One of my daughters’ favorite days of the year recently happened — 7-Eleven Day —with free Slurpees, making it an instant summer holiday. Between the sugar rush and app alerts, it’s a can’t miss day in the Rock house.
It got me thinking: Rock Radio and 7-Eleven are fighting similar battles: different-flavored uniforms, but nearly the same war.
Open 24/7. Threats on every corner. Built-in perceptions (good, bad, outdated). National vs. local identities. Convenience-based and impulse behavior. Benchmarks that drive visits. And the customer is really in control – their experience can make or break.
But the real keys to survival and success are almost identical. Let’s “downsize” the commonalities to two key ingredients, like the chili and nacho station in the corner of your 7-Eleven:
- Conversion: Cume vs. Core — Art & Science
- Location, Location, Location
Zoom out, and you’ll realize: 7-Eleven doesn’t care why you came. They just want you to leave with something. Coffee? Lotto? Pizza at 9 am? No judgment, just transactional conversions.
In RockTernative (think Rock/Alt/Grunge hybrid stations), this is the Cume game: “Come one, come all. We’ve got Rock, Alternative, Grunge, New, Gold, Loud, Poppier, maybe some Fringe. Just get your ass in the store and listen.”
But what about Core?
At 7-Eleven, the Core is made up of customers like me. Showing up four to five days a week for an iced coffee in a Big Gulp cup. It’s not glamorous, but it’s predictable. And while it may only be a few bucks per visit, they count on it.
In Radio, Core listeners typically make up the smallest part of the audience (maybe 20-30%) but drive the majority of listening (up to 70-80%). That’s not theory — that’s been the guiding gospel longer than most of us have been around.
How does this work at 7-Eleven? I asked the manager of my weekday 7-Eleven:
“Who drives more revenue — regulars like me or the one-timers, mass casuals?”
His answer: “Depends on the store.”
That’s radio in a nutshell.
His store lives on casual foot traffic. Cume more than Core. His joint needs heavy volume to afford lights for the sign out front. But as he said, the store one mile down, with less traffic, leans heavily on loyalists — they need their Core to stay alive.
Sounds like RockTernative vs. CHR.
CHR is the 7-Eleven located at the corner of Broadway and Main. No real surprises. Big traffic, easy to get to. Flashy and impossible to miss. Efficient and predictable. Everyone stops there.
RockTernative is more like the off-the-beaten-path version of 7-Eleven. Smaller footprint. Less foot traffic. Some different items. It feels a bit different, but it’s definitely 7-Eleven. If the pizza Rocks, some will go out of their way to visit more frequently and spend more.
Takeaway:
Cume will always be important, and consistency for them is important. Imagine if 7-Eleven didn’t have Big Gulps or coffee next week. That’s like not playing “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
But RockTernative foot traffic will never surpass CHR. Having a very loyal Core that visits almost daily and/or for longer periods is the only path that can lead to the top of the mountain.
At both RockTernative and 7-Eleven, science will help brands reach the Cume ceiling (playing the hits – Big Gulp, Coffee, Pizza, Snacks and Beer).
The art will serve the core and create upsells or longer ATE/TSL (new items, limited-edition flavors, app rewards, morning show features, stunts, and breaking the rules from time to time).
RockTernative needs to maximize cume, but if a brand overlooks the importance of having a loyal Core, the pizza and coffee will be stale by lunch.
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Keith Cunningham is a music industry and Rock/Alternative columnist for Barrett Media and the founder of Black Box Group, a modern-modeled creative & strategic consultancy built for brands that need strategies with teeth. He’s the former Master of Mayhem at 95.5 KLOS-FM in Los Angeles for over a decade, a nationwide consultant, and has been repeatedly voted one of America’s top Program Directors and strategic thinkers. Keith has built his career by taking multi-million-dollar brands from worst to first and leading Marconi & Gracie award winners along the way. A data nerd with a rock-and-roll heart, he is an advisory council member for St. Jude fundraising, a fantasy football champion, and lover of his daughters & dogs. Reach him at keithblackboxgroup@gmail.com or on LinkedIn or X.
