MarketingDoctor.tv
Network Evening News
The Marketing Doctor Says:
Network Evening News Needs To Face Hard Facts
Just because something has been around for a long time and has a venerable history is no guarantee that it’s going to stick around. And times are changing for the flagship evening news programs at CBS, NBC and ABC.
I’ve written before about the Couric brand (see my take here), but what’s happening with the evening news programs is a lot bigger than the mistakes of one personal brand. It’s about a whole shift in viewing habits and ultimately the end of television as we know it (see this article on how a new Japanese technology might guarantee that the Internet replace TV sooner than anyone thought possible).
Fact is, the recent effort on the part of Couric, Williams and Gibson to get together to fight cancer is admirable but as a tactic to fight their shared problem –falling viewership— it’s not going to do much. Whenever I advise clients who are facing a major shift like this –and in the case of these programs it’s not just demographics, but habits, technology, culture, the list goes on and on!— I usually start with the reality: nothing is ever going to be the same again.
That’s right, nothing is ever going to be the same again for network evening news!
In other words, with the challenge of the 24/7 news cycle, cable news, the Internet, these flagship programs are never going to regain the kind of status, clout and viewership they had in the days of Cronkite! It’s over and to try to get back there is to waste valuable marketing and branding time in the present. The next step is to figure out what can be salvaged. As a marketing and branding man, I’m not going to get into the nittygritty of news delivery et cetera, but I will say this: one big asset that these evening news programs have is the power of their brands and the goodwill that goes with this power.
The shift in television news makes me think of another major shift in an entirely different industry. In 1859 there were more than 40 different horse and buggy manufacturers turning out 5,000 vehicles a year. When the Model T was introduced it became clear to most people that the end was near for the horse and buggy. The Fisher Cab company was smart (here’s the article). They took their expertise and their brand goodwill and partnered with automobile companies to produce bodies for cars that were marketed using their companies name and reputation (i.e., Bodies by Fisher). The rest of the horse and buggy companies went extinct.
The point is that when the writing is on the wall for your brand, the sooner you respond realistically to it, the better.
Already, NBC is doing this with its New York local news division (see the article here). Realizing that people are looking for a different sort of news and shown when they want it (not just between 5 and 6:30), they’re launching the 24-hour “hyper-local” news. The announcement of the change was telling. NBC’s local media division president said that it “marks an important change in the station’s philosophy in how it serves the community.” Did someone say meeting the needs of their target market without using those exact words? I think so! Basically, it’s not a stretch to see that this kind of very local approach is going to spread and eventually those local evening newscasts are going to go the way of the dodo too in favor of this kind of content-based, highly specific news delivery. In short, I guess “it’s the marketing concept, stupid” is the mantra for any business that wants to survive in this topsy-turvy/times-they-are-a-changing world of 21st Century media business!
Again, the marketing doctor can’t chart the way out of the big network evening news dilemna, but I can say confidently it rests with two things: not selling the respective brands short and thinking long and hard about their target market and its needs! (And much less about the history, prestige and invincibility of evening news as an institution).
And, I can’t help mention this tidbit, but Fox, which has continued to grow robustly as the fourth major network, chose never to get involved in the evening news game at all.
And, remember, it’s always easier when you keep branding in mind!
TODAY’S TANTILLO TAKEAWAY –
Sometimes the biggest danger for a brand is its longtime success.
Comments