October 8, 2009

Listen critically to your station for the little things. Let's say there's a day that was unseasonably hot or cold and the humidity was higher or lower than usual. The average person who has nerve endings can feel it is an unusual weather day. Are the live people you still have on the air giving the statistics? I know they do time and temp, but do they say what the record high/low is and are we going to (or did we) beat it? The audience can feel the high humidity, but they would really like to have some confirmation. They would like to know if a record was beaten.

Television frequently gives you an opening to be the one delivering the statistics. Watch the local weather people and see how often they don't give the payoff. I see them frequently saying the humidity was high, but they don't say how high. That's like saying a track star set a new record for the high jump but not paying off with how high he jumped.

Here's another one directly off the TV. If you watch the cable news networks you have seen commercials for the stock trading company Scottrade. In these days of the public not being too fond of big companies, the commercial has the CEO (an endangered species) flying the company helicopter and talking about how cheaply you can trade stock. The thought has probably crossed many minds that it would be cheaper if he wasn't joy riding in the company chopper.

In that same commercial they are really proud of the fact that they have "over 300 offices nationwide." Hmm, I wonder if there are any in my town. I'm sure the theory is that if there are 300 nationwide, there must be one in my town. The lessons are, don't push the fact that the CEO is a bazillionaire in 2009 and don't make your potential customer work to find out if you can serve him.

Details ... think about the customer.