Print media business booming in india, future tense Vienna: Despite assurances that the print media is a booming

business, Manjula Rajagopal, associate editor of the Tamil daily Dinamalar, returned home from the World Newspapers Congress that concluded here Saturday wondering if she can compete with the tablet market. The newspaper business in India is gaining 10 percent per year, but the fear of editors like Manjula is that a whole generation of readers may grow up getting their news on a tablet computer. The emerging tablet market is a challenge to newspapers like Dinamalar with a circulation of 850,000 copies, considering that the Indian government is giving free tablet computers to students. Many people at the Congress wondered about the future of print and to see publishers still believed in printed newspapers. The verdict is that the future of print is bright, particularly outside Europe and, unlike in Germany, where most of the publishers are focusing on the digital media. It's true that the newspaper circulation declined in print worldwide last year, but it more than made up with an increase in digital audiences, as per the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) annual update of world press trends. Other trends include varying media consumption patterns across the world. Print circulation is increasing in Asia, but declining in mature markets in the West. The main decline is in free dailies. For advertisers, newspapers are more time-efficient and effective than other media. Newspapers continue to reach more people than the internet does. Digital advertising revenues are not compensating for the ad revenues lost to print. Social media are changing the concept and process of content gathering and dissemination. But the revenue model for news companies in the social media arena remains hard to find. The news publishing business has become one of constant updating, of monitoring, distilling and repacking information. Innovation is key and it begins with the name as far as Shyam Parekh, editor of DNA Ahmedabad is concerned. "No newspaper has dared to drop its edit page. We did," said Parekh at the Editors Forum session titled Innovation in Print, adding but the newspaper didn't ditch the opinion or analysis. It moved opinion and commentary to the front page. "Rather than confining the newspaper's opinions to an editor's page, the move "made readers realise the importance of our opinion," he said. The Malayala Manorama group is working hard to capture the important growth in the digital markets, particularly mobile. "While print circulation continues to grow in India it is important to note that the growth is from rural areas, and the urban youth are turning to TV, online and mobile," said Mariam Mammen Mathew, chief operating officer of Manorama Online in India. Internet penetration in India is less than 10 percent, but the country has 519 million mobile subscribers. "Most Indians will first experience the web on their handset.... There is a plethora of platforms vying for the media consumer. We need to innovate to get the eyeballs and retain our customers. It's all about creating alternate revenue streams. The good news is the markets are slowly recognising the value of content. . We empower our editors, we tell them content is important and there is value to it," she said. Madhav Chinnappa, formerly a manager at the BBC and presently a strategic business partner development manager for Google News & Books, said that things have fundamentally changed with the emergence and growing influence of players such YouTube, WikiLeaks, Twitter and Facebook. "We are in an area of experimentations, and making mistakes is not important. What is essential here is how fast you correct them. Creativity should not be driven by short-term financial reward...innovation should not be seen as a luxury. The cycle of changes is too rapid, hence innovation needs to be an essential part of any news organization." The Congress attracted 1,1000 visitors from over 100 countries, many of whom recalled how the publication of WikiLeaks last year by The Hindu had rattled the Indian government. The controversial findings were a result of a formal agreement between N. Ram, the paper's editor, and WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange. Ram said that his decision to publish the cables has forever changed the game of journalism and the current politics in his country. "It shows the power of new technology. But even more the power of ideas of justice and freedom, including the idea much beloved in the hacker community that information wants to be free," said Ram, adding that newspapers need to be more aggressive and bold while working with unconventional sources of information and whistleblowers. "Take risks with collaborating with the geeks and the hackers and develop your IT and digital platforms," he said. During the World Editors Forum, WikiLeaks was described as a non-traditional journalism source. However the golden rule remains the same that it is not the source that is as important as the credibility of the information leaked to editors. Is Advertising Socially Extravagant Or Socially Enviable? Corporate sector of every economy rests on advertising and India is no exception to it. In a rigorous empirical study conducted by the author it was found that the advertising expenditure of almost all the sample firms of the food processing industry witnessed a continuous increase. This obviously raises important questions for decision-makers in both the private and the public sectors of India. Almost all the firms in the consumer goods industry are very much concerned with establishing the level of advertising which is optimal from the viewpoint of firm strategy and their overall marketing mix. And so is the case with the sample firms also. Advertising is no doubt essential in the creative economy, as it is said to reduce the search costs of the consumers. It should be borne in mind, that it is the consumers who decide the fate of every firm. And the firms advertise and bring about cosmetic differences in the products so as to lure consumers. That is, they expect the consumers to be loyal to their respective products. In the same way, the firms should also see to it they do not deceit the consumers by manipulative advertising, and should be in turn loyal to the consumers. The advertising should in turn help the consumers in choosing the right product.

But, the sample firms are found to be aggressively enhancing their advertising expenditure of the processed food products year by year and making the consumers adapted to those products which actually come from the developed countries. It can be argued that processed food (not all) possesses additional nutritional values, and hence may add to the nutritional level of every consumer. But it is to be noted that about 30 per cent of the population is not having access even to the basic food. The heavy advertising activity undertaken by these firms is a clear indication that the state is providing a helping hand to meet the demand of a few elite consumerist rich classes of people. This preference, in turn, is believed to create continuing dependence of the country on imported technology and goods. This is a matter of concern and there is an urgent need to curb such an excessive advertising which is indeed harmful for a society like India, where economic growth is usually constrained by supply conditions rather than by aggregate demand. And resources devoted to advertising can be viewed to be as socially wasteful, at a time when the country is holding the following dubious distinction: the worlds second largest exporter of rice is witnessing crop holiday observed by thousands of paddy farmers of Andhra Pradesh; where about 300 million people go hungry everyday; where the child malnutrition rate is 46 per cent (as per the last round of the Family Health Survey, 2006), a country which is among the 29 countries with the highest level of hunger, stunted children and poorly fed women in the world (International Food Policy Research Institutes Global Hunger Index, 2010). India is a country which is the largest producer of fruits, vegetables, milk and edible oils, and second largest producer of wheat and sugar; but millions are languishing to access the basic foods in its raw form. The large firms in the study are found to be leading advertiser in the Indian FPI during the study period. The small, big and medium firms are also compelled to increase their advertising expenditure so as to survive and compete with the large firms. No doubt, profit is the motto of the corporate sector, but not at the cost of making the teeming millions starves! So, if instead, the large firms help the state by spending a part of its huge resources in making the basic food available to the 300 million hungry people, then the other firms will definitely follow the large firms. This is also a part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) that the firms ought to take. However, in the name of CSR most of the firms are seen to be involved in the construction of business oriented schools, hospitals etc., when the people are not entitled to access the basic food. Heavy taxes should be imposed on those firms which advertise excessively. This particular step will cripple the firms from enhancing their advertising expenditure more and more each year. So far no attempt has been taken towards this, simply because the survival of every print media and electronic media rests on the advertisements by these firms. In fact, the whole of the corporate sector survives on the advertising activity. And an act of heavily taxing the highly advertised firms may bring the corporate sector into crumbles. Media Objectives How is a media plan developed? Media planning is a four-step process which consists of 1) setting media objectives in light of marketing and advertising objectives, 2) developing a media strategy for implementing media objectives, 3) designing media tactics for realizing media strategy, and 4) proposing procedures for evaluating the effectiveness of the media plan. Let's take a look at the planning process through an example: P&G's launch of the Gillette Fusion shaving system for men in early 2006. First, P&G's media objectives called for a $200 million media blitz to reach men in the U.S. Second, P&G's strategy included a mix of national media to introduce the brands. For example, television advertising, such as a $5 million Super Bowl ad campaign, portrayed Fusion as an advanced technology found in a secret government UFO lab. The TV ads also established the brand's signature orange and blue color scheme. In store aisles, 180,000 display units promoted Fusion, using the brand's colors to catch consumers' attention. "We're trying to put the product wherever men shop," said Pauline Munroe, marketing director for blades and razors in P&G's Gillette business uni Third, P&G's media tactics -- such as a Father's Day sweepstakes, an episode of NBC's The Apprentice in which the show's teams competed to promote the razor, and sponsorship of competitive surfing -- helped the company reach men of all ages. "Fusion will get so much attention that it will drive a lot of men to try these grooming products," said Gary Stibel of New England Consulting Group.[9] Finally, P&G used sales and market share targets to assess the effectiveness of the media plan. P&G expects sales of Fusion to reach $1 billion in sales by year three.[10] P&G knows that the brand has already achieved 25% market share in the U.S. Thus, although $200 million seems like a lot to spend on advertising a new product, it represents a sound financial investment toward the tremendous future profit that P&G will gain from the new shaving system. Now, let's take a deeper look into the media planning process. Media planning, such as planning the marketing communications for the launch of the Fusion new shaving system, starts with setting media objectives. Media objectives usually consist of two key components: target audience and communication goals. The target audience component of the media objectives defines who is the intended target of the campaign. For example, P&G's target audience objective for its Fusion shaving system was men 18-40 years old. The communications goals component of the media objectives defines how many of the audience the campaign intends to reach and how many times it will reach them. In short, media objectives are a series of statements that specify what exactly the media plan intends to accomplish. The objectives represent the most important goals of brand message dissemination, and they are the concrete steps to accomplish marketing objectives. The next two sections (2.1. and 2.2.) provide details on target audience and communication goals. You'll learn about sources of data to use to identify your target audience. You'll also learn how to quantify communication plans. 2.1. Target Audience The first objective of a media plan is to select the target audience: the people whom the media plan attempts to influence through various forms of brand contact. Because media objectives are subordinate to marketing and advertising objectives, it is essential to understand how the target audience is defined in the marketing and advertising objectives. The definition may or may not be exactly the same, depending on the marketing and advertising objectives and strategies.

A common marketing objective is to increase sales by a specific amount. But this marketing objective does not specify a target audience, which is why the media objective is needed. Consider Kellogg's Corn Flakes and all the different strategies the advertiser could use to increase sales among different target audiences. For example, one target audience might be current customers -- encouraging people who eat one bowl a day to also "munch" the cereal as a snack. Or, the advertiser might target competitors' customers, encouraging them to switch brands. Or, the advertiser might target young adults who are shifting from high sugar "kids cereals" to more adult breakfast fare. Finally, the advertiser could target a broader lower-income demographic. The point is that each campaign could increase sales via a different target audience. Marketers analyze the market situation to identify the potential avenues for boosting sales increase and consider how advertising might achieve those aims. If the advertiser chooses to attract competitors' customers -- like what Sprint does to attract users of other wireless services -- the media plan will need to define the target audience to be brand switchers and will then identify reasons to give those potential switchers to switch, such as greater convenience, lower cost, or additional plan features. For example, in 2006 Sprint Nextel ran an ad campaign urging consumers to switch to Sprint because "no one has a more powerful network."[11] 2.1.1 Demographics and Psychographics The target audience is often defined in terms of demographics and psychographics. Syndicated research services such as Simmons Market Research Bureau (SMRB or Simmons) and Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI) provide national data on a number of demographics of U.S. consumers, including gender, age, education, household income, marital status, employment status, type of residence, and number of children in the household. Using demographic variables, for example, the target audience of a media plan could be "individuals who are 26-to-45 years old with yearly household income of $50,000 or more" or "all households with children age 3 years or younger." Some advertisers believe that demographic definitions of a target audience are too ambiguous, because individual consumers that fit such definitions can be quite different in terms of their brand preference and purchase behavior. For example, think about the students in a media planning class. Even though some of them are the same age and gender, they may like different brands of toothpaste, shampoo, cereal, clothing, and other products. Therefore, media planners use psychographics to refine the definition of the target audience. Psychographics is a generic term for consumers' personality traits (serious, funny, conservative), beliefs and attitudes about social issues (opinions about abortion, environment, globalization), personal interests (music, sports, movie going), and shopping orientations (recreational shoppers, price-sensitive shoppers, convenience shoppers). Mazda, for example, doesn't define its target audience by age, income or gender, but by psychographic principles. Mazda targets people who have a need for self-expression, are young at heart, and love to drive.[12] One psychographic system which media planners often use is called VALS (short for Values And LifestyleS), which was developed by SRI in the 1980s. VALS places U.S. adult consumers into one of eight segments based on their responses to the VALS questionnaire. The eight segments are: Innovators, Thinkers, Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers and Survivors. Each segment has a unique set of psychological characteristics. For example, Innovators are "successful, sophisticated, take-charge people with high self-esteem. Because they have such abundant resources, they exhibit all three primary motivations in varying degrees. They are change leaders and are the most receptive to new ideas and technologies. Innovators are very active consumers, and their purchases reflect cultivated tastes for upscale, niche products and services."[13] Defining a target audience by psychographic variables helps not only creative directors with the development of advertising appeals but also media planners with the selection of effective media channels. If a psychographic group of consumers likes playing golf, for example, they are likely to read golf-related magazines and visit golf-related Web sites. 2.1.2. Generational Cohorts In addition to demographics and psychographics, generational cohort is another useful concept for selecting the target audience. Because the members of a particular generational cohort are likely to have had similar experiences during their formative years, they maintain analogous social views, attitudes, and values. Generational cohorts in the U.S. are the Baby Boomers (about 70 million people born 19451964), Generation X (about 17 million people born in 1965-1978), and Generation Y (about 60 million people born between 1979 and 1994). Each of the cohorts possesses distinct characteristics in their lifestyles and often serves as a reference group from which finer segments of the target audiences can be selected for specific advertising campaigns. An interesting example of a generational cohort is "kogals" in Japan. Originating from the world for "high school," kogals are a unique segment of young women in urban Japan who conspicuously display their disposable incomes through unique tastes in fashion, music, and social activity. They have the leisure time to invent new ways of using electronic gadgets. For example, they started changing mobile phones' ring tones from boring beeps to various popular songs and changing screen savers from dull defaults to cute pictures. Manufacturers observe kogals and listen to what they say is unsatisfactory about the products. In some cases, manufacturers simply imitate the new usages that kogals spontaneously invented and incorporate these usages part of their own new commercial services, thereby increasing sales.[14] 2.1.3. Product and Brand Usage Target audiences can also be more precisely defined by their consumption behavior. Product usage includes both brand usage (the use of a specific brand such as Special K cereal or Dove soap) and category usage (the use of a product category such as facial tissue or chewing gum). Product use commonly has four levels: heavy users, medium users, light users and non-users. The levels of use depend on the type of product. For example, Simmons defines heavy domestic beer users as those who consume five or more cans in the past 30 days, medium beer users as those who consumer two to four cans, and light users as those who consume one can in 30 days. For travel, Simmons' definitions are: three foreign trips per year indicate heavy travel users, 2 foreign trips per year are medium travel users, and 1 trip per year are light travel users. There is a popular saying in the industry: "the twenty percent who are heavy users account for eighty percent of the sales of a

product." This highlights the importance of heavy users for a brand's performance. Examples of defining a target audience by product usage can be "individuals who dine out at least four times in a month" or "individuals who made domestic trips twice or more last year." Similarly, brand usage has several categories. Brand loyals are those who use the same brand all the time. Primary users use a brand most of the time but occasionally also use other brands in the same category; they are secondary users for these competing brands. Brand switchers are those who have no brand preference for a given product category but choose a brand on the basis of situational factors. An analysis of the brand usage pattern is helpful for the identification of the appropriate target audience. Simmons [15] and MRI [16] offer brand usage data for many national brands. 2.1.4. Primary and Secondary Target Audience The target audience in a media plan can be either primary or secondary. A primary target audience is one that plays a major role in purchase decisions, while a secondary target audience plays a less decisive role. In the case of video game players, for example, children's requests often initiate a purchase process; parents often respect their children's brand selection. Thus, it is reasonable to consider children as the primary target audience and their parents as the secondary target audience. If the parents are aware of the advertised brand, it will be easier for children to convince them of the purchase. Media planners need to examine and identify the role of consumers in shopping, buying and consuming a product or service to target the right groups of consumers effectively. 2.1.5. The Size of Target Audiences In the process of defining a target audience, media planners often examine and specify the actual size of a target audience -- how many people or households fit the definition. Knowing the actual size helps advertisers to estimate the potential buying power of the target audience. For example, if the target audience of a campaign is defined as working women 26-to-44 years old who are interested in receiving daily news updates on their mobile phones, media planners should estimate the number of these women in the U.S. to quantify the sales potential. As another example, if the target audience consists of 2,000,000 households in the U.S. and each household purchases the brand two times a month, the monthly sales would be 4,000,000 units. The U.S. Census Bureau [17] provides the most authoritative data about demographics of the U.S. population by state. Whereas the U.S. Census provides demographic data, market research services such as Simmons and MRI provide demographic data that is linked to product data. This means that media planners can get information about consumers of hundreds of product types. 2.2. Communication Goals After media planners define the target audience for a media plan, they set communication goals: to what degree the target audience must be exposed to (and interact with) brand messages in order to achieve advertising and marketing objectives. For example, one communication goal can be that 75 percent of the target audience will see the brand in television commercials at least once during a period of three months. Another communication goal is that 25 percent of the target audience will form a preference for a new brand in the first month of the brand launch. The different communication goals can be better understood in a hierarchy of advertising objectives, such as Bill Harvey's expansion of an earlier model of Advertising Research Foundation (ARF).[18] The expanded ARF model has ten levels, as shown in Figure 1. The first three levels of goals from the bottom -- vehicle distribution, vehicle exposure, and advertising exposure -- are particularly relevant for media planning. Vehicle distribution refers to the coverage of a media vehicle, such as the number of copies that a magazine or newspaper issue has, or the number of households that can tune in to a given television channel. Vehicle exposure refers to the number of individuals exposed to the media vehicle, such as the number of people who read a magazine or watched a television program. Advertising exposure refers to the number of individuals exposed an ad or a commercial itself. It is important to note the difference between vehicle exposure and advertising exposure for many media with editorial content. For example, not all audience members of a television program will watch all the commercials interspersed in the program. A study shows that only 68 percent of television audiences watch the commercials in television programs.[19] Vehicle exposure represents only an opportunity to see an ad, not necessarily that the ad has actually been seen. In reality, advertising exposure is rarely measured, and media planners use vehicle exposure as a proxy measure of advertising exposure. Another group of communication goals is advertising recall, advertising persuasion, leads and sales. Advertising recall represents the cognitive effect of the ad, advertising persuasion represents the emotional effect of the ad, and leads and sales are the behavioral effects of the ad. Each can be specified in a media plan as a communication goal. For example, a communication goal can specify that 50% of the target audience will recall the radio ad during the month of the campaign, or that a campaign will generate 3000 leads. Figure 1 ARF Model Expanded for Interactive 2.2.1. Reach, Frequency and Gross Rating Points Media planners often define the communication goals of a media plan using the three interrelated concepts of reach, gross rating points, and frequency. Media planners use reach to set their objective for the total number of people exposed to the media plan. Reach is one of the most important terms in media planning and has three characteristics. First, reach is a percentage, although the percentage sign is rarely used.

When reach is stated, media planners are aware of the size of the target audience. For example, if a media plan targets the roughly 5 million of women who are 18-25 years old, then a reach of 50 means that 50% or 2.5 million of the target audience will exposed to some of the media vehicles in the media plan. Second, reach measures the accumulation of audience over time. Because reach is always defined for a certain period of time, the number of audience members exposed to the media vehicles in a media plan increases over time. For example, reach may grow from 20 (20%) in the first week to 60 (60%) in the fourth week. The pattern of audience accumulation varies depending on the media vehicles in the media plan. Third, reach doesn't double-count people exposed multiple times if the media plan involves repeated ads in one media category or ads in multiple media categories. Media planners use reach because it represents that total number of people exposed to the marketing communication. Besides reach, media planners use Gross Rating Points as a shorthand measure of the total amount of exposure they want to buy from media outlets such as TV networks. For example, the 2006 Super Bowl game received a rating of 42, which means 42 percent of U.S. television households tuned in to the program. If an advertiser planned to run a commercial once during the Super Bowl, that ad would appear in 42% of households. If the commercial was run only once, the reach is equal to the rating of the program, a GRP of 42. If the advertiser's media plan called for running the ad twice during the Super Bowl, the GRP would be 2*42 = 84. Media planners often think in terms of gross rating points because ad prices often scale with this measure. As a rule of thumb, it costs about twice as much to obtain a GRP of 84 as to obtain a GRP of 42. A media plan that calls for a GRP of 84 doesn't necessarily mean that the advertiser must advertise twice on the Super Bowl. The advertiser could also buy 6 spots on popular primetime shows that each have a rating of 14 (6*14 = 84) or buy a large number of spots (say 42 spots) on a range of niche-market cable TV programs, radio stations or magazines that have a rating of 2. Some media vehicles are best-suited to specific target audiences. For example, the Nickelodeon TV channel controls 53% of kids GRPs.[20] Notice the difference between GRP and reach: GRP counts total exposures while reach counts unique people exposed. Thus, GRP does double-count people who see ads multiple times. Frequency connects the concept of reach with that of GRP. To see this relationship between GRP and reach, let's consider what happens when an advertiser puts two spots on the Super Bowl -- one during the first half of the game and another in the second half. As mentioned earlier, this example plan has a GRP of 84. But what is the reach? That depends on how many people watch both halves of the game. Rating services such as A.C. Nielsen monitor who watches the game, when they watch, and whether they watch the first half or the second half or both halves of the game. These rating services know that, for example, 1/3 of the game-watching households stop watching after the first half and 1/3 of gamewatching households start watching during the second half. This means that, although 42% of households are tuned in to the game during each half, it's not the same 42% for both halves. Thus, the reach of the first ad is 42, but then one-third of these households (42%*1/3 = 14% of all households) tune out before the second ad during the second half. This means that only 28% of all households watch both first and second halves of the game and see the ad twice. This 28% of households who are still watching when the second spot shows won't add to the reach when they see the second spot. During the second half, a different 14% of U.S. households tune in. These new watchers do count toward the reach during the second half because they didn't see the ad during the first half. Thus, the total reach for the game for the two-ad plan is 42+14 = 56. Frequency is the ratio of GRP over reach. Frequency is a measure of repetition. The formula of calculating frequency is: Frequency = Gross rating points / Reach Using the Super Bowl example again, if the GRPs were 84 and the reach was 56, then the frequency would then be 1.5 (84/56=1.5). A frequency of 1.5 would mean that, on average, audience members of the Super Bowl game had one-and-a-half opportunities to watch the ad. The media objectives of a media plan often call for some combination of reach and frequency. Media planners want the highest reach possible because that means more people will be exposed to the campaign, which should lead to more brand awareness, customer loyalty, sales, and so on. Media planners also seek high frequency if they feel that consumers will only take action (that is, buy the product) after multiple exposures to the campaign. For example, launching a new brand or teaching consumers about the features of a product (like the features of a five-bladed shaving system) may take several impressions. Thus, reach indicates the media dispersion while frequency shows the media repetition. Notice that the formula for frequency can be flipped to make a formula for GRPs; GRPs are the product of reach multiplied by frequency. If a media plan calls for a broad reach and a high frequency, then it calls for very high GRPs (lots of ad exposures to lots of people). Achieving a very high GRP is very expensive, however, and budget issues may preclude such a high GRP. Thus, media planners may start with budget, then estimate the GRPs that they can afford and then either sacrifice reach to maintain frequency or let frequency drop to one in order to maximize reach. 2.2.2. Frequency Distribution, Effective Frequency and Effective Reach Media planners also consider frequency distribution in order to fully understand exactly how many exposures different people experience; that is, how many people will see the ad once, twice, three times, etc. This lets the planner estimate the effective reach of the plan at the effective frequency needed by the campaign ?the number of people who see the ads a sufficient number of times for the media plan to be effective. Effective frequency refers to the minimum number of media exposures for a communication goal to be achieved, while effective reach is the reach (% of households) at the effective frequency level. Media planners choose an effective frequency based on the communication goals. Communication goals vary across the continuum from awareness, preference, attitude change to trial, purchase, and repurchase. To change

brand attitude requires more exposures (higher effective frequency) than does creating brand awareness. If the effective frequency is set for a given communication goal, the reach at that effective frequency level will be the effective reach. Let's go back to the Super Bowl example. A total of 28% of households see the ad twice by watching the entirety of the game. During the first half, 14% of households see the ad once but then don't watch the second half. Another 14% join the game in progress and see the ad once during the second half. Thus, 14+14 = 28% see the ad just once. This leaves 44% of households (100% - 28% - 28%) who never see the ad. In summary, the frequency distribution is: reach of 28 at the frequency of 2; reach of 28 at the frequency of 1; and reach of 44 at the frequency of 0 (also called non-reach). Let's extend this example by continuing this hypothetical campaign. On the Thursday after the Super Bowl, the advertiser does one more media blitz ?showing an encore of their Super Bowl ad on all major networks during the prime time slot of 8:00 to 8:30 PM. This practice of advertising on multiple channels at the same time ensures that most people will see the ad regardless of which channel they watch. Table 2 shows the viewer data, collected from households across the country, with the percentage of households who were watching during various combinations of the three time slots. Frequency To maximize overall awareness, the advertising must reach the maximum number of the target audience. There is a limit for the last few percent of the general population who don't see the main media advertisers use. These are more expensive to reach. The 'cumulative' coverage cost typically follows an exponential curve. Reaching 90 percent can cost double what it costs to reach 70 percent, and reaching 95 percent can double the cost yet again. In practice, the coverage decision rests on a balance between desired coverage and cost. A large budget achieves high coveragea smaller budget limits the ambitions of the advertiser. 1. FrequencyEven with high coverage, it is insufficient for a target audience member to have just one 'Opportunity To See' (OTS) the advertisement. In traditional media, around five OTS are believed required for a reasonable impact. To build attitudes that lead to brand switching may require more. To achieve five OTS, even in only 70 percent of the overall audience, may require 20 or 30 peak-time transmissions of a commercial, or a significant number of insertions of press advertisements in the national media. As these figures suggest, most consumers simply don't see the commercials that often (whereas the brand manager, say, sees every one and has already seen them many times before their first transmission, and so is justifiably bored).

The life of advertising campaigns can often extend beyond the relatively short life usually expected. Indeed, as indicated above, some research shows that advertisements require significant exposure to consumers before they even register. As David Ogilvy long ago recommended, "If you are lucky enough to write a good advertisement, repeat it until it stops selling. Scores of good advertisements have been discarded before they lost their potency." Spread More sophisticated media planners also look at the 'spread' of frequencies. Ideally all of the audience should receive the average number of OTS. Those who receive fewer are insufficiently motivated, and extra advertising is wasted on those who receive more. It is, of course, impossible to achieve this ideal. As with coverage, the pattern is weighted towards a smaller numberof heavy viewers, for examplewho receive significantly more OTS, and away from the difficult last few percent. However, a good media buyer manages the resulting spread of frequencies to weigh it close to the average, with as few audience members as possible below the average. Frequency is also complicated by the fact that this is a function of time. A pattern of 12 OTS across a year may be scarcely noticed, whereas 12 OTS in a week is evident to most viewers. This is often the rationale for advertising in `bursts' or `waves' (sometimes described as `pulsing'). This concentrates expenditure into a number of intense periods of advertising, spread throughout the year, so brands do not remain uncovered for long periods. Media Buyers In the end, it is the media buyers who deliver the goods; by negotiating special deals with the media owners, and buying the best parcels of `slots' to achieve the best cost (normally measured in terms of the cost per thousand viewers, or per thousand household `impressions', or per thousand impressions on the target audience. The "best cost" can also be measured by the cost per lead, in the case of direct response marketing). The growth of the very large, international, agencies has been partly justified by their increased buying power over the media owners. Audience Research Identifying the audience for a magazine or newspaper, or determining who watches television at a given time, is a specialized form of market research, often conducted on behalf of media owners. Press figures are slightly complicated by the fact that there are two measures: readership (total number of readers of a publication, no matter where they read it), and circulation (the number of copies actually sold, which is mostly independently validated).

Advertising-free media Advertising-free media refers to media outlets whose output is not funded or subsidized by the sale of advertising space. It includes in its scope mass media entities such as websites, television and radio networks, and magazines. The public broadcasters of a number of countries air without commercials. Perhaps the best known example of this is the United Kingdom's public broadcaster, the BBC, whose domestic networks do not carry commercials. Instead, the BBC, in common with most other public broadcasters in Europe, is funded by a television licence fee levied on the owners of all television sets. A 2006 report by the Senate of Canada suggested that the country's public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, be funded sufficiently by the federal government so that it could air without any advertising.[1] Advertising media scheduling Scheduling refers to the pattern of advertising timing, represented as plots on a yearly flowchart. These plots indicate the pattern of scheduled times advertising must appear to coincide with favorable selling periods. The classic scheduling models are Continuity, Flighting and Pulsing. Continuity This model is primarily for non-seasonal products, yet sometimes for seasonal products. Advertising runs steadily with little variation over the campaign period. There may be short gaps at regular intervals and also long gapsfor instance, one ad every week for 52 weeks, and then a pause. This pattern of advertising is prevalent in service and packaged goods that require continuous reinforcement on the audience for top of mind recollection at point of purchase. Advantages: Works as a reminder Covers the entire purchase cycle Cost efficiencies in the form of large media discounts Positioning advantages within media

Program or plan that identifies the media channels used in an advertising campaign, and specifies insertion or broadcast dates, positions, and duration of the messages. Flighting (or "bursting") In media scheduling for seasonal product categories, flighting involves intermittent and irregular periods of advertising, alternating with shorter periods of no advertising at all. For instance, all of 2000 Target Rating Poinered in a single month, "going dark" for the rest of the year. Halloween costumes are rarely purchased all year except during the months of September and October. Advantages: Pulsing Pulsing combines flighting and continuous scheduling by using a low advertising level all year round and heavy advertising during peak selling periods. Product categories that are sold year round but experience a surge in sales at intermittent periods are good candidates for pulsing. For instance, under-arm deodorants, sell all year, but more in summer months. Advantages: Covers different market situations Advantages of both continuity and flighting possible Advertisers buy heavier weight than competitors for a relatively shorter period of time Little waste, since advertising concentrates on the best purchasing cycle period Series of commercials appear as a unified campaign on different media vehicles

Advertising MediaPrint The two most common print media are newspapers and magazines, but print media also include outdoor billboards, transit posters, the yellow pages, and direct mail. Print media is important because it can reach such a large audience, and the great number of specialized publications

enable businesses to focus in on a target audience with a specific set of characteristics. Print media are allowed to advertise most anything, such as cigarettes, liquor, and contraceptives; however, many publications will not accept controversial ads. TYPES OF PRINT MEDIA NEWSPAPERS When deciding upon a newspaper in which to advertise, there are three physical criteria to consider: distribution, size, and audience. Newspapers are either daily or weekly, come in a standard or tabloid size, and reach nearly all of the reading public, which is estimated to be around 85-90 percent of the population. Because of the broad demographic reach of most newspapers it is difficult to target a specific audience; however, newspapers are effective in increasing awareness of a business' products and services in a specific geographical area. Types of ads placed in newspapers include: display ads, classified ads, public notes, and preprinted inserts. Newspaper ads have some flexibility in their size. For instance, some are small boxes that take up only a small portion of a page, while others might span one or two full pages (the latter, however, are typically only bought by larger corporations). Regardless of this flexibility, newspaper ads can only use limited special effects, such as font size and color. These limitations lead to advertising "clutter" in newspapers because all the ads look very similar. Therefore, advertisers must use original copy and headings to differentiate their ads from their competitors. The quick turnover of newspapers also allows the advertiser to adjust ads to meet new market conditions; however, this turnover means that the same ad may need to be inserted over a significant period of time in order to reach its target audience. MAGAZINES With magazines an advertiser can focus in on a specific target audience. As the Small Business Administration pointed out in "Advertising Your Business": "Audiences can be reached by placing ads in magazines which have [a] well-defined geographic, demographic, or lifestyle focus." An attractive option for many small businesses may be placing an ad in the localized edition of a national magazine. But magazine advertisements often have a lag time of a couple months between the purchase of ad space and the publication of the issue in question. Magazines, then, are sometimes not the optimum option for businesses seeking to target fast-changing market trends. In addition to the above factors, it is also important to consider the nature of the magazine ad copy. Magazines allow elaborate graphics and colors, which give advertisers more creative options than do newspapers. Also, recent surveys have indicated that informative ads are the most persuasive. Therefore, it is important to include copy and art work that is direct and presents important product information to the consumer, such as how the product works, how it benefits the consumer, and where it can be purchased. DIRECTMAIL Many consultants feel that direct mail is the best way for a small businesses to begin developing awareness in their target consumers. Mailing lists can be generated (even though they are often difficult to maintain) with the names of those people most likely to purchase the advertiser's products or services. However, direct mail is not always cost effective. According to James W. Taylor, author of Marketing Planning: A Step by Step Guide, a direct mailing campaign can cost as much as $1,000 to reach 1,000 people, whereas television can reach a similar number of potential customers at a fraction of that cost. But business experts indicate that direct mail does tend to generate more purchasing responses than does television, and they observe that the products of many small businesses are often more suited to a direct mailing campaign than to indirect, image advertising. YELLOW PAGES The Small Business Administration stated in "Advertising Your Business" that a yellow page ad is often used to "complement or extend the effects of advertising placed in other media." Such an ad has permanence and can be used to target a specific geographic area or community. Essentially, a yellow page ad gives the consumer information needed to make a purchase. Therefore the key information to include in such an ad includes: the products and services available; location; phone number; business hours; special features, such as the acceptable kinds of payment (i.e. credit cards, checks); parking availability; discounts; and delivery policies and emergency services. The best way to arrange this information is in a list, so that the consumer will be able to scan the ad for the desired information. A major consideration with a yellow page ad is where to place it, which primarily depends on the directory (or category) under which businesses choose to locate their ads. Central to this choice are the products or services that the company wishes to emphasize. The ad copy should compliment the directory, indicating the main products and services for sale, so that the ad will emerge from the similar looking ads that surround it. OUTDOOR ADVERTISING Outdoor advertising usually comes in two forms: billboards and transit posters. Like yellow page ads, outdoor advertising is usually used to support advertisements placed in other media. As Alf Nucifora noted in the LI Business News, perhaps the greatest strength of outdoor advertising is as a directional marker to point customers toward your business. Since the prospective consumer often has only fleeting exposure to billboards and transit posters, the advertising copy written for these media needs to be brief with the ability to communicate ideas at a glance; this, of course, requires efficient use of graphics and headings. Do we really need newspapers? Print media in India is flourishing. If we take the past 2 years of incidents into account, Indian newspaper industry has seen tremendous growth. I am not talking about the revenue of the industry but the choices available to the consumer. In the past 2 years I have seen at least 3 newspapers expanding in India. That does not necessarily mean that the quality of the content has increased. Mint which is coming from Hindustan Times has started its operations in key metros. The paper is published in collaboration with Wall Street Journal. DNA has expanded their services in Bangalore. Times went to Chennai which is The Hindus bastion. Another regional newspaper(which I know of) Sakshi was launched in Andhra Pradesh. New York Times picked a 5% stake in Deccan Chronicle. All these events are showing the print media industry a rosy picture. But is it really that rosy?

Mint started in Mumbai and Delhi. They started a little later in Bangalore. I was really pissed that they did not start it sooner. Ever since Mint started its services in Bangalore I am a regular subscriber. This is in addition to subscribing to their rss feeds since their inception. Mint is one of its kind newspaper and is a cut above the rest like Economic Times and Business Standard. Its focus is impeccable. But, now I am re-thinking about the subscription. Reason is not the price. It only costs 2 rupees per day and the monthly bill comes to 50 odd rupees. The reason is the clutter it is creating. I can very well read the paper online. Archiving is a problem for the print version. Why do I need this subscription? One more story is that of DNA. DNA started their operations only last December in Bangalore. It managed to grab the attention by careful advertising. DNA has used billboards and radio stations to put the bang in Bangalore. It had an offer where you pay for the full year subscription. Since I am a news geek I fell for it. Now I have DNA coming in daily and I cant stop it. I am even thinking about gifting the coupons to someone so that I can be clutter free. I can read DNA online. When I was re-thinking about my subscription I came across this post from Seth Godins blog. This has reinforced my conviction. I am thoroughly convinced that I dont need newspapers. My RSS feeds will work just fine. This of course would apply for the tech savvy. Others are getting their dose of daily news from TV. It is round the clock so you cant miss a thing. Then they are other channels like SMS alerts and mobiles. Between web, TV and mobile we have covered most of the things. Or so I think. Is Advertising Socially Extravagant Or Socially Enviable? Corporate sector of every economy rests on advertising and India is no exception to it. In a rigorous empirical study conducted by the author it was found that the advertising expenditure of almost all the sample firms of the food processing industry witnessed a continuous increase. This obviously raises important questions for decision-makers in both the private and the public sectors of India. Almost all the firms in the consumer goods industry are very much concerned with establishing the level of advertising which is optimal from the viewpoint of firm strategy and their overall marketing mix. And so is the case with the sample firms also. Advertising is no doubt essential in the creative economy, as it is said to reduce the search costs of the consumers. It should be borne in mind, that it is the consumers who decide the fate of every firm. And the firms advertise and bring about cosmetic differences in the products so as to lure consumers. That is, they expect the consumers to be loyal to their respective products. In the same way, the firms should also see to it they do not deceit the consumers by manipulative advertising, and should be in turn loyal to the consumers. The advertising should in turn help the consumers in choosing the right product. But, the sample firms are found to be aggressively enhancing their advertising expenditure of the processed food products year by year and making the consumers adapted to those products which actually come from the developed countries. It can be argued that processed food (not all) possesses additional nutritional values, and hence may add to the nutritional level of every consumer. But it is to be noted that about 30 per cent of the population is not having access even to the basic food. The heavy advertising activity undertaken by these firms is a clear indication that the state is providing a helping hand to meet the demand of a few elite consumerist rich classes of people. This preference, in turn, is believed to create continuing dependence of the country on imported technology and goods. This is a matter of concern and there is an urgent need to curb such an excessive advertising which is indeed harmful for a society like India, where economic growth is usually constrained by supply conditions rather than by aggregate demand. And resources devoted to advertising can be viewed to be as socially wasteful, at a time when the country is holding the following dubious distinction: the worlds second largest exporter of rice is witnessing crop holiday observed by thousands of paddy farmers of Andhra Pradesh; where about 300 million people go hungry everyday; where the child malnutrition rate is 46 per cent (as per the last round of the Family Health Survey, 2006), a country which is among the 29 countries with the highest level of hunger, stunted children and poorly fed women in the world (International Food Policy Research Institutes Global Hunger Index, 2010). India is a country which is the largest producer of fruits, vegetables, milk and edible oils, and second largest producer of wheat and sugar; but millions are languishing to access the basic foods in its raw form. The large firms in the study are found to be leading advertiser in the Indian FPI during the study period. The small, big and medium firms are also compelled to increase their advertising expenditure so as to survive and compete with the large firms. No doubt, profit is the motto of the corporate sector, but not at the cost of making the teeming millions starves! So, if instead, the large firms help the state by spending a part of its huge resources in making the basic food available to the 300 million hungry people, then the other firms will definitely follow the large firms. This is also a part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) that the firms ought to take. However, in the name of CSR most of the firms are seen to be involved in the construction of business oriented schools, hospitals etc., when the people are not entitled to access the basic food. Heavy taxes should be imposed on those firms which advertise excessively. This particular step will cripple the firms from enhancing their advertising expenditure more and more each year. So far no attempt has been taken towards this, simply because the survival of every print media and electronic media rests on the advertisements by these firms. In fact, the whole of the corporate sector survives on the advertising activity. And an act of heavily taxing the highly advertised firms may bring the corporate sector into crumbles. The future of Indian Print Media Advertising While I was reading this post on Techcrunch today, I was wondering about the health of Indian Newspaper Ad Sales compared to that of US, and I was quite surprised with what I found. Indian Newspaper Advertising is not only healthy at present, but is also expected to grow at a decent pace for atleast next 5 years.

Here are some of the graphs and reports that would shed some light on what is in store for Newspaper Advertising in India. If you have read the Techcrunch article, the Newspaper Ad sales have been plummeting in USA since 2006, the current being the lowest with negative growth of close to 30%. In contrast, Indian Newspaper Ad sales have been growing constantly over last 5 years.

The KPMG-FICCI report puts the growth of Indian print media at a respectable 9% over next 4-5 years. The Print Media Ad sales growth have even better projections. They are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10% for next 4-5 years !

The Indian Newspaper Industry is booming ! Researchers have discovered a place where the newspaper, a threatened species in parts of the world, is thriving. In most parts of the world the age old newspaper industry is fighting a loosing battle to the online news sources and in most parts surrendering to it.. However, in India, home to 1.1 billion people, Not only is the press in robust health, but its growing at an astonishing rate. from 2005 to 2006, nearly 2,100 newspapers debuted in India, joining 60,000 circulating. Why the rush to join an industry that seems headed for extinction in the United States and other developed nations? India is a country with an expanding middle class and a booming economy, which have fueled an explosion in consumer spending and advertising. The illiteracy rate though stubbornly high at an estimated 35 percent gradually is coming down. In New Delhi and Mumbai, about 80 percent of residents age 7 and older can read and write. Meanwhile, Internet penetration remains marginal, despite Indias reputation as an information-technology powerhouse. Only a sliver of the population, mostly well-heeled urbanites, can afford home computers and high-speed Internet access. Helping newspaper circulation are newsstand prices that rarely exceed 3 rupees a copy, the equivalent of about 7 cents. A vicious price war several years ago suppressed prices. But thanks in part to the surge in advertising, only four newspapers out of more than 60,000 ceased publication between 2005 and 2006, according to the official Registrar for Newspapers in India. With blogging coming in vogue, it has to be seen whether the Indian newspaper industry will reach a saturation point remains to be seen.

Why Do Companies Opt for Outdoor Media Advertising? Advertising is extremely essential for promoting businesses but how why is it that more and more billboards are being posted every day? Arent commercials the more popular option for advertisers? Outdoor media advertising refers to advertisements that are placed outside the consumers' homes. This includes billboards, bus, taxi, airport, and Train Advertising. Outdoor media advertising remains intact for twenty four hours a day and seven days a week which contributes to the maximum exposure of the advertisement. The number of customers can also increase when advertisements are distributed to various populated areas which will in turn increase competition for the business. The more a business advertises, the more people will become aware of their products or services. This might mean that a business will have to invest more on their advertising efforts but it will also mean that the business will be earning higher revenues.But take note that outdoor media advertising is not only for advertisers and outdoor Advertising Agencies. Other people can also make use of this medium to seek aid for a certain cause or to spread awareness for health and welfare. Other people can also make use of this medium to seek aid for a certain cause or to spread awareness for health and welfare. Outdoor Media Advertising is extremely effective because people are extremely fond of the outside world. They spend a lot time and do a lot of things outdoors which outdoor media advertising takes advantage of. But even so, the fight for the consumers attention is tough. There are a lot of things that can distract consumers and make them too busy to notice an advertisement. That is why advertisers and Out of Home Media Owners should use a lot of techniques and strategies to get noticed by their audience. Advertisements have to be readable at a distance with huge fonts and a few words only. Using a famous icon is also an effective way of capturing the attention of consumers especially huge fanatics. Having popular characters associated with the brand or product will also make Advertising Campaigns and the product popular. Outdoor Media Advertising is so effective and affordable that even small businesses can make use of this form of advertising to promote their businesses. It reaches out to all kinds of people in all kinds of places. Advertisers can have a huge amount of audience or opt to focus on a particular group by placing their ads at a particular place. There are also a wide variety of platforms that advertisers can choose from whether small or large. This form of advertising that is available for everybody for a long time can create a memory- retaining effect on people. It can promote awareness about current issues or success for the business and loyalty of the people.

The future of Indian Print Media Advertising While I was reading this post on Techcrunch today, I was wondering about the health of Indian Newspaper Ad Sales compared to that of US, and I was quite surprised with what I found. Indian Newspaper Advertising is not only healthy at present, but is also expected to grow at a decent pace for atleast next 5 years. Here are some of the graphs and reports that would shed some light on what is in store for Newspaper Advertising in India. If you have read the Techcrunch article, the Newspaper Ad sales have been plummeting in USA since 2006, the current being the lowest with negative growth of close to 30%. In contrast, Indian Newspaper Ad sales have been growing constantly over last 5 years.

The KPMG-FICCI report puts the growth of Indian print media at a respectable 9% over next 4-5 years. Interestingly, the projected compounded annual growth of Gaming is the highest with 33.3% followed by Internet which stands at 27.9% CAGR. That should really put smile on a lot of faces :) The Print Media Ad sales growth have even better projections. They are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 10% for next 4-5 years !

And some thing that will really put a smile on my face is the figure for Internet Advertising, slated to grow at 28.1% CAGR sweeeet :) So, all in all Indian Media be it print, television or Internet are looking at very robust next 4-5 years. Although, 2009 seems to be a low point in terms of growth- coming years are quite promising. Why Do Companies Opt for Outdoor Media Advertising? Advertising is extremely essential for promoting businesses but how why is it that more and more billboards are being posted every day? Arent commercials the more popular option for advertisers? Outdoor media advertising refers to advertisements that are placed outside the consumers' homes. This includes billboards, bus, taxi, airport, and Train Advertising. Outdoor media advertising remains intact for twenty four hours a day and seven days a week which contributes to the maximum exposure of the advertisement. The number of customers can also increase when advertisements are distributed to various populated areas which will in turn increase competition for the business. The more a business advertises, the more people will become aware of their products or services. This might mean that a business will have to invest more on their advertising efforts but it will also mean that the business will be earning higher revenues.But take note that outdoor media advertising is not only for advertisers and outdoor Advertising Agencies. Related Coverage Why Choose Outdoor Media Advertising? Why To Opt Seo Company 3 Benefits of Outdoor Media Advertising Billboards For Outdoor Advertising

Other people can also make use of this medium to seek aid for a certain cause or to spread awareness for health and welfare. Outdoor Media Advertising is extremely effective because people are extremely fond of the outside world. They spend a lot time and do a lot of things outdoors which outdoor media advertising takes advantage of. But even so, the fight for the consumers attention is tough. There are a lot of things that can distract consumers and make them too busy to notice an advertisement. That is why advertisers and Out of Home Media Owners should use a lot of techniques and strategies to get noticed by their audience. Advertisements have to be readable at a distance with huge fonts and a few words only. Using a famous icon is also an effective way of capturing the attention of consumers especially huge fanatics. Having popular characters associated with the brand or product will also make Advertising Campaigns and the product popular. Outdoor Media Advertising is so effective and affordable that even small businesses can make use of this form of advertising to promote their businesses. It reaches out to all kinds of people in all kinds of places. Advertisers can have a huge amount of audience or opt to focus on a particular group by placing their ads at a particular place. There are also a wide variety of platforms that advertisers can choose from whether small or large. This form of advertising that is available for everybody for a long time can create a memory- retaining effect on people. It can promote awareness about current issues or success for the business and loyalty of the people.