Hirsch’s has been advertising on radio 52 weeks a year for 7 years. While their campaigns have borne the brunt of many a critic, PRO Luci Hirsch reveals to Andy Rice why the brand has stuck to its guns and why they continue to have the last laugh…
Andy Rice (AR): Tell us a little about how this campaign came about. What was the brief to the agency (if you used one!) and was it always the intention to use the format of having you as the spokesperson?
Luci Hirsch (LH): Our campaign has its roots in the values of our family business and preserving the integrity of the brand. Hirsch’s was started by my dad 32 years ago. My mom soon joined him, and today, our entire family including my brother and I are involved. Having started the appliance business in KwaZulu Natal, we took the decision to expand into Gauteng 7 years ago. We used radio to let Gauteng know we were coming, whilst reassuring our KZN market that we were still there.
We have never used an agency. That’s because we work on a small mark-up, specialising only in appliances, so we’re very strict with our Marketing budget. We have a motto in our family which is; ‘take care of the pennies, and the pounds will take care of themselves’. As a family business, we take pride in doing as much as we can ourselves.
Our campaign might not creatively be all the bells and whistles, but it works! If we’d set out to do a creative campaign, we’d be very disappointed, but we didn’t. Having an advertising agency is just not the way we roll.
AR: People have commented that the campaign lacks creativity, but I would guess that the reason it continues to run is that it works. Is this so, and how do you actually measure advertising effectiveness?
LH: What’s important to note is that we use radio to woo the customer. We never give out prices on the ads, but often provide price information on other media channels such as print. We use radio to inform customers about special promotions, and often direct people to our website as well. We know what times our spots are flighted and we can then monitor this. The sheer volume of calls after a promo has been aired shows us that radio works. We’ve met our brief. We’re happy with that.
AR: Have you ever considered the possibility that the Luci Hirsch brand may become bigger than the Hirsch retail brand that you are promoting. What steps would you take to counter this?
LH: We’re not necessarily advertising a product, but radio is helping us market our brand i.e. who we are. I often get people come up to me to say ‘hi’, and that’s exactly what we want – for people to feel that they’re a part of our family and that if they have a problem, question or concern, they can come and see me/ us. Radio allows us to do this. Like we say in our family, ‘adverts don’t work, but advertising does’. I often wonder sometimes, if after 7 years I should consider hanging up my mike, but whenever I bring this up, my dad is adamant that we’re going to do it as long as it keeps working.
AR. Retail advertising on radio tends to rely on high flighting frequency for effective break through. The risk that this creates is to potentially alienate the listener, something that we have seen in radio campaigns for certain financial services brands of late. How do you identify where the line is drawn between enjoyment and irritation?
LH: While we are aware of this, I’m also of the belief that for every person I irritate, there’s equally someone else enjoying them. At the end of the day, I’m there to sell fridges and washing machines – I’m not really there to make friends.
AR: What are your views on the impact of social media and radio?
LH: As I’ve said, radio allows us to direct people to our website. Social media is very exciting, and we’re also on twitter and Facebook. This is allowing us to remain even more connected to our customers – like the other night when a customer tweeted that their fridge was broken. I was at the movies with my husband, but I was able to tweet a response and get her fridge sorted out right away!
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