Things get sold on brand and image

If you saw this weeks Apprentice – alongside the selling of street food on the streets of Scotland – you would have picked up on some wise words from Sir Alan – useful to remember at all times of the branding, marketing and promotions process –

Watch this YouTube embedded clip from the show to see what we mean – if you’re viewing on a mobile device that is not HTML5 enabled – please click here

In a world of ever-increasing numbers of platforms it has never been as important to generate a strong brand for your product and to stick to it.

Mark Sng of the creative agency Rainey Kelly Campbell supports the importance of brand culture – saying it “directly affects consumers’ propensity to buy” (Admap, 2011).

In radio we can see the stations’ values and proposition as a direct link to brand culture and a direct avenue to gaining and maintaining listeners.

In conversations with clients I often liken commercial radio to supermarkets. How often do you change where you go from your weekly shop – yet you can’t help but see a billboard and TV advert or hear a radio advert for this weeks special offer at Sainsburys, Tesco etc.

I also make a similar comparison to how you know what you’re getting from the supermarket before you’ve even stepped in. You know that it’s going to be high price and quality food if you go into Waitrose and plenty of special offers and value products in Asda.

The same goes for radio. You know you’re going to get Hit Music and youth culture if you listen to Capital FM – yet news, information and local affairs if you tune into BBC Radio Lincolnshire.

In a competitive radio landscape with multiple brands and variety for the listener, its clearer that the successful radio stations are becoming clearer and clearer in their brand culture and values. Take for example talkSPORT dropping news and feature content overnights and going to 24/7 sport or how organisations like Orion, UTV and Celador are consolidating their brands for a consistent brand culture and image with Free Radio, Signal and Jack/The Breeze respectively.

Brands like Capital FM have done a great job in creating a high impact, recognisable and ‘big’ showbiz brand value and image – meaning creation of brand extensions like The Summertime Ball can sell 800,000 tickets in three days.

Similarly, music stations like Kiss, Classic FM, Jazz FM and XFM generate environments to create hubs of target listeners with similar interests and passions (hence Bauer’s Passion portfolio) bringing in heaps of relevant and targeted advertisers.

Next time you’re sitting in the studio or office and deciding on the next promotional slant on a campaign – remember – things get sold on brand and image!

Image Source: Leadership Frank / BBC