I found a few articles today that examine how radio stacks up in the eyes of the consumer these days.  The information suggests radio is still an excellent choice as a vehicle for a marketing message.

With the popularity of so many other means for listening to audio offerings it would be easy to conclude that CD’s and mp3′s would push radio into the background.  A study completed by Nielsen has some surprising results for you if you were thinking along these lines.

After physically observing the media use of consumers throughout the day last year over a period from Spring to Fall it was found that 77% are reached by broadcast radio every day.  How did other media compare in this same study?  TV came in first at 95%, Web/Internet (excluding email) weighs in at 64% and the print media staples finished way behind at just 35% for newspaper and 27% for magazines. It appears if nothing else we can conclude we live in a gadget driven society.

Another valuable piece of information to note here is among the 18-34 year olds in the survey, a whopping 80% listen to radio.  The study offers much more key data that is useful for those planning their advertising campaigns and can be found at Nielsenwire.  I found the article very informative and suggest you give it a look if you’re in charge of planning the company’s marketing strategy.

What does this information say about societal norms from the perspective of marketing?  I was very surprised to hear television and radio weigh in this heavily when you take into account how busy lifestyles are these days.   Radio at least offers portability, but what about the television?

An important thing to consider is how people consume these media.  I know in exploring my own Facebook stream that many of my friends are following a lot of television since they comment regularly about various programs airing there.  I also find that a good portion of people I know see the commercials since most are familiar with any that are casually mentioned.  It is also interesting to note that many who say they never watch TV commercials also offer opinions when a particular ad campaign is mentioned.  People are watching commercials, now it becomes a matter of finding out how to get them to act on the information found there.

Something I have long believed and still believe today is that each form of media has strengths and weaknesses but they all work to some degree or other in reaching an audience.  The tricky part comes from creating the right recipe for a particular business since it will be vastly different from one business to the next.  There are just so many variables to consider that putting together the formula that works is very difficult and budget is always a major concern.

More recently budget has gained center stage in the wake of a tough economy and the overall tendency is to simply look at the price tag and decide which option to choose.  Even this isn’t as simple as it looks since one can’t simply go out and buy advertising and see an immediate reciprocation of that investment.  What looks like the least expensive option could be the most costly if it doesn’t yield a return on investment.  Then there is the effectiveness of the creative used.  Does your advertisement project the right message to convert to sales?  Should it be a direct conversion to sales or should it simply raise the awareness of the consumer about a brand?

The best approach to finding a solution for your business is to first realize it is a complex process and then set up a clear plan for educating yourself toward making the determinations I’ve outlined here.  This will certainly be an ongoing project and to avoid being overwhelmed the best route is to set aside a block of time, several times a week to get educated on the topic.  Of course decisions will still have to be made while you go through the process of learning but over time the foundation will get stronger and the decisions will yield better results as you learn more about how to apply the information you discover.

The most important thing to remember is marketing a business is complex, handing it over to outsourcing will help but you’re still the best one to judge what’s best for your business at the end of the day.  The best route is to stay informed about what’s being offered and have any outsourcing tools aimed at collecting and comparing the relevant data you need to make a decision in how your marketing dollars are spent.