The Branding Clinic

If you search for a retail brand that can relate well to radio, Apple is a great example. Apple is a brand that elicits a strong emotion from its followers. It's about lifestyle, passion, connecting with its users, reliability, and a sense of community. Those are all attributes any station would love! Brands are more than names. It's often a personality (like Apple) or a lifestyle desire (Starbucks) that defines a brand. You improve your odds by focusing on customer needs and desires. Build your brand statement around what listeners want and need, and the message will be stronger.

There are four key rules to make your branding more effective:

Marketing Rule #1: Be dramatically different. If you don't know what separates your station(s) from the competition, then there is a problem with your product. It goes back to the tenets of positioning: be unique, credible, and beneficial to the user.

Marketing Rule #2: Keep it simple. For radio, the brands that have always succeeded are simple and easy to fathom: The Big Ape, Kix Country, Kool 101.7, Dependable WOWO, Newsradio KCBS, etc. If your brand requires an asterisk and explanation, start over!

Marketing Rule #3: Brand with emotion. The biggest and best known brands tend to brand themselves with an emotional phrase, not a feature like radio stations. Here's Forbes' Magazine's list of the hottest brands last year: Apple, Google, Amazon, eBay, Red Bull, Starbucks, Pixar and Coach.

Marketing Rule #4: Break from tradition. Realize the status quo in branding doesn't cut it anymore. Make the listener part of you and create an emotional bond.