The Law of Reciprocity: Radio's Stimulus Plan for Helping Car Dealers Now

"One of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us is the rule for reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us."
Robert B. Cialdini, author of The Psychology of Persuasion (William Morrow, 1993)

Perhaps one of the most powerful natural laws is the Law of Reciprocity, which says that if you do something for someone else, they will return the favor by doing something good for you. Experts say this law works best when you do something out of the goodness of your heart, expecting nothing in return.

Brainstorm
I've been racking my brain about what we, the people of radio, can do to stimulate the economy. After all, we are a powerful force, who reach 94 percent of Americans weekly. Certainly radio can influence Americans. Certainly we can influence confidence.

It's Payback Time....
The automobile industry has been our partner for decades. As Bill Burton of the Detroit Radio Advertising Group is famous for saying, "An automobile is a radio on wheels." Automotive has almost always been our largest advertiser, and local car dealers have made up our biggest category. Not only have they provided each of us with a significant part of our living, if they don't get healthy again, we don't get healthy again. It's time we thank them for their business by helping them get back on their feet.

Then It Came To Me....
"We need to run spots to tell people to buy cars," I thought, "and that there has never been a better time." And they need to be good, national-quality spots, so they work. So I contacted the best in the business: The Famous Radio Ranch in Hollywood, CA. I spoke to Dick Orkin and Christine Coyle, and sold them on how we can do our part to help the economy. They enlisted their creative team, who carefully crafted three spots you can run on your station.

Don't Be Greedy
I can hear it now: "Why should I run these spots, Eric. What have car dealers done for me lately?" It's simple. If we help them and they get stronger as a result, they will return to radio sooner. Plus, perhaps they will remember us for trying to do something. We must not ignore decades of radio spending from dealers.

Slam It!
Slam these three spots hard in all your unsold inventory. Show commitment. These spots are not designed to highlight individual dealers, but to sell the concept that NOW is the time to buy cars. The harder you push it, the longer you push it, the better the result will be. Run it so much that it works and that car dealers come to you because they hear it so much on your station! (Let's get a competition going to see who can run it the most.)

Alert All The Car Dealers In Town
We've built a website where you can download these spots. We've also created a sample letter you can send to car dealers. We recommend you send the letter to every car dealer (new and used) in town to let them know you're running the spots. (You could be first in your market and have them on the air today!)

But... please don't try to leverage this into "We're helping you, so now you should help us."

If you do that, it will backfire. Pitch the dealers at another time, but DON'T relate it to this campaign. Do this campaign to help all car dealers sell cars. Nothing more. And please do NOT sell tags to these spots. Car dealers must see this as your attempt to help. Nothing more.

Please go to the website, listen to the spots and download them now: www.helpfromradio.com

And please forward this email to EVERY person you know in radio at other stations, markets, and networks, and ask them to run the spots too.

Look, we can't make someone buy if they can't afford to buy.... but if this campaign moves the needle even a little, it's RADIO that is helping the economy. Do it now.

Please go there now -- www.helpfromradio.com -- and forward this to others.

Thanks,
Eric Rhoads, Publisher
RADIO INK

PS: My thanks to Dick Orkin, Christine Coyle, and Sandy Orkin of The Famous Radio Ranch in Hollywood for their devotion to the radio industry and for creating these spots.

PS: Send me an e-mail if you're running the spots, and feedback on how it's going. I want to see every station in America running these ads. It's time radio paid back its biggest advertiser and said "Thanks." More importantly, RADIO can stimulate the economy.

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I agree with Eric's thoughts. Back in January, the television station where I'm employed produced "PSAs" with about a dozen of our top local car dealers. We gave them the opportunity to reach their customers (at no cost) and make the case that this is indeed the perfect time to buy a car; inventories are attractive, there is plenty of money to lend, if you don't buy now you will wish you had a year from now, etc. This proved very powerful! They immediately started seeing activity and moving inventory. The station started to see results, as well. I'm not in sales, but I'm told that the dealers were somewhat skeptical of our motives at first (why are you giving us these PSAs?), but soon came to realize a couple of things. First,that advertising is still the key to reaching their customers. Plus they also were quite impressed that we were right there in the trenches with them, making it clear to them that their success is a priority with us (for obvious reasons). I salute Dick Orkin and others for producing similar spots (I understand NADA has some produced spots available, too). Make good use of these. Supplement them with your own locally produced spots, as well.

--Paul Colley
Roanoke, VA
[email protected]