Media Decision (1).pdf marketing strategy

Media Decisions
Lecture by: Ms. Oshadi Rupasinghe
Temporary Assistant Lecturer
Department of Marketing Management

Introduction
• In the context of advertising, the term media is used to refer to the channel of
communication which carries the message to the target audience.
• Media decision is the process of selecting time & space in various media in
advertising in order to accomplish marketing objectives.
• It process of analyzing and choosing media for an advertising and promotion
campaign.
• Media decision in advertising can take many different directions depending on the
product being sold.
• Media decisions answers to lots of questions like, “how many prospects do I need
to reach ?”, “In which medium should I place the Ads?”

Major Advertising Decisions
To understand how to develop an effective advertising campaign requires us to understand Five Ms of
advertising. These are mission, money, message, media, and measurement explicated below.
The 5M’s are:
1.Mission: What is the objective of the campaign? What do you want to achieve?
2.Message: What is the message you want to communicate to your target audience?
3.Media: Which channels will you use to deliver the message? How will you reach your target audience?
4.Money: What is your budget for the campaign? How much will you spend on each element of the
campaign?
5.Measurement: What would be the metric to evaluate the effectiveness of the campaign?

• Based on these 5 Ms are the various decisions that development of any advertisement
entails. Let us consider them one by one.

1.Setting Advertising Objectives ( Mission)
• Advertising objective- A specific communication task to be accomplished with a specific
target audience during a specific period of time. Objectives are classified in 4 categories.
1. Informative (Awareness and Information)
2. Persuasive (Aims to create liking, preference, change)
3. Reminder (Aims to stimulate repeat purchase)
4. Reinforcement (Aims to convince current purchases that they made right decisions)

Based on the different objectives, advertisements can be of the following types:
• Informative advertising is to create awareness about a new product or new features of an
old product.
• Persuasive advertising is to persuade the audience to like, prefer, get convinced and
purchase a product. The customers are persuaded to believe that the brand that is being
advertised is the best for them.
• Comparison advertising shows how a particular brand is better than its competitor.
However, it should not be denigrating the rival brand. Some countries have strict rules for
competitive advertising so that it is not unfair.
• Reminder advertising is to keep the product in the minds of the customers so as to
facilitate repeat purchase.
• Reinforcement advertising aims at communicating to the existing customers how they
made the right choice by buying that product.

2.Setting Advertising Budget (Money)
There are several Advertising Budget Methods can be used:
1. Affordable methods-Spending as much as we can afford
2. Percentage of sales methods- Predetermined percentage of the last year sale
3. Competitive parity methods- Spending same as competitor spends
4. Objective and task methods- Objective and task that need to be accomplished
Some specific factors that should be considered when setting the advertising budget; these factors can
be stated as under :
1. Stage in the Product Life-Cycle: A product in the introduction stage needs large advertising budgets
to create awareness and gain consumer trial. In contrast, products in the maturity stage usually
require lower budgets as a ratio to sales.
2. Market Share: Brands that enjoy high-market share need more advertising budget as a percent of
sales than low-share brands. Building the market or taking share from competitors requires larger
advertising budgets than simply maintaining the current share.

3. Competition and Clutter: In a highly competitive market where advertising spending is
also large, a brand should be advertised heavily to attract buyers. Clutter refers to the high
volume of advertisements and promotional message that consumers are exposed to
across various media channels. Therefore, businesses must allocate sufficient resources to
ensure that their advertising efforts cut through the clutter and reach their target
audience.
4. Advertising Frequency: The advertising budget must be larger in a situation where
advertising frequency is higher.
5. Product Differentiation: A brand that closely resembles other brands in its product class
requires heavy advertising to maintain its distinctive image. Considering product
differentiation when setting the advertising budget ensures that sufficient resources are
allocated to emphasize the product unique benefits, helping to create strong market
presence and competitive advantage.

3. Message Decisions- Advertising Strategy (Message)
• The strategy by which the company accomplishes its advertising objectives. Here general
message to be communicated to customers .
Analysis of audience
Message Content
Creative Concept
Message Execution

• Message generation – Fresh insights are important for avoiding using the same appeals and positions as
others. Advertisers are always seeking “The big idea”.
• Creative Concept- The big idea will bring the advertising strategy to life in a distinctive and memorable way.
• Message Execution- The advertiser must turn the big idea into an actual ad execution that will capture the
target market’s attention and interest. The advertiser must find the style, tone, words, and format for
executing the message. Different execution styles may be adopted for presenting any message, such as the
following:
• Social Responsibility review- Ensure that the ad does not overstep any social and legal norms.
Eg: No ads should promise magical cure for any ailment or disease.

4. Media Decisions- Selecting Advertising Media (Media)
• The channels via which a message can be communicated are many and each medium has
its advantages and disadvantages.
• The different media types that are used for communicating advertisement message include
audio-visual media (television, radio), print media (magazines and newspapers), internet
media (social media, websites, e-mails), telephone, etc.
• In today’s world social media and websites play an important role to communicate
promotion messages.
• In television ads, we can communicate our product’s attributes and the benefits
dramatically.
• Print media like magazines and newspapers are also effective for the brand but the
pictures, headlines, and content must be engaging.
• In radio ads the voice of the narrator, music etc. play an important role.

Media selection involves four major steps which are:
1. Deciding on reach, frequency, and impact;
2. Choosing among major media types;
3. Selecting specific media vehicles; and
4. Deciding on media timing.
Deciding on reach, frequency, and impact
For media selection, the advertiser must decide on the reach and frequency needed to accomplish advertising
objectives.
Reach is a measure of the percentage of people in the target market exposed to the ad campaign during a
given span of time.
Frequency is the number of times a person in the targeted audience receives the advertisement.
Impact implies if the advertisement in a particular medium would generate involvement, interest, belief in the
brand etc. in the targeted audience.

Choosing among major media types
• The advertiser requires assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of each probable media type that
can be used to transmit the message. Which medium will have the highest reach based on the kind of
targeted audience, needs to be seen.

Selecting specific media vehicles
At this stage, selecting the precise platform on which the advertising message would be communicated. For
example, if the chosen media type is Social media vehicle could be Facebook or Twitter or YouTube.
The choice again depends on the target market reach of the vehicle, which in turn depends upon where our
target customers spend more time.
Thorough analyses of the quality and quantity of viewership/readership of the possible vehicles are done and
the cost of reaching out a thousand likely consumers is worked out. The vehicle that offers lower cost per
thousand persons is preferred.
Deciding on Media timing/ Media scheduling
The advertiser must also make decisions on scheduling the advertising over a specific time period generally one
year. The seller can make variations in his advertising.
Advertising can be done to follow :
- seasonal pattern
- oppose the seasonal pattern
- same coverage all over year
 Choose the pattern of the ads:
Continuity- means scheduling ads evenly throughout a given period.
Pulsing- means scheduling ads unevenly over a given period

5. Advertising Evaluation (Measurement)
• Measuring advertising effectiveness and the return on advertising investment has become a
hot issue for most companies. Return on advertising investment is the net return on
advertising investment divided by the costs of the advertising investment.
• To ensure the maximum effectiveness of advertising, the advertiser should regularly
evaluate both the communication effects and sales.
Advertising Program Evaluation
Communication Effects
Is the Ad communicating
Well?
Sales Effects
Is the Ad Increasing Sales

Measuring the Communication Effect
• The communication effect of an ad is measured through copy testing, which tells whether
the ad communicates well. Copy testing can be conducted either before or after an ad is
released. Pre- and post-evaluations of communication effects can be made for entire
advertising campaigns as well.
Measures the Sales Effect
• In reality, measuring the sales effect of advertising is harder than doing the same for
communication. Advertising is not the only factor that affects sales. Product features,
price, and availability are other factors that have a significant influence on sales.
• One method of measuring the sales effect of advertising is to compare past sales with past
advertising expenditures. This can be done by correlation analysis. Another method is
through experiments.

Media Decision (1).pdf marketing strategy

More Related Content

Similar to Media Decision (1).pdf marketing strategy

Similar to Media Decision (1).pdf marketing strategy (20)

More from OshadiVindika

More from OshadiVindika (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Media Decision (1).pdf marketing strategy