How To Use Radio To Increase Company Sales

By Victor Ives, 30-year broadcast veteran

In an age when people think of radio as television without pictures, there are still people who “watch” radio. I realize that this article is appearing in BarterNews, and the thrust of this tome should be “how to trade for radio,” which I’ll get to.

However, the message I want to impart is: How to use radio—which is important, no matter how you acquire it.

For those of you who go back far enough to remember how radio affected its listeners during the days of Fibber McGee and Molly, The Great Gildersleeve, and others, will attest to the fact that radio conjured up images in the mind’s “eye” that were more vivid than the pictures which fill today’s largest TV screen.

The reason is that, sort of like a mental paint by numbers set, something was left for the listeners to do. Beyond the basic facts, like the Lone Ranger’s horse being white and his mask being black, we got to fill in the details.

We decided the color of the checkered shirt on Rancher Jones and the size of the handle bar mustache on the bald headed gentleman behind the bar at the Dodge City Saloon, or the long gray beard and tattered Civil War uniform worn by the lonely soul who stood guard at Jack Benny’s subterranean vault.

Radio still does its best work when it causes the listener to focus their imagination and, in some way, to relate to what is being said. Except for the revivals of classic radio shows syndicated (on a barter basis) there are few examples of long form drama on the radio today.

But there are still lots of magical moments on radio, when the listener gets caught up in a thought, idea or situation. Then, even if for just a fleeting moment, the listener paints a mental image on the four dimensional screen of their imagination.

Sometimes it’s a disk jockey’s quip, a thought provoking call on a radio phone-in program, an eye witness giving an account of a grim news story, a heart rending song, or a catchy commercial. When it’s a commercial that stimulates the listener’s imagination muscle, the chances are really good that the sponsor has a sale.

In radio every commercial can be a front page, full size, or double-truck color spread for the thirty or sixty second duration of the time the commercial is on the air. On radio your commercial can make you sound as big and successful as General Motors, United Airlines or Coke. When the advertiser is successful in painting a picture on the screen of the listener’s imagination, the cost might not be any greater than the price of a two column black and white newspaper ad in the local shopper, or a series of three line classified ads.

What works? The most effective radio commercials are those which inform, entertain and sell, without the exclusion of any of those elements. On the other hand, a commercial could win an award and be hysterically funny, but not communicate a message...and therefore fail.

Radio commercials can be whimsical and effective at the same time, but most attempts at humor fail. Jokes simply don’t work, although you can paint a picture that’s just enough “off kilter” to compel the listener to “deal” with it. (It’s almost like being unable to resist straightening a picture that’s hanging crooked on the wall.)

We have learned, through right brain research, that we retain more of what we assimilate when the right brain is employed. The trick is getting the listeners to use their imaginations. That’s what makes the message stick.

One whimsical spot was for a lumber yard. It was about a guy calling in asking about the fence he just built. The point was that the store gave people lots of help and that even the unskilled were welcome. The phone conversation went like this:

Customer: Hello, remember me? I am the guy you told how to build the fence that’s six feet by 24 feet.

Salesman: Yes, and I showed you how to sink the post, and to keep it straight and...

Customer: Oh, it’s great....your instructions were perfect...and it’s really sturdy...and it turned out to be exactly six feet by 24 feet.

Salesman: It’s sturdy and exactly six by 24 feet...so what’s the problem?

Customer: Well, it’s just that the airport control tower called and they said my new fence is interfering with the landing pattern.

Announcer: At XYZ Lumber we give you all the help we can, we’ll even sketch out plans...but look, if you turn the plans sideways, the most we can do is help you put a red light on it so planes don’t bump into your new fence.

Hysterical? Certainly not, but just whimsical enough to force the listener to visualize some jerk building a fence 24 feet tall and six feet wide. They also got the message that XYZ Lumber will help you by sketching out plans, etc.

Call-in commercials can be terrific. . .

If you have a relationship with a local radio station and you can get them to allow you to “call your commercial in” and have an ad lib discussion with the personality/disk jockey, you can get great results.

If you and the host hit it off, you can become a regular character on his show. Listeners will automatically perk up their attention when they hear the lead in:

Announcer: Well, it’s time to talk to old Joe at the Bargain Barn and find out what kinda do-dad or whirly-gig he has come up with as the value of the day. What have you got this time? I hope it’s not another square wheeled bicycle.

Old Joe: No, that was a one of a kind. Seriously, today we have a fruit dryer that you can use to dry all kinds of fruits.

Announcer: What if I don’t know any wet fruits.

Old Joe: This allows you to slice and dry peaches, pears, and apples so you can save them as long as you want. Just think how good they’ll taste in your lunch box...and it’s good for the kids to snack on.

Announcer: How big is it?

Old Joe: I’d say it’s about four feet high...etc.

The conversation tone of the call sets the potential customer at ease, and the description will cause the listener to visualize what you are talking about. (The same thing works for restaurants regarding lunch specials, and in many other applications as well.)

Ad Lib Fact Sheet. . .

If your station has live personalities, try to talk the station into letting you give the announcers fact sheets so they can ad lib your commercial in conversation manner. This makes the commercial sound like a personal endorsement, and every commercial will be different.

Try to get the announcer to drop by your place of business. If you run a restaurant, insist they come by and have lunch or dinner. If you have a video store, give them a free pass so they can review videos as part of your commercial.

Sometimes you will have to pay a premium, but don’t gripe. The spots usually run longer than you paid for and the impact is tremendous. Be prepared for some of the spots to go sour, and don’t be afraid of getting kidded a little. The technique works. (Remember Arthur Godfrey?)

Once I worked at a station where every commercial was live and 95% were fact sheet spots. Most of the time we were told to “kid around” with the sponsor a little bit, such as: Those chili dogs are so sloppy you have to eat them in the bath tub, but are they good! Or, I can’t figure out what that laundry does with the buttons on my shirt...they always keep one as a souvenir...but that Ethel and Bob at Cleanway Cleaners are such nice folks, and the prices are so low, I don’t care what they do with my buttons.

That station had nearly every business in town. Listeners were always going into an establishment and saying...”Did you hear what they said about you on that crazy station?”

Image Campaigns. . .

For the past few years I have been privileged to write and voice-in commercials for a major drug store chain. Before I wrote a word of copy, I went to a couple of locations and talked with customers and employees to get a handle on the typical customers and how they viewed the store. We learned that price was not the motivation that brought people to the store.

We found that among the primary concerns were a no-hassle refund policy, short check-out lines, and selection.

I was allowed to create “heart sell” commercials, which talked about the company’s roots as a corner drug store that opened the same year Judy Garland first sang “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” and Ty Cobb said farewell to baseball.

The president of the company approved a commercial which described him burning the company policy manual and replacing 1400 rules with the statement, “Use common sense and good judgment, and treat people the way you would like to be treated yourself.” (This literally became the standard of operating the business.)

We also found out that one concern of people with young children was that there were no public rest rooms. The president of this Fortune 500 Company allowed me to go on the radio and say, “...and if the occasion arises you can even use the employee rest rooms.” (How basic can you get?)

The advertising was geared to distance the chain, in the mind of the customer, from the mass merchandisers. We even said, “We were nearly caught up in the mass merchandising syndrome, like the others, but we have vowed to get back to the basics”...etc.

To that end about one third of the radio advertising was geared to the company’s own employees! This campaign paid excellent dividends in long term business increases and improved perception by the public and the chains own employees.

Hard Sell. . .

The message you are trying to impart in a “hard sell” commercial had better be strong enough to override the hard feelings and irritation generated by them. Not only that, you’d best have a large budget to reach a broad enough audience to make up for the audience the commercial offends.

There is no doubt that some radio (and television) commercials are designed to irritate the listener or viewer into remembering the message. Some of these commercials make water-torture techniques seem welcome by comparison.

The questions that the advertiser must answer are: What kind of relationship would you like to establish with a potential client? Is this a “one shot” sale, and how do you want the client to “feel” about your store or business?

Keep It Simple. . .

One thing is for sure, no matter what approach you take, you should never overload the commercial with too much information. There is a temptation by many to treat a commercial like a newspaper ad...loading it with sale prices, addresses, phone numbers, and too much detail.

Don’t include more than one or two items. Don’t give too much detail. For example, instead of saying, “Microwave ovens, formerly $995, now just $895,” say, “Save $100 on microwave ovens, now just $895.”

Try to avoid giving a street address. Use “locations” not the actual address. For example, how many of you don’t know your high school street address, but know exactly how to get there? If possible say, “Jones Furniture on Main, across from the Clock Tower.” Or, “On Main at Central Street.”

It’s almost pointless to give a phone number unless it is very simple or spells out some word or phrase.

Straight Sell. . .

It can be very effective to just simply state your message and not go to the expense or effort of producing a humorour, hard sell, or visual image approach.

If you use this technique, tell your story in an open, straight forward and logical manner...but keep it simple. Be informative but don’t overload the message with too many ideas. For example:

Announcer: “Jones Resale is different from most any other store you know. For example, we are only open Friday through Sunday. Why? Because we found out that that’s when we sell the most. So why be open Monday through Thursday?

“Naturally we save money operating this way, so we can pass the savings on to you. That’s why you can save up to 40% on VCR recorders, TV sets, sewing machines and vacuum cleaners.

“For example, this weekend, Jones Resale has a GE mini-microwave for just $89, that’s $50 less than anyone else’s advertised price. Find out for yourself, check the papers for the prices elsewhere...then come to Jones Resale...but remember, you won’t find us open Monday through Thursday. Jones Resale, across from the Post Office on Main.”

Don’t overload it with too many specific examples.

Jingles. . .

Jingles work! Just ask Pepsi Cola. There are hundreds of thousands of people who can still sing a Pepsi jingle that dates back to when the product came in a eight ounce bottle and sold for a nickel!

Per Inquiry. . .

Most everyone in barter, sooner or later, finds out about per inquiry (P.I.) advertising, and they want to convince the local stations to take their advertising and pay them a percentage of sales.

I probably get twenty calls a week from prospective clients who want help producing a spot for a product they are planning to get stations to take on a P.I. basis. One out of the twenty might have a chance of getting a P.I. deal. (They usually have paid ten bucks for a “list” of so-called free stations in the back of one of those opportunity magazines.)

First of all, no matter what the stations will tell you, per inquiry is alive and well, but your chances of getting a local station or a network to go along with your idea is almost nil!

There are precious few that will admit to working on that basis. Hardly any do it for local accounts. Almost none will do it without an ad agency involved.

I spent two years studying per inquiry and how it works. I know the names of the people at the radio and TV networks who make the decisions about what accounts get approved for per inquiry. Mind you, these people don’t exist, if you talk to the sales manager of the station. Here’s my advice to those wanting to try per inquiry:

Sometimes the stations carry P.I. commercials, but they are actually on a network and the station is obligated to carry the spot. However, the network is responsible for the ad.

Sometimes the advertiser is actually paying for inquiries! (Not sales.) An example is a well-known discount stock broker, who pays $6 for every person who calls the “800” number assigned to the stations or network asking for free information.

I used to get $90 an inquiry for leads on a security, if the prospect bought or not. The company knew exactly how many leads would convert to sales and at what cost.

Don’t expect the local station to trust you to “source” leads by asking customers where they heard the ad. It doesn’t work that way. Besides, sometimes when radio is working best, the listener doesn’t know where they heard the ad.

The most effective commercials are the ones that reach the subconscious, without the listener knowing he is being sold. (Sourcing is a whole different story. Remember the people who thought they saw a cartoon of the little old lady in the car wash?)

What you can sometimes get a station to do is accept an order based on producing a certain number of leads. For example, I pay you $100 a week for ten leads, or $500 a week for 50 leads. Sometimes the station will take you on, and if you don’t get the prescribed number of leads they’ll run extra spots until you do!

The key is trust. They must know and believe you and have confidence that your product has appeal. Your chances are much better going through an established media company or ad agency. Plus, your spot must be very well-planned and professionally produced.

Who trades for media? Most all media will trade, because the increment cost of using unsold inventory is very low. Again, however, the media must have confidence in you and the fact that you will maintain confidentiality. Nothing blows a media trade quicker than some loud mouth trader boasting about his latest “score.”

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