UNIT-1

CONCEPT OF IMC
Nature & Scope of Advertising Management

Advertising

Advertising is the means of informing and influencing a vast audience to buy a product or
service through visual, oral or written messages. Advertising can be described as a paid
form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services. A business
that wants to step into markets and make a mark definitely needs advertising. There is
hardly any organization that does not advertise these days.  Advertising can be done
through various media such as newspaper, magazines, television, radio, posters,
hoardings, and billboard and in recent times, the internet.

When a marketer or a company develop a product to satisfy market demand after carefully
analyzing the market, there comes a need for establishing contact with the target market to
sell that product.

Moreover, this has to be a mass contact so that the product may get maximum exposure to
large number of people.

The best way to reach the mass market is through mass communication and advertising is
one of the means of such mass communication along with other means, which may or may
not using mass communication, like publicity, sales promotion, public relations.

As a means of mass communication, advertising promotes the sale of goods, services,

images and ideas through information and persuasion. It is important to understand
that, advertising by itself can not sell the product which are of poor quality, costly or not
up to expectation of the consumer. Advertising only helps in selling.

Nature of Advertising

 Advertising is a tool of marketing that disseminates information about a product

which is aimed at a large number of people at the same time using purchased space or time
in various mass mediums.
 Advertising messages are delivered through variety of media; television, radio,
newspaper, magazine, billboards, direct-mail campaigns, Internet, clothing lines with
messages printed on them, telemarketing programs, and even messages heard while
someone is on hold on the telephone.
 Advertising intends to sell and at the same time create an aspiration towards a
certain product, which ultimately leads to a vital and persuasive distinction, that makes the
product a brand.
 It is a tremendous challenge for advertisers to design a message which must give an
advantage in a highly cluttered world where customers are becoming increasingly proficient
at simply tuning ads out.
 Scope of Advertising
 Advertising is often regarded as the most important means of marketing a company’s
services and tools. The scope of advertising is to communicate a message to current
customers or potentially target new customers. It helps a company get a message or
a piece of information across to their customer base regarding a new product or
special deal.
 Scope of advertising by budget: There is always a budget allocated for advertising
and promotion within the marketing budget. The budget allocated should be in
coordination with the type of advertisement the organization wants. The resources
and other requirements are to be kept in mind for the budget allocation.
 Scope of advertising by deliverables: Once the budget is decided, the marketing
plan can be projected further. A detailed scope of work that deliverables require can
be outlined. Agencies can now develop a proposed resource plan.
 Scope of advertising by allocating deliverables: For creative work, allocating the
type of deliverables (TV, online, mobile, press, magazine,etc.) based on the previous
campaign requirements can be more insightful after the previous plan.
 Scope of advertising by strategy: Once the deliverables are allocated, advertising
agencies can define the strategic requirements by brand or category and develop a
scope of work based on past requirements and remuneration for similar strategic
deliverables.
 Setting Advertisement Objectives
Before carrying out specific advertising strategies and implementing advertising campaigns,
objectives must be set. Without clearly defining the aims of advertising, it will be hard to
attain effective advertising. We will therefore look at the different potential aims of
advertising.

Advertising Objectives

Many specific communication and sales objectives can be assigned to advertising.

Advertising can be defined as any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of
ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. What advertising is supposed to
accomplish for a firm can vary greatly. The advertising objectives must flow from prior
decisions on target market, market positioning and the marketing mix.

Colley lists 52 possible advertising objectives in his book “Defining Advertising Goals for
Measured Advertising Results” (Russell H. Colley, Defining Advertising Goals for Measured
Advertising Results, New York: Association of National Advertisers, 1961).  He outlines a
method called DAGMAR (after the book’s title) for turning objectives into specific
measurable goals.

According to Colley, an advertising goal (or objective) is a specific communication task and
achievement level to be accomplished with a specific audience in a specific period of time.
An example:

To increase among 30 million homemakers who own washing machines the number who
are persuaded that brand X gets clothes cleaner from 10 percent to 40 percent in one year.

As you can see, the aims of advertising should be specific, answering questions like:

 Who is targeted?
 How many?
 What product or service?
 What shall the (change in) perception of the product be?
 To what extent?
 In what time frame?

Thus, it is not possible to discuss every possible advertising objective. However, the aims of
advertising can be classified according to their prime mission:

Three main Aims of Advertising

Informative Advertising
Informative advertising is especially relevant in the pioneering stage of a new product
category. The objective is to build primary demand. To support this objective, informative
advertising provides information about the features of a new product or service in order to
initiate the decision-making process of consumers. For instance, the yogurt industry initially
had to inform consumers of the nutritional benefits of yogurt.

Persuasive Advertising

Persuasive advertising becomes relevant in the competitive stage. The company’s objective
is to build selective demand for a particular brand. It has to persuade consumers of the fact
that its products or services offer more value than competing products or services. For
instance, BMW attempts to persuade consumers that its cars deliver more driving pleasure
than Mercedes-Benz cars.

Some persuasive advertising uses comparative advertising, which makes explicit

comparisons of the attributes of two or more brands. For instance, Burger King used
comparative advertising for its attack on McDonald’s: Burger King directly compared its
flame-broiled burgers to the fried ones of McDonald’s to gain advantage. In some countries,
comparative advertising is not permitted. In addition, a company should always make sure
that it can prove its claim of superiority and cannot be counterattacked in a vulnerable area,
which may result in an “advertising war”.

Reminder Advertising

Finally, reminder advertising becomes relevant in the case of mature products. At this
stage, consumers are aware of and informed about the features of a product. Also, they are
persuaded of its benefits. However, these benefits must be repeated to remind consumers
to buy the product. For instance, Coca-Cola ads in magazines are intended to remind
people to purchase Coca Cola.

A related form of Reminder Advertising is Reinforcement Advertising, which aims to assure

current purchases that they have made the right choice. For instance, automobile ads often
depict satisfied customers enjoying special features of their new car.

As you may have already recognized based on the different aims of advertising explained
above, the advertising objective should emerge from a profound analysis of the
current marketing situation. For instance, if the product is mature, the company is the
market leader, but brand usage is low, the appropriate aim of advertising should be to
stimulate more usage (persuasive advertising). On the other hand, if the product is rather
new to the market, the company is not the market leader, but the product is superior to the
market leader’s product, then the appropriate aim of advertising should be to inform the
market of the brand’s superiority (informative advertising).

Setting clearly defined aims of advertising will help the company to implement effective
advertising campaigns that accomplish what is expected.
 DAGMAR and other Models
The DAGMAR approach of advertising was devised by Mr Russell Colley who was much
appreciated for his work, as till date, DAGMAR is a concept used in advertising to set
advertising objectives and goals. DAGMAR is an abbreviation for “Defining advertising
goals to measure advertising results”.

Instead of giving a complicated explanation, I will give a simple one. Russell colley
observed that although people were investing in advertising, they had to invest a lot of time
in other marketing activities to get the ROI of advertising. This is because the ROI from
advertising was unknown.

Hence, Russell suggested 2 main ways that maximum ROI could be achieved with the
usage of Advertising alone. Hence, a company which was thinking of 10 different ways to
market its products, could check the ROI from advertising, when it wanted to study how
effective it’s advertising was.

The 2 core things on which the DAGMAR Model stood were

1. Creation of a communication task to achieve goals

2. Defining the objective of the communication tasks in a manner that the results can
be measured.

(A) The communication tasks involved in the DAGMAR approach

A marketing task is a combination of an advertising activity, a branding activity and possibly

a customer service activity. The work of marketing is holistic and hence it has to look at the
whole organization. The work of Advertising is more individualistic and hence the
organization is not considered.

To measure that a task assigned to advertising, is later on measured only in advertising

terms, Russell colley designed the communication tasks. Creating a communication task,
which involves communications between the company and the consumer, was solely the
responsibility of the Advertising department.

The goal of the communication tasks in DAGMAR was as follows

1. Awareness –Communication tasks involved making the consumer aware of

the brand or the product.
2. Comprehension –These tasks also helped the consumer in understanding the
attributes and the features of the product and what the product will do for the consumer.
3. Conviction –The communication task convinced the customer that this product was
meant for them
4. Action –Ultimately, after conviction, the customer was to be enticed to take action.
 You will notice how the above ACCA model is similar to the AIDAS model of sales. This is
because AIDAS is used to measure the effectiveness of sales technique. Similarly the
ACCA model is used to understand the effectiveness of advertising and the communication
task that advertising carried out.

However, in the DAGMAR model, the issue does not end at just creating the communication
task. Because creating this task is very difficult if the objectives of advertising are not
known. If you don’t know WHY you are communicating to the customer, then how will you
communicate? Thus, DAGMAR then also involved defining the Objectives for
communications.

(B) Defining objectives in the DAGMAR approach

The second most important task of DAGMAR was defining the objectives of advertising or
of the communication tasks which were to be created. Once you defined the objectives,
then the measuring of advertising results was comparatively easier.

With this move, Russell colley also gave more responsibilities to the advertising department.
Not only were they responsible for the ads made, they were also responsible for how well
they understood the objective of advertising, and how they incorporated these objectives in
their communication tasks.

In this modern age, we know that advertising is used for introducing a product, building
brand eqtuiy, for sales promotions or for plain old brand recall. However, all these are the
objectives of advertising and form the 2nd part of DAGMAR.

The objectives of advertising in DAGMAR (which are used to create communication tasks)
are as follows

1. Concrete and measurable tasks –The tasks need to be a precise statement of

what the advertiser wants to achieve through the communication. Does he want to
strengthen the brand image, maximise the brand presence, penetrate new markets or
increase overall sales?
2. Define the target audience – Before the communication task commences, the
target audience needs to be defined as precisely as possible. Are you targeting youngsters,
adults, elderly? Any of the various forms of segmentation can be used to define the target
audience.
3. Degree of change sought –What level of perception, attitude or awareness of the
customer do you want to change? If a customer is aware of the product, do you want his
negative attitude to change to positive? Or if the market is completely unaware, do you want
the whole market to be aware or only partially the target group itself? These degrees of
change which are going to be the objective of the communication task need to be defined in
advance.
4. Time period –To achieve the objectives of the communication tasks, how much time
are you ready to allot. If you think that in a month, the product can create awareness in the
complete market, then you are very wrong. That’s why major advertisers try to introduce the
product for 3 months, and then communicate the features and benefits in the next 3 months
so that the brand recall is high and the brand acceptance is high as well. A defined time
period gives better measurability.

So as you could see from above, the DAGMAR approach involved defining the objective of
a communication task, and then creating communication tasks which were themselves
measurable.

The DAGMAR approach is used by many promotional planners to set plans of advertising
and marketing. This approach is also used to set advertising objectives and to measured
the results against the plan. Russell coley’s work has led to the improvement of the
advertising world, because these communication tasks were not only sales driven, they
achieved various goals of the organization only through Advertising.

Advertisement Planning and

Strategy Making
Marketing Communications Planning

Planning and strategy is pretty confusing terms and many times used interchangeably.
However, the most significant difference between them are — planning is an internal
problems and strategy is the external problems of the company. Secondly, planning
supports strategy to get accomplished. The following diagram illustrates the Marketing
Communication Planning −

Changing Trend of Marketing Communication

Today, the trend of advertisement and marketing communication has changed. Many of the
companies including Adidas, Nike, Coca-Cola, etc., are putting more emphasis on digital
marketing.

For example, as per the report − Nike’s new future campaign strategy is “Competition via
Social Media.” Nike has reduced the budget of its traditional marketing by 40%. Its new
strategy is to target group audience in the 15-25 age group through social media.
 Another example is that of Adidas.

The main strategies of Adidas group are −

 Diverse Brand Portfolio

 Investments Focused on Highest-Potential Markets and Channels
 Creating a Flexible Supply Chain
 Leading Through Innovation
 Develop a Team Grounded in our Heritage
 Becoming a Sustainable Company

Check Your Progress

 What is the difference between strategy and planning?

 What is the difference between strategy and planning?
 Define various features of marketing communications planning.
 Define the new strategy of big brands.

Steps to develop an advertising strategy:

Defining the Product or Service– Before developing the plans and strategies for
advertising, the product or service offered by the company is clearly defined. This means
that the position of the product in the market is determined. You have to understand the
product and its customer base for effectively marketing it to the people at large. It is also
important to understand the primary objective of the product or company.

Understanding the target audience– This is an important step in creating a strategy for

advertising. Various factors are to be considered for determining the target audience such
as demographic factors, psychographic factors, behavioral patterns, etc. The advertising
plan is created after considering these factors. For e.g. cosmetic and beauty products are
aimed at the women audience. The advertising strategy is derived accordingly.

Market research– Once the target market is determined, the next step is to study the
market for that particular product. Research about the products already available in the
market, what problems are faced in getting those products, what does the consumer desire
from such products and such other issues. A marketing and advertising plan can be derived
with the help of this study. Also, find out the latest trends in the market.

Developing a marketing plan– The strategies formed with the help of market research can
be put down as the plan of action for marketing the product. This means, a marketing plan
is created after determining the current trends in the market. The marketing plan aims to
create a niche of the product so that it stands out among the competition. The plan of action
also helps to establish the positioning of product.

Deciding communication media– The marketing plan is put to action using various

channels of communication. It is important to choose the right media or a media mix for
advertising. This depends on the product or service that is being marketed. The choice of
the medium is made after considering the target audience and market research. If a
physiology equipment is to be marketed, its advertisement will be put up as flyers or
brochures in a doctor’s clinic or hospitals; in health magazines and websites and so on.

Budget- The budget may be determined either before or after creating an advertising

strategy. It can be based on the resources available to the company. If the company has an
expensive budget, they can carry out high impact advertising They can create effective
advertising strategy without worrying about the finance. On the other hand, if the company
has limited budget, that alone dictates the advertising strategy. Because, at every step of
the market plan and advertising strategy, they have to consider the budget.

Marketing methods– Company can consider from among two types of methods to

advertise while creating the strategy. They are push method and pull method. They can
decide to go with either depending on their strategy and objective. Push method aims to
convince the retailers or sales person to promote the product, whereas pull method is
directly aimed at the consumers.

Modifying advertising strategy- This process does not end on creating and implementing
the advertising strategy. One has to stay in touch with the trends in marketing and modify
the marketing strategy time to time.

Creative Strategy Development

& Implementation
Marketing communication creativity

It is important to examine the concept of creativity, how it applies to marketing

communication, and the challenge firms face in developing creative and effective marketing
communication.

What Is Creativity?

Creativity is one of the most commonly used terms in marketing communication as those
who develop marketing communication messages are often referred to as “creative types”
and agencies develop reputations for their creativity. So much attention is focused on the
concept of creativity because the major challenge given to those who develop marketing
communication messages is to be creative. Creativity has been defined as “a quality
possessed by persons that enables them to generate novel approaches in situations,
generally reflected in new and improved solutions to problems.”
Perspectives of Marketing Communication Creativity

Perspectives of what constitutes creativity in marketing communication vary. At one

extreme are those who argue that marketing communication is creative only if it sells the
product. At the other end of the continuum are those who judge creativity in terms of its
artistic or aesthetic value and argue that creative marketing communication must be novel,
original and unique. The answer as to what constitutes creative in marketing communication
is probably somewhere between these two extreme positions.

We are concerned with marketing communication creativity which refers to “the ability to
generate fresh, unique and appropriate ideas that can be used as solutions to
communications problems.” This perspective recognises that creative marketing
communication  ideas are those that are novel, original and appropriate. To be appropriate
a creative idea must be relevant or have some importance to the target audience.

Planning Creative Strategy

Those who work on the creative side of marketing communication often face a real
challenge. They must take all the research, creative briefs, strategy statements,
communication objectives and other inputs and transform them into an marketing
communication message. Their job is to write copy, design layouts and illustrations and
produce commercials that communicate effectively. Marketers usually hire marketing
communication agencies to develop and implement their marketing communication
campaigns because they are specialists in the creative function of marketing
communication. However, it is important to point out that the development of creative
strategy also involves representatives from the client side and other people in the agency as
well as the creative staff.

The Creative Challenge

Those who work on the creative side of marketing communication have the responsibility of
developing an effective way of communicating the marketer’s message to their customers.
The creative person or team is often provided with a great deal of input and background
information on the target audience, such as their lifestyles, needs and motives, and
communication objectives. However, every marketing situation is different and requires a
unique approach.

Taking Creative Risks

Many creative people in agencies argue that they often follow proven approaches or
formulas when creating ads because they are safe and less likely to fail. They note that their
clients are very often risk averse and feel uncomfortable with marketing communication that
is too different. It is important to note that companies who have very creative marketing
communication are more willing to assume some risk. However, many managers are more
comfortable with marketing communication that is straight forward in communicating with
customers and gives them a reason to buy.
 Creative Personnel

It is a fairly common perception that those individuals who work on the creative side of
marketing communication tend to be somewhat unique and different from those working on
the managerial or business side. It is worthwhile to discuss some of the characteristics of
creative personnel in marketing communication and the need to create an environment that
fosters, and is conducive to, the development of creative marketing communication.

The Creative Process

A number of marketing communication people have argued that creativity in marketing

communication is best viewed as a process and that creative success is most likely when
some organized approach is followed. While most marketing communication people reject
and/or resist attempts to standardise creativity or develop rules or guidelines to follow, most
creative people do follow some type of process when approaching the task of developing an
advertisement.

The creative process contains five steps:

1. Immersion
2. Digestion
3. Incubation
4. Illumination
5. Reality or verification

Another model:

Inputs to the Creative Process: Preparation/Incubation/Illumination —

These models of the creative process offer an organized way of approaching an marketing
communication problem. Both models stress the need for preparation or gathering of
background information that is relevant to the problem as the first step in the creative
process. Various types of research and information can provide input to the creative
process of marketing communication at each stage. There are numerous ways the creative
specialist can acquire background information that is relevant to the marketing
communication problem. These include:

Background research – informal fact-finding techniques and general preplanning input.

Various ways of gathering background information might be discussed. ti

Product specific research – this involves different types of studies such as attitude,
market structure and positioning, perceptual mapping and psychographic studies.

Qualitative research input – techniques such as in-depth interview or focus groups with
customers or ethnographic studies.
Verification/Revision – The purpose of the verification/revision stage of the creative
process is to evaluate ideas that come from the illumination stage, reject any that may be
inappropriate, and refine those that remain and help give them final expression.

Some of the techniques used at this stage include:

Focus groups

Message studies

Portfolio tests

Pretesting of ads in storyboard or aniamatic form

Creative Strategy Development

The creative process of marketing communication is guided by specific goals and objectives
and requires the development of a creative strategy or plan of action for achieving the goal.
Creative strategy development actually begins with a thorough assessment of the marketing
and promotional situation and a determination of what needs to be communicated to the
marketer’s target audience. Creative strategy should, however, also be based on a number
of other factors that are stated in the creative or copy platform.

Copy Platform – A copy platform provides a plan or checklist that is useful in guiding the
development of an marketing communication message or campaign. This document is
prepared by the agency team or group assigned to the account and may include creative
personnel as well as the account coordinator and representatives from media and research.
The marketing communication manager and/or the marketing and product manager from
the client side will also be involved in the process and must approve the copy platform.

Marketing Communication Campaigns

Most advertisements are part of a series of messages that make up an marketing

communication campaign which consists of multiple messages, often in a variety of media
that center on a single theme or idea. The determination of the central theme, idea, position,
or image is a critical part of the creative process as it sets the tone or direction for the
development of the individual ads that make up the campaign.

The Search for the Major Selling Idea

An important part of creative strategy development is determining the central theme that will
become the major selling idea or big idea for the ad campaign. There are several different
approaches that can be used for developing major selling ideas and as the basis of creative
strategy. Some of the best known and most discussed approaches include:
 The unique selling proposition

This concept, which was mentioned in the opening vignette, is described in Rosser Reeve’s
Reality in Marketing communication. It’s three characteristics include:

 Each advertisement must make a proposition to the consumer

 The proposition must be one that the competition either cannot or does not offer
 The proposition must be strong enough to pull over new customers to your brand
 Creating a brand image
 Some competing brands are so similar it is difficult to find or create a unique attribute
or benefit so the creative strategy is based on the development of a strong,
memorable identity for the brand through image marketing communication.
 Finding the inherent drama
 Leo Burnett believed marketing communication should be based on a foundation of
consumer benefits with an emphasis on the dramatic element in expressing these
benefits.
 Positioning
 The basic idea is that marketing communication is used to establish or “position” the
product or service in a particular place in the consumer’s mind.
 These approaches to determining the major selling ideas discussed above are very
popular and are often used as the basis of the creative strategy for marketing
communication campaigns. These creative approaches represent specific “creative
styles” that have become associated with some of the most successful marketing
communication creative minds and their agencies. However, it should be pointed out
that many other creative approaches and styles are available and are often used in
marketing communication. The challenge to the creative team is to find a major
selling idea and use it as a guide to the development of an effective creative
strategy.

Advertising Budget
An advertising budget is the amount a company set aside for its promotional activities.
Advertising budget is used by a company for marketing the products and services to the
customers. Advertising budget includes money for doing advertising research, getting
creatives made, printing material, allocating money to advertising media and ensuring
proper implementation of ad campaigns.

Importance of advertising budget

The objective of a company which markets its products is to earn profits and increase brand
awareness. Advertising objectives of a company is purely dependent on the advertising
campaign, type of customers, advertising media and what the company wants to achieve.
Hence, for any marketing activity that a company wants to do, it has to spend some money.
This is why advertising budget is important. It helps in understanding the objectives. the
costs, helps to formulate strategies and generate profits by increasing the overall sales.
 Factors affecting advertising budget

Advertising is one of the variables which affect sales and hence the profit earned. It is
therefore difficult to calculate the amount to be allocated for advertisement budget. Also the
budgeting depends on various other factors like:

1. Degree of competitiveness in market: Monopoly/Duopoly/Oligopoly

A monopoly firm does not have to worry about the promotional spends as it is the only
player in the market. For duopoly, where market is dominated by two dominant players, the
promotional budgets would be high to outperform each other. In an Oligopolistic market,
where the market is cluttered and there are many players, promotional spends has to be
higher as the frequency of advertisements has to be increased to get noticed among so
many players. Thus depending upon the competition the advertising budget is set.

2. Market Share: Market leader/Market Follower

The advertising budget for a market follower will be decided by the tactics of the market
leader. To improve market share one of the investment is to increase promotional spent.
Thus, where a company stands is a deciding factor in advertising budget

3. Product life-cycle stage: Introduction/growth/maturity/decline

The advertisement budget would be higher at the introduction and growth stages as it has
to introduce the product in the market and establish itself among the competitors so the
frequency of advertisements would be high and so would be the budget. As the product
reaches maturity and decline stages the promotional spent would be lower.

4. Advertising Frequency:An ad can be played only once or can be be multiple times.

Also, it can be daily, weekly, fortnightly, monthly etc. Depending upon the requirement, the
advertising budget is altered.

All these factors are responsible in creating a efficient advertising budget.

Methods of advertising budget allocation

There are various approaches which businesses use to calculate their advertising budget:

1. Percentage of Sales: In this method the advertising budget is calculated as certain

fixed percentage of the sales or estimated sales.
2. Comparison with Competitor: In this method the advertising budget is estimated
based on competitors promotional spending. Either equal, more or less depending on the
objectives of the company.
3. Affordability: In this method the budget for advertising is decided based on
availability of funds. Mostly for small companies the funds available varies from time to time
 based of business performance. Hence marketing spend vary throughout the year based on
availability of funds.

1. Goal and Task: If the organization has well defined objectives or goals it can use
this method of allocating advertisement spending. The tasks associated with the goals are
evaluated and cost calculations are done. Based on the cost estimates funds are allocated.
2. Intuitive: In this method, seasoned managers take decisions of allocating
advertising budget for advertisements based on their experience and intuition. This method
is based on the past experiences of the company
3. All available funds: In this, the organization is focused heavily on advertising and it
allocates all available funds for promotional activities. This approach might get the
organization noticed but on the other hand lack of funds stunts growth.

Thus, this summarizes the advertising budget allocation methods

Advertising budget process

There are certain steps which can be followed in creating a advertising budget. They can be
explained as below:

1. Understanding advertising objectives based on the goals which have been set by the
company
2. Determine the tasks, ad campaigns which could be done
3. Formulating, evaluating and preparing the breakup of advertising budget
4. Taking approvals form the senior management
5. Allocation of funds for different activities under the advertising budget
6. Monitoring and controlling the expenditure and revising it for better profit
 UNIT-2

MEDIA PLANNING

Setting 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 unit.

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. 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. 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 the intended target of the campaign is. 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 manyof 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.

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.

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.”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 1945-1964), 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.

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 and MRI  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 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).

The expanded ARF model has ten levels. 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. 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.

Developing Media Strategies

Media planners make three crucial decisions: where to advertise (geography), when to
advertise (timing), and what media categories to use (media mix).  Moreover, they make
these decisions in the face of budget constraints. The actual amount of money that an
advertiser spends on marketing communications can vary widely, from billions of dollars for
multinational giants such as Procter & Gamble, to a few thousand dollars for local “mom-n-
pop” stores. In general, companies spend as little as 1% to more than 20% of revenues on
advertising, depending on the nature of their business. Regardless of the budget, some
media options are more cost effective than others. It is the job of media planners to
formulate the best media strategies — allocating budget across media categories,
geographies, and time. Let’s look at each of these three decisions in turn, and then consider
cost effectiveness.

3.1. Media Mix Decisions

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.

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. That is, media planners consider all
the opportunities that consumers have for contact with the brand. These opportunities can
be non-traditional brand contact opportunities such as online advertising, sweepstakes,
sponsorships, product placements, direct mail, mobile phones, blogs, and podcasts. The
scale and situations of media use are especially important when evaluating suitable brand
contact opportunities. For example, product placement in a video game makes sense if the
target audience plays video games. Sweepstakes make sense if many of the target
audience find sweepstakes attractive.

3.1.1 Mix Strategy: Media Concentration vs. Media Dispersion

A media planner’s first media mix decision is to choose between a media concentration
approach or a media dispersion approach. 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 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 Fitnesse, the
similarity of ads actually increased the sales of the competing Kellogg’s Special K Cereal.

Media planners can calculate or measure share of voice to estimate the dominance of their
message in each category of media they use. Share of voice is the percentage of spending
by one brand in a given media category relative to the total spending by all brands that are
advertising in that media category.

A company can create a high share of voice with a concentrated media strategy. That is,
the company can be the dominant advertiser in a product category in the chosen channel.
Moreover, because only one set of creative materials will need to be prepared, a
concentrated media strategy lets advertisers spend a higher percentage of their budget on
frequency and reach. But a concentrated strategy is also an “all-eggs-in-one-basket”
strategy. If the particular ad is not well received or the particular media category only
reaches a fraction of the intended target audience, then it will perform poorly.

In contrast, media planners choose a 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. 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 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.

Table 5 illustrates the media concentration and media dispersion approaches to the media
category allocations for three hypothetical brands of fatigue relief medication. Advertisers of
Zipium took a media dispersion approach by allocating the budget relatively evenly across
all four media categories, while advertisers of Pepzac and Enerzid took a media
concentration approach by spending the budget in one or two media categories.

The media concentration approach is often preferable for brands that have a small or
moderate media budget but intend to make a great impact. For example, GoDaddy.com, an
Internet hosting service, bought two spots in the Super Bowl in 2005. Because of the
controversial nature of the ad, Fox Networks canceled the second run of the ad. The
controversy over the pulled ad resulted in more than $11 million of free publicity.  The single
paid ad plus heavy media coverage of the incident greatly increased the awareness of
GoDaddy. The spot also earned GoDaddy a 51% share of voice, a percentage which some
say is the largest share of voice attributed to any Super Bowl advertiser ever.

Evolution of Different Media and

Media Selection
Evolution of Different Media

Advertising has experienced some major milestones – think the emergence of the printing
press in the 1440s, or the huge impact of television.

Since its very first beginnings, which are thought to date back to steel carvings made by the
ancient Egyptians, advertising has constantly had to adapt and change to suit new mediums
and an increasingly savvy audience.

But there’s been one medium that’s had a bigger impact on advertising than anything before
it.

The wonderful World Wide Web.

The internet has revolutionized advertising in the most astounding way. Not only has it
changed the way ads are broadcast, but it’s changed the way consumers act towards them.

Then: Traditional Advertising

Let’s take things back to the pre-internet days. The days when advertising was carried out
via cheesy infomercials on radio, fuzzy old televisions, and billboards. This was the golden
era of advertising, when the whole movement was considered a huge part of society –
almost taking on a cultural status.

The first TV ad popped up on screens in 1941 in America – probably a lot later than you’d
imagine. Before the Brooklyn Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies played each other,
viewers saw a brief commercial for Bulova clocks and watches.

Such a small moment set the precedent for the next seventy years.

Back then, adverts were a staunch part of society. Despite the 50s being a tense decade for
America during the Cold War, TV viewers felt optimistic and were beginning to loosen their
purse strings as prosperity began to rise.

Characters were built around products to create a semblance of connection between

viewers and brands (though this idea of a consumer connection didn’t become a priority
until later), and famous faces were brought it to sell everything from washing machines to
cigarettes

On television, products and characters began to go hand and hand. Let’s take cereal as an
example. Think Tony the Tiger and Frosted Flakes, or the Snap, Crackle, and Pop gnomes
for Rice Krispies – both of which are still going strong today.

Despite the different characters and the vastly different selection of products that began to
emerge, ads at this time had one purpose: to sell.

Yes, these characters were central to the ads and played a major part in creating an ad
culture for consumers, but the product was always at the forefront.

It might have seemed like Tony the Tiger or the Marlboro Man were the epicenters of their
aligning ad campaigns, but they simply served as a tool to sell, sell, sell.

Now: Different Motives

Today, the shift in the advertising world has seen the rise of other motives when it comes to
commercials. Rather than the sell mentality, ads are focused on community building and
brand awareness.

The product is no longer the centerpiece.

The solution to the consumer’s problem is, and hey, guess what, the product just so
happens to provide that solution.
Let’s take an example that’s not too dissimilar to the character-led ads of the past. The
Dairy Milk Gorilla ad in 2007 didn’t even show or mention Cadbury – the company it was
supposed to be advertising.

Ad disaster? No, far from it.

The drum-playing gorilla (bashing along to Phil Collins In the Air Tonight and set against a
purple background) got tongues wagging. It got people talking. This wasn’t a brazen attempt
to flog more Cadbury chocolate bars. Instead, it was a strategic move to raise awareness of
Cadbury and to solidify it as a “cool” and “must-have” brand (because why else would
everyone be talking about it?).

Media Selection

Advertising media selection is the process of choosing the most efficient media for an

advertising campaign. To evaluate media efficiency, planners consider a range of factors
including: the required coverage and number of exposures in a target audience; the relative
cost of the media advertising and the media environment. Media planning may also involve
buying media space. Media planners require an intricate understanding of the strengths and
weaknesses of each of the main media options. The media industry is dynamic – new
advertising media options are constantly emerging. Digital and social media are changing
the way that consumers use media and are also influencing how consumers acquire
product information.

Television advertising

Television advertising offers the benefit of reaching large numbers in a single exposure. Yet
because it is a mass medium capable of being seen by nearly anyone, television lacks the
ability to deliver an advertisement to highly targeted customers compared to other media
outlets. Television networks are attempting to improve their targeting efforts. In particular,
networks operating in the pay-to-access arena, such as those with channels on cable and
satellite television, are introducing more narrowly themed programming (i.e., TV shows
geared to specific interest groups) designed to appeal to selective audiences. However,
television remains an option that is best for products that targeted to a broad market. The
geographic scope of television advertising may vary, from local or regional advertising
through to national coverage, depending on whether public broadcasting or subscriber-
based cable services are used.

Television advertising, once seen as the mainstay of media advertising, is facing numerous
challenges from alternative media, especially interactive and social media. Technological
innovations, especially the advent of ad blocking and zapping, has eroded TV’s immediacy
and relevance for some audiences.
Radio advertising

Promotion through radio has been a viable advertising option for over 80 years. Radio
advertising is mostly local to the broadcast range of a radio station, however, at least three
options exist that offer national and potentially international coverage. First, in many
countries there are radio networks that use many geographically distinct stations to
broadcast simultaneously. In the United States such networks as Disney (children’s
programming) and ESPN (sports programming) broadcast nationally either through a group
of company-owned stations or through a syndication arrangement (i.e., business
agreement) with partner stations. Second, within the last few years the emergence of radio
programming delivered via satellite has become an option for national advertising. Finally,
the potential for national and international advertising may become more attractive as radio
stations allow their signals to be broadcast over the Internet.

In many ways radio suffers the same problems as television, namely, a mass medium that
is not highly targeted and offers little opportunity to track responses. But unlike television,
radio presents the additional disadvantage of limiting advertisers to audio-only advertising.
For some products advertising without visual support is not effective.

Print publications advertising

Print media continue to offer varied advertising opportunities

Print publications such as magazines, books, newspapers and Special Issue publications
(such as annuals) offer a variety of advertising opportunities:

Magazines, especially those that target specific niche or specialized interest areas, are
more tightly targeted compared to broadcast media. Additionally, magazines offer the option
of allowing marketers to present their message using high quality imagery (e.g., full color)
and can also offer advertisers the ability to integrate interactive, tactile experiences through
the use of scratch-it papers impregnated with scents (e.g., perfume).

Newspapers have also incorporated color advertisements, though their main advantage
rests with their ability to target local markets. For advertisers, the ability to insert catalogs or
special promotional material into the newspaper is an advantage.

Special Issue publications can offer very selective targeting since these often focus on an
extremely narrow topics (e.g., auto buying guide, tour guides, college and university ratings,
etc.).

Internet advertising

The Internet is the fastest growing advertising media

The fastest growing media outlet for advertising is the Internet. Compared to spending in
other media, the rate of spending for Internet advertising is experiencing tremendous growth
 and in the U.S. trails only newspaper and television advertising in terms of total spending.
Internet advertising’s influence continues to expand and each year more major marketers
shift a larger portion of their promotional budget to this medium. [5] Two key reasons for this
shift rest with the Internet’s ability to:

(1) narrowly target an advertising message and,

(2) track user response to the advertiser’s message.

The Internet offers many advertising options with messages delivered through websites or
by email:

 Standard online advertising formats (e.g. Banner ads, interstitials.) – A banner ad is

a rectangular advertisement appearing at the top or bottom of a web-page. Banner ads are
typically 468 X 60 pixels. An interstitial is an advertisement that interrupts the user. It may
be a full page or a pop up window.
 Rich media advertisements – ads that incorporate a variety of technology
components such as video and audio. Rich media ads are thought to deliver higher impact
messages.
 Paid search advertising- A method of placing online advertisements on web pages
that show results from search engine queries. Through the same search-engine advertising
services, ads can also be placed on Web pages with other published content.
 Search engine marketing- A form of Internet marketing that involves the promotion of
websites by increasing their visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs) primarily
through paid advertising. SEM may incorporate search engine optimization (SEO), which
adjusts or rewrites website content and site architecture to achieve a higher ranking in
search engine results pages to enhance pay per click (PPC) listings.
 Online video gaming- An online game is a video game that is either partially or
primarily played through the Internet or another computer network. Advertisers can pay to
have their messages or products incorporated into the sets of online games.
 Paid inclusion – Paid inclusion is a search engine marketing product where the
search engine company charges fees related to inclusion of websites in their search index.
The use of paid inclusion is controversial and paid inclusion’s popularity has decreased over
time among search engines.

Social-media advertising is just one of the ways that advertisers use the Internet to
communicate with audiences

 Email advertising – also known as internet direct marketing. Using email to deliver
an advertisement affords marketers the advantage of low distribution cost and potentially
high reach. In situations where the marketer possesses a highly targeted list, response
rates to email advertisements may be quite high. This is especially true if those on the list
have agreed to receive email, a process known as “opt-in” marketing. Email advertisement
can take the form of a regular email message or be presented within the context of more
detailed content, such as an electronic newsletter. Delivery to a user’s email address can be
viewed as either plain text or can look more like a website using web coding (i.e., HTML).
 However, as most people are aware, there is significant downside to email advertising due
to highly publicized issues related to abuse (i.e., spam).
 Social media advertising- a collective term used to describe forms of online
advertising that focus on social networking services such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Online advertising has spawned a range of new segmentation and targeting approaches
including Affinity targeting, Behavioral targeting, Contextual targeting and Geographic
targeting and Purchase-based category targeting.

Out-of-home media

Piccadilly Circus, London is lit up with multiple out-of-home messages)

The use of signs to communicate a marketer’s message places advertising in

geographically identified areas in order to capture customer attention. The most obvious
method of using signs is through billboards, which are generally located in high traffic areas.
Outdoor billboards come in many sizes, though the most well-known are large structures
located near transportation points intending to attract the interest of people traveling on
roads or public transportation. Indoor billboards are often smaller than outdoor billboards
and are designed to attract the attention of foot traffic (i.e., those moving past the sign). For
example, smaller signage in airports, train terminals and large commercial office space fit
this category.

While billboards are the most obvious example of signage advertising, there are many other
forms of signage advertising include:

 Sky writing where airplanes use special chemicals to form words

 Messages placed on hot air balloons or banners carried by small aircraft
 Mobile billboards where signs are placed on vehicles, such as buses and cars, taxis
or even clapper-boards carried by paid agents
 Plastic bags used to protect newspapers delivered to homes
 Advertisements attached to grocery carts
 Holographic images projected into public spaces
 Laser projections onto city buildings

Mobile device advertising

The growth of hand-held devices is changing the way that consumers consume media and
search for product information’

Handheld devices, such as cellphones, smartphones, portable computers and other

wireless devices, make up the growing mobile device market. Such devices allow
customers to stay informed, gather information and communicate with others without being
tied to a physical location. While the mobile device market is only beginning to become a
viable advertising medium, it may soon offer significant opportunity for marketers to reach
customers at any time and anywhere.
Also, with geographic positioning features included in newer mobile devices, the medium
has the potential to provide marketers with the ability to target customers based on their
geographic location. Currently, the most popular advertising delivery method to mobile
devices is through plain text messaging, however, over the next few years multimedia
advertisements are expected to become the dominant message format.

Media Buying
Media buy is the purchase of advertising from a media company such as a television
station, newspaper, magazine, blog or website. It also entails the negotiation for price and
placement of ads, as well as research into the best new venues for ad placement.

Media buying is essentially the act of acquiring real estate (or inventory) where
advertisements may be placed. In television buying, a variety of factors must be considered,
such as time, space, rates, lead demand and more. The price of a television media buy will
depend on the specifics of the advertising campaign, such as whether it will appear in a
single city, regionally or nationwide. On a website, the price would be determined by factors
such as where the ad will be placed on the page, how many pages of the website the ad will
appear on, how large the ad will be, how many days the ad will run for, how much traffic the
website receives and the website’s user demographics. The more exposure the advertiser
is expected to receive, the more expensive the media buy will usually be. A media buy is
different from “earned media” and “owned media” in that it is purchased.
Before a media buy happens, media buyers must perform research to optimize the return
on investment on their client’s advertising budget. They will examine the target audience for
a product and determine which venue or combination of venues will best serve it. For
example, they may utilize demographic and geographic research related to the product to
optimize their media buy. An advertiser’s budget also may dictate when an ad should run
and where is should be placed. For example, bigger budgets can mean access to regional
or national markets. Smaller budgets may mean local newspapers or radio. Once the right
venue has been chose, a media buyer will approach whomever owns the desired slot or
space to negotiate a price, timing and the rest of the deal.

Some important aspects of the media buying process include personal relationships
between media buyers, media planners and channel owners. Since airtime is finite, media
buyers must foster relationships to get the most opportune placement and timing. Also,
media buyers must keep abreast of changes in the marketplace. As the communications
business changes, assumptions on what is the best venue for advertising must be
challenged regularly. What was a great venue last year may no longer the case this year.
Finally, media buyers should be able to create value for advertising clients by finding or
creating deals.

A big trend in media buying (or ad buying) on the internet or mobile devices is the use of
technology to automate the advertising buying process. Programmatic advertising happens
in real time by utilizing algorithms to allow advertisers to bid for the right to place an ad on a
web page.
Measuring Advertising Effectiveness |
Pretesting and Post Testing
The managerial responsibility in the area of advertising does not come to an end with the
execution of an advertising programme. Any sound managerial effort is finally interested in
goal attainment and, therefore, always ready to evaluate the results.

Evaluation of advertising or advertising effectiveness refers to the managerial exercise

aimed at relating the advertising results to the established standard of performance and
objectives so as to assess the real value of the advertising performance.

This evolution exercise is also known as advertising research. It is an attempt to know

whether the message designed properly has reached the greatest number of prospects at
the least practical cost.

It is an attempt to measure whether the time, talent and the treasure invested in the creative
activity has resulted in attaining the goals of profit maximization to the advertiser and
satisfaction to the consumers at large.

What is to be measured?

It is quite obvious that in the area of ad effectiveness evaluation, the advertiser is to

measure the ad effectiveness.

However, it is not clear as to what is ‘ad effectiveness’?

Ad effectiveness evaluation is a research activity and by its very nature, it is to establish the
cause and effect relation between the efforts and the results. This ad effectiveness is to be
seen in five areas namely, markets, motives, messages, media and overall results.

In each area, one is to look in for the advertising ability and the achievements in the light of
preset objectives. Advertising testing is indispensable because, it enables to get down to
the facts, to decide on spending to guard against the mistaken notion that you have to keep
in touch with latest trends, to separate wheat from the chaff, the sheep from goats, the
winning ideas from the duds, to multiply the results from the rupee investments so made.

When to test?

Testing of ad effectiveness is possible at any stage of advertising process. It can be done

before the advertising campaign begins or during its run or after the campaign is fully run.
Pre-testing gives the maximum safety as much is not lost; concurrent testing makes him to
lose little more as the advertising process has advanced.
Post-testing results in maximum loss if it fails as the whole show is over and he gets the
post- mortem report, as to what has happened. Nothing is certain unless and until, we are
sure about the accuracy and reliability of feed-back that the advertiser gets from such
research.

How to test?

Fortunately, the advertising has wide range of testing techniques or the methods to choose
for evaluation purpose. What methods or techniques he is going to use is dependent on
when he is going to measure the ad effectiveness.

Accordingly, there can be three sets of methods to meet his needs namely, pre-testing,
concurrent testing and post-testing methods.

I. Pre-testing methods

1. Check-list test

A check-list is a list of good qualities to be possessed by an effective advertisement. A

typical check- list provides rating scale or basis for ranking the ads in terms of the
characteristics.

These characteristics may be honesty, attention getting, readability, reliability, convincing

ability, selling ability and the like. The ad that gets highest score is considered as the best.

2. Opinion test

Opinion test or consumer jury test is one that obtains the preference of a sample group of
typical prospective consumers of the product or the service for an ad or part of it. The
members of the jury rate the ads as to their head-lines, themes, illustrations, slogans, by
direct comparison.

Getting preference from a juror is better than getting it from a member of general public or
an ad expert.

Jury’s preference is arrived at by seeking answers to the questions as to which ad was seen
first?

Which was most convincing?

Which was most interesting? And so on.

Accordingly, the top ranking ad gets selected.

 3. Dummy magazine and port-folio test
Dummy magazines are used to pre-test the ads under conditions of approximation
resembling normal exposure. A dummy magazine contains standard editorial material,
control ads that have been already tested and the ads to be tested. The sample households
receive these magazines and the interviews are conducted to determine recall scores.

Port-folio test is like that of dummy magazine test except that the test ads are placed in a
folder that contains control ads. The respondents are given these folders for their reading
and reactions. The test scores are determined in the interview. The ad with highest score is
taken as the best.

4. Inquiry test
It involves running two or more ads on a limited scale to determine which is most effective in
terms of maximum inquiries for the offers made. These inquiry tests are used exclusively to
test copy appeals, copies, illustrations, and other components.

Any of these elements may be checked. The point that is to be checked is changed and all
other components are unaltered, to get the score.

5. Mechanical tests
These mechanical tests are objective in nature unlike the one already explained. These
help in provide good measures as to how respondent are eyes and emotions reaching a
given advertisement.

The most widely used mechanical devices are:

 Eye Movement Camera

 Perceptoscope
 Psycho-galvanometer and
 Tachistoscope.

II. Concurrent Testing Methods

1. Co-incidental surveys
This is called as coincidental telephone method also whereby a sample of households is
selected, calls are made during the time programme broadcast, the respondents are asked
whether their radio or television is on, and if so, to what station or programme it is tuned?
The results of the survey are used to determine the share of response for the advertisement
or the programme.

2. Consumer diaries
This method involves giving the families selected in advance of diary or individual diaries to
the members of the family. The selected families and individual respondents are asked to
 record the details about the programme they listen or view. The diaries are collected
periodically to determine the scores.

3. Mechanical devices
The mechanical devices used to measure the ad differences concurrently are more
common to broadcast media.

These are:

 Audio meters
 Psychogalvanometer
 Tachistoscope and
 Truck Electronic Unit.

4. Traffic counts
Traffic counts are of special applicability to outdoor advertising. One can get good deal of
information through traffic counts. This counting is done by independent organisations may
be private or public. This work is also undertaken by advertising agencies. For instance,
how many automobiles and other vehicles were exposed to a bulletin board or a poster or a
wall painting and how many times? Can be determined.

III. Post-testing methods

1. Inquiry tests
It is controlled experiment conducted in the field. In inquiry test, the number of consumer
inquiries produced by an advertising copy or the medium is considered as to the measure of
its communication effectiveness.

Therefore, the number of inquiries is the test of effectiveness which can be produced only
when the ad copy or the medium succeeds in attracting and retaining reader or viewer
attention. To encourage inquiries, the advertiser offers to send something complimentary to
the reader or the viewer, if he replies.

2. Split-run test
A split-run test is a technique that makes possible testing of two or more ads in the same
position, publication, issued with a guarantee of each ad reaching a comparable group of
readers. It is an improvement over the inquiry test in that the ad copy is split into elements
like appeal layout headline and so on. Here also, the readers are encouraged to reply the
inquiries to the keyed or the given address.

3. Recognition tests
Recognition is a matter of identifying something as having seen or heard before. It is based
on the memory of the respondent. It attempts to measure the ad effectiveness by
determining the number of respondents who have read or seen the ads before. To arrive at
the results, readership or listenership surveys are conducted.

4. Recall tests
Recalling is more demanding than recognizing as a test of memory. It involves respondents
to answer as to what they have read, seen or heard without allowing them to look at or
listen to the ad while they are answering.

There are several variations of this test. One such test is Triple Association Test which is
designed to test copy themes or the slogans and reveals the extent to which they have
remembered.

5. Sales tests
Sales tests represent controlled experiment under which actual field conditions than the
simulated are faced. It attempts to establish a direct relationship between one or more
variables and sales of a product or service. It facilitates testing of one ad against another
and one medium against another.

To sum-up, ad effectiveness testing is a must to avoid costly mistakes, to select the best
alternative from the apparently equal alternatives, to resolve the differences of opinion and
to add to the store of knowledge having deep bearing on advertising effectiveness and
efficiency. Ad effectiveness testing can be at three levels namely, prior to, during and after
the release of an ad.

There are many methods to choose. The final results depend on the validity, reliability and
the relevance of each method employed. Testing, if done in good faith, can payout its costs
and rich dividends too.

Social, Ethical and Legal aspect

of Advertising
Social role of Advertising

There are some positive and some negative aspects of advertising on the social ground.

They are as follows.

(i) Deception in Advertising

The relation between the buyers and sellers is maintained if the buyers are satisfied with
what they saw in advertise and what they got after buying that product. If seller shows a
false or deceptive image and an exaggerated image of the product in the advertisement,
 then the relation between the seller and buyers can’t be healthy. These problems can be
overcome if the seller keep their ads clean and displays right image of the product.

(ii) The Subliminal Advertising

Capturing the Minds of the consumers is the main intention of these ads. The ads are made
in such a way that the consumers don’t even realizes that the ad has made an impact on
their minds and this results in buying the product which they don’t even need. But “All ads
don’t impress all consumers at all times”, because majority of consumers buy products on
basis of the price and needs.

(iii) Effect on Our Value System

The advertisers use puffing tactics, endorsements from celebrities, and play emotionally,
which makes ads so powerful that the consumers like helpless preys buy those products.

These ads make poor people buy products which they can’t afford, people picking up bad
habits like smoking and drinking, and buy products just because their favorite actor
endorsed that product. This affects in increased the cost of whole society and loss of values
of our own selves.

(iv) Offensiveness

Some ads are so offensive that they are not acceptable by the buyers. For example, the ads
of denim jeans showed girls wearing very less clothes and making a sex appeal. These
kinds of ads are irrelevant to the actual product. Btu then there is some ads which are
educative also and now accepted by people. Earlier ads giving information about birth
control pills was considered offensive but now the same ads are considered educative and
important.

But at the last, there are some great positive aspects which help

 Development of society and growth of technologies

 Employment
 Gives choices to buyers with self interest
 Welcomes healthy competition
 Improving standard of living.
 Give information on social, economical and health issues.

Ethics in Advertising
Ethics means a set of moral principles which govern a person’s behavior or how the activity
is conducted. And advertising means a mode of communication between a seller and a
buyer.
Thus ethics in advertising means a set of well defined principles which govern the ways of
communication taking place between the seller and the buyer. Ethics is the most important
feature of the advertising industry. Though there are many benefits of advertising but then
there are some points which don’t match the ethical norms of advertising.

An ethical ad is the one which doesn’t lie, doesn’t make fake or false claims and is in the
limit of decency.

Nowadays, ads are more exaggerated and a lot of puffing is used. It seems like the
advertisers lack knowledge of ethical norms and principles. They just don’t understand and
are unable to decide what is correct and what is wrong.

The main area of interest for advertisers is to increase their sales, gain more and more
customers, and increase the demand for the product by presenting a well decorated, puffed
and colorful ad. They claim that their product is the best, having unique qualities than the
competitors, more cost effective, and more beneficial. But most of these ads are found to be
false, misleading customers and unethical. The best example of these types of ads is the
one which shows evening snacks for the kids, they use coloring and gluing to make the
product look glossy and attractive to the consumers who are watching the ads on television
and convince them to buy the product without giving a second thought.

Ethics in Advertising is directly related to the purpose of advertising and the nature of
advertising. Sometimes exaggerating the ad becomes necessary to prove the benefit of the
product. For e.g. a sanitary napkin ad which shows that when the napkin was dropped in a
river by some girls, the napkin soaked whole water of the river. Thus, the purpose of
advertising was only to inform women about the product quality. Obviously, every woman
knows that this cannot practically happen but the ad was accepted. This doesn’t show that
the ad was unethical.

Ethics also depends on what we believe. If the advertisers make the ads on the belief that
the customers will understand, persuade them to think, and then act on their ads, then this
will lead to positive results and the ad may not be called unethical. But at the same time, if
advertisers believe that they can fool their customers by showing any impractical things like
just clicking fingers will make your home or office fully furnished or just buying a lottery
ticket will make you a millionaire, then this is not going to work out for them and will be
called as unethical.

Recently, the Vetican issued an article which says ads should follow three moral principles
– Truthfulness, Social Responsibility and Upholding Human Dignity.

Generally, big companies never lie as they have to prove their points to various ad
regulating bodies. Truth is always said but not completely. Sometimes its better not to
reveal the whole truth in the ad but at times truth has to be shown for betterment.
 Pharmaceutical Advertising – they help creating awareness, but one catchy point here is
that the advertisers show what the medicine can cure but never talk about the side effects
of that same thing or the risks involved in intake of it.

Children – children are the major sellers of the ads and the product. They have the power to
convince the buyers. But when advertisers are using children in their ad, they should
remember not to show them alone doing there work on their own like brushing teeth, playing
with toys, or infants holding their own milk bottles as everyone knows that no one will leave
their kids unattended while doing all these activities. So showing parents also involved in all
activities or things being advertised will be more logical.

Alcohol – till today, there hasn’t come any liquor ad which shows anyone drinking the
original liquor. They use mineral water and sodas in their advertisements with their brand
name. These types of ads are called surrogate ads. These type of ads are totally unethical
when liquor ads are totally banned. Even if there are no advertisements for alcohol, people
will continue drinking.

Cigarettes and Tobacco – these products should be never advertised as consumption of

these things is directly and badly responsible for cancer and other severe health issues.
These as are already banned in countries like India, Norway, Thailand, Finland and
Singapore.

Ads for social causes – these types of ads are ethical and are accepted by the people. But
ads like condoms and contraceptive pills should be limited, as these are sometimes
unethical, and are more likely to loose morality and decency at places where there is no
educational knowledge about all these products.

Looking at all these above mentioned points, advertisers should start taking responsibility of
self regulating their ads by:

 design self regulatory codes in their companies including ethical norms, truth,
decency, and legal points
 keep tracking the activities and remove ads which don’t fulfill the codes.
 Inform the consumers about the self regulatory codes of the company
 Pay attention on the complaints coming from consumers about the product ads.
 Maintain transparency throughout the company and system.

When all the above points are implemented, they will result in:

 making the company answerable for all its activities

 will reduce the chances of getting pointed out by the critics or any regulatory body.
 will help gain confidence of the customers, make them trust the company and their
products.