" column for every sentence that talks about your product. Put a hash mark in the "customer" column for every sentence that talks about the customer's needs.
Graeme Newell is a broadcast and new media marketer who specializes in relationship branding using core emotional drivers. He guarantees that his teasing seminar will immediately increase your news ratings or his workshop is free. Find out more here. |
Mix Up the Structure of Story Packages
by Graeme Newell
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Twitter: gnewell
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If you look at the basic structure of a newscast, it has changed very little since it was invented more than fifty years ago. Back in the days before clicker-happy viewers, the audience was more tolerant of less-interesting portions of a newscast. Changing the channel meant getting up from the chair. Now, viewers make snap one-second judgments about news programs. If you don't entertain them right NOW, they won't hesitate to blow past your newscast.
All newscasts have points where viewers are more likely to switch away - just before the break, after the lead story, and after weather, are some of the more common ones. The beginning of a package is one of these vulnerable moments. Viewers will watch the intro to a story, then make a judgment. This means the beginning of any package is a vulnerable time.
For generations, we've followed a classic formula when building a news package.
1) Anchor introduction
2) Toss to reporter in the newsroom or field
3) Toss to the recorded story.
Problem is, all the good stuff is in the last part. If you follow this format, the first 30 seconds of your package will be talking heads. At the very point where viewers are making the decision to watch or surf out of there, you have an extended period of lip flap. All that great, interesting video, fascinating interviews, and field shots are yet to come. Most all packages reach their peak two-thirds of the way through the story. By that time, a lot of your audience may have cruised on over to the Speed Channel. It makes more sense to put some good stuff at the top, at the very place where viewers make their decision.
Mix up the structure of your packages. Start packages with the best components, the sound and video. Grab 'em with the good stuff, then, go to your anchors. They'll have interesting content to react to, creating a nice moment. The anchors won't be forced to cold start every package using just words. They'll appear more interesting and animated because they have the full support of great interesting video.
Making this change is never easy. It means reporters must be willing to "give up" some of their best material so the anchors will look better. Most reporters are hesitant to do this with simple facts, let alone precious video and sound. Win them by showing that more people will actually watch their package if they begin the intro with a bang.
Take a hard look at the structure of your packages. Is that newsroom toss adding to the story, or just putting more lip flap in front of the great video and sound? Break the mold on your package, and redesign it so great content gets used where it will hold the most viewers.
Graeme Newell is a broadcast and new media marketer who specializes in relationship branding with core emotional drivers. He guarantees that his teasing seminar will immediately increase your news ratings or his workshop is free. Find out more here.
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