What's Your Station Doing Or Selling?

Sure, you know what's going on and what the advertisers are selling. You're there every day. You define the position ... you write and produce the imagers and promos ... you determine what events or promotions the station will do ... you strategically develop and implement marketing plans ... you set sales goals, determine the rates, and design the packages ... you sell the inventory ... you manage it all. These are your jobs.

But pull yourself out of the station for more than a day. Forget what you do in the building. Don't be consumed with it as you are daily ... even though that consumption oftentimes has nothing to do with listening.

Put yourself in your or potential listeners' shoes. Go through the daily routine. Oh, the radio is on ... but you're running around trying to get ready for work; getting the kids ready for school; going to work; doing business on the phone, computer, or in meetings; coming home from work; taking the kids to soccer practice ... trying to unwind from a typical day ... and pushing buttons on your radio looking for a favorite song, needed information, or perhaps something in the background besides silence. Now do you know what your station is doing or selling?

That question is not about the station's music, talk, or information. It is about what you are, what you are doing, and what your advertisers are selling. If there was a device on a person's radio that tracked the frequencies and time spent with them -- Arbitron calls it PPM -- it would show quantity. But it would not show how much the messages connected with or impacted the listener.

Consider the average person listens to five or six radio stations a day. And consider that person realistically listens in spurts -- maybe a total of five or ten hours per week. Now what kind of connection or impact are the messages making?

Many radio stations have so many things going on that they lose focus. Perhaps you're only required or want to devote 20 promos per week. Maybe you can't convince an advertiser to spend enough money to cut through the clutter. Regardless of the importance, creativity, or placement chances, the average listener, when put on the spot -- let alone given time to ponder -- couldn't tell you what is going on, or at least couldn't tell you about more than one thing your station is doing or selling.

It's a good thing someone came up with the OES concept, at least as a reference point. But do you really use it? Say your station is highly rated among the broad 25-54 adult target with an OES of 49, but you only ran 20 promos or spots 6am - midnight in a week. Far less than 50% of your broad target heard that message enough to become aware of it, let alone make a decision about it. If that message - be it of station promotions or advertising to increase business - is worth the value of the time devoted to it, you just left a substantial amount of potential customers on the table. For advertisers that may have created a strategically comprehensive marketing campaign spread over a number of media outlets, maybe it is worth the investment. For things your station is doing, it is not.

Ask people in your station what the OES concept is. You might be surprised how few know. And that's a problem in effectively achieving the goals of any campaign.

For programmers, focus on what is really important, give it its due, and say "no" to everything else. For salespeople, be an advocate for your clients and help them understand the need to create a campaign that will get the results from what is usually perceived as, but is often not, a major investment.

Whoever came up with the value-added concept has killed the customer connection or impact of the message and its associated value. On the other hand, integrating the message into a variety of station vehicles creates opportunities to not only make the connection or have impact but also to generate the desired results.

In today's environment of increasing media outlets, message blockers such as TiVo, and mental tune-out, the only way to make that connection or have that impact is to be direct ... direct in the way you create the relationship with your customers.

What is the benefit to your customers? How can you make it tangible? Will it bring them back for more?

What you do to answer these questions will answer the question of this article!

One more question ... do you need help answering the others? One phone call to (703) 678-9460 or email to ggillispie@aol.com can.