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As strategic programming advisors to one hell of a lot of radio brands, we often find major misreads which confuse a course of action with the most appropriate opportunity. That mistake burns effort, money, and corporate patience. Too few companies and their programmers spend much time mapping the mind.
A top flight commander carefully studies the terrain, land or sea, before every battle. Every hill, every mountain, every ocean is analyzed for its offensive or defensive potential. A good commander also studies his or her opponent's position. As we speak, Iran is threatening to move some of its navy vessels to the edge of American Maritime boundaries! For competing enemies--military or corporate--knowing the opponent's exact strength means the best surprise is no surprise. Radio executives who are truly savvy hope to avoid at all costs, a devastating ambush from a competitor. In today's radio environment for reasons most of us have witnessed and accept, reconnaissance is extraordinarily difficult; the price of strategic research, the fluidity of a market, and corporate reticence to act on the courage of a strategist. Most companies hail research; few commit to it.
How do we see inside the human mind to find out what the terrain looks like? What strengths do you hold versus those of our opponents? The old way of digging into opposition research was to ask listeners "what they wanted to hear." That's beer-over-the-bridgework as they say in Milwaukee. Today what we most need to know is what brands represent what positions? Who holds format high ground (and there's a difference between scoring a couple of trends and "holding the high ground"). Done correctly more accomplished radio groups determine the contour of listeners' minds to produce a "map" that is just as useful as your GPS. Mapping the mental (perceptual) battleground of your market can give you an enormous advantage. In many cases-even in top 20 markets-your competitors won't even know where the battle is about to go.
In 2014 our biggest shortfall as strategic architects is the tendency to only react to a competitive adjustment and worse, that reaction is often based on what we think a competitor will do. This is a fatal error! Instead, we counsel clients to always form their plan around what they think a competitor is capable of doing. Many a format rank has been surrendered because someone analyzed the wrong stuff. Superficial judgments made on a rival's personality, or our disdain for their company is irrelevant. What really matters is our appreciation for what we believe they are capable of accomplishing in reaction to our flanker or frontal attack.
What are examples of marketing "high ground," unassailable with a frontal assault? In sports media it's ESPN. In coffee, it's Starbucks. In sportswear it's Nike. In high-end sports cars it's Ferrari. Monolithic mountains are being fought over and segmented in many fields. Few can afford to surrender their position in format radio because it's a zero-sum-audience game.
At least 50 percent of the time an ownership's instincts are wrong. Budget woes, corporate sluggishness or worse, set-piece predictable tactics all combine to kill good programmers and managers as they wait on the sidelines for company direction. Frederick the Great said it better than anyone: "He who attempts to defend everywhere, defends nothing."
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