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Targeting the Demo

S

semoochie

Star Participant
As it has been established that aiming for the dead center of a desired demographic is the best way to gain listeners to the whole and that most people's musical influence is from age 16-22, I am curious as to why much of the music extends to before the musically influential years of the target's center. Under this scenario, a 25-54 station would have its center's influential years fall between 1993 and 1999. Clearly, this is not the focus of most stations, if any. If the center of the demo is truly the target then why play anything before about 1987 on these stations?
 
semoochie said:
As it has been established that aiming for the dead center of a desired demographic is the best way to gain listeners to the whole and that most people's musical influence is from age 16-22, I am curious as to why much of the music extends to before the musically influential years of the target's center. Under this scenario, a 25-54 station would have its center's influential years fall between 1993 and 1999. Clearly, this is not the focus of most stations, if any. If the center of the demo is truly the target then why play anything before about 1987 on these stations?
Click to expand...

Winning a target demo generally requires aiming for with a focus on the younger third more heavily than the older two thirds. This is because the younger component of any demo cell will be the one that is the most receptive to new music , as well as to promotions and station events.

Musical taste is formed in the last years of pre-adolescence and the first years of adolescence so what your listeners did from 10 to 14 is critical.

So if you have a 25-54 target, you will likely look at 25-34 most carefully for the setting of music rotations and the determining of library. The 35-44 tend to be a bit more conservative and less interested in music discovery, and the 45-54 even less. So the key today would be persons born in the mid to late 80's and in the early 90's.

An AC station will likely only research persons 25 to 42, even if the target is 25-49 or 25-54.
 
DavidEduardo said:


Winning a target demo generally requires aiming for with a focus on the younger third more heavily than the older two thirds. This is because the younger component of any demo cell will be the one that is the most receptive to new music , as well as to promotions and station events.

Musical taste is formed in the last years of pre-adolescence and the first years of adolescence so what your listeners did from 10 to 14 is critical.

So if you have a 25-54 target, you will likely look at 25-34 most carefully for the setting of music rotations and the determining of library. The 35-44 tend to be a bit more conservative and less interested in music discovery, and the 45-54 even less. So the key today would be persons born in the mid to late 80's and in the early 90's.

An AC station will likely only research persons 25 to 42, even if the target is 25-49 or 25-54.
Click to expand...
Thank you for responding, David.
This falls more in line with what I previously believed rather than what I had read from some of the pros on this board but if that is the case, it sends the earliest timeline even further up to about 1993 and even that seems much too early for someone 25 years of age. So, back to the original question: Why do these stations continue to play music nearly as old or older than the main focus of their audience? This is even more confusing with Classic Hits stations, apparently moving the timeline back to 1983 but continuing to play back to 1964, when even the 54 year olds were only a year old!
 
semoochie said:
Thank you for responding, David.
This falls more in line with what I previously believed rather than what I had read from some of the pros on this board but if that is the case, it sends the earliest timeline even further up to about 1993 and even that seems much too early for someone 25 years of age. So, back to the original question: Why do these stations continue to play music nearly as old or older than the main focus of their audience? This is even more confusing with Classic Hits stations, apparently moving the timeline back to 1983 but continuing to play back to 1964, when even the 54 year olds were only a year old!
Click to expand...
. David? Anybody?
 
semoochie said:
Thank you for responding, David.
This falls more in line with what I previously believed rather than what I had read from some of the pros on this board but if that is the case, it sends the earliest timeline even further up to about 1993 and even that seems much too early for someone 25 years of age. So, back to the original question: Why do these stations continue to play music nearly as old or older than the main focus of their audience? This is even more confusing with Classic Hits stations, apparently moving the timeline back to 1983 but continuing to play back to 1964, when even the 54 year olds were only a year old!
Click to expand...

Some songs are what I call "anthems". Those are ones that have played so much, test so well and get so much exposure that they are seen as relevant to the next generation, whenever that is. Of course, a big example is Brown Eyed Girl which was truly a bigger hit two decades after its release than when it was a current; it continued to get so much play and tested so well that it only started to disappear a few years ago.

And for a time, when AC stations would say, "... your favorites from the 70's, 80's and Today" the only 70's songs were a couple of Chicago cuts like "25 or 6 to 4" or "Saturday In The Park".

Generally, these exceptions are played because there is research showing high positives and little burn.
 
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