Most AC’s will tell you how important it is that they capture the loyalty of women, especially during long periods of listening during the day. But capturing loyalty is much more complicated than playing a batch of good songs, one after another, without stopping and without talk.
Women enjoy and are enriched by participating in a community of their peers. This, for example, is why “Mom’s clubs” are more than orchestrated play-dates for children. It’s why Oprah’s TV show, magazine, and website are meeting places as much as they are destinations.
Radio has a long way to go to maximize this.
In San Diego, an Oprah competitor, TV’s 10-4 San Diego, has launched a combination promotion and community called the “10-4 Mom Squad.” As the website describes the program:
It’s an exciting new community for San Diego mothers from all walks of life. When you sign up for the 10-4 Mom Squad, you’re helping create a unique support network for other mothers like you.
The incentive to join: The chance for a spa-pampering and more.
See this video of the “first members of the Mom Squad.” And note the message boards for moms of kids of all ages.
If your audience is female and adult, more often than not they’re moms. But what do you do to reach out in a proprietary, branded way to these women? Are you simply piggy-backing on community events or reading mom-oriented liners? Or is your approach much deeper, like the “Mom Squad”?
The ridiculous (in my view) sessions our industry hosts on “What Women Want” are both patronizing and shallow. The fact is that women know what women want and we men generally do not.
You can start by taking a page from Channel 10 and enabling interactions of your audience, integrating the content on-air, and developing emotional connections and non-music reasons to listen – “a support network for mothers like you.”
Then bask in the glow of the resulting goodwill.
If you want the loyalty of women you’re going to have to earn it.