John Lewis In Store Radio Review

Introduction

I was asked to produce an in store radio programme that was one hour long. I got assigned the store John Lewis whose target audience in C1 upwards of both genders but primarily females. I did it in the afternoon which is more relaxed for shopping, and where shoppers in John Lewis would want to chill out. John Lewis aims at an adult audience and so this is who I aimed my songs and speech elements to in order to keep them interested. I have done peer focus groups to receive reviews on my radio demo and see what was done well and what was done not so well.

Music

The music in my in store radio programme was mainly recurrent, relaxing songs that are nice to listen to and would work well with an adult audience. I chose some more recent songs like Ho Hey by The Lumineers and Stay With Me by Sam Smith. Older songs included Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond and How Deep Is Your Love by The Bee Gees. I feel that these songs range in audience so that I could accommodate for all different adults, as well as maybe some teens or children shopping with them too. I decided to use mainly well-known songs so that the audience could sing along with them in store and enjoy their time, rather than listening to music they didn’t actually know. I feel that the Michael Jackson MegaMix was a particularly good choice of music for 2 reasons. The first reason being that it is 10 minutes long and so it’d take up a lot of time on my show. The second reason I think it was a good decision to have the Michael Jackson MegaMix on my show is because Michael Jackson is around the time of the customers’ era and Michael Jackson is who they grew up with. This makes it enjoyable for those listening and would make them want to sing along with all the different songs too. I think I used a fair ratio of recent songs to recurrent songs, especially for my more matured audience. Almost all of the songs I chose were also easy-listening to help my listeners relax whilst they shop. My original intentions were to help relax my audience and make them feel at ease whilst in John Lewis all around the store. The backing music of my radio demo sounded almost Christmassy which shows that maybe I could have improved and probably should have chosen something neutral as my backing track. The feedback given by the peer focus group we had in class showed me that although there were only a few songs for a teenage audience, it was fit for purpose, showing understanding of my target audience and how to appropriately choose things to fit my more mature audience’s wants and needs. The focus group showed me that my choice of songs such as the Michael Jackson MegaMix and How Deep Is Your Love were popular and liked among the group, and some even said their parents would listen to songs like this too. This shows that my original intentions were met by appropriately choosing songs that would fit my audience for my John Lewis in store radio.

Speech Content

The speech content in my in store radio show was structured as I did use a script to read off so that I didn’t stutter too much or forget my words. I feel as though this came across on my radio demo, which is sometimes good but also sometimes bad throughout my show. The good part of this is that I didn’t mess up, forget my words or just ramble on because I didn’t know what to say. The bad parts of this are that I did sound almost news-like, it was as though I was robotic and didn’t flow naturally. I did give offers and make them exciting which I feel is a positive part of my in store radio demo. I interacted with my audience while speaking about the offers by telling them they have to say certain things to receive them, such as “I love cooking”. This is

particularly good as it gets the listeners concentrating on what I am saying because otherwise they would not be able to retrieve these offers. I let the audience know the time often which is a positive as they wouldn’t want to constantly be checking their phone or watch whilst shopping. This was done for convenience as I feel that it would suit my more mature listeners who generally just want a plain-sailing shopping trip. I feel that I gave a range of different offers which is a great point within my radio show. It would get particularly boring if I just gave one offer, this shows that I recognise the different audiences I am targeting. This shows professionalism within my radio show. At some points, I used the faders wrong and cut off when I was speaking and introducing songs which made my voice fade too quickly and I couldn’t properly finish introducing the song before it actually came on. This happened with the Black Eyed Peas and some other songs too. There was no dead air throughout my entire show as there were always songs, backing music or jingles playing to make sure it were of a high professional standard – just like my original intentions. The volume of my speech was just right, although my jingles were slightly louder than my speech which may have been overpowering for those listening. My actual speech was neither too loud or too quiet which I feel means it is of a high professional standard. The qualitative data received from my peer focus group we did conveyed to me that I did sound very structured throughout my show. This came across differently with my peers – some liked it, some didn’t. I guess that is just due to people’s different tastes and I couldn’t accommodate for every type of person in a short one hour show. Some people said that I was slightly cringey and full on at some points throughout the show. Although I personally feel this is a good point, some may not. I feel that it engages my audience though some just think it’s embarrassing and don’t want to listen to it. Most people said that my radio show flowed smoothly with only minor interruptions and so it was to a high technical standard. I consistently reminded the audience that they were listening to John Lewis radio, which my peers did pick up on and complimented.

Jingles

The jingles in my radio show were well made and well distributed throughout my radio show. I feel that the music used in the backing track of my jingles, Billie Jean by Michael Jackson and Real Love by Tom Odell, were picked well. I think this because Real Love is from a famous John Lewis advertisement that was very popular in 2014 and so it is now iconic for John Lewis. My jingles flowed nicely and sounded professional and I feel that the way I had two different jingles complimented my radio show. I think this because having only one jingle would be extremely boring and the listeners would find it very repetitive. I think that I spoke eloquently and used appropriate language and tones for my target audience. For example, I spoke calmly as a John Lewis shopping experience should be relaxed and chilled out. I think I used the faders to mix in my jingles very well as there was no dead air in between my jingles and whatever was before or after it. This, to me, shows professionalism in my work. The peer focus group we had gave me feedback on my jingles, telling me that they sounded professional and relaxed which is what I was aiming for. It was mentioned in the peer reviews and feedback that I chose Tom Odell. I was told it was a good choice by most of my class as John Lewis is what people think of when this song is played.