Over the next 12 month, Fayetteville area consumers will spend $7.1 billion on retail products.
Small business owners who want to compete for a share of this cash will need to advertise. As Professor Jef Richards at Michigan State University points out, “Advertising is totally unnecessary…unless you want to make money.”
Bottom line: Fayetteville consumers will only buy from retailers they know about.
There are many ways for Fayetteville small business owners to advertise. This includes local television, newspapers, or streaming media platforms like Pandora and Spotify.
But regardless of what product a retailer sells, the best option is advertising on Fayetteville radio. Radio reaches significantly more consumers in every major retail category than all of the other media choices.
Take carpeting and flooring products, for instance. According to Nielsen, 95% of all consumers in the market to buy floor-coverings. No other local media option comes close.
Amie Crouter, co-owner of Cape Fear Flooring in Fayetteville has been advertising on local radio for more than 18 years.
“We began advertising on Fayetteville radio in 2000, a year after we opened,” she says. “Radio advertising has really driven our growth from the beginning. We have always asked new customers how they found out about us. Overwhelmingly, we are told they heard us on the radio. Advertising on Fayetteville radio has provided an excellent return-on-investment for us.”
Fayetteville radio's mammoth reach is not just limited to carpet buyers. Furniture buyers, too, are almost universally reached by radio as well.
Kimbrell’s Furniture, a small business that has been in business in North Carolina since 1915, has only recently discovered the value of advertising on Fayetteville radio.
According to Cheryl Parker, General Manager of Kimbrell’s Person Street, Raeford Road, and Ft. Bragg Boulevard locations, up until now, the company’s use of radio has been sporadic.
This year, however, Ms. Parker convinced her district manager to advertise on Fayetteville radio continually for six-months.
After just three months, Ms. Parker has seen remarkable in-store results. “Our overall store sales have increased,” she says. “The only thing we’ve been doing differently is advertising on Fayetteville radio.”
“Since we started the current radio plan, our cash business has grown, our Hispanic business has grown, our good credit business has grown, and our military business has grown,” says Ms. Parker. So much so, that Kimbrell’s district manager has approved continuing Ms. Parker’s radio budget.”
Clearly, radio advertising provides Fayetteville small business owners with access to almost every consumer in the market for carpets and furniture. Radio's retail dominance also extends to the garage. The medium reaches practically every consumer in the market for new tires.
Joe Quigg began advertising on Fayetteville radio shortly after buying Ed’s Tire and Auto service from the original owner, Ed Melvin.
“Ed, who served as my mentor for the first few years, had been huge in yellow pages and newspaper advertising,” says Mr. Quigg. “He feared that if we quit advertising four days a week in the newspaper, then the world would end.
“I knew, though, that advertising on Fayetteville radio was right for us,” continues Mr. Quigg. “When I was in corporate sales, I was spending a lot of time in the car. My radio was always on. So, I knew it could reach the customers of Ed’s Tire.”
As his advertising strategy began to show positive results, Mr. Quigg stopped newspaper advertising altogether and started adding more Fayetteville radio stations into his mix.
“Every week that goes by,” says Mr. Quigg, “five or six customers tell me they came in because they heard us on the radio.”
“When it comes to spending money, I am very conservative,” continues Mr. Quigg. “I don’t like spending money I don’t have to. Our sales have grown every year since I have owned the business. Radio has been a big spend for us, but it has also been a big part of our growth. I wouldn’t be willing to do without it.”
No shopper is immune from the reach of advertising on Fayetteville radio. The medium permeates the life of almost every consumer. Here are a few more examples:
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After comparing the value of radio advertising to other media, Deloitte, the world's largest business consulting firm suggests that "radio "should be a big part of the mix for those buying advertising."