Public Radio

[boazcan]

I spoke with a public radio at a chamber event a few months ago. Their demographics are perfect for our target market. But their market is much bigger than we would "like" to service.

I have never been much of NPR guy, but have listened to it briefly since I spoke with him.

What has been the results for those that have tried it?

 

[Scott]

Never tried NPR here (too far away) but the demographic is right and if you service the majority of the area it could work if the price is right. You could say something like "proudly serving the _______ and ________ areas or counties. People will still hear what they want to hear and if you get callers from pretty far away you could always have a high min. to make it worth your while.

Ya just never know with marketing/advertising until you try and test it. Can't say as I've ever heard a carpet cleaner on NPR. I don't listen to it often but if memory serves they have "sponsors" instead of traditional advertisers - i.e.: "this show brought to you by ________." Can you share how that works along with pricing? Do they have a Rate Card online or in .pdf that we can see?

 

[boazcan]

Scott - I cannot remember the specific numbers, but it wasn't cheap unless you signed up for a 6mth + term.

Yes, they would give your company a 10-15 sec. spot by saying "brought to by ........, and" and then a blurb about your service. I was going to market hard surface first and then carpet. We really market floor care, and then go to carpet.

Our NPR is run out of Tampa at University of South Florida, my alma mater. Older ages, high income for demographic. They cover about a 6-7 county area and we service about 1.5 counties for now. As soon, I get through these post cards that I committed to then I am going to give it a look

 

[Ken Snow]

Bryan, it can be very expensive and like Scott said no phone number and no statements about how great you are. It has to be very generic and vanilla unlike traditional advertising.

Also be careful to think they are so "in" your market demo. NPR listeners tend to be either very young (college students), or 55 plus, which is starting to get outside our prime demo.

Lastly public radio is a place to reinforce a brand, not create one. If you are known far and wide it may have some benefit to reinforce your community giving, if not it will be an even bigger waste of money.

Ken
Ps on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis commercial radio is a fraction of the price. I would be happy to look at what NPR has offered you and give an opinion if you would like.

 

[Curtis Pennington]

Radio is terrible mailers,newspaper or even tv is better.

 

[Ken Snow]

Curtis- I don't know what has given you the impression that radio is terrible, but I hope in my market that everone else agrees with you. I think it and tv are the best methods for advertising to a large population at a very effective CPM. A small comany trying to target a very small geographic area may not find it effective, but for us it is number 1, followed by network tv, then news pubs then internet (which will over take newspubs by 2010 or 2011). This is all after a chunk off the top for database marketing and specialty items.

Ken

 

[boazcan]

Bryan, it can be very expensive and like Scott said no phone number and no statements about how great you are. It has to be very generic and vanilla unlike traditional advertising.

Also be careful to think they are so "in" your market demo. NPR listeners tend to be either very young (college students), or 55 plus, which is starting to get outside our prime demo.

Lastly public radio is a place to reinforce a brand, not create one. If you are known far and wide it may have some benefit to reinforce your community giving, if not it will be an even bigger waste of money.

Ken
Ps on a cost per thousand (CPM) basis commercial radio is a fraction of the price. I would be happy to look at what NPR has offered you and give an opinion if you would like.

Good word, Ken - reinforce not create. Makes sense.

 

[billyeadon]

Re: Ken don't forget us oldies

Also be careful to think they are so "in" your market demo. NPR listeners tend to be either very young (college students), or 55 plus, which is starting to get outside our prime demo.

Ken,
I know you study your demographics almost as much as you study your next racqetball opponent. What I wonder is if you 55+ market may be increasing. Stats that I have show the following

2000-2010 Stats

18-44: -1%
55+: +21%
(55-64: +47%)
This may be many of your previous customers moving into a new age bracket. Heck if I lived in your market I would be long past your target.

Bill Yeadon
http://www.strategiesforsuccess.com

 

[Ken Snow]

Hey Bill

Yes there is certainly the aging population at hand in our market and the country, though even more so I am sure in the retirement states. While 55+ or 65+ is still a great source of business and certainly less likely than younger folks to do it themselves, the frequency of need diminishes as kids leave the house and life becomes more "stable". We are always looking and analyzing media that is hitting our sweet spot, W35-54, or even more targeted to 40-50, that will have the highest need both in terms of frequency and the money to pay for service. At the same time we want to nuture the 55+ by staying in contact with them via oldies & news talk radio, early morning network tv, and still the newspaper as they are the last ones to still be reading a printed version. We also are reaching out with a portion of our budget to the 25+ woman through slightly more cutting edge radio stations (not teeny boper), internet, specialty pubs etc.

Ken

 

[Chris A]

so what stations would you say are the best for you, soft rock? Pop music (not KISS or Radio Disney)?

 

[Ron Werner]

Radio only works if you are on there repeatedly over a fairly long time period.
If you are only looking at a month, or two, might not get the results.
Citruso had ads on local radio here, actually out of Bellingham, covered the south island, Vancouver to Seattle.
Every time I heard one of these ads I had a couple thoughts. One, good marketing message, compelling, leads someone to trust them, two, what a sham! Only because I knew what they were really like.
But they certainly got their message out, almost everyone I talked to asked about Citruso, though they hired me :wink:

 

[Ken Snow]

I agree Ron, need to have the frequency and ongoing exposure. We are fortunate to have a strong brand so we do not need as much frequency as someone who is trying to build a brand. I can run 12-20 spots a week per station and get results.

Ken
Ps Chris we are on 7-8 stations 45 weeks a year.

 

[Curtis Pennington]

I tried radio for a year and was very,very disapointed, needless to say. With XM radio and CD players,IPODS people dont listen to radios stations or simply tune out commercials and as for me if I hear a commercial coming on I change the channel. You can spend your money in better areas than radio.

 

[Ken Snow]

Curtis I have no idea how you tried radio but I will tell you that people are still listening to radio especially local radio in the morning. There is lots of independantly audited data to use as part of a buying tool. It is possible that it did not work for you because:

A) not buying the right stations to reach your target
B) not buying the right time of day (moring drive and mid day are ideal for getting response for carpet cleaning)
C) not having enough frequency~ especially if you are not a known brand in the total listening area
D) not having compelling copy

And one final one- letting a radio rep build you schedule and give you their market analysis~ they are trained very well on how to make their stations look good to anyone.

Ken
Ps I hope everyone especially in my market continues to believe radio is bad.
Pps XM and Sirrus have very little market share
Pps Women still listen to commercials, at a much higher rate than men. The biggest danger we have as marketers is falling into the trap of believing that everyone is like us. For us men that is especially dangerous as we are marketing to women, not other men.
Ppps- this one is just to irritate Marty and give Steve T a run for his Ps money :-)

 

[Curtis Pennington]

I hear ya Ken we went over specifics,frequency and I was on the "better stations here etc. etc. anyway ,if it works for you fantastic. Just from my personal experince It didnt work for me. So I guess its one thing you could try once yourself and then evaluate how it works in your area.

 

[Chris A]

XM and Sirius had to merge to avoid bankruptcy, I'm not sure you'll have to worry about them.

 

[Jack May]

Interesting thread and great points made by Ken.

I'm a little like Curtis in that I ran a 12 month program across 3-4 stations, all local, targeting 35-65 yr olds with disposable income above (can't remember) and yeilded 1 (one) trackable job during that time.

We tried two different approaches during that time.

Each client was asked where they got our name from. If radio was not mentioned, they were then asked 'Have you heard our adds on the radio'?

HOWEVER, late last year, I was recommended to a client for a water loss. He happened to be the general manager of the largest local radio group here and was interested in my story with his company.

The wash up from that is that I decided to do a contra deal with him and have done a fair bit of work for him and he is personally designing a program for me. I am supposed to be meeting him in the next 10 days or so to review his program.

Once he has that, I wouldn't mind if I could get a couple of reviews of adds etc before we go to air. (Ken?) Apart from that though, I wouldn't mind giving him a fairly free reign to see what results he can produce. If I meddle too much and we don't see results again, then he can always blame that.

John