The Last 3 Feet
Scott Stines - IDEAS Magazine - October 2000

It's budget time again. Newspaper marketers are finalizing their plans for the coming year and creating the rationale for their budgets. Planning, and budgeting, requires us to step back from the day-to-day and take a 10,000 ft. view of our business and market. There are few opportunities throughout the year to take a look at the big picture. Unfortunately, for many, planning and budgeting is viewed as an annual fire drill that leads to whatever management decided weeks earlier to invest in marketing spending.

As marketers, we focus on implementing programs and plans and reacting to the needs of the market. Most of our time is spent in the heat of the battle for revenue and market share. We spend most of our time operating at the 1,000 ft. level, dipping in and out of the clouds, dropping a payload of branding, promotion, or events to move the circulation or advertising needle.

The best plans (10,000 ft.) and programs (1,000 ft.) cannot make up for what happens at the last 3 ft. of the marketing process. The last 3 feet is where transactions with customers take place. It is where we sign up subscribers, acquire new advertisers, and address customer needs. It is where we explain why the paper is late, wet, or in the bushes. Where we correct billing errors, explain why logos are the wrong color, or have poor registration. It is the distance between success and failure in the newspaper business.

The last 3 ft. of the newspaper marketing process has grown in importance as competition has increased. We have seen a number of newspapers re-focusing their efforts on customer service and the quality of advertising sales representation. Strategies have included shared customer service centers and advertising teams organized by key industry segment. Despite these isolated efforts, a significant gap remains between 10,000 ft. strategies, 1,000 ft. programs, and the last 3 ft. in the newspaper marketing process.

Marketers at a recent American Press Institute seminar where asked what percentage of ad sales proposals included an on-line component. Most indicated on-line tactics were included in more than half of all proposals and all participants expected this percentage to grow. At the same time, 90% of the same seminar members indicated less than 10% of their ad sales staff was comfortable selling on-line advertising. These survey results provide a glimpse at the gap that exists between newspaper marketing and the functional areas of the newspaper responsible for implementing marketing plans, programs, and budgets.

The road to narrowing the gap and improving the last 3 ft. of the newspaper marketing process is filled with ruts and bumps. All the information used to create marketing plans and budgets for the coming year should be shared with managers in the departments responsible for making the hopes and dreams come true. This requires us to involve each area of the newspaper during the planning process, not after the plan is completed. Too often, each area of the newspaper brings their independent plan to the table and it'¹s the responsibility of newspaper management to sort things out. When this happens the outcome is often pre-determined, regardless of how brilliant your marketing plan: revenue wins and expense loses.

Another key success factor is building positive and constructive day-to-day working relationships with the people that can impact the last 3 ft. of the marketing process. Too often, marketers are isolated from ad sales, circulation, and the customer service managers and employees who are responsible for creating and maintaining customer relationships. Without knowledge of the day-to-day challenges and opportunities these key areas face, marketers are handicapped in their ability to create the plans and budgets required to achieve business goals.

This year take a closer look at the last 3 ft. during the annual planning and budgeting ritual. The result could be a fresh start that will ensure the plans and programs you create today, are implemented successfully tomorrow.

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