Sisterhood Part IV - The New Mrs. Jones: She's Got A Thing Goin' On

As we conclude our current series on "Sisterhood," this time we want to examine the new Mrs. Jones. It's true, "She's got a thing goin' on." This time it's not the jukebox that's playing her favorite song, it's the radio station. And the thing that she's got is that she's too young to be a boomer, too old to be an X'er or Y'er. The latest generational label is Generation Jones. Hence the name "the new Mrs. Jones."

This group of females is smack dab in the middle and has its own quirks, culture and cash to spend. Some smart Urban programmers are just beginning to recognize and target these much sought-after sisters, born between 1963 and 1974, as a separate demographic group. What happens when today's 12-24s become tomorrow's 25-49 demographic? Well, let's take a look at it. Since hip-hop is a favorite of so many young female listeners, the notion that all women want to hear are romantic ballads is simply not true. Several recent studies have shown what this music means today and how it might shape the future of many formats.

In a recent national study of 12-24-year-old females in which I participated, we described several different types of music and asked the respondents how often they listened to it. Hip-hop and rap (combined for purposes of this survey into one category) basically blew away any other music type. Granted, this was a summer survey, but even so, just under half of the group said that they listen to hip-hop and rap frequently (51%). The next closest type was pure R&B at 35%.

Hip-hop and rap proved to be equally popular with young women and young men. It was only slightly more popular with 12-17 year-olds than with 18-24 year-olds. While they are much more popular with African-Americans and Hispanics, hip-hop and rap are still by far the most popular musical genres for white teens aged 12-24. Ever wonder how and why some stations such as WVEE in Atlanta and WPEG in Charlotte do so well with overall numbers? That's part of the reason.

These kinds of findings have been consistent in almost every local market we looked at. The potential for impact is obvious and, remember, if yours is a PPM market, not only is Arbitron measuring 12-17 year-olds, they are also counting sub-teens 6-12. If today's young females aren't being raised on hip-hop and R&B, they are being exposed to it in various forms in their life.

There are a couple important aspects of hip-hop that programmers need to understand. First, while the taste for hip-hop is almost entirely isolated below the age of 25, it extends right into the young adult demo of 25-49. What does that mean? Just this: In dozens of studies in various market sizes and ethnic compositions, there is essentially a break somewhere around the age of 25.

In general, the under-25 group has a strong affinity for hip-hop, whereas over that age, support declines somewhat on some songs and some artists. So in this sense, we have a stronger musical generation gap today. Now does this mean that if you want your station to have any appeal to most people over the age of 25, you are compelled to shy away from hip-hop? No, it simply means that females listeners like energy -- the kind that popular hip-hop provides. Crossover hip-hop songs have huge appeal for female listeners. Artists such as Ne-Yo and, lately, Drake are big favorites. If you can put a balanced, dayparted mix together that includes hip-hop, you can score big numbers, even it you are an Urban AC station. It may be a little tougher to do if you're an Adult Urban station, but it is definitely worth the effort.

In the same way stations can't rely on increasing their market share by simply blindly catering to their aging 25-54 year-olds, research indicates the next wave of females entering this demo will have been inspired and influenced by hip-hop. They are going to want to hear jams performed by, inspired and influenced by hip-hop on their favorite station. We are already starting to see this dichotomy in numerous studies.

Women Love Relationships

Give the females in your market a chance to have a relationship with your station. Make what you offer on-air relevant so she can engage it. What are you doing to engage the new Mrs. Jones emotionally? Before we reveal some secrets that you can use, we want to say that sharp programmers want to make females their primary target of P1 listeners, particularly in markets measured by the PPM. We all have our theories about P1 listening. P1 listening is the percentage of cume that listens to one station more than any other. This segmentation of the audience into preference levels is also a means to understand how listeners are using the station.

Some stations we know only test their female P1 listeners when doing callout, while others open it up, only making cume a requirement to get into weekly callout. While numbers regarding female P1 listeners have been tossed around for years, the results of recent studies we've seen point out that the majority of quarter-hours for Urban stations are still coming from your P1 female listeners and, as expected, fluctuate from format to format.

The object of the ratings game is still to collect more quarter-hours than anyone else. Hence, the P1 female listener is most likely to contribute more quarter-hours to the station. So the larger the percentage of the audience that qualifies as P1, the more quarter-hours of listening will be accumulated, assuming a consistent cume.

Finally, what would keep the new Mrs. Jones really happy? Becoming a lifestyle station that really appeals to her -- a station that she can take with her through all aspects of heir life. Naturally, you want to be musically passionate and aware.

You want her to join with you so that it becomes just your station and her ... "You and Mrs. Jones." But more than that you want to make her feel good -- after all, she's still got a thing goin' on.

We really can't tell from here, but that thing could be a diary ... or maybe it's a meter.

Word.