Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

[CATransplant]

Lately, a boat dealer has been running ad after ad on the radio station I listen to, in a big city market. Cute jingle with girl singers, and all that sort of thing. Problem is...the ad doesn't say anything about where this dealer is located or even give a phone number. Just the name of the place, over and over again in the jingle.

It's located over 50 miles from the big city where the ad is running. I'd never heard of it before, and had no idea where they were, so I looked it up on the Internet.

I sent an email to the sales manager this morning, calling his attention to the missing info in this rather expensive ad. He wrote back, saying, more or less, "DOH!"

You gotta love this stuff...

 

[HappierWet]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

BUT, BUT,....BUT.......They paid an ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE !!!

 

[bryan01601]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

It got you to call..... So did it work?


Look at Targets ad's the never once put the word target on the ad but you know who they are because of the brand recognition of the bullseye.

I must admit though They should have their number and location...

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

when the boat dealer gets as big as target then he can stop saying his name!

I saw an ad in a national professional magazine that had seven grammatical errors. The company was a legal services concern where carefull attention to detail was imperative. I was familiar with the company and its principal, so I wrote to her about it. Next month the ad was corrected--I assume the next runs were free!

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

BUT, BUT,....BUT.......They paid an ADVERTISING EXECUTIVE !!!

I suspect the account person is going to get a major chewing out, at best. I just can't imagine someone not noticing that they never said where this place was. I couldn't believe it.

 

[dirtyoldman]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

I suspect the account person is going to get a major chewing out, at best. I just can't imagine someone not noticing that they never said where this place was. I couldn't believe it.

You talking about the one up north of town on 35? Marine max I think??

I know where it is and live 600 miles from there...

 

[JustJason]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Ughhh... Marine Max..... Terrible to their employees.

 

[Bluegills Unlimited]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Just goes to show, no matter how much money you spend, if you don't have common sense...look how far you get...

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Nope. Not Marine Max. I didn't give the name to avoid embarrassing them further. The Twin Cities Metro area is very large. You could draw a circle with a 50 mile radius and you'd still be within commuting distance for some folks.

What that means is that anyone who advertises needs their location listed if they are trying to reach the whole metro area as this marine store was.

I suspect that the account exec from the radio station blinded the sales manager with science, or other assets she may have had.

 

[DECK SWABBER 58]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

I suspect that the account exec from the radio station blinded the sales manager with science, or other assets she may have had.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

I thought you'd like that. I did...

 

[Brew2]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Ever try to buy something at Lululemon??

My wife sent me there to pick up something for her from the kids for B-day. Spent 20 minutes going back and forth from the mall directory to where the store was supposed to be....couldn't find it and assumed they had closed up shop. Finally went into what I assumed was the store next door....turns out the door I went through was Lululemon. Get this.....none of their stores (and we are talking hundreds, if not thousands) have their name on the front of them!!! They just have a symbol (sort of a horseshoe with curved ends).

When I asked the young lady behind the counter why they didn't have a name on the front of their store she looked at me like I was from Mars and replied something to the effect of "Well...who wouldn't know the Lululemon symbol??!!".....ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Ah, you see...you're not cool enough for Lululemon. If you were cool, you'd recognize their brand logo. I'm surprised they let you buy anything, frankly. Probably charged you extra for being uncool.

 

[rucaradio]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Working in radio myself, I imagine this kind of "mistake" was actually done on purpose.. either by the suggestion of an Account Exec and/or ad agency that produced the spot. The thinking was to probably get the name out there and allow the listener to "find" them (as you did) online.

If neither are the case, someone probably forgot to include the contact info in the copy. That happens quite often, and if the spot is due to start running like NOW, sometimes the spot will be cut and shoved on the air.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Yah, well, then the account person is an idiot. This particular marine store is an hour's drive from the main part of the Twin Cities. Even worse, searching on Google for the business name finally turns up the actual business almost at the bottom of the first results page.

Nope...it's a bonehead error. Name recognition is worthless if you can't find the store and, in this case, finding the store is not easy, even on the internet.

My business is making businesses get customers, and I'm very good at it. What happened here was one of the worst cases I have ever seen for a local radio ad. That's why I bothered to contact the business to tell them that. The sales manager replied to my email and said that he had no idea and that he'd be on the phone immediately to pull the ad until it was fixed.

The station already pulled the ads, and are redoing them. I hope they insisted that the station eat the additional cost. Someone who is working for low bucks as an account person should be fired. They spent money on a cute jingle with a small singing group. They're blasting the ad six times an hour in prime time on a clear channel station that reaches several states. It's an expensive campaign.

It's not a name recognition campaign. The ad talks about current boats in stock and gives specific prices. They're trying to move product. There are maybe three dozen marine stores in this area, each trying to move last year's models at blowout prices. Nope...this place doesn't need name recognition. It needs customers now.

There is no excuse for such incompetence. No excuse at all. Someone should lose her job. I say her, because the entire ad sales staff at that station, except for the boss, are young women just out of college. They work cheap. They do a bad job.

 

[Tim Frank]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

There is no excuse for such incompetence. No excuse at all. Someone should lose her job. I say her, because the entire ad sales staff at that station, except for the boss, are young women just out of college. They work cheap. They do a bad job.

Taking at face value that your facts are correct, if they hire inexperienced staff at low wages, and get poor results, that puts the blame at a higher level of the food chain.

 

[kenmyfam]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

Ever try to buy something at Lululemon??

OK so whats Lululemon. I have seen a sign outside a stripmall near the office that announces "Lulu Lemon is here"
I thought they were welcoming a new employee !!!

 

[rucaradio]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

You'd be amazed at the incompetance that exists in the radio sales business. As a jock I regularly receive incomplete copy and have to 'fill in the blanks' to make the spot sound good for the client. Sometimes I'll get outright wrong copy - which I red flag which sends it back to the sales department to get fixed then I have to recut it. Sometimes I won't get enough copy.. A client pays for a 60 second spot and it turns out to be 47 seconds.

And SALES CAN DO NO WRONG!!! At least in my building. Its irritating these people make between 8 and 16% of the total buy.

 

[NelsonQ]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

OK so whats Lululemon. I have seen a sign outside a stripmall near the office that announces "Lulu Lemon is here"
I thought they were welcoming a new employee !!!

Lululemon started out as yoga apparel and exploded into a very expensive line of Women and Men's athletic/workout apparel.

Kenmyfam, you need to check out the website and get yourself a $160 sweatshirt for working on the boat

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Boat Business Makes Bonehead Error

You'd be amazed at the incompetance that exists in the radio sales business. As a jock I regularly receive incomplete copy and have to 'fill in the blanks' to make the spot sound good for the client. Sometimes I'll get outright wrong copy - which I red flag which sends it back to the sales department to get fixed then I have to recut it. Sometimes I won't get enough copy.. A client pays for a 60 second spot and it turns out to be 47 seconds.

And SALES CAN DO NO WRONG!!! At least in my building. Its irritating these people make between 8 and 16% of the total buy.

Nah. Nothing would amaze me. The one time I did a radio ad buy, the first version mispronounced the name of my business, and I had sent them a phonetic spelling of the pronunciation and had emphasized it when I talked to the account person. Feh! The next version inverted two numbers in my phone number, but they got the name pronounced right, at least. They finally got it right in the third version. Even then, I had to argue my butt off to get the incorrect ads rerun.

The marine dealer ad I mentioned has been pulled. I expect a replacement to be running soon.