What Lovemarks Can Teach Radio Stations -- and Marketers

Excerpted from Advertising Age
By Doug Zanger
Published: January 29, 2008

We started the 2008 school year in the Integrated Media program at Mount Hood Community College a few weeks ago. As is our habit, we are using Lovemarks: The Future Beyond Brands as the primary text. It's not because there are so many pretty pictures (which I definitely need), but there are clear and simple ideas that give our students a clear foundation for understanding the basic concepts of branding.

One of the questions posed to the students was whether they thought, here in Portland, they could identify radio stations that were true "brands." A few stood out (KINK, 94.7, KGON and Jammin' 95.5 for music, and KOPB and KXL for news and talk), but most, they felt, were just "stations" that didn't exactly connect with them. There were myriad reasons why this was the case. For the most part, they felt as though most music stations were "delivery systems" with some people telling them what the song was. Part of their reasoning was that there lacked, in most cases, a tangible emotional connection. Most of the people in our class are under the age of 25, pretty brand loyal and savvy and, despite the fact they are in what amounts to a radio creative class, struggled to find, with some exceptions, a reason that a radio "station" could be considered a radio "brand." (Read More)