Coleman Insights: Terrestrial Streams Lack Awareness ... But Can Improve

Raise Your Streaming Profile

COLEMAN INSIGHTS' latest survey, presented TODAY at the RAIN Summit East conference in WASHINGTON, DC, found that consumers who use streaming audio are not aware of many of all the available options to them and have relatively shallow perceptions of the options they are aware of. The low awareness levels and shallow perceptions found in "Successful Audio Streaming Strategies" led COLEMAN INSIGHTS to conclude that streaming audio is a brand category that remains highly underdeveloped.

Among the specific findings are:

* On average, consumers who regularly stream audio can name 1.6 streaming audio brands on an unaided basis. This compares to the six or seven brands consumers can usually name for mature brand categories.

* The streaming audio services offered by AM/FM broadcasters and PANDORA are the only brands with meaningful awareness levels. Less than one in 10 streaming audio users is aware of brands such as AOL RADIO, YAHOO! MUSIC RADIO, LAST.FM and SLACKER on an unaided basis.

* PANDORA, the leading brand in the streaming audio space, is known to only 28% of streaming audio consumers (on an unaided basis); only 22% use it regularly. Furthermore, Pandora lacks strong association with the product attributes streaming consumers deem most important.

* Streaming audio consumers are more than twice as likely to be aware of an "Internet-only" streaming brand as the streaming service offered by an AM/FM station. While 77% of these consumers can name an "Internet-only" brand, while only 33% name a AM/FM station stream on an unaided basis.

* Streaming audio consumers prefer listening to "Internet-only" streams over other sources of audio, including over-the-air broadcasts of AM/FM stations. Only 15% of streaming audio consumers -- and only 7% of 15-34-year-olds who use streaming audio -- choose over-the-air broadcasts of AM/FM stations as their preferred source of audio.

* Perceptions of AM/FM station streams are out-of-sync with the interests of streaming audio consumers. Consumers most strongly think of AM/FM radio station streams for personalities and local news and traffic information, as opposed to the attributes they most value, like fast buffering, few commercials, music variety and personalization.

"These findings lead us to conclude that specific strategies will increase the chance of success in the streaming audio space," said COLEMAN INSIGHTS VP SAM MILKMAN, who delivered the presentation at RAIN Summit East. "Those strategies include making brand building of paramount importance, focusing streaming brands on a singular position or benefit and rethinking the unique benefits that audio streaming provides from the perspective of the consumers who use it. We also believe our findings should serve as a wake-up call for ‘terrestrial’ AM/FM broadcasters, who need to address the challenges they face with consumers who already use streaming audio."

A full report containing the findings and recommendations from the "Successful Audio Streaming Strategies" study is available for free download from the COLEMAN INSIGHTS website , FACEBOOK page and TWITTER feed . In addition, in the coming weeks visitors to these resources will have access to a multimedia presentation of the study, as well as additional findings COLEMAN INSIGHTS will release.

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