THEY’RE COMPETING FOR YOUR LISTENERS Chris Byrnes The Apple Company reported some good news to their shareholders recently. Their third quarter profits beat analyst expectations, thanks to strong sales of the iPod portable music player. Apple sold 860,000 units in the USA in just four months which is a 184% jump in sales. Apple delayed the European roll out of the iPod because they cannot keep up with the demands of the North American market.
These devices allow you to transfer your favorite songs from one of the many download services, (the current law says it's not illegal to download music, but it is illegal to share or sell this music) and then play them in any order you like. At just 5.6 ounces and with the ability to store 10,000 songs the iPod is a competitor for radio. Any radio station that promotes the advantages of playing six songs in a row might have a tough time selling this benefit to one of the millions of consumers who use an iPod on a regular basis.
Recently I was on a commuter train going into New York. I could not help but notice all the commuters who were listening to some kind of replay device to help pass the time. When was the last time you checked out the mass transit system in your market?
I am not about to suggest there is a product that will "be the death of radio." Wiser people than I have made that suggestion in the past and have been wrong. Radio survived television and the internet, and I am sure it will survive the arrival of the iPod. But it might be wise to pause for a moment and look at ways to ensure your radio station is super-serving your target audience. Here are some of the areas we look at:
Music: If you play music on your radio station, chances are it will account for 60% or more of most hours. So it's critical that you are playing the right songs for your target audience and the right songs for your market. Some radio stations are using a tracking service such as BDS or MMR and monitor a format or a basket of radio stations, instead of testing their music in their own market against their target audience. This can take a radio station off track because what is working for a radio station in Toronto or Vancouver may not be right for your radio station. There is a very good chance these radio stations have developed their music policy based on their own competitive market goals. They might be trying to flank a competitor by going softer or perhaps they need to attract more males, so they will heavy up on some of the guitar based rock titles. Be careful not to erode TSL by playing the wrong music. Also make sure that your music scheduling software is set up properly and the people using it are properly trained. Once it's scheduled and edited, you should have two sets of qualified eyes check the daily log before it goes to air.
Information: Focus Group research tells us that the average listener thinks information is everything that is not a song. Yes it's the news, the weather and the traffic information, but it is also the commercials, the announcer and the radio station imaging. This is the second key area we focus on when visiting a radio station. Is the news targeting and relating to your audience? Too often we hear "newspaper" style news on a medium that is designed for the ear and not the eye. There has been so much written about how we develop our senses and learn to listen and talk well, before we learn to read. This is just one reason why the writing style of news is critical. Tell me what happened, and then tell me why. Research also tells us that people today want to know a little about a lot, so a high story count could make it more important today that ever before.
Personality: This can be the golden bullet for any radio station. If you develop strong air personalities who are part of the community in which they live, it makes it that much more difficult for a competitor to come into your market and beat you. Take a day and get away from the radio station, meetings and phone calls and actually listen to your station like a listener. Here are a few things to take note of; Did they sound local, were they in touch with what is going on in your community and were they entertaining? Was the show interactive or did it sound voice-tracked, or did it sound like it could have come off a satellite? Did they sell the positioning statement with pride and did they build time spent listening?
Promotion/Marketing: Once you have the right product, then and only then should you invest money in external marketing to encourage trial. The challenge today is to make enough noise in the external media to make a difference. The second challenge is to communicate a clear simple message that will motivate your potential listener to take some action. We are seeing more and more radio stations devoting more resources to underground marketing tactics such as database marketing. The advantage is that you can do this without your competition knowing, and you can carefully target your message and communicate at a very low cost. If you had a way to capture all the relevant information of every listener or potential listener, who came into contact with your radio station via contest phones, your web site or at station remotes, wouldn't this be something you would look at? We have a product that does exactly this called Listener Tracker. Check our web site for more details.
Conclusion: The iPod and other devices that compete for your listener's attention are not going away. If anything they are becoming more prevalent, smarter and more appealing to the average consumer. Therefore it's critical that our product continues to improve and become more local, relevant and important to the average listener in your community. The floods in Peterborough and the fires on Kelowna proved how important local radio was for those communities. Do not wait for a disaster to strike your community or your ratings. Plan today so you have an even better product tomorrow. |