Uniqueness beats ‘better’

Staff Writer

The Ten Network launched their new Breakfast show today, bringing it forward by four days due to the leadership issues in the Labor party.

No doubt that there will be programming executives at Ten, and elsewhere, analysing the execution and structure of today’s show, as happens with all new shows. However, it would be unfair to critique the execution of the first day of any show, and we don’t propose to do that.

However there is a more fundamental question, and that is one of strategy, and from a radio perspective it has parallels.

For any show, or station, if you are moving into a competitive territory it is necessary to ‘flank’ the incumbents (the leaders) by having either a completely and clearly defined unique position, or at the very least to have enough differentiation that you offer a clear point of difference.

Importantly, the differentiation you offer needs to be clear to an average viewer, or listener, not just in a boardroom analysis.

‘Different’ is more important than ‘better’ and there have been many examples over the years of people making the mistake of believing that if they simply offer a better product (which is of course subjective) then they will defeat a well-established incumbent.

For Ten’s new Breakfast show, if it is to successfully challenge Sunrise and Today, it will need to have a clearly defined point of difference, and over-commit on that, or those, key points.

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