Written for the "100+ Market, General Manager's Handbook"
Published by the National Association of Broadcasters, 1988

There was a time when it didn't take much to market a station effectively. Once you had a transmitter, signed on with a network, and let people know what time their favorite shows were on, your broadcast license was literally a permit to print money. Those days are quickly moving behind us.

In 1964 there were 649 television stations in the country, including 24 commercial independents. By May of 1987, the field had grown to over 1300 television stations, with 284 independents. That's twice the number of stations, almost twelve times the number of independents, and that's just the on-air competition. Movies, concerts, how-to tapes and music videos are available for sale or rental (for as little as $.99) to the over thirty-eight million families (43.5% of TV households) with videocassette recorders. Then there's Cable.. HBO, Showtime, CNN, MTV, ESPN, TBS, satellite transmission, imported signals... 12, 24, 36, or more choices, where once there were three... or two... or even one.  1 (Television Information Office, 1987)

With this increased competition for viewers attention, it's clear that many of the methods we have used to market television stations don't work anymore. We are repeatedly challenged to improve our ability to provide, and promote want satisfying services that will make our station stand out from the competition. Promotion can provide you with a powerful resource.

This chapter will address three issues that have an impact on promotion effectiveness. We'll explore the relationship between promotion, marketing, station image and station management, and we'll outline some ways to make your interaction with promotion more powerful, more productive, and more rewarding. The chapter was written, primarily for general managers, to stimulate discussions within your station about new and more effective ways of managing station promotion, and to make a difference in your ability to communicate effectively with your audience.

Issue #1 - Shifting Your Emphasis
One issue we'll address is shifting your emphasis from the production of promotion to the effectiveness of promotion. This shift can be particularly tough for those of us who were trained in the way things have been done for years. You can't get much help from books. Most of the information available about television promotion concerns ideas or techniques for producing better spots, ads and campaigns. The key to effective promotion is in the process we use to develop spots and campaigns, and until recently, very little attention has been paid to process.

To create effective promotion, the producer must be conscious of something larger than the piece itself. The face value of promotional spots, program opens, graphics, logos, animation and music, as production pieces, pales in comparison to the contributions they can make to the quality of your station's communication with its audience, to internal communication, and ultimately, to the profitability of the business.

Issue #2 - Consistency
The second major issue is consistency, between the product and the promotion, and between promotion and the station's "Image". In many cases, the people responsible for the promotion of a program have little or no involvement in the thinking behind the selection or production of that program. They often develop their own objectives for the promotion, which may be very different from the objectives of the program producer, the news director, the program director, or the general manager.
 When all your communications are focused in the same direction, the station speaks with one voice, and develops a reputation for delivering on its promises. Creating advertising which is NOT consistent with the program, or with the station's commitments, can sometimes produce short term gains, but more often contributes to mistrust, and damages the perceptions of the station in the minds of the viewers. Inconsistencies between what the station is, and what it says it is, are often more obvious to the audience than they are to people inside the station.

Issue #3 - Managing The Promotion Process
The third issue we'll address is a new way of thinking about managing promotion and the marketing/image process. It represents a departure from traditional problem/solution approaches, and offers station management a new set of possibilities for managing effectively. The principal opportunity is to have everyone involved in marketing the station work together, in a common direction. When the station operates out of a shared "vision" for the future, everyone can have the experience of contributing to the process and sharing in the successes.

100+ market stations, faced with serious marketing/image challenges and limited budgets may be the first to realize the opportunity in this area. The minimal bureaucracy present in smaller organizations, can be a distinct advantage in exploring new ways of thinking about promotion.

In the marketing area, there is tremendous confusion around what we can or should expect from the promotion department. Just look at the number of titles we have for the job. A recent survey found fourteen different titles used to describe the promotion position... Promotion Manager, Advertising & Promotion Director, Director of Marketing, Creative Services Director, Marketing & Advertising Manager, and others, with little or no distinction in job responsibilities.

One reason for the confusion is that marketing, and the relatively new area of station image , can not be assigned exclusively to the promotion department. When the issue of station image or station identity comes up, EVERYBODY gets interested, and well they should. The image of the station has a direct impact on how they feel about their jobs, their coworkers, and themselves.

Another reason for the confusion is the lack of agreement on the scope of broadcast marketing. Audience attitudes about the station have been shown to influence viewer's choices for news, information or entertainment programs. Since station image is "the sum of ALL impressions of the station held by the audience", every connection between you and your audience makes a statement about who you are. Everything you produce that is seen by the audience, as well as every interaction between a potential viewer and someone who represents your station, has an impact on that viewer's perceptions of the station.

A sampling of the factors that can influence viewer perceptions are listed in the Marketing/Image Responsibilities Table (Figure #1). As an exercise, look carefully at the list. Who is accountable for viewer perceptions in each area? How many different points-of-view of your station's image are you communicating to the viewers?
 
 

Figure #1   Marketing/ImageResponsibilities To understand who is responsibile for creating the audience perceptions of your station, notice who is responsible for each of the following elements. PROGRAMMING Program Selection/Style Program Packaging (Opens, Graphics, Music) NEWS Program Objectives Editorial Philosophy Program Packaging (Opens, Graphics, Music) Vehicles & News Logos Anchor Images Reporter Images Franchise Images BUSINESS IMAGE Telephones/Reception Location & Signage Stationary & Graphics SALES Sales People (Attitude) Sales Promotion Acceptance Standards PROMOTION On-Air Promotion "Look" Station "Voice" Station Image Spots Generic Program Promotion Episodic Program Promotion Generic News Promotion Episodic News Promotion Radio Advertising Print Ads & Billboards Public Relations Media Relations COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Public Service Public Affairs Editorials ENGINEERING Picture Quality Transmission Quality

Dividing lines between departmental responsibilities are usually not cast in stone. Accountability in certain areas is often unclear, particularly in on-air applications outside of promotion like the production of news opens or the packaging of public affairs. Confusion about accountability can lead to conflict between departments and inconsistent impressions for the audience.

Dealing with every area that influences marketing/image, on an individual basis, is obviously an impossible task, however, it is possible to manage the marketing/image process so that you get everything you want out of it. The key is to build a strong internal commitment to a common purpose, shared by everyone in the station.

Because the marketing/Image issue is so important to everyone, it may be the best opportunity you have to address the station's internal commitment. By asking questions like "How do we want the audience to perceive us in two years?", both management and staff have the opportunity to directly look at their "vision", and commitments for the future, which provides the foundation for the station's image.

 The simplest road map to marketing/image effectiveness:

•   A Strong Internal Commitment...

     serves as a framework for
•   A Consistent Marketing/Image...

     which serves as a basis for
•   Strong Market Perceptions

Since every station, and every market situation is different, there is no simple formula for creating internal commitment. The next section of this chapter looks at the fundamental shift in thinking required to build internal commitment, and a shared vision for the future.

In this section, we present some guidelines for developing and implementing a vision-based approach to managing promotion, and the marketing/image development process.

CAUTION: To get the most out of this section, we suggest that you listen in a different way than you usually listen to management tips or techniques. What follows represents a new way of thinking about working with people inside the TV station. We invite you to "listen softly", from your heart, for the kind of insight that leads to real understanding.

Today's manager tends to measure success by the absence of problems. This represents a limited form of thinking, or a mind set, that we'll call "problem/solution" thinking, or the Hero syndrome. The primary orientation is to watch for situations that you perceive to be current or future threats to the station's (or your own) survival. When a problem is identified, the Hero attacks it with the vigor necessary to solve the problem.

Unfortunately, this kind of thinking breeds on itself. As long as there are problems, surely we will need problem solvers. Right? Is there something fundamentally weak or limiting about this model? Take a look at your own experience. We've all seen many occasions when the solution not only failed to resolve the problem, but compounded it. How often have we seen people or money blamed as the cause of ineffective promotion? How often have we seen "problem people" replaced, or budgets increased, with no real change in promotion effectiveness?

This way of thinking rivets our attention on dealing with symptoms. We stimulate this thinking by rewarding individual performance ? the person with the good ideas, fast answers and the quick-fix solutions. We seldom reward teamwork in a tangible way. This pattern does nothing to encourage us to locate and resolve the source of repetitive problem situations. Nor does it direct our attention to possibilities or opportunities that may be lurking behind the face of the problem. It's just easier to deal with the symptoms. Besides, it is genuinely tough to find, and resolve, the root cause of a problem.

What we're suggesting here is that the traditional thinking behind our current model of managing promotion and marketing/image is ineffective and obsolete. It may have been an effective management model in another time, or another industry (particularly manufacturing), but it's time for a new model. A more powerful, more effective way of thinking is needed if TV stations are to succeed financially, and fulfill their role in society.

Can there be such a thing as another way of thinking? Yes! What we're really talking about here is a shift in perspective, as opposed to merely changing your thoughts about an issue or situation. We're pointing at your natural ability to access your common sense to guide you toward doing what works. Most likely, you've already experienced such shifts, without even knowing it was happening. However, it may be like a weak muscle that needs strengthening due to lack of use.

This new way of thinking can be discovered by looking at what certain words in our language have in common and point at... words such as vision, intention, context, creativity, insight, commitment, responsibility, accountability, spirit, unconditional, effectiveness, quality, and excellence. Think about them for a moment. While these words are often abused, to the point of becoming cliché (particularly in advertising copy) they do point at something much deeper than the level of thinking we normally apply to solving problems.

Here are some of the basic principles inherent in this new way of thinking.

 1. Accomplishing meaningful goals requires a clear purpose and sense of direction.
There is an old Chinese proverb: "If you don't know where you're going, any path will do". This should seem obvious, but we find that many stations are operated with their people completely in the dark about the stations goals and objectives. Needless to say, those people often have little respect for management's efforts to control production and tend to offer only the minimum cooperation necessary to keep their jobs.

2. Personal commitment is the life force of the organization.
"People readily commit themselves to things they believe will further their interests. If no link is seen between what a person is asked to do and what a person wants to do, the probability of getting an all out effort is not likely. You can order people to do things and ordinarily they will comply , at least while you are watching. But if you want them to apply themselves, internal commitment is required."  2 (Peter Block, 1981).  Real leadership, then, is more about creating a condition in which meaningful commitments are established at all levels of the organization.

3. Choose your station's driving force... Vision?... or Survival?
It is useful to think of stations as organic, living entities. In fact, they not only seem to have a life of their own, but they appear to be moving in some direction, as if the station is propelled by a driving force. It reflects the heart of the station ? a singular motive or commitment that sets it apart from any other station, and gives it its particular identity. Building a vision for the future is a process of identifying, and building on WHAT gives the station its momentum.

4. Vision driven management is oriented toward locating and responding to opportunities.
 There are two perspectives for every situation, the negative and the positive. Whether we hear or see the opportunity side to any given situation has no effect on whether it is there. We can chose to listen for, and respond to opportunities in each and every situation. This points to the two fundamental types of driving forces:

1. Control driven (based on the myth of control); and
2. Vision driven (based on a commitment to fulfill a purpose).

The "Driving Force" table (Figure #2) illustrates some characteristics of the two different approaches to managing promotion & marketing/image.
 

Figure #2  Organizational Driving Force Characteristics    Control/Survival Driven    Vision Driven          Organized For Tight Control     Organized To Fulfill A Purpose    Roles Are Unclear, Overlapping     Roles Are Clear    Accountability Is Ambiguous     Accountabilities Are Clearly Defined    Focus Is On Doing Things     Focus Is On Purpose and Producing Results    Concern For Personal Survival     Attention On Possibilities    Managers Withhold Support     Managers Offer Support To Others    Listening To Things That Support      Your Point Of View     Hearing The Truth    Making The Job Overly Important      Eliminating What Does Not Make a      Difference    Worry About Doing Things Right     Doing The Right Things    Trying To Please Others     Producing Results That Work    Gossip & Complaining     Talk About New Possibilities    Looking For Great Ideas     Focus On Effectiveness    Justifying Why It Didn't Work     Moving Toward Solutions    Imposing Your Way On Others     Simply Doing What Works    Struggling For Agreement     Driving For Consensus    Unsatisfying Compromises     Win/Win Solutions    Superficial Good Feelings     Genuine Enthusiasm    Underlying Frustration     Overriding Excitement    Short Term Solutions     Long Term Results    Inconsistent Image     Consistent, Confident Image    Low Self Esteem     Pride Of Self & Others    Leadership Is Questioned     Leadership Is Respected    Lots Of Glitz & Hype     Speaking To Peoples Needs/Wants    Settle For Less Than "The Best"     Unconditional Commitment To Excellence

Shifting your focus, from problem/solution thinking to managing the process of developing the station's marketing/image, opens the possibility for people to work together in a way that fulfills a common purpose.

To see the difference between these two approaches, imagine a group of people coming together to formulate a campaign. The conversation is directed by someone who views the situation as a terrific opportunity, and is excited and enthusiastic about working together, as a team, to create a new approach to communicating with their audience, about the station or the programming.  How does this contrast with the kind of meeting we've all been in, which focuses on problems... where people fight for position, applying their own solutions to the problem. It winds up being far less than a creative, stimulating or exciting process.

Which conversation would you like to be in? Which conversation is more likely to produce effective promotion?

Please understand that we are not talking about positive thinking. We are talking about a purposeful approach to managing the promotion process that recognizes that there is a larger possibility present when a group of people works together, in an open, supportive environment. Essentially, we're speaking about the role of the manager, and his or her ability to frame conversations, and to re-frame, or shift the context of an existing situation, from being a problem-to-solve, to an opportunity-to-create. Work performed in this context can achieve results that are truly consistent with the manager's vision for the station.

1.  Establish A Clear Purpose For Promotion

It's not easy. All of us have an inherent reluctance to address why we're doing something, but it is the single most important question to answer. Before you start planning a campaign, agreement on purpose is vital. Start by asking the tough questions. What business are we in? Who are our customers? What sets us apart from the competition? What do we want to accomplish with this campaign? Agreement on purpose is the foundation of the marketing/image process.

Just as the station's shared commitment drives the marketing/image process, agreement on the objectives for a campaign or spot drives the process of creating effective promotional pieces. There is enough confusion in this area that it warrants specific attention. Several years involvement with the Broadcast Promotion (BPME) awards program has shown that there is not a lot of agreement on what an objective statement should look like. Many of the objective statements submitted with award entries are really just descriptions of the spot. (i.e: "To show the anchorman with children, and that he likes cats.") Objective statements should deal with the objective, rather than ideas about how to reach that objective. Other objectives are vague. Is there ANY station in the country that does NOT want to be Number One, increase its market share, attract more viewers, and project a stronger image? Those objectives have no power to set you apart from your competition, or produce any significant shift in viewer's perceptions.

The Objective Statement
A short, clear, accurate and complete objective statement can guide the creative process through the hundreds of decisions made during brainstorming, writing, designing, shooting and editing promotional spots.

The major criteria for evaluating an objective statement are:

• CLARITY & ACCURACY - Is it easy to understand what the objective is?
• COMPLETENESS - Is anything significant left out?
• DOABILITY - Given staff capabilities and budget, is the objective within your reach?
• AGREEMENT - Does everyone involved with the project agree that the statement is accurate and complete and doable?
• COMMITMENT - Is everybody involved with the project willing to actively support the achievement of the objective?

Some tough questions to test your objectives:

• SO WHAT?  WHO CARES? Is it clear WHY you are doing the piece at all?
• What RESULTS do you expect from the piece? (Short term AND long term)?
• What FEELINGS do you want the viewer to get from the piece?
• How do you want the station, program or person to be perceived by the viewer after they see the piece?
• Is it possible to produce a spot that achieves the stated objective, WITHOUT meeting your expectations? If it is, the statement is not complete, and should be restated.
• Is "Impact" an important part of your objective? and if so, does the statement reflect that?

The impact question is asked last for a reason. It is VERY easy to get caught up in being slick and lose perspective on the objective. While impact is a vital ingredient in any production, the DEGREE of impact should be appropriate for achieving your objectives.

Finally... Treat the objective statement like a contract. Change it ONLY if it is incomplete or inaccurate, and insure that everyone agrees on the changes BEFORE the piece goes into production.

Two kinds of data are needed to clearly understand and resolve the cause of a "situation you want to change":

1. Objective data - the cold hard facts about what has happened or is happening.
2. Personal data - including the feelings, thoughts and points of view of the people involved.

Both are needed to understand and resolve issues at their source. However, the personal data is often more valuable in that it will reflect whether people are honestly willing to resolve the issue at all, and that IS the critical factor.

Promotion decisions often require the support of a large number of people, in different departments. "Making decisions is easy. Making decisions that people will support is not so easy. Organizations seems to work better when people get an opportunity to influence decisions that have a direct impact upon their work. When people feel that something is important and they have some control, they will be motivated to exert the effort to make things work. When they believe that something is important but they can exert no control, the common tendencies are to become cautious and defensive, to play it safe, to withhold information and to protect themselves from blame."  3  (Peter Block, 1981)

Identify and "frame" the purpose of the session UP FRONT. A brainstorming session without purpose will produce little more than good ideas. To generate ideas that can make a contribution to your marketing efforts, people have to be heading in the same direction (sound familiar?).

Create a safe environment for exploring everyone's creativity. Everyone has potentially valuable input to the creative process. You can tap your staff's resources by allowing people to present their ideas without judging them. Chuck Jones, the legendary Warner Bros. animator refers to brainstorming as "YES!" sessions, where the only rule is not to negate any idea that could turn out to be a valuable contribution to the creative process. If people are afraid to be wrong, they will only contribute safe ideas. A supportive environment leads to breakthroughs in creativity.

There appears to be no agreed criteria for evaluating promotion and marketing/image effectiveness. The only choices we seem to have are:

1. The impact of the pieces (Do people talk about them?)
2. Program ratings (which everyone agrees are dependent on a lot more than the promotion)

We suggest the following as appropriate criteria for evaluating promotion and marketing/image performance.

Consistency - The Promotion Performance Indicator
The primary promotion performance indicator is consistency between what you are, and what you say you are. With some possible limitations (money, equipment or talent) it is relatively easy to create flashy promotions that attract attention to themselves. It's harder to create pieces that represent "The Best" the programs, the people, and the station have to offer.

Accurately representing the strengths of the programs, and the station, leads to satisfied viewers who trust you to keep your promises.

• Is the PROMISE consistent with the PRODUCT?
• Does the CONTENT of the piece accurately represent the PROGRAM?
• Does the QUALITY of the piece accurately represent the STATION?

Viewer Perceptions - The Marketing/Image Performance Indicator
The purpose of most marketing/image campaigns is to "shift, establish, or solidify market perceptions". The effectiveness of your marketing/image efforts can be evaluated based on the degree of attitude shift you are able to achieve. Accurate readings of viewers' feelings can point the way for your marketing/image efforts. To evaluate effectiveness, just ask the same questions, to a similar sample, six months to a year later, and look for changes in the quality of the answers.

NOTE: To research attitudes, questions need to be open ended, rather than "A, B or C" responses, so they are much more difficult to quantify. You don't have to hire a professional research company, but if you do it yourselves, be sure the questions don't influence the responses. Good questions for determining audience perceptions would include:

• What is your favorite station?... and Why?
• Who are your favorite newscasters?... and Why?
• What words would you use to describe the station?... competition?
• How do you feel about Channel __'s news?

If the interviewer lets the viewer answer honestly, you'll learn a lot. Access to this kind of information about viewer attitudes is indispensable in positioning the station.

Nearly everyone has begun to realize the importance of promotion and marketing/image to the station's success. You can get potentially valuable input from your staff, professional associations, organizational consultants, marketing consultants, news consultants, program consultants or sales reps.

The responsibility for creating and realizing your vision for the station belongs you alone. Everyone who has an interest in the success of your station can provide guidance, ideas, suggestions, information and often fresh perspectives in the areas of promotion and marketing/image. Remember that they are all starting at different places, with different objectives, and all too often, their own personal priorities. They can often miss the big picture. In most stations, the responsibility for maintaining a clear vision of the entire marketing process belongs with the station's top manager.

When you want support, we suggest you settle for nothing less than a powerful relationship with your staff and your consultants. We often expect too little from the people we hire, either as staff people, or as outside consultants. Whether it's someone inside, or outside the station, get clear about the roles and goals for the association. The important questions to ask are:

• What do I want and expect from you?
• What do you want and expect from me?

When you are in agreement about what you want and expect from each other, DEMAND THEIR BEST, and support them in achieving at a level of excellence. We ALL do our best work when we're pressed to perform at the top of our capabilities.

Effective promotion is only one ingredient of effective marketing. Marketing the station involves nearly every department in the station. While the job of creating and producing promotional spots and program opens usually belongs to the promotion department, the effectiveness of their work is a direct function of the focus and support they receive from everyone involved in the marketing process, particularly the station's top manager.

Shifting audience perceptions is less a result of great production than it is a product of clear and accurate communication with your audience. Stations communicate with viewers in many different ways. When all of your communications reflect a common direction for the station, the station is truly speaking with one voice, and viewers can begin to trust the station like a friend who can be counted on.

The results you get from promotion are largely a function of what you expect from promotion. Results come from commitment and alignment on a purpose and objectives rather than the execution of production that reflects any one person's likes or dislikes.

Promotion is the station's loudest voice. It can have a profound, and lasting impact on audience perceptions if the message is consistent with what you are willing, able and committed to providing through ALL communications between the station and the viewer.

When we build promotion and image campaigns on a clear vision for the future, shared by everyone responsible for the station's image, everybody wins... the station, the staff, and the audience.

Karl Sjödahl is President & Creative Director of SjöCom Inc., a marketing, design and production company in San Francisco, California. Since 1975, SjöCom (originally "Telesound") has been creating and producing promotional spots, image campaigns, program showcasing, and marketing presentations designed to support their clients marketing and management objectives. SjöCom has created promotion and image materials for NBC, Warner Bros., Group W, COMSAT, and 138 television and radio stations in the United States, Canada and South America.

Mr. Sjödahl has been involved professionally in broadcasting for over twenty years, in programming, promotion, and production management. He has an extensive background in film, video and audio production, and his work has won over thirty awards for creative excellence. He has been an invited speaker on promotion, production and the creative process by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA), and the Broadcast Promotion and Marketing Executives (BPME). He served on BPME's Board of Directors from 1983 to 1985.

Mac Carter is the principal consultant in A. M. Carter & Associates, an organization development consulting firm, operating out of the San Francisco Bay area. He specializes in coaching entrepreneurs and managers in mastering the dynamics of smaller, rapidly growing business enterprises. His work is designed to transform vision into effective action. This approach focuses on generating the quality of leadership, communication and teamwork that empowers people to achieve excellence.

Mr. Carter has consulted to business education and government organizations for more than six years. His background includes 15 years as a manager in high growth, multi-office corporate operations. He has held national level positions responsible for operational planning, large event production, management training, contract and financial administration, event scheduling, and computer systems development. His education includes a Masters degree in Business Management and Organizational Development from George Washington University. He currently teaches graduate level classes in Organizational Consulting and Business Planning, and is a member in several professional networks of management and organizational consultants.

1   Market Growth Data: Television Information Office, New York, 1987
2, 3  Block, Peter "Flawless Consulting", Austin Texas: Learning Concepts, 1981

Original article © 1988, the National Association of Broadcasters
Reproduction of this material in any form is prohibited without permission from the NAB.