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Newspapers Generating More Readers Per Copy

Contrary to conventional wisdom that newspaper print readership is sagging as news readers flock online, a study just released suggests printed newspapers may be becoming even more vital by one important metric: the degree to which they are passed along from one reader to another. The study, an analysis of readership and circulation data for 25 leading U.S. newspapers conducted by Scarborough Research and the Newspaper National Network, found that the number of readers-per-copy of a newspaper has actually been increasing, not decreasing in recent years.

Specifically, the study found that over the past three years, the number of readers-per-copy has risen 7.5%, to 3.30 adults in 2009 from 3.07 adults in 2007. The finding is significant for several reasons. One obviously is that it shows that the average copy of a newspaper is getting more mileage as it is passed from one reader to another. Another reason why it's significant, is that readers-per-copy is an important advertising metric, showing advertisers and agencies how much bang they got for each copy of a newspaper they paid for - and it's on the rise, not the decline.

"Readers per copy is especially important as newspapers compete for their share of a brand's media budget, particularly among national advertisers," states Gary Meo, senior vice president, print and digital media services, Scarborough Research. "More people are reading each printed copy, further enhancing the value of the newspaper as an advertising medium, and increasing exposure for advertisers."

Jason Klein, the president-CEO of the NNN says the finding also indicates that newspapers appear to be running their operations more efficiently, and are getting a higher return on their print operations by reaching more readers per single copy of their print editions, while at the same time, extending their reach via online readership.

According to Ken Kremar, Sara Johnson, and Laura Hodges on a recent IHS Global Insight webinar, the U.S. economy has turned the corner and prospects for the mid-term look pretty good, albeit with a number of caveats. The presenters said they see a moderate U.S. recovery, with consumers cautiously increasing spending as incomes rise, although they look for a bumpy housing market recovery and lingering high unemployment. IHS Global Insight sees competing forces affecting consumer finances, with income growth, low inflation, low interest rates and a stock market rally on the positive side battling with high unemployment, reduced asset values, tight credit, and high debt burdens on the negative side.

Their forecast shows consumer consumption advancing in the two to three percent annual range through 2012, which, while a nice increase vs. 2008 and 2009, is still not what we were used to seeing before that. At the same time, the savings rate should continue to climb all the way through 2020, as households struggle to rebuild their net worth.

Motor vehicles, consumer electronics, and healthcare are seen leading consumer spending growth with the expansion gaining momentum as employment slowly recovers. But consumers will continue to look for value and spend cautiously as the recovery in real household net worth takes until 2015.

For retail (excluding auto), IHS Global Insight sees growth in the four to five percent range from 2010 through 2015. Channels where the highest growth is expected include online, warehouse clubs, superstores, consumer electronics/appliance stores, food and dollar stores. Other channels that will start to do well again, although not until 2011, include building materials and hardware, furniture and restaurants. Department stores, apparel and sporting goods retailers will show modest to moderate growth as well.

Three Ways to Avoid Burnout in a ‘More-With-Less’ Sales World

Stress-related burnout is a major concern in Sales these days. Here are three ways to help your staff avoid the syndrome that’s affecting more than 75% of employees nationwide, according to a recent CareerBuilder survey:

1. Reassess priorities: Before asking reps to take on more responsibility, consider which of their tasks can be reallocated, put off or done away with altogether. A lot of times it’s the low-priority tasks that eat up salespeople’s time, providing them with less opportunity to pursue revenue-producing ventures. Streamlining responsibilities lets reps know you’re on their side, while allowing them more time to close deals.
   
2. Do something on each rep’s behalf: With so much pressure to perform, salespeople need to feel like you’re a partner in their success. Whether that means helping them close a top prospect, going to bat to get them the bonus they deserve or simply joining them on sales calls, let them know you’re in their corner at all times.
   
3. Create a low-cost incentive: Some sales organizations give reps a day off for achieving monthly goals. Others allow reps to work from home one day a week. The key is to create a win-win where the company achieves its goals and salespeople don’t feel overworked.
   

The key to avoiding burnout is taking measures before problems arise. Otherwise, stress-related burnout could lead to decreased productivity and increased turnover, as well as stress and depression — all of which end up costing the company in the long run.

Some employees refuse to get the ‘recession blues’: What motivates them

The recession hasn’t been all bad for American workers, according to a recent survey from Robert Half International. Their attitudes greatly depend on their workplace environment.

Most workers can cite at least one positive effect the recession’s had on their jobs:

• Ability to take on new projects: 53%
  
• More responsibility: 52%
  
• More challenging work: 52%
  
• Increased interaction with management: 44%
  
• More interactions with clients or customers: 38%
  

Sales & Marketing Business Brief, January 2010

Sales Tip:

The first rule of persuasion is to tell a well-crafted story.

Here are four tips that’ll help any salesperson be more persuasive and close more deals. Share them with your salespeople.

1. Tell your story. Some salespeople fail to tell persuasive stories because they haven’t spent enough time learning their sales materials. But usually it’s because they recite experiences that aren’t their own. Telling a personal story about your positive experience with a product or service is always more powerful than telling someone else’s.
   
2. Answer the five Ws and one H. The best stories answer all of these questions: Who should buy from you? What should they buy? Where should they use it? When’s the best time to buy? Why should they buy it? And how should they use it? Make points prospects will have a hard time disagreeing with. Try to tell a story that reflects how you’re going to eliminate or minimize their pain.
   
3. Layer on the proof. Any examples or testimonials you use should feature someone the prospects know or someone from their industry who’s in the same situation they are (and don't forget to include great testimonials on the paper's website).
   
4. Gather feedback. Ask for prospects’ reactions to what you’ve presented to them. If they appear to be confused about anything you’ve said, try to clear it up before asking for the sale or ending the meeting.

Adapted from “Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want” by Dave Lakhani

Management Tip:

Four Essentials When Setting Sales Goals

When setting goals for your salespeople today, you may want to consider some new strategies.

Here are the top four keys to setting goals salespeople will be motivated to hit, according to a recent Corporate Executive Board study of more than 700 organizations:

1. Connect incentives to company goals: Most managers understand the value of providing incentives that constantly raise the bar on salespeople’s performance. But the goal should also be to find ways to tie incentives to your company’s overall mission. That way salespeople aren’t just focusing on closing sales. Example: The Ritz Carlton wanted to increase customer loyalty. And to do that it started giving out additional bonuses to employees who constantly go out of their way to let guests know how much their business is appreciated. As a result, the company was rated No. 1 in PeopleMetrics’ 2009 Buyer Loyalty Survey.
   
2. Follow up and follow through: It’s also essential to have a system in place for following up on goals and adjusting them based on each rep’s progress. Meet with salespeople regularly to review previous goals and actual business results, and adjust those goals when necessary. During those meetings, have reps choose three specific goals they’d like to achieve and work with them to create a step-by-step plan for accomplishing each.
   
3. Have clear metrics in place: Even though certain goals are qualitative, there should always be an agreed upon means for measuring a salesperson’s progress. Metrics help managers pinpoint where a salesperson may be falling short, which is the first step in overcoming the problem.
   
4. Consistently update your approach: The business world is constantly changing, as are the incentives that motivate salespeople to go out and close more business. With that in mind, you may want to consider updating your compensation strategy so it reflects the way your business has changed (e.g., does it reward reps for closing repeat business? Does it encourage reps to push the products with the highest profit margins?). You also may want to ask salespeople what incentives they want that would motivate them to close more business. Incentives only work if they are something salespeople truly value.

Source: “Five Steps for Effective Sales Coaching,” by the staff of the Corporate Executive Board, BusinessWeek.

Ace Hardware Targeting Hispanic Consumers

Among the general market, Ace Hardware is a well-known brand. But a bit surprisingly, the brand isn't so well-known among Hispanics. With that in mind, the 85-year-old company is using its first Hispanic-centric marketing campaign to introduce the brand to the nearly 50 million members of the Hispanic market.

The effort, which includes television and radio commercials, links Ace Hardware to the Spanish term "La Ferreteria,"  (hardware store) which is a center of the community for many Latin countries.

The national campaign, which will run through the spring on Telemundo and Univision, comes after two years of test market campaigns in Denver, Chicago and Sacramento, Calif.

"In the test markets, we were translating general market spots, and we found we needed to be more relevant," says Jose Gonzalez, a partner at Hispanic marketing agency Revolucion. "When we started talking about the hardware store [to Hispanic consumers], it was a place in the community that they could go to, where someone was always helpful to them,"
Gonzalez tells Marketing Daily. "In the big box [hardware stores], they can't find help. It's too big; they're walking around for a long time. In the Ace store, there's always someone there to help."

The television commercials address the issue directly. The first commercial in a pool of three shows a man trying to get assistance in one of the big-box retailers, driving from store to store. "Whatever happened to the corner hardware store?" asks a voiceover. "To the person who was always there to help you? To just getting in and out quickly? Whatever happened to the weekend?" As the consumer gets help at his local Ace, the phrase "Menos tiempo dando vueltas/Más tiempo para lo importante (Less time running around/Is more time for what's important)" appears, as does the company's general-market tagline (in English), "The Helpful Place."

A second commercial in the pool shows Hispanic families working on home improvements together. The spot was born out of an insight that Hispanic consumers view home improvements as a family bonding and teaching time (as opposed to general market consumers, who prefer to get the improvements completed and get on with their weekends), Gonzalez says. "The Hispanic consumer did not mind doing the projects at home with their family," he says. "They [viewed] them as life lessons for their kids, showing their kids how to get through this journey in life."

Marketers targeting a male audience need to understand the critical differences between men and women, according to Dr. Bob Deutsch of marketing firm Brain Sells. Namely, men consummate and women cycle.

Male Consumers Seek Powerful Image

Deutsch advises that men live in the 'now.' They are concrete thinkers that like to consummate and complete what they set out to do. Men are interested in power and in looking good, even more than being good, writes MarketingCharts. When it comes to attractiveness, both sexes want to garner attention, but each for different reasons. For men, looking good is looking strong, confident, authoritative and adventurous – being a standout. Men concentrate on looks to the extent that it signals something about what they do, have done or can do. In contrast, regardless of how much a woman wants to attract in the contest of beauty and brains, their focus is on hope and details, and they concentrate on how appearance reflects their inner being. Therefore, successfully marketing to men, as opposed to marketing to women, requires more than changing colors, fonts and/or packaging.

Four Tips for Marketing to Men

With these gender differences in mind, Deutsch offers the following four tips for marketers seeking to appeal to male consumers:

1. Time. Men tend to hone in, more quickly than women, on what they’re looking for. Men are not browsers, but shop for what they need 'now.' In contrast, women can shop for something now and put it away for 'later.'

2. Causality. Men are concrete and tend to tightly focus their awareness. Their notion of cause and effect is linear and men are visually-oriented because of this concrete literality. Seeking clarity, men create absolute distinctions: black-white, yes-no. Men dislike ensembles and tend to buy individual items. In contrast, many women like to think about how they can put together 'outfits' and are creative in selecting, say, a variation on a scarf or a belt that will change the nature of one basic outfit.

3. Space. Men structure and relate to space as compartmented and sequential. To men, space is not relational, as it is for women. These kinds of underlying, fundamental gender differences can have critical implications not only for what makes an item compelling, but also for store design and product layout. For example, many women like the challenge and somewhat disorganized variety of off-price retailers such as T.J. Maxx or Marshalls. Men, even men who shop in such places because of price, are not there out of joy or desire.

4. Other People. For the male, it's every man for himself. Men prize individuality and self-reliance. They conceive of other people as 'my competition.' Daily life for them is a contest with winners and losers. This is in contrast to women, who often view other people as a source of strength. Note, too, that men never shop together. Women often shop with a friend and make a 'day' of it. A man focuses on himself - the 'me,' while a woman is focused on the “we.”

Study:

Women Want Personalized Ads

It's a question men and marketers have been asking since time immemorial: What do women want?

Well, for marketers the answer is more targeted ads that show an understanding of their lives and give them something of value. In a survey of more than 1,800 women from Q Interactive, 65% of them think: "Cool! How did they know I wanted this?" when they receive an online ad that was targeted directly at them. By the same token, 88% of them said the wished brands they trusted sent tailored offers. To develop these relationships, 58% of the survey respondents encouraged brands to give them something first, while 19% wanted brands to get to know them better and 17% wanted the brands to tell them something valuable.

"This report debunks a lot of prior thinking that consumers may fear or question targeted advertising," said Emily Girolamo, vice president of marketing and corporate communications at Q Interactive, in a statement. "Women, who are so entrenched online, are creating new expectations of brands, agencies and marketers. They are past any fear or suspicion when they get a targeted ad online -- and now just expect, want and seek out brands online with meaning for their busy lives."

What's more, women view their online interactions with sites and brands as "relationships." More than half (53%) used that word to describe the sites and brands they use online. More than 37% described the brands they encountered as "good partners" who reach them with relevant, targeted ads.