Lesson Thirty-One: Befriend Thy Enemy

I had a great lunch with Dan,the sales manager for a local radio station. He was telling me about how tough it is to convince advertisers to put their money in radio.

“Competition is tough.With three new stations entering the market in the last year,most advertisers are waiting to see how it shakes out,” he said.

“The real challenge will be establishing a niche. For instance, we’ve got a lock on males, 18–25. The other guys can duke it out for everyone else.”

This is generally a good strategy: Uniqueness in the market.

Then he told me something truly astounding.

“It’s also difficult trying to fight the local daily newspaper (the city where I live,Victoria, has only one daily newspaper, a monopoly).They get the lion’s share of advertisers. In fact they do four times the total radio sales for all stations.”

“WHAT?” I exclaimed. “You mean that one paper sells four times more advertising than your entire industry?”

“Yep.”

My friend Dan and his colleagues in radio don’t have a problem because there are too many radio stations. Their problem is that they are in the wrong fight. They are locked in a battle for market share—the percent of the market each station can claim. Like trench warfare, there are a lot of casualties, but not much movement.

They should be working together to increase the size of the market.

It’s simple math. 10% of 100 is 10. 10% of 500 is 50. Increase the market, not the market share.

The radio guys need to work together to entice the entire advertising buying market. There are a lot of compelling reasons to choose radio over print. It wouldn’t take much to chip away at the newspaper, and the growth that resulted would provide extra revenue for all stations.The market would grow, and everyone would prosper.

Dan and his station are stuck in a battle because it’s convenient, not because it’s the right one. The stations will jockey back and forth, a few will likely die, and others will take their place, and no one will ever enjoy lasting success.

In your industry, are you waging a marketing battle against your perceived competitors, or the actual ones?


Principles of Persuassion by Shane Spark