Straight From The Listeners' Mouth

Picture this… Thursday, 6:30PM… intense florescent lights shine brightly and frostily in a cement room with white cinderblock walls. A General Manager, Program Director, and Researcher gather in a dimly lit room, behind a one-way glass window and gaze upon twelve sweating and uncomfortable women answering questions about their favorite radio stations in a way that’s reminiscent of an unnerving police interrogation scene from [insert bad 80’s movie here].

It seems as though the words “focus group” often conjure an image similar to the one described above. At McVay Media, we sometimes initiate focus groups at radio stations to better understand the people we’re targeting in the market. No florescent lights, cinderblock walls, or one-way windows. Instead, we gather at a hotel conference room or other venue and offer refreshments to a carefully screened sample of target listeners while we hold a general discussion about life… and secondarily, how radio fits into their lives.

I’ll give you a “fly on the wall” perspective into this session and some of the comments our participants made in just a moment.

But first, a disclaimer… Focus groups have small samples and variable results. While it should never be used as a sole form of research for a radio station’s strategy and big picture game plan, focus groups can help you to pinpoint specific items for inquiry or inclusion in a larger market study or strategic examination of the market. Focus Groups are an exceptional conduit to learning about the nuances of your target listener.

What is her average day like with 2.2 children, 1 husband, 2 dogs, and a picket fence? What are her hopes and aspirations? What does she think about on those rides to drop off or pick up the kids from school? What’s important to her at this stage in her life? What does she read? You get the idea. Often, we will even use focus groups as a preliminary step to a perceptual study or market survey, as it can assist us in finding general perceptions that may exist about radio or other entertainment in the market.

Alright… back to the hotel conference room and focus group already in progress. Here are some of the points listeners tend to mention with regularity during AC focus groups. Note that all of the participants quoted below are real comments from female Mainstream AC partisans.

IDENTIFY THE MUSIC

It’s mentioned in focus groups and proven in full market perceptual studies: artist names and titles of songs continue to register as some of the most important information on your station. While we’d like to think that most of the music we play on AC is familiar by title and artist to the majority of our audience, our listeners simply can’t identify music the same way we can as radio junkies.

There are several perceived advantages to verbally identifying the songs you play. First, the listeners’ need to know titles/artist information is served. Secondly, depending on the number of titles you back-sell in a particular break, listeners may perceive that you play more music than the competition who does not announce their titles.

Another advantage to identifying your titles and artists on the air: ownership of the music you play. If you are scheduling the music on your station well, announcing three or more songs you’ve just played on the air may give listeners a sample of the music you play. It’s a verbal description of a sample quarter hour. New listeners may then understand your station vs. the others in the market faster.

FROM THE FOCUS GROUP TO THE SWEEPER

This comment lends some insight into the way our AC stations may be used or one perceived benefit that is consequential to the highly familiar music we play. Comments like this should be reflected in promos and sweepers that sell station benefits. Example: “At Majic 95.1, we play songs you can sing along to… in the office (clip of woman singing along with office noise in the background)… in the car with the kids (clip of woman singing with kids in the car)… or in the shower! (clip of woman’s singing echoing over water sound effect). The songs you know and love… Majic 95.1!”

SAFE FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY

Looking back over twenty years of AC research at McVay Media, female listeners have always appeared to have some inclination to listening and supporting programming that is family-safe.

A station that’s “safe for the family” is clearly a benefit for AC partisans. “Family oriented” and “clean programs” are phrases often overheard in focus groups with listeners of this type.

Certainly, “safe” has different connotations and standards in different formats. Boundaries about what’s “safe” or “unsafe” should be clearly defined by the Program Director and supported by the General Manager. One of my clients, KQLF/Fort Collins, has even developed the “Sunny 97.9 Pledge” based on listener feedback. They have posted the pledge on their website, which reads as follows: “Sunny 97.9 will be a radio station that is involved in the community and safe for the whole family. We'll never say anything that will embarrass you in front of your kids. We'll be informative, entertaining, fun, topical, and wholesome!”

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Do you have concert and artist information in the studio for your jocks to access quickly in the event that a listener calls with a question? Do your personalities even answer the phone? How do they treat listeners?

Radio stations are entertainment portals. We are the bridge between listeners and community events, concerts, and information about the entertainment they enjoy. We should always be ready to offer suggestions for events or activities listeners may go to in their free time. We should also never be scooped by listeners on events happening in the community. If there’s something going on, we should be well informed and be able to answer listeners’ questions quickly and politely.

IMAGING

Are the Bart Simpson sound clips really appropriate and well targeted to your 35-44 year old female audience? If you are going to use a movie sound clip or other resurrected audio, it should add something profound to your message. What does the clip illustrate or invoke in the listeners’ mind/emotion that you can’t do otherwise?

INSTANT GRATIFICATION

This is an example of an upset expectation—and poor on-air execution. A station that promoted a strong tie with a credible local meteorologist ultimately didn’t immediately distribute the weather information they promised listeners numerous times earlier. In addition, listeners who tuned into the station anticipating information on the harsh storm weathering the area were “baited and switched” with commercials.

It appears that this listener felt as though she was being asked to hold on and listen to irrelevant information that didn’t have as much immediate impact to get to information that may have vital impact on the well being of her family or community.

We will hear often in focus groups that listeners dislike “teasing” on the air if they are strung along to hear information that doesn’t carry the weight it seemed to carry in the tease.

I still believe in strong teasing and prepromotion to build TSL. It’s one of the most important things your personalities do every day. However, based on comments like the one above (which is admittedly extreme), I also believe that we should tease information service elements such as traffic and weather with caution.

We shouldn’t make listeners feel as though they have to listen through a seven minute stop set to hear something that has urgent importance in their world such as extreme traffic and/or severe weather. They’ll simply leave us and go to other radio stations that seem to have more “INSTANT GRATIFICATION”

If there is severe weather or an urgent traffic delay, tell us about it quickly and give any necessary information—then teasing detailed follow up information such as alternative routes in the event of a traffic tie-up.

…another example of a station that may be losing its edge on “INSTANT GRATIFICATION.” Listeners should feel that you have the elements and music they want as soon as they tune in to hear them—that builds consistent and repeated listening. When the traffic bed starts, the expectation is that traffic is coming on the air. Get to the traffic and skip the extraneous chatter.

FOCUS GROUP TIPS

Following each focus group, it helps to sit down with the moderator, consultant, or other programming authority, and review the tape of the session making notes on the key findings from the session. Find three to five things that you learned from that particular session. What came up that you would like to explore further in research at a later date?

Some questions to ask yourself as you listen back to any listener comments:

--Was the sample what you needed it to be, or are there certain comments or people that should have been discharged?

--What did you learn about the usage habits of your listeners? Did they talk about using your station in a way that you didn’t expect—or in a way that you don’t currently tout on the air? Tout it!

--Did listeners give you insight into their day that might be well reflected and received in a promo that identifies with their lifestyle?

--Did anyone make a statement about a competitor’s position in the market you weren’t expecting? Is there an opportunity to fulfill an additional promise or provide an additional service element locally?

--Did you get into a conversation about life in general? What are some of the hopes and dreams or interests of your participants? How does that relate to morning show content and other topical content on your station.

Focus groups should never be used alone to define strategies for radio stations. However, they can give us some valuable insight into the habits, lives, hopes, dreams, and aspirations of your listeners.