Media Decision

-By
Vinay N M
Shweta Ganesh
Bindhu A S

Plan of Presentation
Introduction to Media Decision
Types of Media and Characteristics
Media Mix Decision
Selection of Media
Evaluating Media Plan Effectiveness

Introduction to Media
Decision
Media decisions in advertising can take
many different directions depending on the
product being sold.
There are many different types of media
that can be used.

Media Terminology

Media Planning - A series of decisions

involving the delivery of messages to
audiences.
Media Objectives - Goals to be attained by
the media strategy and program.
Media Strategy - Decisions on how the media
objectives can be attained.
Media - The various categories of delivery
systems, including broadcast and print
media.
Broadcast Media - Either radio or television
network or local station broadcasts.
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Media Terminology

Print Media - Publications such as newspapers,

magazines, direct mail, outdoor, and the like.

Media Vehicle - The specific message carrier,

such as the Hindu or News hour Show.

Coverage - The potential audience that might

receive the message through the vehicle.

Reach - The actual number of individual audience

members reached at least once by the vehicle.

Frequency - The number of times the receiver is

exposed to vehicle in a specific time period.
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Media Classification Levels

Media Types and Characteristics

There are two types of media for

communication - mass media and
interpersonal media.
Interpersonal media is an expensive medium but
highly useful for focused reach.
On the other hand mass media like television, or
radio, or newspaper are cost efficient and
characterized by wide reach.

1.Television
Following are the specific characteristics of
television:
It is more impact-full as it is the
combination of sound, sight, and motion,
It has broad reach and mass coverage,
It is highly intrusive medium,
It has high absolute cost but cost per
thousand is moderate.

Advantages and Disadvantages

2.Radio
Following are the specific characteristics of
radio:
It can reach out to remote audiences,
It is most cost efficient among all mass
media,
Radio can reach mobile population,
Radio has local market identification.

Advantages and Disadvantages

3.Newspaper
Following are the specific characteristics of
newspaper:
Newspaper is a better option to provide detailed
information,
A publication have different editions for
different areas, so there is a geographic
flexibility in newspaper,
Newspaper have different sections, so there is
opportunity of targeting special interest groups,
Newspaper are vehicle for coupon delivery.

Advantages and Disadvantages

4.Magazine
Following are the specific characteristics of
magazine:
There are magazines for sports, corporate,
business, women. children, etc., so we can say
magazines have specific audience selectivity,
as they are specialised,
Magazines have longer life,
Magazines provide them opportunity for
message scrutiny, and geographic
anddemographic flexibility.

Advantages and Disadvantages

5.Outdoor
Following are specific characteristics of
outdoor media:
Outdoor media is easilynoticeable, and it
provides 24 hours coverage,
Outdoor is location specific media, it has
local market presence,
Outdoor media is Cost efficient medium,
It can be good reminder media.

Advantages and Disadvantages

6.Internet
Advantages
Online advertising is multi-dimensional
Online advertising owns most vigorous
consumer group
Online advertising making features low cost, fast
speed, and flexible revision.
Strong interaction is the biggest advantage of
Internet media
Online advertising draws high attention form the
audience

Disadvantages
Customers Ignore Ads
Viewing Problems
Expensive Ad Prices
Too Many Options

Media Mix Decision

Which media should the advertiser use?
Media planners craft a media mix by
considering a budget-conscious intersection
between their media objectives and the
properties of the various potential media
vehicles.
That is, they consider how each media vehicle
provides a cost-effective contribution to
attaining the objectives, and then they select
the combination of vehicles that best attain all
of the objectives.

Media Mix Decision

When making media mix decisions,
planners look to a whole spectrum of media,
not just to traditional media vehicles such
as TV, radio, and print.
Media Mix Decision involves 2 decisions:
Media Concentration vs. Media Dispersion
Media Category Selection

Media Concentration vs. Media Dispersion

The media concentration approach uses
fewer media categories and greater
spending per category.
This lets the media planner create higher
frequency and repetition within that one
media category.

Media Concentration vs. Media Dispersion

Media planners will choose a concentration
approach if they are worried that their
brand's ads will share space with competing
brands, leading to confusion among
consumers and failure of the media
objectives.
For example, when Nestle launched its 99%
fat-free cereal Fitness, the similarity of ads
actually increased the sales of the
competing Kellogg's Special K Cereal.

Media Concentration vs. Media

Dispersion

Media dispersion approach when they use

multiple media categories, such as a
combination of television, radio, newspapers
and the Internet.
Media planners will use dispersion if they know
that no single media outlet will reach a sufficient
percentage of the target audience.
Media planners also like the dispersion approach
for the reinforcement that it brings -- consumers
who see multiple ads in multiple media for a
given brand may be more likely to buy.

Media Concentration vs. Media

Dispersion

For example, a concentrated approach using

only ads on the Internet might reach only 30%
of the target consumers because some
consumers don't use the Internet.
Similarly, a concentrated approach using
national news magazines might reach only
30% of the target audience, because not every
target customer reads these magazines.
But a dispersed approach that advertises in
print magazines as well as on Web sites might
reach 50% of the target audience.

Media Category Selection

Every media plan requires that specific

media types be selected Televison, Direct
mail, satellite TV, newspapers, magazines,
etc. Media planners must consider several
variables before choosing among major
types.

Media Category Selection

Target audience media habits:
This is the most important factor. Housewives watch
more of television, whereas, working women go for
magazines. Again television programs have different
viewers.
For instance, world this week is viewed by teenagers
and young adults. Therefore, it would be advisable to
advertise during World this week such products which
are of interest to teenagers and young adults.

Media Category Selection

Products:
Products that require demonstration can suit for
television.
Financial advertising such as new issue of shares
is good in newspapers.
Again there are media restrictions on certain
products. For instance, alcoholic drinks cannot be
advertised in press as well as on DD and AIR.

Media Category Selection

Message:
The type of message dictates the type of media.
For example, an ad that features technical
information is best suited for specific magazines.
Again, an ad from retailer announcing major sale
on discount requires more of local newspapers.

Media Category Selection

Cost Factor:
Television is very expensive, where as, radio
is very economical.
However, cost is not the only factor, even if
it is calculated on the basis of cost perperson reached. The impact of the media is
to be taken into account.

Media Category Selection

Other factors:
There are several other factors such as
media life, media flexibility, etc.

Selection of Media

Budget
What is your overall budget for advertising? Will
your budget give you the coverage you want? A
firm that has a limited budget for advertising will
limit the amount of coverage certain media can
provide.
You will need to strike a balance between budget
and coverage.

Campaign Objectives
One factor that will influence the budget and
coverage question is the objective of the
campaign. If the objective is to raise the brand
awareness of the firm amongst the teenage
market then this will influence any decisions you
make above.
You may need to spend a little more on certain
publications in order to meet your objectives.

Target Audience
The media you selected is obviously influenced by
the target audience. A firm must select media
that the target audience is associated with e.g.
the magazines or paper that they read, or the
social networking site they use.

Focus
What is the message focus going to be? Will the
message be emotional and work on guilt or will
the message be clear cut and say why the firm is
better than the leading player?

Readership of Media
What is the readership of the media you wish to
select?

Circulation of Media
A firm will need to find out what the overall
circulation of the media chosen is. So how many
publications are sold, and exactly who reads
them.

Timing
When do you want the advertising campaign to
start? Is it specific to a particular time of the year
e.g. Easter or Christmas?

Evaluating Media Plan Effectiveness

Accountability is increasingly important in
media planning, as more advertisers expect
to see returns on their investments in
advertising.
Because media spending usually accounts
for 80 percent or more of the budget for
typical advertising campaigns, the
effectiveness of media plans is of particular
importance.

As a result, media planners often make

measures of the effectiveness of a media
plan an integral part of the media plan.
Sales results are the ultimate measure of
the effectiveness of an advertising
campaign.
But sales result is affected by many factors,
such as price, distribution and competition,
which are often out of the scope of the
advertising campaign.

It is important, therefore, to identify what

measures are most relevant to the
effectiveness of media planning.

What to Measure?
The effectiveness of media planning should
be measured with multiple indictors.
The first measure is the actual execution of
scheduled media placements.

 Did the ads appear in the media vehicles in agreedupon terms?

Media buyers look at "tear-sheets" - copies of the ads as
they have appeared in print media for verification
purposes.

For electronic media, media buyers examine the

ratings of the programs in which commercials were
inserted to make sure the programs delivered the
promised ratings.
If the actual program ratings are significantly lower
than what the advertiser paid for, the media usually
"make good" for the difference in ratings by running
additional commercials without charge.

The most direct measure of the effectiveness of

media planning is the media vehicle exposure.
Media planners ask:
How many of the target audience were exposed to the
media vehicles and to ads in those vehicles during a
given period of time?

This question is related to the communication

goals in the media objectives.
If the measured level of exposure is near to or
exceeds the planned reach and frequency, then
the media plan is considered to be effective.

Several additional measures can be made of the

target audience, such as:
Brand awareness: how many of the target
audience are aware of the advertised brand?
Comprehension: does the target audience
understand the advertised brand?
Conviction: is the target audience convinced by
ads? How do they like the advertised brands?
Action: how many of the target audience have
purchased the advertised brand as a result of
the media campaign?

The measured results of brand awareness,

comprehension, conviction and action are
often a function of both advertising creative
and media planning.
Even effective media planning may not
generate anticipated affective responses if
the ads are poorly created and not
appealing to the target audience.

On the other hand, ineffective media

planning may be disguised when the ads
are highly creative and brilliant.
Thus, these measures should be reviewed
by both creative directors and media
planners to make accurate assessments of
the effectiveness of the media plan.

How to Measure?
The measurement of the effectiveness of a
media plan can be conducted by the
advertising agency or by independent
research services
Using methods such as surveys, feedback,
tracking, and observation. Each method has
its strengths and weaknesses.

Surveys
Surveys can be conducted among a
sampling of the target audience in the
different periods of a media campaign, such
as in the beginning, the middle and the end
of the campaign.
Surveys can ask questions about the target
audience's media behavior, advertising
recall, brand attitudes and actual purchase.

Radiowatch, for instance, conducts monthly

surveys on advertising recall of radio
commercials in England.
Radiowatch surveys 1000 adults age 16-64
and asks them which radio commercials they
remember hearing.
In the April 2006 survey, the most-recalled ad
was for T-Mobile, with 46% of respondents
recalling the ad. An ad for McDonald's had
36% recall, while the ad for Peugeot received
18%.

Feedback
Feedback can be collected to measure the
media and ad exposure of the target
audience.
Feedback devices such as reply cards, tollfree numbers, coupons and Web addresses
can be provided in ads so that tallies of the
responses or redemptions can be made to
estimate the impact of advertising media.

Advertisers often use a different code in direct

response ads to identify different media
vehicles.
For example, in the April 3 2006 issue of
BusinessWeek, the reply card for subscribing
to the magazine had a code of JS6D1, whereas
the reply card bound into the May 29, 2006
issue of the magazine had a code of JS6E2.
In short, by reviewing the different codes
recorded, media buyers can assess the
response rate of each media vehicle.

As you can see from the Radiowatch example,

one advantage of surveys over feedback
devices is that surveys reach people who have
taken no action on the product, whereas
feedback devices require the consumer to
mail back, click or call a toll-free number.
In this way, surveys can help media buyers
evaluate the effectiveness of an ad in relation
to other ads, whereas feedback devices help
them evaluate the effectiveness of one media
vehicle over another.

Tracking
Tracking is measurement method that media
buyers use to track the effectiveness of online
ads.
When a user visits a Web site or clicks on a
banner ad, Web servers automatically log that
action in real time.
The logs of these visits and actions are very
useful for media buyers, because the buyers
can use them to estimate the actual
interaction of audience members with the
interactive media.

Ads on the Web, or a flyer on Facebook

Observation
Finally, in the physical world, media buyers
can use observation to collect audience
reaction information at the points of
purchase or during marketing events.
For example, researchers can be stationed
in grocery stores to observe how consumers
react to in-store advertising or how they
select an advertised brand in comparison of
other brands.

The advantage of observation is that it

provides rich, detailed data on how
consumers behave in real situations in
response to the marketing communication.
The downside is that direct observation is
more costly to conduct and tabulate.

Thank You