There are lots of ways to achieve success. The tried and true path is to follow the trends, do your research, and play the hits.
But then there’s the other path – rowing in the opposite direction of everyone else.
Being a contrarian doesn’t guarantee success, but it will most likely get you noticed.
Case in point: Classic Rock.
The format was born on FM radio 30 years ago in 1985 when WMMQ in Lansing made the move. They were a Class A station licensed to nearby Charlotte (pronounced Char-LOT), and they were the fourth of four ACs in the market. You can imagine how they were doing in Arbitron.
During that mid-‘80s period, it was all about NEW MUSIC. Everywhere you looked, it was MTV. The most colorful new videos by the hottest new artists. On the radio, it was Mike Joseph and his Hot Hits format. Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and some of the biggest names in music 
were ubiquitous – you saw and heard them everywhere.
So it was the perfect time for a format like Classic Rock that had all the contrarian characteristics – a rock nostalgia format that played absolutely nothing new and current. In fact, WMMQ pretty much stopped in the late ’70s, even veering away from U2.
And of course it was powerful, it garnered attention, and it drove big ratings.
I was reminded of the power of being different by REI’s recent announcement of their contrarian Black Friday strategy.
REI is the brand probably best known for their outdoor and fitness gear. And on what has become the biggest shopping day of the year, Black Friday, they’re closed.
In fact, they’re not open Thanksgiving Day either. And they’re giving their 12,000 full and part-time employees both days off – with pay – so they can enjoy the outdoors. They’re encouraging everyone else to do so as well.
Even on their website, you’ll be able to purchase anything you like from REI on Black Friday, but there will be a “cover screen” suggesting web visitors go outside instead.
REI is very different in lots of other respects. They’re not a public company, and they use a unique membership system that treats customers as shareholders.
As CNN Money points out, this strategy will cost REI money. And they don’t care.
But as their CEO, Jerry Stritzke, pointed out, “We think that Black Friday has gotten out of hand…This business centers on the outdoors. Thus, we can do something like this on Black Friday, and we’ll have the members that’ll think that’s cool.”
And based on media coverage – including this blog – it may already be working for REI. There is some risk involved in differentiating a brand from the rest of the pack. But the reward in terms of attention, brand focus, and perhaps even customer loyalty, has the potential to outweigh those quiet cash registers on Friday, November 27th.
People are talking about REI while at Best Buy, Walmart, and Target, it’s the same-old same-old.
For radio, that same impact may very well be there for the taking for programmers and marketers with the ability and savvy to navigate their way through smart risks by playing that contrarian spirit up BIG.
When everyone’s doing “door busters,” who wins?
Doing things differently is what stands out.
The post The Au Contraire Philosophy of Radio Programming appeared first on jacoBLOG.