Reality Check

Reality can be a drag. Especially when research findings get in the way of your intuition.

For instance, we at KERA once thought that public radio listeners who give to public television – but not to public radio – would be a good target for public radio giving messages.

Our logic was simple. These public TV givers/public radio non-givers obviously watch public TV. And they already "buy" the notion of supporting public broadcasting. That should place them one step ahead of those who listen to public radio but don't give to either public radio or television.

Our plan was simple too. Using KERA’s shared radio and TV resources, we’d put some messages on our TV station asking these folks for pubic radio support. We’d develop special messages for them to be used in on-air pledge appeals and direct mail appeals, too. Our public TV giver database would help the cause.

Now AUDIENCE 98^® tells us that public radio listeners who give to public television but not to public radio are no different than any non-supporter of public radio.

Promoting public radio on public television can’t change this fact, however clever the copy, frequent the spots, or "free" the TV air time.

So much for Plan A. On to Plan B.

It’s not so much a matter of what we do with this new information – it’s what we don’t do. First and foremost, we don't use limited station resources to target this group.

• We don't put spots on public television looking for this group.

• We don't promote the radio pledge drive, or special programs associated with it, on the public television station.

• We don't target mailings to this group.

• We don't create special messages for this group.

What do we do? Return to the programming basics: make our public radio service more reliable and personally important to more of our listeners.

If we focus on making the programming decisions necessary to influence the larger segment of public radio non-givers, we will push them up the Stairway to Given – and public television givers/public radio non-givers will be swept along.

KERA has used our public television member list to solicit new radio givers – with a 1.2% return rate that's considered pretty good by direct mail standards. But we realize there's nothing special about the public TV file – because other lists can return the same rate.

Our radio station manager, justly proud of the strong relationship between the two stations, initially felt that we had the perfect opportunity to experiment with public television on-air promotion and messages that might reach the public radio non-giver/public television giver. After thinking about AUDIENCE 98’s findings, he concluded that

time would be better spent crafting messages for public radio non-givers of any stripe.

Reality is a drag – but wasted effort means precious time and resources lost. Intuition isn't always correct. Reoriented by this new knowledge, KERA is back on the giving path.

– Jeff Hansen
Station Manager, KERA-FM
AUDIENCE 98 Associate

– Ellen Burch
Director of Market Research, KERA/KDTN
AUDIENCE 98 Associate

 

Audience Research Analysis
Copyright © ARA and CPB.  All rights reserved.
Revised: September 01, 2000 12:38 PM.