Media Solutions Media Solutions

Jim Lukens

Media Solutions Corporation

5350 N 48th Street, Suite 240

Chandler, Arizona   85226

480-639-1200 (office)

480-797-1558 (mobile)

jlukens@mediasolutionscorp.com

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At NGA in 2005 I did a workshop on printed advertising and ways to enhance the value of printed ads by using unique and eye-catching designs.  The company I had worked for at the time had won 4 of the Creative Choice Awards that year for Printed Ads and my task was to show some ways to use creative print ads to attract new customers and reinforce the retailer’s own brand with the print ads.

At the conclusion of the workshop I told the participants that if they weren’t already planning a migration from print advertising to “internet based” advertising, they should start planning now.  Many in the audience couldn’t believe I made that suggestion to the audience, who were for the most part, advertising experts.

It was clear that new technologies (in 2005) were emerging that someday would replace much of the print based ads. Although print advertising was our “life blood”, we have to look to the future and begin making bold changes today.

I did a similar presentation in 2007 at the Minnesota Grocers Association and Wisconsin Grocers Association conventions and got plenty of grins, and negative comments from participants that stated “in my marketing area, we’ll ALWAYS have print ads – what you’re talking about is an issue for those living in big cities.”

Just a few weeks ago I was in Seattle and a retailer told me, “We’ll stop print advertising the week after Safeway stops print advertising.  Until then, the discussion is off the table.”

Fast forward to February 12, 2014……. you should be thinking and planning of your migration strategy from Print to Digital media.  Thinking and Planning isn’t “Acting” on it —- it’s just smart business to plan.

This week’s Idea of the week will be an overview of the things to think and plan for a partial or complete migration from print to digital media.  Why not have a plan now and execute the plan on your own timetable.  If you don’t have a plan, others will be planning it for you.  It may be the US Post Office, your advertising agency, your commercial printer, your ad inserting company or the publisher of your local newspaper when they announce to your that they’ve “gone digital.”

So this week the Idea of the Week is to think through the various elements of a migration strategy.  No need to put an exact date that you’d activate your plan —- just develop the plan for now.

1. “Stop Printing” does NOT equate to not Advertising

When you think about a future print migration —  don’t think for a minute that “stop printing” means that you won’t be running weekly ads.  It means that you won’t be printing ads that are inserted in newspapers or sent via US Mail or mail distribution companies to your customers.

You will still have an ad.  It may be the exact kind of ad you are running today.  It just won’t be printed and distributed to people in your town that are still subscribing to the newspaper.   Ideally it won’t look like your current ad, it will be enhanced for desktop, mobile and tablet viewers.

It’s extremely likely that whoever is designing your weekly print ad today will continue to design your ads which are posted on your website.  However…… with an ad that isn’t printed, there are no limitations on the size, design, number of pages, etc. that currently limit the creativity in a printed ad.  If you have 100 items in an 8 page tab sized ad today, you can still run 100 items in the future but you may decide to reformat the design of your ads to be more “desktop, tablet and smartphone” friendly.

Also, when you think of a future without a printed insert, it doesn’t mean that you won’t have printed ads at all.  In fact, printing ads from time to time may be the best strategy to call attention to a special sale event.  Don’t burn any bridges along your migration path – you’ll likely continue to have some printed ads in the future to supplement your digital strategy.

2. You Won’t Be the Pioneer When You Stop Print Advertising

I’ve worked with several retailers who decided to “pull the plug” on print advertising without a migration plan.  The outcome?  Well, life was good the first 10 weeks as sales were pretty stable and gross margins skyrocketed.

The P&L looked better than it had for years with no ads.  However, within 12 weeks the weekly customer counts were falling rapidly.

What was their cure?  Print advertising of course.  To bring in new customers without a plan you need to go back to print advertising and pray that you’ll regain lost customers.

There are success stories from “pioneers” who planned it right!

If you’re looking for a testimonial from someone who has “been there, done that” then you should look up RF  Buche in South Dakota. Earlier this week I ran into RF at the NGA Convention.  RF has 6 stores and made (in his words) perhaps the best business decision he had made in his ongoing business strategy.

He reminded me that it’s not an easy thing to do but he was prepared and with his “Barn Burner Specials” he has been successful in his migration from print to digital media.  In summary, he reinvested his savings generated from not printing into a new strategy to drive down his “Barn Burner Specials” —- and it’s working.  Pretty simple.  Redeploy the print savings by investing in “Barn Burner” deals to drive traffic.  It worked! Congrats to RF !

3.  When You Stop Printing Ads – It Will Take You Longer to Plan Your Promotions 

Here’s an analogy…. You’ve had the same flip-phone for 5 years and after dropping it one too many times, you’ve decided to buy a new smart phone.  With the flip phone you could make a phone call – and that’s it.

With your new smart phone you can make phone calls, take high quality photos and movies, find out what time the next movie is showing at the theatre, get GPS and directions to the cinema, buy your tickets to the movie and spend time during the movie text messaging and checking out what the kids and grandkids are doing on Facebook.

It takes more time because you have more features and choices to make.

Your promotions in a “post printing” world can be much, much more effective when you incorporate digital ads, text message offerings, mobile ads, social media postings and smartphone based wallet systems with card-less loyalty programs.

And that takes more time to plan.  But, we intend to step in to help in this area to try to make the “multi-media” planning become a little easier to do – and to execute. Our plans include further development of the MSC Promotional Planning Calendar system to help with the planning and integration of multiple-media strategies.

4.  Will You  Save So Much Money When You Stop Printing Ads That You’ll Need Brinks To Make More Stops At Your Store to Make More Bank Deposits?  Not Right Away!

Well, you will save a significant amount once your migration process is completed, but the process isn’t a one or two week event. To be successful, the most important metric isyour daily customer counts.  No print ads = no visibility to new customers.  To maintain a stream of existing and develop NEW customers, you’ll need to do some “public” advertising to inform consumers to go to your website to signup for your weekly ads, or you’ll need to send a postcard to their home with a special offer and notice that they can get the offer through your website.

The migration can be handled in one of two ways.  An analogy is like jumping out of an airplane.  You can do it quickly and get to earth more quickly without a parachute.  If you plan it out and decide to bring your parachute along for the ride, it will take longer but you’ll be a little happier with the results. Let’s also plan on a safety chute.

In simple terms your advertising costs (let’s call them “X”) will go from “X” to “XXX” for a period of time while you are still using print ads and trying to start the migration.  Later those costs will drop down to “XX” then to “X” and eventually to “less than X” .  It’s a roller-coaster ride that you’ll need to plan for.  You will save expense but a redeployment of the savings is critical during the migration.

If you are an Affiliated Foods Midwest member we’re covering this topic in significant detail at a workshop on Thursday, March 6th ( prior to their Spring Food Show) at 2:30 pm.

 Come to the workshop and get the details, worksheets and suggested plans.

If you’re an  NGA Member, we’ll be sponsoring some industry-wide workshops around the country on planning for a print to digital media migration.  Watch your NGA News for details of upcoming workshops.

If you’re a Laurel Grocery Company customer, I’ll be at your upcoming show February 23rd and 24th supporting Jake and the Laurel Advertising team.  Hope to see you at their show.

If you’re an Affiliated Foods Amarillo customer, I’ll be at the AFI Show Thursday, April 10th in Amarillo supporting Craig Ward and the AFI Marketing Team.  Stop by the MSC/AFI exhibit to chat.

Otherwise,  you can call us at any time and we can provide some personal guidance on the migration process and provide you with some ideas. In many cases your wholesaler is already working with us on planning a workshop in your area (or at their DC) to help you with migration planning.

Have a great week!