"Up Your Ratings"
the monthly radio research and programming newsletter from Steve Casey Research.
June 2010
In This Edition:
We are focusing on:
Positioning is a Promise
A Very Useful Type of Research Question: How do you know...?
Don't Overlook this Tool: Email
"Ask 'What kind of station do I want ours to be?'"
"You do constantly talk to listeners and learn what they like, right?"
"Find out what other times of the day they listen, and let them know why they should listen to your fellow jocks."
About Steve Casey Research
I want you to feel confident about your programming. My approach: Focus on learning what your listeners want and appreciate about your programming. We work with you to do essentially one thing: Ask better questions.
Of firms based in the USA, we are the most experienced in providing radio programming and research advice to the international broadcast community.
We've been honored to provide our help to exceptional broadcasting companies like TV2 Radio (Denmark), AMP (Malaysia), Cox (USA), NRJ Group (France), Chrysalis (UK), Start (France), Millennium (India), Primedia (South Africa, Israel), SBS (United States, Puerto Rico), SBS (Scandinavia, Romania, Greece), RMF (Poland), Prima (Romania), Clear Channel (USA), Virgin (Thailand and India) and dozens of great radio stations around the world.
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Positioning Is a Promise
In radio, we talk often of "positioning statements". What is a position?
Positioning is a promise.
Here are the steps that will help you think clearly and successfully about your station's positioning:
Step 1: Be clear about your intentions.
Don't ask "What position do I want to own?"
Ask "What kind of station do I want ours to be?" Ask "What kind of relationship do I want to have with the listeners?"
Step 2: Ask "What's good about that?"
What you are can be broken down to your features. Now you need to think about yourself in terms of what makes you compelling. That will break down to your benefits.
What you are = features
What's good about it = benefits
Step 3: Be thorough. Determine all your features and benefits.
Don't limit yourself. Yes, it may be true that some - maybe even one - position will be the one that is most compelling and which you will talk about the most. But in this exercise, you are understanding the complete picture of your radio station.
Positioning is not station promotion.
Positioning is the promise you make your listeners about every aspect of the station. This is far richer that simply those things you might put in a station liner. Spend some time listing as many promises as you can, in as many areas as you can think of.
Step 4: Commit
Review. Trim. If you aren't really committed to doing what it takes to deliver on something, take it off the list.
It is critical that there be buy-in, beginning with upper management. Anybody not committed to the team's promises to the audience will make liars out of you. They must get on board or leave.
An example: Your station wants to be the station for "the best mix of the 80's, 90's and today". But your research budget is the size of your cat's water bowl.
No!
That is a recipe for failure. Walk the talk. Or change the talk. You don't know, like some kind of mystical psychic, which songs are "best" for your listeners. You'll have to ask them.
Step 5: Evaluate
Rate your promises in two areas:
- How unique to your station are they? Some commitments are not unique to you. They may be foundational to being a decent radio station. Some of these may be less of a candidate for heavy promotion. That does not mean that they are less important.
- How compelling to your target is each promise? Real time traffic from a fleet of station-owned helicopters would be quite unique. But what if you are a teen CHR? Is it all that compelling? How do you know what is compelling? That is one area where research can help, at least if you haven't been in a format very long.
Step 6: Measure, repeat
Evaluating whether people believe your promises is now a key - maybe the key - role of your research.
How do you think they will decide whether you keep your promises? Ask them about those things. Are you right? It is a never-ending cycle:
- What matters to the listeners?
- What are you committed to?
- Create the experience!
- Did it work? Did you provide what matters to the listeners?
When you look at positioning this way, you're able to have useful conversations about what you will focus on. You'll be able to get input from your entire staff. And you'll be able to provide effective guidelines to your entire staff, not just your imaging director.
This newsletter is free. And you are free to share it and any of the ideas included here. If you have questions, ideas for articles, or something to say to the world about programming research, please let us know.
A Very Useful Type of Research Question: How do you know…?
Would you like to add some valuable research questions to your next survey? Here are a couple of ideas.
First, let's review a very common type of audience survey question:
Attribute ownership and importance
You know that many research questions ask people to rate stations on various attributes. For example:
- Which station plays hit music only?
- Which station is the "music machine"?
- Which station is getting better and better?
These are very common questions in a marketing study.
And if we're being smart, we will also ask people to rate how important each attribute is. After all, what benefit is it if people rate you "best for news" if news is not important to them?
Here is another kind of question you should try. You can use this in focus groups, in market studies of any kind, and even in your informal discussions with listeners. You do constantly talk to listeners and learn what they like, right?
How do you know…?
I call these "How do you know?" or "How do you recognize?" questions.
We want to find out what things people key in on to make a decision whether a station holds an attribute or doesn't, is telling the truth or not.
Three example questions:
- How can you tell, by listening, that a station is telling the truth if they say they play hit music only?
- What does a radio station have to do in order for you to agree with them if they say that they are a "music machine"?
- As you listen to radio, what do you hear that tells you right away that a station is getting better?
Formal and informal research
You don’t have to wait for the next formal study to bounce these and similar questions off your listeners. Ask them, “How do you know…? “
Don't Overlook this Tool: Email
How Many Emails Do You Get?
If you're on the air, listeners contact you today by email. It allows them to get through even when you don't answer the phone, and to send attachments.
So, here are a couple of reminders:
- Promote your email. And don't limit your content to "what song do you want to hear?" Ask real questions. If you just played a new song for the first time, ask listeners to email you with their opinion. If the concert is tonight, ask people to email you their pictures from the show as attachments tomorrow.
- Mention interesting emails during the show.
- Answer emails as often as possible. Do this in the hour after your show.
- See an email from a listener as just one step in a relationship with you and the station. Invite them to join the station's loyal listener program. Encourage them to sign up for the station newsletter(s). Find out what other times of the day they listen, and let them know why they should listen to your fellow jocks.
The UpYourRatings Blog
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Corrections and Additions: If you need us to make a change to your name or email address, or if there are others you'd like us to add to the list of those getting these research and programming ideas, please let us know. We'll be happy to make changes and include new friends.