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The Aha Moment:
The Importance of Advertising
By Peter Janis
I
recently found myself in the Crowne
Plaza Hong Kong’s lofty rooftop bar
and started chatting with some fellows
in the “branding” business who were in
town for a trade show. Their business
is to connect well-known companies
such Proctor & Gamble, BMW, or Lululemon
with manufacturers of eyewear, cosmetics,
or household bleach. This allows the known
brands to focus on their primary business
while leveraging their brand to sell other
products. One such connection put Bentley
together with an Italian furniture manufac-
turer to produce Bentley-branded sofas and
coffee tables. The manufacturer benefitted
by having an iconic luxury brand on its
product that could command a higher price
while Bentley made extra pocket change
through a licensing agreement. The point
here is that branding plays a critical role in a
business’s success.
It does not take a rocket scientist to un-
derstand the power of a brand and its correla-
tion to advertising. Open a lifestyle magazine
or the in-flight publication stuffed into every
airline seat and the first dozen pages are lit-
tered with big brand advertisements.
You would not believe how often I have
heard that print ads are dead. If that’s the
case, then why is it that the biggest consumer
product manufacturers from cars to fridges
to computers to perfume continue to spend
billions each year on print marketing? Take a
minute to page through music industry mag-
azines such as Premier Guitar, Guitar Player,
or Recording and you will see double-page
spreads by Sweetwater, one of the world’s
largest online retailers. In Europe, Thomann
does the same. These big companies hire the
smartest people in the marketing world. So,
if print or print ads are no longer relevant,
why do they do it?
Simple: they want their brands to be
ubiquitous and drive as many eyes as they
can to their websites.
Creating market and brand awareness
is critical for any business. In the old days
of Yellow Pages, A-1 Plumbing was only
outflanked by AAA-Plumbing. Today, Google
ranks brands by top searches and this is only
outflanked by those that spend money on
keywords.
Before we became a connected society,
we would shop for a guitar amp by visiting a
local music store to get “professional” advice
on the limited options that were available.
Go back even further and take a look at an
old Eaton’s or Sears catalog; you would be
amazed at the number of pages describing
the latest technological advances in pianos,
accordions, and pump-organs.
Information was and continues to be the
driving sales factor, only today, we go online
to discover the latest and greatest, paging
through forums, reviews, and videos before
we make a buying decision. Then as soon as
we do so, Google reorganizes the information
we see by sending us sponsored links on the
pages we visit to guide our buying habits.
Do a search for a YouTube video and next
thing you know, an ad pops up for a Honda
lawnmower.
The problem today is that there is simply
too much information to weed through. Who
wrote the article? Where is it posted? Who
do you trust? “Real” printed magazines bring
a sense of trust to the landscape in a world
that is filled with questionable news sources
because the belief is that if a printed maga-
zine is in business, it is able to pay qualified
writers to bring well-researched articles to life
that are free from advertiser pressures and
self interest. In other words, they represent
real value. As a former CEO that spent well
in excess of $1 million per year on print ads,
I was and continue to be a firm believer.
What guided these original thoughts was
completely self-serving. When we started
Radial Engineering, I could not believe
that magazines had little or no interest in
espousing the benefits of a direct box with
multi-page editorials. Why was it that guitars,
concert PA systems, and digital recording
software got all the press while the DI box
was relegated to a brief paragraph? I remem-
ber trying to coerce magazines by soapbox-
ing: “If your editors are not interested in telling
your customers about direct boxes, then why
should I advertise? Clearly your readers have
no interest in my products!”
This was obviously not the best tactic.
Taking the ball home only takes you out of
the game. Truth is, DI boxes are not sexy;
therefore, they do not get the press. Instead,
I decided that the only way forward was to
“control” the editorial message by telling “my
story” in an ad. So, advertise we did.
I think at the peak, we were in about
40 magazines that spanned instruments,
pro audio, hi-fi, and commercial sound. By
controlling the message, I could get artists to
tell the world that our widget was better and,
eventually, the market bought in and Radial
become the number one DI box in pro audio.
The aha moment was clear: I had to com-
municate my own message to the market.
Sweetwater and Musician’s Friend spend
money on print ads to bring consumers to
their website. The intent is to capture the
buyer, make them a regular visitor, and turn
them into a customer that will spend money.
To bring a greater perspective to the equa-
tion, both Musician’s Friend and Sweetwater
produce hundreds of thousands of printed
copies of their own in-house magazines,
newsletters, and catalogues, and even go as
far as providing how-tos and product reviews
for users. Anyone can post something online
that promotes one product over another, but
there is an “entry fee” to having your mes-
sage in print. This sets you and your brand
apart. Consumers buy the brands that they
recognize; they also buy from the brands that
they trust. It is up to you to create confidence
in your brand by telling your story in the
media. This is best done by creating multiple
platforms that include ads in magazines, an
easy-to-navigate website, editorial that is
of interest to your audience, and efficient
communication to consumers that may ask
questions. You have to build a relationship
with your customer by creating trust.
While travelling, I did a search for Radial
in Bali and again in Hong Kong. In each case,
Radial Engineering came out on top, yet we
never spent a penny on keyword ads.
It’s simple: people see our print ad, they
search for the brand, and rankings go up.
Formerly the president and CEO of Radial
Engineering Ltd., Peter Janis has been in the
Canadian music industry for over 40 years,
working in retail, distribution, and manufac-
turing. Peter now offers consulting services
with his firm Exit-Plan, where he assists busi-
ness owners in increasing their sales and
enhancing the attractiveness of their business
in preparation for retirement. For more infor-
mation, visit www.exit-plan.ca.
PROFESSIONAL SOUND 9