Programmers may associate the idea of “rebranding” with a format flip, but Richard Harker argues that successful stations rebrand themselves all the time, and especially when they are most successful. In this week’s Programming to Win column, Harker runs down a list of ways to update and rebrand aspects of your station, from the logo to the positioner to the music library itself.
Richard Harker
By: Richard Harker
The notion of rebranding a radio station, changing the look, sound, and feel of the station, strikes terror in the hearts of most general managers and program directors. That’s because within the industry, rebranding is too often taken as a sign of failure.
Only failed stations rebrand. Successful stations don’t.
Unfortunately, broadcasting has it all wrong. Every radio station should periodically rebrand itself. And the irony is that rebranding should be done when a station is on top, not when it has hit the skids.
Over time radio stations fall into predictable routines, develop bad habits, and stop innovating. If these bad habits continue for very long, a successful station can lose momentum and find itself on a downwards slide–even while continuing to do what made it successful in the first place.
Loss of momentum is dangerous because the radio station is the last to admit something’s wrong. Listeners begin to sense failure long before the ratings slip. Struggling stations delude themselves into thinking that their fortunes will turn-around book after book, month after month.
Stations resist change until things have deteriorated so badly that they have no choice but to change. But by this time listeners have already lost confidence in the station and drifted away in search of a more confident station.
In the midst of a free-fall, rebranding too often takes on an air of desperation. Listeners don’t like the sound of desperation. It drives them away from the station even faster.
So the answer is to periodically rebrand the station even when everything seems to be going OK. Even if you think the station is perfect, that nothing can be done better than it is currently being done, the station should change from time to time. Think of it as a Spring cleaning, a periodic freshening up to be done regularly.
The good news is that while GMs and PDs hate rebranding, listeners see it as a sign of strength.
Making changes shows listeners the station is confident and willing to change. It shows boldness.
Listeners like boldness. It helps raise a station’s top of mind awareness. It draws more listeners to the station.
Don’t Go Half-Way
Getting over the reluctance to make changes to a healthy station is the first step in successfully rebranding a station. The second step is to be willing to update the station enough for people to notice.
There’s a temptation to design a rebranding campaign of modest incremental changes in the hopes that it minimizes any risks. However, it turns out that there’s greater risk is moving too cautiously. If the changes are subtle, listeners won’t notice, and nothing will be gained.
Timid rebranding is more dangerous than taking bold action because either your efforts won’t be noticed, or listeners will perceive the moves as a sign of weakness. Only successful winning stations make bold moves.
If it is bold enough to make you nervous, you are probably on the right track, but boldness alone isn’t the solution. You have to make sure the moves create a positive impression.
Get outside help in developing the rebranding strategy. Use research to make sure the moves you are making are the right moves.
Here are the elements of a station make-over:
The logo
Begin with the look of the station. Change the logo at least every couple of years. Update the font using something you see in magazines and advertising targeting your audience.
Don’t pick the craziest font you find. Choose something towards the cutting edge of mainstream for your audience, but don’t sacrifice legibility.
People still need to be able to read your logo, so make sure your call letters or name can be read from a distance.
Use today’s popular colors. The trendiness of colors changes, and you want something that is contemporary for your audience.
The website
Once you’ve redesigned the logo, it is time to update the website. Unfortunately, too many radio station websites look like the Internet circa 1995.
Many if not most radio web sites virtually shout at the user with garish colors, too much motion, and a confusing layout. Modern web sites are clean and easy on the eyes.
A station’s web site should be an extension of the station’s programming. Whatever you want a listener to feel when listening should be the same feeling one gets looking at the station web site.
Social media
The station’s social media persona should be updated at the same time. Determine what your listeners are interested in, and make sure you offer it on Facebook and Twitter.
Eliminate boring content that is used as filler. Posting boring content is worse than no content at all.
The station’s positioning statement
Product based positioning statements (The best mix of the 70s, 80s, and 90s) were powerful statements in the 1990s. Unfortunately, while they’ve lost their impact, stations have simply updated the eras. To switch to The best mix of the 80s, 90s, and today, is not rebranding.
Today’s positioning statements should focus more on the experience, not the product. Apple’s Think Different campaign, an important element of the company’s turn-around, was more a comment about the Apple user than it was about Apple products.
When Apple rolled out the iPhone, they invoked the product, but only in the context of the reputation of Apple: This changes everything. Again.
AT&T says Rethink Possible.
Harker Research used the positioner: More Than Research. Answers., through the 1990s, but we now now use Power Through Knowledge. The new positioner focuses on the user rather than the product.
Coca Cola’s long running It’s the Real Thing has been replaced with Open Happiness. As with the other examples, Coke has shifted the emphasis from product to benefit.
Liners
Once the new positioning statement is chosen, liners should be updated to reflect the new position.
Contests and promotions
Radio stations often repeat successful contests annually and sometimes even every six months. One problem with continuing to recycle the same contest over and over is that station staff can grow tired of doing the same thing and end up sleep walking through the contest.
As part of your Spring cleaning, retire (or at least rest) long running contests. Better to replace them while they are still performing well in the ratings than to find out after the fact that listeners have lost interest.
Air staff
Automation and remote voice-tracking has severely damaged local radio’s greatest strength, its tie to the community. The role of the few local air people that remain at most stations today is more crucial than ever. As part of rebranding, look for ways to use local staff to help strengthen the station’s local ties. Make it matter to your listeners that you have local jocks. Talk about relevant local issues and events to connect the station to your community. And stop sounding like you’re doing PSAs. Every word should be engaging and interesting.
Music
Most program directors can live with new logos. They don’t mind changing out the liners. None of these other changes generate as much anxiety as making changes to the music. Time to get over it.
Few stations and fewer program directors survive through an entire music cycle. Success for most stations is associated with a certain sound. As a result, most stations sound texturally the same year after year.
This consistency and predictability continues to work for the station until it stops working. The problem is that while the program director and music director are looking for a certain sound, listeners are not. Their music tastes continually change and evolve.
The final step in rebranding is to freshen and update the library. Get outside help and new ears to determine how best to freshen the sound, and then don’t look back.
The bottom line
Rather than fear rebranding and change, make change a priority. Make change part of the fabric of the station.
If the station is always changing, each day doing something a little different, the station will remain in synch with its audience. And for radio, that is the essence of success.
Richard Harker is President of Harker Research, a company providing a wide range of research services to radio stations in North America and Europe. Twenty-years of research experience combined with Richard’s 15 years as a programmer and general manager helps Harker Research provide practical actionable solutions to ratings problems. Visit www.harkerresearch or contact Richard at (919) 954-8300.
