Читать книгу Secrets of Advertising to Gen Y Consumers - Aiden Livingston - Страница 11

Broadcast radio was first started and used by radio manufacturers as a way of selling more radios. They figured broadcasting free radio shows was a good way to convince consumers to make the pretty substantial investment to buy a radio. Keep in mind this was when radios were still the size of kitchen hutches and lurked forebodingly in the corner of people’s living rooms. It wasn’t until marketers started to see just how much time the average family spent listening to their radios that they finally realized the potential for using this new technology as a way to have their message reach the masses. The effect was immediate and substantial, and soon after most major advertisers saw the advantage in sponsoring short radio shows to receive mention of their product. In fact, this is actually where the term soap opera came from: It’s the result of soap manufacturers sponsoring short daytime radio dramas. The shows were recurring and would draw listeners in on a daily basis to hear the next dramatic turn of events.

The format worked quite well to establish products in the minds of customers, and very much influenced purchasing. Keep in mind this was a time when most people tended to grant more credence to what they heard on the radio. After all, it was during this time that Orson Welles did a short radio show in which he read HG Wells’ The War of the Worlds, and caused mass hysteria. When Steven Spielberg retold the same tale with millions of dollars in special effects and big name actors, he could hardly even motivate Gen Y to go to an afternoon matinee, much less form a riotous mob. So the sensitivity of the listening public to lend credibility to anything they hear on the radio has dwindled, to say the least. That is if they are even listening to the radio at all.

Personally I never listen to the radio. For all the years Gen Y has been able to drive, we have had CD players in our cars, which enabled us to listen to our music collection on the go. Albeit, the effectiveness of the CDs begins to wane as they get scratched up. More recently, people have been able to listen to their iPods when they drive anywhere. People can either use a small device that transmits a radio frequency from their iPod to the car stereo system, or, many new vehicles have jacks that can directly plug in the iPod, especially any of the vehicles that are being deliberately marketed to Gen Y. Vehicle manufacturers were able to see the trend that the vast majority would rather listen to their own iPod collection than some radio show, packed with dumb commercials and mindless chitchat. Once again going into the future, the old technology (of radio) will be continually superseded by the more efficient technology (of iPods). Many people, if given the choice, like the option of listening to thousands of songs they picked as their favorites, rather than listening to a radio program that only plays some songs they like, with a lot of commercials between those songs, and having to endure some deejay ramble on about his date over the weekend. The decision seems pretty obvious.