What's Your Atomic Statement?

Everyone's familiar with positioning statements - they're your way of making your brand different from the brands around it so that folks looking for something in particular can more easily find it.

That's the goal, anyway.

Positioning is great, but it has its flaws.

For example, what happens when your radio station competes not just against other stations with other positioning statements but against a panoply of every medium under the sun offering every particle of content under the sun?

After all, fans want what they want no matter where it comes from, and capturing their attention becomes more important than splitting hairs between station A and station B. And attention is earned less by positioning and more by your brand resonating with who I am and who I wish to be.

Indeed, almost all of our positioning is about what we do, not about why fans should identify with us. And the pursuit of identity is pretty much why everybody does (and buys and consumes) anything.

Want to show you're kind to the environment? Drive an EV! Go vegan! Want to show off your macho? Drive a muscle car or a big truck! Want to show how creative you are? Buy a Mac, not a Dell! These products are ways to illustrate and reflect my identity every time I use them.

Were you inspired by the girl-power of Barbie in 2023? Did you know that the baby name "Barbie" increased by almost 20% that year? While the oft-slighted "Ken" declined in use by 25%? Meanwhile, Barbie star Margot Robbie's first name jumped 45 positions in the baby name ranking!

Identity, folks.

In this context, the term "atomic statement" was coined by writer and thinker Will Storr. It's essentially a phrase that's "simply expressed, yet packed with explosive quantities of meaning."

It's Nike's "Just do it," which - I should point out - does absolutely nothing to "position" the brand, but does quite a bit to support the identity of a would-be athlete who wants the world to know they're capable of any achievement because their shoes tell us so.

It's Harley Davidson's "freedom for the soul." You're not buying the "best variety of motorcycle parts from the 80's, 90's and today." You're buying an extension of your sense of adventure - your identity - and advertising it every time you ride.

An atomic statement conveys the single, specific learning we'd like our audience to remember, such that it's the focus and theme of our story. It's the smallest self-contained unit of information that expresses a single idea or fact.

An atomic statement is a clarion call. It's a mission. It's a cause. It's a deeply felt purpose. It's a definition and display of identity. It's what I want on my t-shirt. It's what I stick to the back of my car. It's what I tattoo on my arm. It is me.

A typical positioning statement, meanwhile, is not at all me. It is YOU.

And it's not even YOU. It's how you are presumably different from others like you.

The future of your radio brand will hinge on whether you are regarded simply as a radio station playing a single Christian music format, or as a Christian media ministry which resonates with my identity - how I wish to see myself and how I wish others to see me.

It's no longer about you. It's about me.

So what's your atomic statement? And is it about me?

Mark Ramsey Media does audience research for Christian Media - Perceptual research, digital studies, donor studies, music studies, etc. Learn more here. Call Mark at 858-414-4191 or email markramsey@mac.com.

And if you want a strategy to solicit major donors to pay for your research, look here and download this Listener Impact Study solicitation for donors from WAKW-FM.

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