The Crux of our Problem

There’s no getting around it

 

It’s not that people won’t tell you, they actually can’t tell you why they’re making the decision they’re making.”

That’s the crux of the problem with the best research Radio can buy.

It’s one of the reasons I recommend specific researchers when clients are funding market studies. Use those who at the least have the vast experience necessary to understand how to ask the right questions to get at what we’re after.

But even they can’t solve this issue: We make decisions first with our emotional brain and then find the rationale to support what we feel.

This is a totally subconscious process.

We are feeling creatures that think more than we are thinking creatures that feel.

You have to figure out how to reach listeners emotionally before you can ever “help” them decide to actually listen to you and give them rational reasons for their choice.

That’s why I feel so irritated when I hear 99% of station liners: they are almost always aimed at the rational brain — “more,” “most,” “better,” “best,” blah blah blah.

There are strides being made in understanding how we reach our decisions but they are mainly for purchase decisions and the gains are being funded by major broadcast advertisers looking for more bang for their bucks. You can read the article that quote above came from HERE.

In the meantime, feel this: If you don’t find a way to make your listeners feel some strong emotion when they listen, every time they listen, the claims you slip between songs are worse than dead air, because they’re continuing to train everyone who hears them that what you say between songs isn’t worth hearing.