It felt really weird. The seat was uncomfortably close to the steering wheel. She couldn’t see out of the rear-view mirror.
It felt weird because my daughter Daisy was sitting in MY car. It was designed for my comfort, not hers.
That’s the problem in attracting new listeners to your station. We are comfortable with it, but it can feel weird to them at first particularly if they have some preconceived notions about this “Christian radio thing”.
That’s why it’s helpful to understand the adoption process, the four stages by which people adopt new products.
- Awareness – This is the area where major marketeers spend billions of dollars. Simply speaking, if you are not AWARE of the product, you are never going to BUY the product.
- Interest and Information Search – Once you are aware, you start searching for information. This is the point in the adoption process where being a format of songs they don’t know by artists they’ve never heard of is a speed bump for growth.
- Evaluation / Trial – The good news: trial is free! The bad news: We have to create a comfortableness that isn’t inherent in the format.
- Adoption – The listener embraces the station and listens regularly. This is a good thing, in case you’re taking notes.
Here’s an idea! Put yourself in the driver’s seat of someone in the Awareness stage. What adjustments could your station make to speed up the adoption process?
(Psst! My daughter’s name isn’t Daisy, but Driving Miss Carly didn’t seem quite as snazzy!)