Why Say It If They Don't Believe It?

At least twice in the early 1990’s Paragon Research asked listeners if they could identify a radio station based on the statements they made about music, like playing the most songs in a row, the most music, play a better mix of music, playing commercial-free music blocks and “more hits with less hype.”

The national studies asked, released at the time in the trade magazines: “Would you say that you recognize radio stations in your area based on the slogans they use?”

ALWAYS/SOMETIMES/NEVER/DK-NA
1991: 10%/63%/25%/2%
1996: 7%/51%/41%/0.8%

Then, “Do you find radio stations' slogans to be...”


VERY BELIEVABLE/SOMEWHAT BELIEVABLE/NOT BELIEVABLE
1991: 7%/77%/12%
1996: 6%/68%/22%

Just for fun I recently asked a client doing weekly perceptual tracking as a part of their loyalty program to present exactly the same questions, and here’s how it looked in at least that one A&O client market:

2010: 3%/45%/52%

If you’re still hanging your hat on “most songs,” “most music,” “a better mix,” “commercial free music blocks” or “more hits,” I’d recommend you do the same thing to be sure that what two decades ago worked well to differentiate one station from another still has any impact for you.

Slogans started to lose their power more than 15 years ago, as Paragon documented at the time, and they appear to have even less utility now than they had way back then.