Tactics

"War is the remedy our enemies have chosen.
Let's give 'em all they want!"
--General Ulysses Grant, 1860

Unless it doesn't trouble us that someone wants what we own, striving to take our audience for their gain, then okay, we're not at war. For all our history, radio, among other things, has been highly competitive, often combative. Yet in 2019 there's a tone of lethargy among some groups large or small; not apathy really ... nor is it laziness. Instead there's a sense of "what to do and when?"

No matter your market, no matter your corporate pedigree, you are at war against other stations and other mediums; your success turns on being famous for something beyond a format. Let's begin with a military axiom that carries over to corporate America. "Marketing" is the art of designing a product. "Sales" is the art of getting clients to buy. There are but four hills your format could occupy. Knowing which one is strategically appropriate is usually the difference between "here" and abject failure. There are only four strategies for winning your un-fair share of anything.

Defensive: Caution -- only the leader can play. If you're entrenched at the top of a format hill, you've earned that through time, consistency and dominance. McDonalds owns the hill; Burger King tried to take it ... and failed. Rules of the incumbent: Military reasons that an attacking force should have a 3:1 superiority or forget the mission. Few attackers in radio can expense or have the will to acquire it. Most attacks against an entrenched defender fail. Jacor's Power Pig (Tampa) was a legendary radio exception; made possible by the defenders' passivity when ambushed. Successful "Defenders" attack themselves. Q105 never did (until it was too late).

Frontal Attacker: If convinced you can take down a leader entrenched on their format hill, and you have resources and corporate support (which can wane quickly after a few bloody skirmishes) then your strategy is to attack narrowly (say 35-44 females) then widen. No frontal attack succeeds if it widens too rapidly. The U.S. quickly won Gulf War I by narrowing its initial attack: using its Tomahawk Missiles to knock out all major Iraqi communications and electrical grids while dominating air combat. The "war" was over almost before it began. But, don't plan on frontal attacks winning quickly, if at all. Most frontal assaults fall short.

Flanker Attacker: Attack narrow and stay narrow! Flankers make end-runs, moving to the largest "uncontested segment" of a rival's format. If a Country leader is essentially 80% Current and Recurrent titles, find the vintage Gold songs that test "hot" (many do) then load in a percentage of-test '90s and early to mid-2000s your competitor won't touch. Remember: In format positioning. it's different, not better since few listeners can accurately define "better."

Guerrilla Fighter: Smaller signals with smaller resources must necessarily fight a "guerrilla" campaign. Rules of play: Achieve tactical surprise, hit your competitor hard then come from a different angle. Any guerrilla fighter should be prepared to bug out and fight again under a different format flag. That's the nature of the strategy.

Cautions: (1) Whatever you do, it must be unique/different for your listener target's key benefit. (2) You have to be credible in your "claim." (3) It can't go against listeners' predisposition. Once upon a time, RCA decided to take on IBM in the race for the massive computer future. Zillions later RCA learned a tough lesson -- in the mind of the consumer RCA meant "Television."