If Trump Owned A Radio Group

Love him or hate him, there are lessons to be learned from Donald Trump.

Setting aside the offensive rhetoric, let's take a look at how he has turned his campaign into a marketing machine and how it applies to radio.

Lesson #1: Be Bold. Don't Apologize. In a recent Republican debate, it was brought up that Trump had made multiple campaign contributions to Hillary's past campaigns. What would be a knockout punch to other candidates was shrugged off. After all, he said, "I'm in business."

If Trump owned radio stations, imagine him being asked about streaming audio, in interviews or by analysts. "Talk to me when Pandora or Spotify makes money. Next question."

More importantly, he'd be making sure his advertisers, employees and listeners all knew that radio is the 800-pound gorilla of audio.

Lesson #2: People Do What's in Their Self-Interest. US News used the term "Marketer-in-Chief" to describe Trump. The article goes on to say that people support a brand, "because they believe it's in their self-interest." Hence the populist appeal on the campaign trail of Make America Great Again!

In a similar way, workers are frustrated with their daily commute and their jobs. For most, both are necessary to receive a paycheck. As a result, Trump would waste no time reminding people that it's in their self-interest to listen to the radio in the car and at-work.

In fact, he'd empower people to Make Your Commute and Your Workday Great Again. A simple, yet powerful message that he would bring to life by consistently articulating radio's existing core strengths.

Lesson #3: Focus on Your Most Passionate Fans. While other candidates are busy courting undecided voters, Trump's strategy focuses exclusively on his target audience. As Email Insider reports, "Trump has honed in on his segment of the party faithful and all of his messaging toward it, apparently not caring whether his outrageous statements resonate with moderate voters."

Trump would size up radio the same way. In any major market, the #1 station often has less than 10% share, which means 90% are listening to someone else. Hardly a populist mandate. Yet, he would focus on the money that can be made from consistently delivering P1s in a target demo.

Coupled with the ongoing nature of PPM participation, he would hyper-focus his on-air and off-air messaging to build relationships with his most passionate fans. He would see marketing as his programming off-air and his programming as his on-air marketing.

While as an industry radio needs to be bolder and less apologetic, consistently dominant stations are already Winning the Moment by focusing on their most passionate fans (P1s) and tapping into their self-interest, which drives occasions and TSL.