Now I love XFM, but I am not sure they have thought their rebranding through. I think they maybe alienating their female listeners a little here!
I honestly cannot understand their thought process of this one, when the whole world is looking towards equal rights for males and females, a radio station rebrands like it is the dark ages?
Your thoughts? So is it only men that can rock? I am lost for the reason?!
Ugh.
There was me commenting about the intelligence of posters herein and now I have to run for the hillsâŚ
From a cursory glance:
1/ Itâs marketing blurb ergo itâs meaningless drivel; treat it as such.
2/ It seems that a number of those who will be presenting shows are what are stereotypically considered as âmale-preferredâ celebrity types e.g. Jonny Vaughan. Hence the âspinâ.
3/ It seems to have decided to âre-positionâ itself as the radio equivalent of a Jason Statham film - hence male audience although there is little to back it up.
4/ Might I suggest you re-read the piece and in particular the bit about rock music? My reading of that passage in no way lead me to the conclusion you seem to have formed.
It canât be much worse than Nick Grimshaw and Clara Amfo.
It is 100% sexist end of. I do not understand the marketing behind this. The head people at the station agreed to this, utter madness!
talkSPORT is ignorant blokes and shit fucking adverts all day long. I canât imagine itâs targeted at women. Plus, there are loads of other TV channels or radio stations that pitch toward a certain demographic or gender. No-oneâs out on the streets marching against Dave.
I think itâs fine, and ultimately the sort of thing that people will vote with their feet on. If female listeners are alienated by the change, Iâm sure there will be another outlet, perhaps female focused, willing to take them on.
Itâs going against what the majority are trying to achieve. Equality, in my opinion. People at the top of companies need to take a good hard look at theirselves.
Great station failing completely! Oh well, it was fun!
You are right about talkshite and Dave, but they are clever, as they do not openly say they are just for men TV or radio! It is like application forms and cvs do not have age on, but they are quite easy to work out from your school leaving year!
There is always a way round it, just do not come out and say it in the open domain!
Maybe they just couldnât get the top female DJs so had to go with Moyles and Vernon.
There is a for and against article. rebrand-for-xfm-a-welcome-shake-up-or-an-elephants-graveyard-for-dadrock-djs.html#~pnVmkuojLegCvU
I havenât really got angry about this. I think itâs ridiculous really but as Pap pointed out there are plenty of other stations both TV and Radio that are pitch towards deomographics. Itâs not ideal but itâs not on my top 10 things to get angry about at present. I have more issue at blatant pink and blue toy advertising. This stuff starts early. Maybe we can change that and then there wonât be male specific radio stations in a generations time.
Originally posted by @Intiniki
I have more issue at blatant pink and blue toy advertising. This stuff starts early. Maybe we can change that and then there wonât be male specific radio stations in a generations time.
Oh god yeah.
I think this radio station business is in the main targeted marketing. Reality is, if itâs going to that targeted to men, itâs likely to be really dumb, and really superficial. Youâre all welcome to it! Targeting equates to pigeonholing, and I really hate being pigeonholed.
Now, women playing instruments in rock bands - thatâs something that would be worth tackling!
This has been one thing we have tried to avoided, the pink and blue issue. Our boy has worn pick and the girls blue. Both girls And the boy have equally played with dolls, cars, played football and had play kitchens and ironing boards⌠My boys favourite toy is the pram and dolly. But he plays football as well. Saying this my youngest daughter is very girlie (her choice now), she loves pink, ballet and dance, dolls and dressing up as a princess, as my eldest is very tomboy, never liked dolls or ballet or the colour pink, but we have not brought them up any differently!
My point with other stations is they do not market âfor menâ, as XFM are doing, not matter how clear it seems. It is a very risky business and strategy.
Boring answer but they are owned by Global, who also own Capital, Heart, Classic FM and Popbuzz. The audience for commercial radio isnât important. The advertising clients are. They are delivering a 25-44 year old male listenership.
Trying and finding a female in a band at certain festivals is a struggle.
Originally posted by @TedMaul
Boring answer but they are owned by Global, who also own Capital, Heart, Classic FM and Popbuzz. The audience for commercial radio isnât important. The advertising clients are. They are delivering a 25-44 year old male listenership
This.
it is simple market segmentation - crude but effective. If they can acquire a cadre of loyal listeners it means they can target their ads more closely which means the ads are more likely to be effective.
So XFM / Radio X are being more blatant about it. Rather than more subtle like the other stations. Popbuzz demographic? I just had a look at their webpage. I donât think itâs for us. We are too old. Remember Radio 1 wanted to get a younger demographic. Theyâve said that. How very ageist of them. They obviously donât want my ears any more as they put that Grimshaw on in the mornings. Having looked at Heart it looks like it may be more for the females of this world (not this one I hasten to add). Maybe I;ll just listen to XFM and just show them they cannot get rid of us women 
Marketing segmentation is all about pigeonholing. And (I shouldnât say this) boy do I hate it! But itâs the only way to successfully market, because you canât cater for all tastes.
Even better if listeners use their mobile phones or computers to listen to it - it means the marketing bods can gather even more data and target adverts ever more closely. If you do listen, expect to hear loads of encouragement to download the app. Never even heard of Popbuzz but guess itâs aimed at the youff, innit. Chicks can go to Heart, MOR go to Capital and wannabe pseuds go to ClassicFM
To be fair, Absolute has pretty much cornered the mainstream ground and they probably saw little point in trying to compete with both them and, to some extent, Radio 2, as well as canabalise their Capital audience.
For my part, 6Music is the way to go.
Originally posted by @Sfcsim
You are right about talkshite and Dave, but they are clever, as they do not openly say they are just for men TV or radio! It is like application forms and cvs do not have age on, but they are quite easy to work out from your school leaving year!
There is always a way round it, just do not come out and say it in the open domain!
Dave launched with the tagline âEverybody knows a bloke called Daveâ, which set the stall out pretty early and gave an indication of the sort of demographic they were chasing.
If you want more blatant examples of TV channels obviously targeted at a certain sex, you could use the Movies4Men or Pop Girl channels as examples of TV shows with their demographic in their title.
Itâs an issue if say, the BBC decided to change all of its programming to be male-oriented, because it has a mandate to be a broadcaster to meet general interests. This is no more sexist than having a clothes shop that targets women.
Excellent, you have given me the best reply on this thread. It would be better if they had a all woman demographic for a part of their group of stations as well. I needed to look at the bigger picture.
Of course it makes targeting audiences much easier to break the stations down and will also be more appealing (targeted) for the companies that are paying top money to advertise their businesses.
This makes it like ITV, they advertise everything, but when football is on it is mostly betting, beer and car adverts. This fine as they do cater for everyone.
It is a very interesting and touchy subject, but seems XFM/Radio X are covering all bases. I wonder if they have a womanâs station on the way? Well you can never get enough Babes in Toyland music!
If you want to know what something is aimed at, take a look at the ads. On TS it is all ScrewFix etc. I got into trouble in the other place by mentioning the White Van Man demographic (and I have recently been driving one myself so am not using it in a perjorative sense) but that is clearly where they are at.