Alternative to RAJAR for small stations

I received this not too long ago too, and the reality is that a “£3,000 + VAT” payment for a ‘basic’ package is well beyond what almost any small station can afford.

When community radio stations, which this is largely aimed at, can barely afford to make their basic operating costs, how can they afford to spend thousands of pounds for such research?

Most interestingly, though, the service only uses a sample size of 300. I’m not entirely sure of the size of RAJAR’s sample per area (it’s 130,000 respondents each year nationwide), but that sounds too small to me.

Mainly, though, I’d be interested to know how much it costs them to conduct such research to that sample size.

This is RAJAR’s ratecard

£7k for small TSAs gives you four quarters of research with a sample size of 500.

If you have figures from a service like CRAM, would you make an extra £3,000 a year in advertising revenue from advertisers who wouldn’t advertise with you if you didn’t have any figures? If so, it makes sense to spend the cash. If not, it doesn’t. Seems sensible to me.

RAJAR are a business, not a charity. If RAJAR cannot afford to operate a sensible survey for community radio without covering their costs, then this is no criticism of RAJAR.

If CRAM want to cut costs even further, how realistic will the figures that come back be? And is £3,000 is too much, then isn’t £2,000 also too much?

(Disclaimer: RAJAR is a client of mine).

I would also suggest that most that would advertise on the local community station are local, grassroots businesses that have never heard of RAJAR and scarcely consider market research.

Also, let’s say a station has a hypothetically good CRAM result. How many major advertisers would advertise on the community station above their commercial rivals? Would they be able to due to the quotas on advertising revenue in place? Would it recoup the costs of the research?

Personally, I can only see it appealing to the handful of community radio stations with so much money that they could viably afford to do RAJAR anyway. That’s not to say that it isn’t a nice concept, nor to say that it isn’t good to see something being tailored to community stations.

The problem with all research is that it costs a fair amount of money to interview lots of people. £3000 for a sample of 300 people is probably a pretty decent price for any kind of research. And unless you think you have a pretty high reach locally, you don’t want to use a sample much smaller than that.

I tend to think that if you’re at a really small station then the way that you prove your listenership to advertisers is in results. If there’s footfall at a car showroom or garden centre as a result of advertising, then that advertiser will return to you.

When you reach a certain scale, then advertisers, and particularly agencies, want RAJAR figures. But James is right in essence. If you think you’re losing out on more £3000 of advertising when you’re turned down by local advertisers because you don’t have supporting figures, then it’s a sound investment. Otherwise, it’s not necessary.

It’s worth noting that some small stations chose not to subscribe to RAJAR, not because they can’t afford to, or because RAJAR’s methodology doesn’t suit their TSAs, but because they just don’t need the information that RAJAR provides. They might have an enormous share locally and know that local advertisers use them because that advertising works.

(Disclaimer: I sit on RAJAR’s Technical Management Group, and have also commissioned research from Other Lines of Enquiry in the past)

Adam Bowie:

It’s worth noting that some small stations chose not to subscribe to RAJAR, not because they can’t afford to, or because RAJAR’s methodology doesn’t suit their TSAs, but because they just don’t need the information that RAJAR provides. They might have an enormous share locally and know that local advertisers use them because that advertising works.

I think that’s very true – and I think they’re usually the stations which don’t have a national sales house but rely mainly on local advertising. To them “bums on seats” can be a much better indication of their ad’s effectiveness than any number of pages of stats and coloured charts.

Rajar, in a small market is pointless. Your Rajar is clients re-booking because their ads have worked. And that’s your best testimonial. Only agencies are interested in figures in industry terms, unless you are dealing with a client who is aware of the advertising ‘currency’ from marketing their service on a bigger station. Then, you’re pretty much going to be screwed on price unless you can offer super-customer service and creative, tangible, measurable ‘extras’ which the more corporate players cannot.

the survey offered is pointless. does not give you an oth which some buy on and isnt recognised by any agencies so pretty pointless really.

and bloody expensive for what equates to less than half a dozen metrics – im in the wrong business!

It’s always been my understanding that rajar is for commercial stations only anyway, community cant buy rajar even if they wanted to. – i may be wrong