Studying The Target

“Focus,” as author Al Ries (and his daughter in the years since) has been preaching (he wrote a great book on it) is the key to owning a category in a prospect’s mind. 

Also, the focus needs to be on the needs of the user not the product you’re hoping to sell. 

That starts by getting to know who it is you want to listen to your radio station.

Otherwise, you're guilty of "fire, ready. aim."

Odds are you are either younger or older than they are.  So, what can you do to create a reality-based picture that will prove to be effective?

• Join a local service club that attracts members of your target.
• Volunteer at a local charity as a worker.
• Join a church, synagogue or other religious organization. 
• Take a course at an adult school (not college).
• Talk to listeners on Facebook, Twitter and other social nets and get involved in the activities the folks who are your target age care about.
• Take a day “off” the air and live like your listener does.
• Visit places where they work.
• Go to lunch where your listeners go.  Not just one time, just routinely.

Look for folks who listen to your radio station and get to know them.

Live the demo.

Maintain the sympathetic reaction for consistent listenership.

Have a staff meeting and assign everyone to do these things.

Then, reconvene to talk as a group about what everyone observed and learned.

What more can everyone do to become a “real” companion?

After completing these steps, you're ready to aim and then "fire."

It's Not The Content That's "Sticky"

JRfm/Vancouver PD Mark Patric nominated this "Waking Crew Best Call Of The Morning" in a recent coaching session:  "So good! (click to hear the mp3)


The fact it's a guy. 
The fact he knows so much about the Waking Crew and what they talk about and their personalities.
The fact he knows this relatively new song from a local act so well!
The fact he took the time to write this parody.
The fact he was brave enough to do it.
The fact he pretty much nailed it 'live' on the spot."


The glue in sticky content isn't your character either.

It's those power-packed times when the listener feels like your character is HIS or HER character!

When that happens, you have super-glued them to both your best content and authentic character.

More On Radio's Strengths Vs Pandora's Weaknesses

Jeff Vidler's Vision Critical research on Pandora users' use of and opinions about broadcast radio should serve as a wake up call for broadcast audio (the service formerly known as "radio").

Michael O'Malley highlighted with a red circle yesterday what we need to do in order to keep things that way.

 And, they expect us to do those same things on every digital platform.

Business cycles teach lessons, and what we're going through right now isn't new.

The courageous invest to gain market share when others are cutting back.

Working On The Relationship

It's almost like I went to lunch with a mutual friend of my soul mate and it slipped out that behind my back "everyone" is talking about how boring and predictable day to day life with me has become!

Michael O'Malley's take (the red circle is where we need to be vs where we are now) on Jeff Vidler's Vision Critical research on Pandora users' use of and opinions about broadcast radio, highlighting the need to move farther away from "getting tired of it after awhile" and "boring" toward "for people like me," "puts me in a good mood," and "interesting" reminded me of all the articles over the years in Redbook Magazine with lists (and lists and lists and lists!) of things couples can do to make their relationship stronger.

The shortest of them - five tips - is a good start for any radio broadcast personality to practice.

Daily Habit #1: Talk to Each Other

The word "broadcast" and the fact that we're a "mass" medium makes it easy to feel like you're doing the job when you're talking.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  Are you listening too?  Can other listeners tell that you are?  This starts, of course, with social media, but it has to also include txting and even tightly-edited phoners.

Daily Habit #2: Flirt

No, don't try to pick up the opposite sex in your interactions.  Just ask anyone who's done that.  Sometimes it does work out, but more often than not it can turn ugly. 

Audio "flirting" can be fun, however, as long as it's done in front of the entire audience and they know that they are welcome to flirt back too.  Smile, tease, share relatable stories, Act interested in the target listener.  Constantly, let them know you care.

Daily Habit #3: Get Stupid Together

Be silly.  Laugh. 

Poke fun at yourself and invite listeners to poke fun at themselves as well.

Daily Habit #4: Declare Your Independence

Don't be like everyone else. 

Don't use the same words that every other voice on the radio also does.

Be yourself by sharing - not opinions that might polarize listeners against you or each other - but your point of view, perspective in a way that lets the listener know you want to learn what theirs is too.

Daily Habit #5: Share a Spiritual Moment

Religion and politics, yes, should be off limits for most of us.  If you want to go there, you need to have earned incredible levels of trust and that starts by deeply understanding all of the beliefs and priorities of the folks who listen to you.

Instead, look for common threads that overlap with yours and start there.  Raise money and awareness for the Red Cross, St. Jude, Children's Miracle Network, World Vision.   Even better, find something you personally feel committed to and work to get your listener involved.

Make a difference by making listeners FEEL what you stand for.

Finally, once you've done those five and incorporated them into your daily content, it's time to go back to all of those Redbook articles in their archive and work through another list.

Sustaining a relationship requires a daily commitment to keeping things fresh and new, every break, every day.

All About Me

I read an article about narcissism the other day. It was scary as hell. I kept saying, "That's me!" "That's not me!" "That's me!" "That's not me!"

Of course, the more I thought the article was "all about me," the more narcissistic my behavior was.

Narcissism, egotism, insecurity - they seem to be variations on a single theme. How useful -- or harmful -- is this trait (the article called it a personality disorder) to performers?

Ask any mentor, "What should I talk about/write about/paint about?" and the first answer is always, "What you know/Your personal experience." When do we cross the line from "creatively Sharing" to "Hopelessly self-involved?" The answer is: when your self-involvement reaches the point of forgetting the other guy/gal, when you're so busy thinking about yourself that the needs of the ones you're addressing never even occur to you, you're past that line.

"I'm avidly conscious of the people around me," I like to think, knowing it's only true most of the time. I'm capable of being so self-involved, I'm oblivious to others sending up cues. I'm also able to work so hard at pleasing someone who's important to me, I can come across as a total suck-up. These things don't happen every day, but they happen.

Then, yesterday, another characteristic of narcissism reared its painful head. The temple choir I sing with was performing in a city-wide interfaith concert. I screwed up. Singing a repetitive line one time too few, I reached the end of the song and shouted "Hey!" eight bars too early.

I could have crawled under the floor. Never mind that everyone I talked to later either didn't hear it at all, or said it was No Big Deal. I know in my heart of hearts, I'm incapable of screwing up quietly.

The radio analog to this is that one complaint you receive, amidst all the compliments. "Love your work, Jay!"

"You sounded great today, Jay!" "Loved your story about..."

"You egotist -- it's all about you, isn't it!"

Which one are you going to believe?

THERE'S the vulnerability all that self-centered activity has been erected to cover.

Insecurity is a part of narcissim, and expresses itself as a need for validation from others. Everyone loves to be complimented or, when the chips are down, forgiven. But for us, it's a matter of degree. Only the passage of time will dull the embarrassment I went to bed with last night, and woke up thinking about. Yes, it's all about me...

Now, let's try putting the brightest possible face on this. This sensitivity, this awareness of self, this need to talk about ourselves in public -- it may cause us to be seen as egotists, it may make us "difficult to work with," and yes, it surely makes me oblivious, sometimes, to what everyone else can see. But it also makes me interesting, appealing and entertaining. Take the microscope with which I constantly examine my own life and feelings; use it to reflect my creativity and my joy of expression, and you've almost got a performer capable of enthralling, at least occasionally.

There's another other critical ingredient, I believe... Maybe I can't change who I am, but knowing the personality trait that puts others off -- audiences, colleagues, lovers, friends -- I can bend over backwards to make it work for me. Our first instinct is to ask, "What does he/she think of me." Our second is, "How can I please him/her?" Our third is "What does he/she need or want?" That third one is the useful one for us performers.

Awareness of others -- whom you're affecting and how -- the other person's needs... It comes so naturally to some. I grieve that I have to work at it -- and even then, I don't always get it right. When I do, I can be ten feet tall and bullet-proof for a day. When I screw up, I'll be wounded long after everyone else has forgotten. When I focus on the needs of the people around me, I can please them to the point of worship. When I lose sight of them, I'm just another long-winded egotist.

    -- another Jay Trachman treasure (this one from November 2002)

Selling?

• Recently, I went on a sales call with a programmer at a client station and listened as a station rep told a buyer who asked for additional value-added - after reporting that a competing station was offering more free mentions as incentive than "we" were - told the agency, "you know they will promise anything but their track record is that they talk big but don't deliver."
  
  
• Not too long ago a music director reported that a major label promotion rep suggested that he drop a competing label's highest-charting song to make room for something on the promoter's imprint.

So, what else is new?

Of course, these things happen every day, in one way or another.

We're in a very competitive business in difficult economic times, both in our advertising contacts and our music business relationships, so you can't blame folks who aren't incented on necessarily doing things the right way, but on the short-term results they get.

However, doesn't any good business need to be based on solid product attributes which deliver results and relationships built on trust?

How does trashing your competition achieve that?