Brand Depth

What drives big ratings success?

Major companies like McDonalds and Burger King, Apple and Microsoft, Coke and Pepsi, GM and Mercedes, etc. research various attribution categories to shine major light on pinpointing consumer perceptions in their respective industries and who their customers really are.
Building far above average rating shares that completely dominate a market aren't as simple as figuring out how many different listener perceived needs one radio station can fill, but thanks to two-decade-old data from Todd Wallace's Radio lndex "Winning Positions 2014" report it's certainly very possible to see how "owning" many programming attributes it took for one station to build a four book average #1 11.5 12+ share and a cume rating of 25.

This battle, of course, continues today, though under different owners that operated the two of them back then when the country format held more than an 18 share of total radio listening.

Wallace says "I believe one of the most useful and actionable displays is what we call a Perceptual Mosaic for each station, whereby all of the perceptual questions are collected and presented in rank-order form.

"This provides an interesting look at how the audience perceives how effective each station is in delivering each position.

"Because the questioning process includes the words "if any" ("Which radio station, if any, do you think plays the most music?"), each mosaic sums up the factors which are truly most important to the listener (as the specific attributes apply to each station)."

Hopefully, this report sparks a few new ideas on ways you can use attribution research to zero-in on positions that can make a difference in your battle(s), showing where you're hot and not.

If you'd like a free eight page report documenting Todd Wallace's Radio lndex "Winning Positions 2014" Attribution Research, Email-him and mention A&O&B.

Domination

In 1992. KNIX/Phoenix had a yearly four book average market-leading 11.5 share, driven by a 25 cume rating.  Arbitron estimated at the time that more than one in four people who listened to radio used KNIX, which had a very strong competitor in KMLE, whose cume rating was a more normal 15.8 and average quarter hour 12+ share was a yearly average 7.0!

How did KNIX engineer such powerful market shares in spite of having a really good competitor?

Normally, it's almost impossible to get a totally unbiased, data-driven answer to that question in real time because the owners, managers, programmers, consultants and researchers with the perspective to know the answer are bound by confidentiality since an ally in one situation may be the competition in another.

Phoenix-based researcher-consultant Todd Wallace has done hundreds of perceptual research projects throughout the U.S and Canada but because they are conducted exclusively for just one client in a market, he still cannot share that confidential information with anyone else. 

Back in the 90's, several of the biggest radio stations in Phoenix subscribed to a syndicated version of his "Radio Index" service which provided weekly ratings tracking and a series of Positioning Questions covering all manner of subjects, 44 different viewpoints, including an Annual Report which summarized all of the monthly PQ's sizing-up the entire radio marketplace (with a sample size of over 15,000 completed interviews each year).  Fortunately, two decades later, he is now able to share those results.

Though the numbers and market situations are dated the principal remains useful in helping you gain some perspective on great ways to examine the audience at large and in-target.

At the time, KNIX dominated three non-music positions - not just in the minds of the country audience, but with all radio listeners!

In fact, in this major market with many very aggressive broadcasters, KNIX did what it took to give away huge prizes, cash and contests so that no other station came close.  Their lead with "best DJ's" and "most involved" wasn't as incredible as their ownership of best contesting, but even in those two images they were head and shoulders above not just their direct competition, but all other radio stations with the entire listening audience.

Ponder this as you plan to 2014:  what might you do to dominate key usage-drivers?

If you'd like a free eight page report documenting Todd Wallace's Radio lndex "Winning Positions 2014" Attribution Research, Email-him and mention A&O&B.

Making A (Position) Statement

Is your "position" in your market what you say it is?

Legendary programmer, manager and consultant Neil Gallagher told RBR a story a couple year ago about a battle in Las Vegas which answers that question:

There once was an A/C station that dominated their major market.  They had the best music images in the city. They were well known for presenting the grandest, most desirable contests and promotions with the most expensive and desirable prizes.  They had the highest rated morning show with the city’s most popular radio personalities.  They had an enormous database of at-work listeners that they worked religiously. They were the area’s dominate television and outdoor advertiser, presenting creative messages that tested extremely well in focus groups and articulated their benefits creatively and succinctly and in an extremely entertaining fashion.  They had the most aggressive street presence in the city, appearing at virtually every event in the entire region with an imposing fleet of stunning vehicles.  They owned the weather and traffic information images with their helicopters in the air, immense cellular phone reporter network and the market’s top television station’s popular, experienced and attractive weather reporter appearing frequently throughout every hour of the morning show.  They were the poster child for being a wildly successful, dominate radio station. 

They had very deep pockets allowing them to fend off any attack someone might contemplate. But they also had one very small “Achilles Heel” – a lack of strict discipline in music programming.

They were not alone in the format as there was a relatively new-to-the-format station in town that was very strategically oriented – and more disciplined. 

Both stations used extensive strategic research.  Both stations played similar “Power” and “Secondary” songs. Both played “Lunar” rotation songs for variety. It was this third category that was the narrow point of attack for their competitor.  Both stations had different philosophies on how to present Lunar songs: the dominate station would play the newer releases they thought everyone would enjoy and a wider variety of gold that received less airplay over the years while their new competitor played songs that were well established from considerable air play over the years.  Most radio station music programmers were tired of hearing these songs as they have been played to death in the minds of the music directors and they rationalized that listeners felt the same way. 

Here’s where the competitor’s focus and discipline paid off big time.  
At the dominant station, the average “like-a-lot” and “like-some” totals of the newer songs and wider selection of Lunar gold records played was 20.  This is because the newer songs hadn’t had time to establish yet and the “fresher” oldies based songs, though less tired, did not have as much passion with the audience.

On the new competitor station, the average “like-a-lot” and “like-some” totals was 40. In spite of the fact the programmers felt extreme discomfort playing those songs (feeling the songs were completely ‘burned’), they had the discipline to trust their instruments (research) and the laser-like focus to continue to attack on this narrow gap.
 
The Lunar songs were twice as popular on the competitor as on the dominant station (40 compared to 20 “like-a-lot” and “like-some” totals.)  Lunars were approximately 35% of both station’s playlists.  That meant that overall, the competitors music was 17.5% better than the dominant station's on average (50% of 35%.) 

The luxury casinos on Las Vegas Boulevard were all built on a 6% spread.  Within a few years attacking on this narrow distinction, the competitor took over the lead in the format by a margin of over 2 to 1.  In fact, the former dominant station continued to lose audience to the newcomer and left the format a year later in major defeat.

Lest you think this was some weird anomaly, consider this information that The Research Group’s leader, Bill Moyes sent out to their clients in the mid-1980s. 

The following phenomena are still true today:

1. The average listener makes their decision on whether you will be their P-1 radio station based on the first 15 to 20 minutes or so that they listen.  So every quarter hour of your programming has to be great.
2. Of all the different things that would influence a listener to become a P-1 of the station, music is the most important (in a talk based radio station, the equivalent would be the information relevancy and desirability).
3. The image “playing the best songs for your taste” correlates 3 times as much in forming P-1 status than does having a “fun morning show” or playing “lots of music”.

Remember: nothing kills great advertising like a bad product.

Both stations no doubt hammered "the best music" as their tag, yet it took listeners just one quarter hour to figure out for themselves which one was better.

This is why it's now pointless, if it ever was, to mindlessly repeat a slogan over and over.

Do You Own A "Tag" Or A "Position?"

Like Randy Lane (writing in Radio Ink), I was also nodding my head at Geoffrey James' Inc Magazine article, "Forget Your Tag Line. It's Obsolete:"

Jingles started in the early days of commercial radio and continued to be popular as a branding technique through first decades of commercial television.  Jingle-writing was big business; pop star Barry Manilow famously got his start as a jingle-smith.  Today, though, jingles have almost disappeared.  That's partly because broadcast ads, which used to be 60 seconds long are now much shorter (often 15 seconds or even 5 seconds long) leaving less time for a jingle. But there's another, more cogent reason for the disappearance of the jingle: they don't work any more.  At best, they sound like bad imitations of popular songs; at worst, they sound corny and retro. The same thing is happening with the corporate tag line. Such tag lines are intended to encapsulate and clarify the essence of a brand proposition as with Apple's "Think Different" or NBC's "Must See TV." The problem with tag lines, though, is that they tend to sound like generic corporate speak. For example, Sony's recently launched "Make.Believe" tag line is supposed to inspirational, but could describe any company.

If you buy that, as I do, it's hard to disagree with Lane too:

Requiring air talents to bark out tag lines every time they open their mouth is wasting precious time. Time that could be better spent delivering a hook headline to instantly engage the audience. You don’t want to waste even a nanosecond when the average attention span is down to nine seconds, according to one study.  Saying “The Best Mix of the ‘80s, ‘90s and Now” first, every talk break, will be rattled off ineffectively at best by most air personalities. Tag lines have become meaningless commercial noise to most listeners. We have moderated many focus groups and have been surprised to find that the majority of respondents could not recall a radio station slogan even though it had been pounded for years every break.

That's why when I hear a personality mechanically saying the same words with the same inflection every time they open their microphone, I first attempt to get them to vary that autopilot inflection pattern.  If they have become so habitual in their delivery, I echo Lane's advice and tell them to just stop it and brand the interesting, informative, entertaining content they prepared, since that's their most obvious definable difference as a "voice on the radio" anyway.

It you don't have lots of songs I really love which are connected by engaging things I care about to say, all the tagging won't work anyway, even if it is delivered beautifully.

Meanwhile, just because "tag" self-marketing doesn't work anymore does not mean that you can win without a believable "position" in the mind of the listener.

And, the art today is subtly imprinting your unique, unduplicated position without resorting to techniques which no longer work to positively brand, such as hard sell and irritating in-your-face repetition (which is still one of the two ways we remember things, but they may just remember how repulsive you are if you over-use it)?

Rees and Trout's four decade old rules (click the link for a refresher course) have not lost their impact when done creatively and believably.

7Up is still the uncola.  Avis may actually be #1 today, but in our minds they still "Try Harder" because they are #2.

Compared to the campaigns highlighted for their ongoing success from back when Jack and Al's book first was published 26 formats and editions ago, "Best and Most Country," "Continuous Country Favorites" and "New Country And The Legends," given the excellent vantage point of history, probably never were "positions" embraced by listeners in the first place. 

The Ribbon On Top? Or, The Contents?

The history of call signs for radio around the world is, to say the very least, fascinating.

Until just a few years ago, in Canada, a commercial broadcaster was not even required to say the legal calls, perhaps because the privately owned commercial broadcast stations use primarily CF and CH through CK. 

So, you don't see anywhere near as many radio stations using just their four letters in their branding.

In the USA, Arbitron's diary asks first for call letters and only after that for dial setting and, third, "station name."  So, as long as diaries are the rating measurement tool, it pays to ingrain your listeners to write that down to be sure you don't lose any listening credit.

With PPM measurement, they don't even need to know your brand name.  They just have to actually use you.

It's axiomatic that every product needs a unique "position" that clearly exists in the mind of the consumer and they also must have an identity to link it with so they can remember where it's located and tell their friends about it.

There was a time when every new country station wanted to be Frogs.  Then, came Cats.  Now, the current flavor of the month appears to be "Bull."

Just how important is it to have "the proper, freshest, brand" (whatever that is) and "the correct position statement for today" (many stations change theirs annually, which leaves listeners confused and often remembering only the original one even from very long ago)?

I learned some lessons about this from three places where I worked.

In the 1970's I was OM of Buck Owens' KUZZ/Bakersfield. which listeners often called "cuz" no matter how much we only used the letters K-U-Z-Z on air.

Then, I went to "Radio KEEN" in San Jose where again I wanted to avoid what seems like a dated 50's word and so we never said "keen," and always used the four letters.  The vast majority of listeners never parroted our letters back to us, preferring to call the station "Radio KEEN," which drove me nuts.  

Finally, in the early 1980's I found myself at what listeners termed "Compass," in spite of the fact that the station had only used K-M-P-S for many years before my arrival as PD.  I'd bet that the current team at the station still hear that dated brand from the folks using it now.

What I learned:

Your brand and position are not words that you can "educate" listeners to adopt.  Those things are just the ribbon on top of the package and yet if you happen to be marketing or creating a product that a already possesses a positive name and message, deeply ingrained, don't fight them.  Creating a powerful identity takes a long time and can be extremely expensive.  Undoing an existing strong one can be next to impossible.

• There is a reason that the word "content" lives inside the word "contents."
• What listeners love that you do is your brand.  How and when they use you is your position, not a lovely logo typeface or costumed mascot.

Market those things.

Country Music Is Authentic, Relatable, Emotional. Country Radio?

In recent weeks TV news branding consultant Graeme Newell has been writing about the specific differences between a slogan and a brand as well as effective and ineffective brands.

On one hand, he's only talking about "news."

On the other, he's talking about US too!

With that in mind, I asked Reel World’s Craig Wallace to create a list of the phrases their writers and singers have been successfully cramming onto the notes of one of their hottest country packages right now.

• "The Best Variety Of Country"
• "Today's Best Country"
• "Today's Hot New Country"
• "Continuous Hot Country Favorites"
• "Today's Best And Most Country"
• "More Continuous Country"
• "Number One For Country"
• "Today's Country And Your All-Time Favorites"
• "Your Country Station"

...and "(city)'s Best Country" and "(city)'s Country Station."

Is this really everything we want our brands to stand for?

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.

Is His Surgery To Have His "Apostrophe's" Removed?

All of Canada and a bunch of his international fans too are holding a good thought for Broadcast Dialogue Publisher Howard Christensen as he recovers today from a Tuesday surgery.

Usually, his weekly broadcast news email goes out on Thursdays, but he sent this week's out just as he was going to the hospital, including this item:

Lindor Reynolds, writing in the Winnipeg Free Press, took a shot at, among others, BOB FM Winnipeg for the misuse of apostrophes. The Cranky Grammar Lady is fed up with the use of TV's, CD's and VCR's plus, she writes, “yes, BOB FM, I mean you and your 80's, 90's and more whatever than ever before". To be fair, while BOB may be the culprit in Winnipeg, virtually every station in North America makes the same punctuation mistake. (Ed’s note: I once challenged a campus station professor for the same thing. He said they kicked it around and concluded that, punctuation aside, “the apostrophes made the slogan look better”).

One thing's certain: whatever they removed in that surgery, I am betting that they left his sense of humor intact!

Cheers to you, Howard. Get well quick.

Before You "Assume The Position..."

First, it was just "Country," "Continuous Country" followed, as did "Today's Country Favorites."

Then, NBC-TV had a mid-season replacement show back in the 90’s called "Hot Country" and "Today's Hot New Country" and "Today's Country" was born. Followed by "Young Country" as more competitors entered the fray.

"New Country" still proliferates. But also, as a means of differentiating current-intensive country stations from more mainstream approaches, we positioned some of them as "Hit Country." Along the way, we have also recommended - in various competitive situations - "Real Country," "Pure Country," "Hotter Country," "Better Country." Fresh Country. Today’s Country. 12/15/20/30-in-a-row country.

Maybe it's time we call a halt to all this ludicrous name-calling and remember one thing: all of our listeners seem to call it country. Some older ones even still term it country-western. Many say they came to country because they were turned off by rock and rap/rhythmic CHR. But, to most folks, it's all simply country music.

Given that reality, why would you call your country station "rock?" I don't think you would IF you knew about that reality. Most of the other words probably don’t “hurt,” but it’s important to keep in mind that position statements were innovative three decades ago. The book whose cover is shown above was first published in 1981.

Do today’s listeners believe any of them?

Which gives me cause to say: before you name your radio station anything, I'd recommend you ask your listeners what they call the stuff they like most. Listen to the terms they use and simply call it one of those things. It will make your marketing efforts much easier.

There is no doubt you can coin a phrase and give it meaning by doing tons of TV and direct marketing. For example, since I was in on the development of the first “Young Country” station, KDDK in Little Rock, thank you Hank Williams Jr., I feel that "Young Country" worked in many places because it isn't so much a style of music as it is an attitude, a playful approach, given meaning in the minds of passionate fans by excellent marketing. Another of the original "Young Country" stations is WYCD/Detroit, which now positions at Detroit's Country.

You can market to older people by being young, but you certainly can't sell many young folks by being old.

But, I just don't think you market to them by being "Rockin'" or "Wild."

Yes, over the years there have even been some “Wild Country” stations, which goes counter to everything I believe about country listener values.

Country listeners enjoy fun, compelling, content-driven relationship interactive radio. The kind of people who are drawn to country music are foreground listeners, family oriented, patriotic, care about the environment but definitely do NOT seem themselves as rebellious.

Over the last three decades, I have been a part of naming country stations WOW-FM, Bob, Kat Country, Froggy, the Rebel, the Mountain, KOLT, and many other mnemonic devices. So, I am always looking for clever, fresh ideas for names and positioning niches.

But, just because it's new doesn't make it good. I ask you: why would folks who fit the country psychographic profile be tempted to listen to you? Why would you want to do a country approach that wouldn't appeal to the heaviest users of the format?

Something tells me that in time "Rockin' Country" and "Wild Country" will join other non-descriptive phrases that have been piled on the radio positioning junk heap over the years: Classics of yesterday and today, Full service radio and Easy rock.

Ingredients Of A Great Country Radio Station (Part One)

* A powerful, memorable brand.

* Very clear and simple positioning, such as: Today's Country; Country Favorites; Continuous Country; Classic Country; Real Country Variety (pick ONE); etc. The actual highly divisible music balance and flow in every ten minute time period delivers on it, proves it's true.

* Everybody has a fun-sounding, character-building nickname, including the weather personality. No nicknames for news people! Characters are defined by the local, relevant content they briefly convey.

* Two ongoing simultaneous contests which become famous, one to promote TSL (i.e. Double Your Paycheck, Triple Your Pay, Live Life Free, Count the Country Favorites) and one to promote cume (for example, Country Cruiser/Super Stickers, free donuts/coffee at remote location all morning until 9).

* Fewer, if any, 'newscasts.' Instead, lots of service elements - staff meteorologist, traffic reporter. Fresh story selection, avoiding the sense that "the same stories are repeated all morning". A good news teaser that SAYS this clearly: "coming up, stories we've haven't covered yet (headline)..."

What are you hearing right now that you like?

The Stickiest Brand And Slogan I've Ever Been Involved With

I have been associated with many, many Frogs, Wolves, KIX's, Colts, Cats, Ducks, Bears, Young Countries and a veritable menagerie of other names and position statements in my more than three decades in the country format, but only one of them has ever been parodied in a cult TV show which continues to live on in YouTube form while also continuing to live on numerous very successful American and Canadian radio stations:

"Turn Your Knob To BOB 100 FM." (click to watch the silly web video of the episode)

I wish I could say I thought of it, but I (as KB would say) "was there" when a great team of strategists put it all together and brought it to life in Minneapolis.

The individuals who made some radio history: GM Kevin McCarthy, PD Bob Wood, sister station KQQL PD Kevin Metheny, along with brilliant architects Randy Michaels, Joel Lind and an amazingly talented staff they all put together.