Radio Market Articles on ALIVE Radio Network
Instant Demographics Articles by Dr. Gary Crossland
The New B2B Market: Business Ownership
A new study recently published by Soma Communications demonstrates that Christian consumers are more likely to be business proprietors than Americans in general.
This data was sourced back to a 2009 study by Mediamark Research (MRI), where over 30,000 people were surveyed about, among other things, business ownership. In the MRI study, the four following questions were asked of their survey respondents. From this universe, Soma communications isolated those individuals who were typically the type of individuals who listen to Christian radio. Here were the questions:
1. Are you self-employed?
According to MRI, 6.36% of all adults in America are self-employed in their own business. However, 7.68% of Christian adults are so classified. This means that Christian market adults are 21% more likely to own their own business than adults in general.
2. Are you a business owner or partner?
6.41% of all American adults maintain the title of "Owner" or "Partner" in a business. In comparison, 8.23% of all adults in the Christian market are so ascribed (which is 28% above the national average).
3. Are you a self-employed professional?
1.55% of all Americans are self-employed professionals (which essentially encompasses lawyers, engineers, military officers, higher education teachers, architects, accountants, and medical professionals). In contrast, 2.05% of the Christian market is also classified as self-employed professionals (or in other words, 32% above average). Newspaper readers were slightly better than the national average, where only 1.74% of the readers were self-employed professionals.
4. Do you plan to start or buy a business within the next year?
2.97% of all American adults answered, "yes" to this question. However, when the same question was posed to adults in the Christian market, 5.0% said "yes".
This means that if everyone's dreams turned into realities, Christian adults would be 68% more likely to start businesses within the next twelve months. Frequent newspaper readers came in at 2.74%.
B2B advertisers generally think of News or Talk formatted stations first when they consider radio. This is clearly not a numbers-driven decision. It's a qualitative decision. Audience size is an afterthought. This is why Christian radio now deserves a share in this pie - because it plays to an audience that is qualitatively similar to New and Talk.
I'm not saying that Christian radio is a must-buy, but definitely a must-consider. Most advertising media is priced based on how many people are reached. In reality, that could mean a lot of waste coverage if you are a B2B advertiser. The smartest way to buy advertising is to avoid purchasing the largest audience you can afford, and instead gravitate toward media that delivers the highest concentration of actual business decision makers - often smaller, more highly-concentrated audiences of real prospective customers.
