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I agree with with the premise of the article that research and continual monitoring of 'movements' in customer data is needed to either establish a business or the business to continue as a going concern.
I also agree that one should "...look for facts that will shake other’s falsely formed beliefs.....," fourth-last paragraph. I don't have access to the minds of management.
How much the management adhere's to "falsely held beliefs" ? For many years there was the belief over 30 years ago that women wouldn't attract listeners to a talk radio program. Why that belief was held when (i) there were successful women presenters on the ABC, the 1960s with Andrea and Gwen Plumb. Then (ii) the ABC had success with Caroline Jones and Margaret Throsby on 2BL (ABC 702). Recently, prior to the last ratings survey, pre-pandemic 2GB's Deborah Knight's afternoon program registered ratings higher than the previous presenter.
If we are to believe that evidence-based research aids in decision making, one would believe that the numbers would be crunched in order to determine whether the business model is profitable.
All business is risk. Having followed the progress of 2UE and 2CH over the last few years, one would believe that "Talking Lifestyle", "Talking Sports" for 2UE would be profitable. Similarly, 2CH would have been profitable as a music station if the research indicated that it would succeed.
Unfortunately, for 2CH and 2UE, the ventures were running at a loss. The previous owners of 2CH were likely to break even when it was sold to Croc Media after adjusting for present value discounted cash flows. We await the results of 2UE's ratings forthcoming later in September 2020 (this month, 2020).
While acknowledging the author's remark about continual monitoring of listeners' consumption of music and the type of music, I do have concerns about the assumptions for a particular genre of music that there is a 'closed thinking' in regards for new and emerging artists being admitted to the radio station's playlist.
It seems that in many business models that management are so 'conservative' in not experimenting or doing things outside the 'market research box' . It was Steve Jobs who has been known to say that "...people don't know what they want until you show it to them. That's why I never rely on market research...."
Yes business models have risk. While research is a very useful business decision tool, you don't want to be locked in a 'vicious cycle' that if it's not in the data you don't proceed. But if you do use the data, it may well be worth to be like Steve Jobs' approach to be proactive and surprise the customer. For radio stations, it may mean to reserve some time on the weekend to 'experiment' and measure the response.
Thank you,
Anthony of exciting Belfield