NBC confirmed today that they are pulling the plug on the Jay Leno Show prime time experiment.The experiment started when NBC had to figure out what it could do to keep Leno in their line-up while still promoting the up-and-coming late night show host Conan O’Brien.Moving Leno to prime time seemed logical. NBC could produce the show at a fraction of the cost to produce a full-hour drama. So despite a drop in ratings, the network figured they could keep profit margins steady.The lower ratings trickled down to the local news affiliates, who struggled to keep good ratings themselves. The affiliates were the group who ultimately called for the end to the experiment.It’s sad it had to end this way for the affiliates who had to let a few more good reporters go. Count me as one person who is looking forward to order being restored. For what it is worth, I always preferred Leno to Letterman and never really got into Conan. And as much as I liked Leno, during prime time, there were other shows I preferred.What does this have to do with Marketing?Consumers are creatures of habit. If you change something major about a product, like at what time it can be consumed, you run the risk of losing even the most loyal consumers. Which is what happened to me. The show didn’t fit into my schedule anymore, so I quit watching.And aside from habits, Leno was up against better competition. Prime time television viewers weren’t interested in viewing late night television. It was like trying to sell a KIA at a Cadillac dealership.Lessons learned from this experiment are that we must carefully consider the consequences of changing a major component of an established product with an established customer. Habits are a tough thing to change.
Category Archives: Marketing
Jay Leno, Habitual Behaviors and Niche Marketing
January 10, 2010 – 10:23 pm
Strategic Social Media Marketing in 2010
December 21, 2009 – 10:15 pm
In 2009, I encouraged marketers with no idea how social media works to simply get out, create accounts and post information they are already creating.I hope they did that because in 2010 I think it’s time for marketers who were just getting acquainted to take things a step further by creating a strategic content plan.Creating a Content Plan
- Like a magazine, break your year down by months or quarters.
- Brainstorm subject matter and subject matter experts.
- Assign 1-2 main topics for each time period. Remember to assign them strategically, for example, if you are promoting clothing, you should promote summer clothing in the months when people are most likely going to be shopping for summer clothes.
- Determine the social media sites where you want to share your content (blog, youtube, facebook, twitter) and make sure you are familiar.
- Work backwards to determine the time you will need to produce content and start scheduling your time and interviews.
After completing those steps you should be ready to start creating content of interest that will increase your brand awareness and revenue. Along the way, don’t forget to listen to your audience and adjust your content plan accordingly.
Social Media Success and Product Differentiation
December 1, 2009 – 11:22 pm
The driver behind successful social media campaigns is no different from the driver behind successful traditional marketing campaigns.Success in social media marketing starts with product differentiation. Companies must first examine what makes their product or service better than the competition. Hopefully this should come easy. Examples of product differentiations could be the features and functionality, it could be an interesting story about how a product was developed or it could be simply the price.Either way, when entering the social media stratosphere, it is important to take note of what sets you apart from the competition.People on the Internet – bloggers in particular – are interested in discussing product ideas and solution approaches that are new and different.A current example would be the new Driod Phone. In this case, bloggers who write about new technology tend focus on the product differentiations. This article on Mashable illustrates just how important this is, as they displayed in a large chart showing differences among different types of phones. Social media marketing specialists should be prepared with this type of information.To close, before you suggest social media marketing as a realistic marketing tactic – think about how is your product or service different from the completion? Who are the early adopters or major influencers? And where do they hang out on the Internet?
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