I read an interesting article in October tenth’s New York Times titled, Victory Lap for Fox and Hannity. This paragraph stopped me:
“… Fox is the envy of the media industry for its popularity, and perhaps too for its consistency — something that Mr. Hannity embodies, as the only host on the channel to have the same time slot, 9 p.m., for all 15 years.”
For the sake of this blog post forget what you think of Fox and its politics for a minute —it’s irrelevant whether you like their point of view or loathe it — you certainly can’t question their success. As far as liking Sean Hannity himself, I’ll admit that I don’t get him at all. I’ve always found him to be vacuous and small minded and not much of what I think a TV personality should be.
But my opinion apparently doesn’t mean very much, not when Hannity is one of the most popular news personalities on television today. His Fox franchise is so strong that The Nielsen Company reports that Fox is now the number four cable channel in prime time — not number four in news, mind you, but ranked fourth amongst all cable channels. Fox is so strong that “the company will soon be going back to distributors to renew its deal.” Fox currently charges ±$1 per subscriber but now wants the $4 per household that ESPN charges.
Dan Abrams, former general manager of MSNBC, explains Hannity’s strength in the Times article. “With all of the most successful cable news shows, you know what you are getting every night — they have a clear identity and mission. There is probably no host on cable whose identity and mission is clearer that Sean Hannity’s.”
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“There is probably no host on cable
whose identity and mission
is clearer that Sean Hannity’s.”
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So is 15 years of consistency what it takes to achieve dominance? Before you disregard that, look at some of the world’s most successful brands and how they’ve marketed themselves. BMW has been “The Ultimate Driving Machine” since 1973. Volvo has been selling safety since the early seventies too. Wal-Mart said “Always Low Prices” for 19 years before copying Target’s “Expect More. Pay Less” with their own “Save More. Live Better” in 2007. Slightly different words but still a consistent low price message.
Even companies who change their tagline fairly regularly are careful not to shift their image too much. We’ve heard different messages from McDonald’s, for example, but they’ve never swayed from their golden arches. Coca-Cola also changes their message but has been consistent with their bottle design and colors. And you may recall that when they dared to change their recipe it almost spelled disaster for the beverage company.
Consistency is not critical just for taglines. In his book Audition, written to help actors get gigs, Michael Shurtleff says that actors called back for a second audition should always wear “the same thing (they) wore to the first audition.” One time the late Broadway director Jerry Robbins asked Shurtleff “’…why I hadn’t brought back the girl in the orange sweater?’ I had, but she was wearing a purple dress. I’m not sure we ever did get that straightened out.”
Consistency, then, is clearly one of the bedrocks of brand equity. We think so much of it that it’s the seventh and final point of our Seven Points Of Building Brand Value, “Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.” After all, if it’s made Sean Hannity as popular as he is, it’s a pretty good bet it’ll work for you and me.
Tags: Audition, Dan Abrams, ESPN, Fox, Michael Shurtleff, MSNBC, Sean Hannity, The New York Times, The Nielsen Company
Good to be reminded that consistency is the name of the game.
Maybe his audience demographics haven’t changed. Small people with even smaller cerebral capacity,
I always try to read your posts. Your mission is always well articulated. It is troubling though that in this business of mind control and the manipulation of the herd in general that Fox news would have such power. Very Orwellian. I would suggest that an alleged news service run by a foreign national should have the power to trumpet unneccesary recreational wars in the middle east at the expense of our national blood and treasure and a million Iraqi lives. To say this is scary would be to diminish the effects of this horrible national tragedy.
Well old friend, you asked for my comment and handed me the soapbox.
PS Jack and I are onstage at Gables Bike day Oct 23 2-4. Mount up and ride over. Harmonicas travel light. You’re always welcome to blow harp with the band.
I’ve never heard of Sean Hannity until your blog. If my cable subscription prices go up because Comcast includes Fox (which I don’t watch. Primarily for the “politics” purposes.), that may very well be what it takes to cancel it all together and go online completely
. I get the point on consistency though.
I agree, consistency is a key selling factor as long as it is something GOOD, and something you don’t mind hearing over and over. Otherwise you just remind the viewer of what they don’t like.
Every time I hear Herman Cane say “9-9-9″, I think, does he really want to put an additional 9% sales tax on top of the 9.75% we pay in Los Angeles? I’m certainly NOT going to vote for him.
OK – odd that something about Sean Hannity would cause me to click on your Amazon link to your Seven Points of Building Brand Value book. Serendipity.
But that went south when I learned no Kindle/eBook version.
Thank you for requesting Building Brand Value: Seven Simple Steps to Profitable Communications by Bruce Turkel in Kindle Edition. Our goal is to make every title available for Kindle. We will pass your specific request on to the publisher.
Okay Bruce, I will put politics aside. Looking at your point in the purest form I have this to say:
Our uncertain world is changing and at a pace that is diffcult for all of us to understand and to cope with. Branding, and its recent reverence, for all scalable business enterprises, is a reflection of the consumer appetite to latch onto something we can have reasonable expectations of knowing with certainty.
For almost all else, including working for Coke or Fox, the ability to adapt and change is the key to success.
It’s ironic isn’t it.?
how you do anything is how you do everything
Bruce,
Thanks for the reminder that success is not magical, it is about consistently executing on the fundamentals.
Good job!
Hutch
Marketing consistency is certainly important, and Hannity and Fox are certainly consistent but I dont’ think Fox’s popularity is attributable to a stable marketing message. They attract their audience by tapping into and exploiting a particular emotional reaciton to issues and politics. Nothing wrong with this as far as it goes, but Fox is notorious for lying. Big, ugly, cynical lies, one after another. That’s the secret of their success.
BMW could not call itself the “Ultimate Driving Machine” for long if that were a lie. However, Fox doesn’t sell facts; it’s viewers want to believe those lies. Fox sells emotional confirmation to people who want to be told that their view of, for example, global warming is right; it is a liberal conspiracy, never mind the science.
There is nothing to admire about Fox, any more than the Nazi’s were admirable for conquering Poland.
Phil Allen, you went to the dark side of partisanship and name calling – shame, shame! I enjoy tuning in to both partisan networks from time to time(MSNBC & Fox) and find their interpretation of “facts” to be equally suspect. Best idea is to read books and draw your own conclusions.