Choice of Advertising Media (9 Factors)
With
a thorough study of each medium and vehicle, we are now poised for making vital
decision on the choice of an advertising media and media vehicle. In fact,
medium or media selection is unique decision to be made by every advertiser.
Actual
selection of the best medium or media for particular advertiser will depend on
variables like specific situation or circumstances under which he is carrying
on his business, the market conditions, the marketing programme and the
peculiarities of each medium of advertising.
Strictly
speaking, there is no one best medium/media for all similar units. What is
“best” is decided by unique individual circumstances. However, in general, the
following factors govern the choice of an advertising media.
Factors Governing the Choice:
1. The nature of
product:
A
product that is needed by all will encourage mass media like print, broadcast,
telecast, outdoor and the like. A product needing demonstration warrants
television and screen advertising. Industrial products find favour of print
media than broadcast media. Products like cigarettes, wines and alcohols are
never advertised on any media.
2. Potential market:
The
aim of every advertising effort is to carry on the ad message to the target
audience economically and effectively. This crucial task rests in
identification of potential market for the product in terms of the number of
customers, geographic spread, income pattern, age group, tastes, likes and
dislikes etc.
If
the message is to reach the people with high income group, magazine is the
best. If local area is to be covered, newspaper and outdoor advertising are of
much help. If illiterate audience is to be approached, radio, television and
cinema advertising are preferred.
3. The type of
distribution strategy:
The
advertising coverage and the distribution system that the company has developed
have direct correlation. Thus, there is no point in advertising a product if it
is not available in these outlets where he normally buys. Similarly, the
advertiser need not use national media if not supported by nationwide
distribution network.
4. The advertising
objectives:
Though
the major objective of every company is to influence the consumer behaviour
favourably, the specific objectives may be to have local or regional or
national coverage to popularize a product or a service or the company to create
primary or secondary demand to achieve immediate or delayed action to maintain
the secrets of the house.
If
it wants immediate action, direct or specialty advertising fitting most. If
national coverage is needed, use television and news-paper with nationwide
coverage.
5. The type of selling
message:
It
is more of the advertising requirements that decide the appropriate choice. The
advertisers may be interested in appealing the prospects by colour
advertisements. In that case, magazine, film, television, bill- boards,
bulletin boards serve the purpose.
If
the timeliness is the greater concern, one should go in for news-paper, radio,
posters. If demonstration is needed there is nothing like television and screen
media. If new product is to be introduced, promotional advertising is most
welcome.
6. The budget
available:
A
manufacturer may have a very colourful and bold plan of advertising. He may be
dreaming of advertising on a national television net-work and films. If budget
does not allow, then he is to be happy with a low budget media like his
news-paper and outdoor advertising.
Instead
of colour print in magazine, he may be forced to go in for black and white.
Thus, it is the resource constraints that decide the choice.
7. Competitive
advertising:
A
shrewd advertiser is one who studies carefully the moves of his competitor or
competitors as to the media selected and the pattern of expenditure portrayed.
Meticulous evaluation of media strategy and advertising budget paves way for
better choice.
It
is because, whenever a rival spends heavily on a particular medium or media and
has been successful, it is the outcome of his experience and tactics. However,
blind copying should be misleading and disastrous.
8. Media availability:
The
problem of media availability is of much relevance because; all the required
media may not be available at the opportune time. This is particularly true in
case of media like radio and television; so is the case with screen medium.
Thus, non-availability of a medium or a media poses a new challenge to the
media planners and the people advertising industry. It is basically an external
limit than the internal constraint.
9. Characteristics of
media:
Media
characteristics differ widely and these differences have deep bearing on the
choice of media vehicle.
These
characteristics are:
Coverage,
Reach,
Cost,
Consumer confidence and
Frequency.
“Coverage” refers to the circulation or the speed of the
message provided by the media vehicle. Larger the coverage, greater the chances
of message exposure to the audiences. Advertisers prefer the media vehicles
with largest coverage for the amount spent.
The vehicles like radio, television, news-papers,
magazines and cinema are of this kind; on the other hand, direct advertising
and outdoor advertising are known for local coverage.
“Reach” is the vehicle’s access to different individuals
or homes over a given period of time.
It refers to readership, listenership and
viewership. It is the actual number reading than the persons buying or owning
these.
For instance, one need not own a television set to
have advertising message so also a news-paper and a magazine. ‘Relative cost’
refers to the amount of money spent on using a particular vehicle. It is one
that involves inter vehicle and medium cost analysis and comparison.
“Cost” is expressed with reference to the time and the space bought, in case of news-papers, it is milline rate; in case of magazine, it is rate per thousand readers; in case of radio and television, it is per thousand listeners or viewers per minute and ten seconds.
“Consumer confidence” refers to the confidence placed in the
medium by the consumers.
This consumer credibility of a vehicle is important
because, credibility of advertising message is depending on it. Speaking from
this point of view, news-papers and magazines enjoy high degree of credibility
than radio and television commercials.
Outdoor medium is considered the least credible.
“Frequency” refers to the number of times an audience is
reached in a given period of time.
Limited frequency makes little or no impression on
the target audience. Thus, news-papers, television, radio and outdoor media are
known for highest frequency while, magazine, screen, display and direct
advertising the lowest.
In a nut-shell, the advertiser, to get the best
results for the money spent and the efforts put in, should consider all the
above nine factors that govern selection of a medium or media and media
vehicle. Media selection is a matter of juggling, adjusting, tailoring,
filling, revising and reworking to match to his individual situation.
Advertising Media
Selection
The selection of a media is very important. It will
influence the impact and cost of advertising. The target audience should also
be identified.
An advertising campaign cannot contribute to
success unless the target audience is exposed to it. The purpose of media
selection is to transmit the message of advertising to the target audience
effectively and economically.
The selection of media involves the selection of a
particular source or vehicle of advertisement and its utilization over a
period of time.
Medium or media selection is
a unique decision to be made by the advertiser. There is no one medium that is
best for all business units and what is best depends on the unique individual
situation of the business unit.
Advertising Media Selection – Media Choices as per Market
Preference
Media selection is a highly involved task for
a marketer. The major reason for this involvement is that there could be no
single best media strategy that would apply to different involvement is that
there could be no best media strategy that would apply to different situations.
This attempt is therefore, to identify a fit between media choice and market
preferences.
Daily appearance, localized coverage, mass
audience appeal, short lead times, poor reproduction quality, short life span. However,
can be referred to as often as one wishes to. best for launch announcements. Generally,
the advertising is hurriedly glanced through. Research has shown that readers
stay loyal to their newspaper and consider it as the most authoritative medium.
Large detailed copy can be placed in it, useful, when advertising for
technological products or processes as well as when a new complex concept has
to be explained.
Magazines can segment audiences according to
their field of interest-film, finance, tourism or sports, or covering different
industries such as cement, steel, construction, etc. There are however also
general interest magazines. Magazines have a long-life span and pass along
readership. Reproduction is better than in newspapers but because of its
periodicity (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) the impact of advertising is
deferred. Also, there are long lead times.
Readers look up magazines in a more leisurely
fashion. Most magazines are bought at a newsstand and therefore the lead story
and contents on the cover determine the extent of readership of a particular
issue.
Television allows for sight, sound and motion
to be combined with dramatization. Can convey emotion as well as offers product
demonstration. Colour can enhance appetite appeal or useful for products that
depend on colour such as paints, colour cosmetics etc. Television however
because of multiplicity of channels (satellite + cable) has led to media
fragmentation.
It is found that zapping of commercials during
the commercial break more often takes place. A mass medium, television can
attract audiences of every age and income. An expensive medium both in terms of
cost of production and cost of exposure. The higher the ratings, the higher the
cost to the advertiser. These ratings are tracked by INTAM and TAM through People
meters.
The message is fleeting and serves as a good
reminder medium. Radio is a very personalized medium. The radio commercial must
create a picture in the mind (since there are no visuals), therefore
complicated messages or vivid demonstrations are not possible. Being a mobile
medium, the message can be transmitted almost anywhere. In India the
advertising is carried by Vividh Bharati and the primary channel of All India
Radio, and now also transmitted through the FM Channels.
Cinema lost out to television but it is
staging a comeback with the building of multiplexes in the urban cities.
Visiting the cinema is seen as a social outing. The Big Picture effect of a
cinema screen is an added attraction. Cinema viewing is very popular in the
South and the smaller towns. In India we have special category of touring
cinemas, defence cinemas and cinemas at tea gardens. Rates are negotiated based
on total amount spent and the class of cinema as well as on the market profile
of the town.
Consists of hoardings (painted by sign
painters), posters (large sized posters pasted on the board) and electronic hoardings.
Other forms of outdoor are transit and transportation sites-such as bus stops,
electric poles, buses, trains, taxies, rickshaws. Minimum copy, as the massage
has to be taken in at a glance. Location of the site is most important.
Geographically selective medium. Often used in India by smaller advertisers who
cannot afford the cost of print and television. Messages need to be changed
frequently.
Other
peripheral media are neon signs, baggage tags, match box covers, specialty
advertising. We may also have non-conventional media such as wall paintings,
kirtanas, tamashas, special stalls at haats and shandies in rural markets.
Advertising Media Selection
– With Difficulties in Selection
No one medium type is superior to all the
others; each has its merits and its handicaps. The profitability of any one
type varies from manufacturer to manufacturer even within a single product
classification, and may vary from year to year for a single manufacturer.
Changes and shifts are about the only rule, making generalizations dangerous
and any scientific selection of media types impossible.
The advertiser approaches the selection of
media types by defining the typical buyer he intends to influence through his
advertising. These buyers constitute his market; they are to receive his
advertising message from and through the media he selects. The concept of
coverage consists of the advertiser’s reaching the maximum number of these
buyers his current and prospective customers.
Coverage, then, is limited to users of the
advertiser’s product and to persons who do not use it but should; it does not
imply the maximum number of all the consumers. Having defined his buyer, the
advertiser then determines how many there are and where they are.
The remainder of the selection process
involves how to send an effective advertising message economically to the group
of buyers that has been defined. A major consideration here is the nature of
the message.
Another is how often it needs to be delivered;
still another involves the length of the campaign period. The advertiser must
deliver this effective message at a cost which he can afford at a figure which
will make the advertising effort profitable.
Difficulties in Selecting of Media Types:
(i) Audience Measurement:
The media sell circulation or the opportunity
to develop circulation. There is a gross aspect to circulation (how many copies
of the Fermina were bought last month) and a net aspect (how many of those
purchasers are prospects for the product); or, refined further; how many
prospects for the product saw the advertisement last month in the Femina.
Audience measurement in the broadcast media is not as precise as advertisers
would prefer.
(ii) Difficulty of Cost Comparisons:
There is a cost per thousand concept in every
medium type but the basic unit varies, sometimes being cost per thousand homes
or thousand viewers, sometimes being cost per thousand passersby, sometimes
being cost per page per thousand copies sold.
There is no sound meaningful way of comparing
the value of a thousand pages in a publication with a thousand members of a
broadcast audience.
Just how does the reaction of a thousand housewives, who read a food advertisement about Magi noodles, compare with that of a different thousand housewives who watch the same on TV
(iii) The
Reliance a Manufacturer Should Place on a Particular Type of Medium:
How much of his promotion effort should a food manufacturer place in magazines and how much on TV how much, if any, in outdoor or point of purchase? Which type should be dominant and which ones supplementary.
Media costs, the costs of space and time, are
the largest single expense item in most advertising budgets. The selection of
media types to be used in an undertaking deserves, even demands, the very best
thought and judgement of on the part of the top management.
The matters should get attention are:
(i) Availability:
Regional markets may be so limited that
national circulation of magazines should not be used. A product may have so
slight a market that a medium such as the radio would not be indicated for use.
(ii) Selectivity:
Some big sales ideas demand visual presentation
others demand oral presentation. The radio cannot accommodate stories requiring
a physical form, and outdoor advertising cannot accommodate long stories. The
copy aiming at direct action is different from the copy seeking indirect
action.
(iii) Competition:
Competiton is a matter which the advertiser
does not ignore. A company may select media types not used by its
competitors, counting on distinctiveness and domination to justify this choice.
Selection of Individual Media:
Having finally decided to use magazines, the
advertiser’s next job is to select which magazines should carry his
advertising.
The points to be considered for this purpose
are:
(i) Circulation:
What advertisers buy from media is
circulation. Continuing our magazine example, the advertiser searches for those
magazines whose quality and quantity of circulation fit his needs.
When the typical reader of a certain magazine
and the typical prospect of a certain manufacturer are the same individual, the
quality of circulation is excellent. The circulation of medium in those markets
where the manufacturer does not have distribution facilities reduces the
quality of the medium for that manufacturer.
The quality and quantity of a medium’s
circulation are meaningful only in terms of the medium’s rates. When the
magazine starts selling more to advertisers, it charges them more; and when its
costs continue to rise, it must raise its rates.
(ii) Prestige:
Prestige is an intangible. Excellence in
putting together the editorial features which go into an issue contribute to a
magazine’s prestige; outstanding physical appearance makes a similar contribution.
The magazine’s advertising standards and the patronage of a group of respected
advertisers are evidence of prestige.
(iii) Influence:
This, too, is an intangible. Some magazines as
carriers of advertising undoubtedly enjoy greater influence with retailers and
with consumers than do other magazines.
(iv) Readership:
How thoroughly is the magazine read? What is
the intensity and the intentness of this reading? How much reader loyalty and
reader confidence in the authority of the magazine are present in this reading.
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