The United States of America is a BIG county with lots of cultural diversity.  Just ask a small town mid-westerner how he feels upon arriving in New York City for the first time.  It’s literally “Brother from Another Planet.”  The pace, the accents, and the lifestyle are indeed foreign.

So, when picking local markets for your radio campaign, market makeup – including both demographics as well as psychographics – need to be taken into account.  Consider your product or service.  Does it have mass appeal like Doritos (name me one person who does NOT like Doritos) or does it satisfy a universal need like auto insurance?  Or, does your brand cater to a unique demographic or market situation?  Recently, I had a client looking to advertise a new, sophisticated online service.  We narrowed down the market selection based on efficient CPM delivery (cost per reaching a thousand people in the target demographic) and then selected those markets with the highest percentage of Internet users.  (The top three most wired markets in 2010 are Raleigh, Atlanta and Seattle.)  Make sense?

Another thing to consider is the market CPP (Cost Per Point) which shows you that some markets are just more expensive than others to deliver the same target demographic.  If a customer is a customer, regardless of where the customer resides, why pay more than you have to?  Then there’s a little known fact by media buying experts that some markets are historically radio underperformers (you know who you are) and should be avoided.  Period!  At the other end of the spectrum, some markets (and stations) not only deliver great results, but are also great promotional partners.  You know those contests and programming features that are voiced by a listener’s favorite radio personality and take place when listeners are most engaged?  That’s a promotion.  Layering a local promotion on top of a media buy is a great way to fuel your sales.

OK.  You’ve now chosen your local markets.  Don’t forget how important it is to speak to listeners “locally” with your radio copy.  Let’s use the #1 most wired market, Raleigh, as an example.  Locally, they refer to themselves as “The Triangle” (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill).  YOU need to know this so that you sound authentic. Not doing so can have catastrophic results.  When John Kerry came to Philly in 2003 and ordered a cheesesteak with Swiss cheese, they say it cost him the election.  Don’t let that happen to you.

Did he really get Swiss cheese and tomatoes on his cheesesteak???

Lisa Sable is a Senior Marketing Strategist at The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above. Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com