"Garrett Wollman" wrote in message
...
In article ,
David Eduardo wrote:

[I wrote:]
an advertiser, a potential customer who is merely exposed to my
message is not worth nearly as much as a potential customer who is
actually paying attention.[1]

There is no way of telling this with any kind of sample. Advertisers know
this, and know that a percentage of messages are not noticed for a variety
of reasons. You won't see this discussed in AdAge... just here, where no
national advertisers are paying any attention.

Actually, there is a very easy way for an advertiser to tell whether
their message is reaching customers who are paying attention: ask the
customers!

That only shows a tiny portion oflisteners... those who at that moment have
an interest in the particular product or service. For example, a person who
buys a new car every 4 years only pays attention to car ads when the time
comes to look for a new car. Otherwise, they do not hear the ads at all.

I can't think of any major purchase I've made where the
seller did not do so, either at the time of sale/service or during
post-sales followup. I've also been the recipient of a number of
brand-awareness telephone surveys which measure the same thing for
non-durable goods.

That does not measure whether people heard the ad or not. It only measures
the effectiveness of the ad in getting people who are potential consumers to
buy or inquire.

Today, with a few bright exceptions, radio has made
itself largely irrelevant to this marketplace. Is it any wonder that
audiences no longer expect radio to provide new music?

They never did, except in small amounts.

That's odd. Evidently you were not listening to the same radio
stations as I was in the 1980s.

Stations in the 80's introduced new songs into their formats at about the
same rate as in any other decade. In fact, the 80's was the decade when
music research other than tracking sales came into its own, and that caused
a reduction, if anything, in new music adds.

what has happened is that more now
music is being exposed today, as there are more formats available on more
stations in every market. A couple of weekly adds a week across 10 formats
is a lot of songs;

Nobody listens to ten formats in one week.

No, the average is 3 to 4. But who cares? I don't want to hear new or old
music in a format that I do not enjoy. However, the fact that so many
different formats are exposing some new songs each week means that there are
more opportunities to break a song.