Building Customer Loyalty
by Tom Barnes

Page 1  2  3   

Regardless of format the key to sustained successful programming is conversion. That is converting cume listening into core listening. In Arbitron language conversion is defined as getting P2 listeners to become P1 without alienating current P1.

In marketing terms, conversion is the process of building loyalty.

Marketers define loyalty as a commitment on the part of the customer to make a sustained investment in an ongoing relationship with the radio station.

Loyalty is a word that's thrown out a lot in our business. Programmers and General Managers love the idea of loyalty marketing. But before you spend your money and time implementing loyalty marketing tactics, let's review what loyalty is, how it's shaped, and how to affect it via your on-air product.

Burke Customer Satisfaction Associates studies loyalty for consumer products. In a recent article for American Demographics, two researchers for Burke observe how loyalty is misinterpreted by many marketing managers. In short, the authors point out that loyalty is not:

Satisfaction.

Satisfaction drives loyalty but, in and of itself, is not the same thing. A listener can be satisfied and yet not be loyal. We'll look at how later.

Response to contests or promotions

Every one who has spent big dollars on a contest knows contest-pigs go anywhere. Innovators will try anything new. This behavior can be deceiving when assessing how loyal your audience really is.

Market share

Just because you're winning doesn't mean you've got a loyal listening base. It's possible you've got lousy competitors, no competition at all, or high churn (High cume-low TSL)

Heavy usage

There are many reasons why you might have a lot of listening and no loyalty: signal advantage, habit, and forced listening (others control radio) so high TSL doesn't necessarily mean loyalty either.

Loyalty is reflected in attitudes and behaviors like

• The intention to use again
• A willingness to recommend
• A reluctance to switch to another competitor

Page 1  2  3   

To get the latest from MEDIATHINK in your e-mail click here.