Connection: Radio as the means not the end.

Third entry in a series about building better station brands.

To really apply Aspirational Marketing successfully, we will need to adjust the paradigms we currently hold about radio and the role we play. Once we've identified our audience's aspirational values, the values that will result in your listeners achieving their ideal self-image, our first reaction is to try assigning those values to the station brand. This response, while understandable, does not set our priorities in the proper order, namely by not putting the listener first and foremost. Radio should not try to be the ends, but the means by which the listener achieves connecting to their ideal self image.

Connection is not just a buzz-word, it is a valuable tool.

How often do we in radio express our desire to "connect" with our listeners. This is a catch phrase that hasn't been applied with any real teeth because we discuss it in abstract, warm and fuzzy terms, but don't back it with any real plan of action. A stronger approach to connection is to use our stations to connect listeners with their aspirational values. That is what I mean by radio as a means, not as an end. If "family first" is a primary value of your audience, then what can you do to make sure you connect them with family friendly features and events? Become the unofficial-official home of every neighborhood festival and street fair year round. When you give away tickets, give away four packs for the family when you do give-aways. If you are giving away pairs of tickets for an adult night out, throw in cash to cover a sitter. Partner with sports teams, movie theatres, nice restaurants, etc.., and coordinate family nights when parents are encouraged to bring kids who would otherwise be a nuisance to other patrons. These are just a few examples of a radio station focusing it's energy on being a means not the end, connecting a listener to an aspirational value of family first. A hollow pronouncement of "safe for the whole family" is an example of a radio station focused on itself first. Don't define your brand, define the listener who uses your brand. Don't tell the listener how good you are, tell them how good they are and you are the connection to their ideal self image. Be "safe for the whole family" and follow it up by making those connections that make the listener the priority.

Define the consumer, the consumer defines the brand.

"I wanna be like Mike" was a brilliant aspirational campaign that defined the consumer, not the shoe. The shoe wearer wanted to be able to jump higher and run faster and play like the worlds greatest basketball player, Michael Jordan. Nike didn't define the shoe, it defined how the shoe could be a connection to greatness in the shape of Jordan. Nike was the means, not the end. Gatorade, "Is it in you?" Another great aspirational campaign that doesn't seek to define Gatorade as the best drink ever, but the best athletes drink Gatorade. It connects the sports consumer with better performance , greater heart, stamina and strength. "Is it in you?" Is the desire, work ethic, will to win, and heart of a champion in you? If you aspire toward all these values, Gatorade is your connection to the goal. Define the consumer, the consumer defines the brand.

The second important use for connection as a marketing tool is connecting listeners with the same aspirational values. No one understood this idea better than the alternative festivals in the 90's. The first years of Lollapalooza, it was such a powerful and successful brand because it connected people with the same ideas, philosophies, political ideology, musical tastes, age, fashion sense, etc... Lollapalooza did not act as the ends, but the means, the excuse for these people to come together. Once together a sub-culture formed with loyalties and a need for the brand to continue to reconnect this audience. Consider a station whose audience hold patriotism as an important aspirational value, you would be well served to regularly put together or attach yourself to events honoring US soldiers coming and going from tours of duty. If family values is a highly ranked value, each weekend identify a family friendly street fair or park festival where you audience came come and connect with each other. If trend setting is high on your audience list of values, regularly choose a concert that is a 'must see' and take ownership. Giving you listeners a place to connect with each makes your station a valuable cultural leader as you organize and publicize these events. The audience with come to rely on the station for the next place to connect with like minded people and a culture predicated on your brand forms.

In the wake of 9-11 one of the more powerful things I remember radio doing was connecting people who needed to mourn. It was a far more powerful choice to allow people to express their grief by bringing people together than using the trite song with sound-bite tribute played over and over. Radio was at a loss for how to fully embrace a tragedy of this magnitude on the air so instead they arranged fund raisers to connect people who wanted an outlet to donate. Radio publicized special religious services at churches and temples connecting those that wanted to mourn in a spiritual setting with houses of worship. Radio took a back seat, understood the power of connection in a real way and became the ends rather than the means.

Here is where our opportunity lies to create better radio brands. This is how we give ours brands greater meaning beyond the literal format definitions. This is how we re-engage our audience and make them more reliant on our station. This is how we get listeners to seek association with our station, by serving as middle man for the values that make them feel smarter, more attractive, funnier, a better human being. For each audience these aspirational values change, discover them and work to connect your audience to their ideal self image. Define the audience and they will define your brand. The closer bring your audience to ideal self image, the more important your brand becomes in continuing that self-image.

Comments

[Michael Whareaitu]

Awesome articles!!! they have really helped heaps me as a somewhat isolated Station Imaging Producer. These articles have helped re-affirm my most favoured approach to creating a image that will help to connect to our listeners and make them feel like they own it. Listener first