Embrace Change, Beware of Change (Part 2)

Last week I encouraged you to Embrace Change.

This week a few words of caution.

Change for the sake of change without consideration of the past and an eye on the future is full of risk, sometimes too much risk.

I have had clients who wanted to move their radio ads from one station to another every 3 months because they felt it only took three months to become established and they moved on to the next group of radio listeners. It doesn't work that way.

Instead of simply changing by stopping something and starting something else, perhaps you need to add something to your business marketing.

In the 8+ years I have worked for a group of radio stations, whenever we changed the format of a station, we threw away the thousands of listeners of the old format in the hopes of finding a new and better audience for our advertisers.

The most recent change we did in the past year was more transitional, more cautious. We added a 3 hour talk show to an all music station, then 9 months later added another 3 hour talk show. Now, instead of 24 hours of music, we have 18 (to preserve the old audience) and 6 hours of talk to attract a new audience. Depending on the results we may add more talk programming in the future.

My recommendations to you:

Keep tabs on trends, investigate where they are going.
A short-term fad is now a couple of weeks.
Anything lasting a month or longer may be a trend to consider.

Know your strengths, weaknesses, core values, and reasons for your past and current success.
With this knowledge, you will begin to see what NOT to change, and what you can adapt to meet your marketplace.

Your comments are always welcome.