Environmental factors may affect the media

The first issue relates to political movements that may impact the way in which messages are
broadcast. Within advertising there are several legislations that must be in place before it can
even be considered for placement. Advertisements must be an accurate description of the product
so as not to confuse or mislead the consumer (YouGov 2015) the legislation also denotes the
ways in which you can advertise to people in an aggressive manner. Any advertisements that do
not abide by this legislation could potentially be fined, prosecuted or even prosecuted (YouGov
2015). The Advertising Standards Authority is the overall governing body who asses whether or
not an advertisement is fit for consumption, it is also the way in which many consumers go about
complaining about current advertisements. Not only this, the FSA (food standards agency) also
crack down on advertisements aimed at the youth market, with food ads high in salt and sugar
pulled from daytime TV slots.

Economic issues such as the recent recession had a devastating affect on most industries, people
were no longer interested in throwing their money away on things they didn’t need. Which in
turn led to many businesses losing revenue, affecting advertising expenditure. Studies appear to
suggest that those companies that increased advertising expenditure during this time performed
better than those who didn’t (Vaile 1927) a study conducted by Kamber (2002) over a six-year
period concluded that those companies that maintained or increased their advertising spend had a
higher growth in revenue than those that didn’t, however this was a risk many businesses are
unwilling to make.
Social issues are perhaps one of the key that surround the media industry and equally led the
industry to tap into new media channels. One of these being the birth of social media, it offered
something other media couldn’t –real time interaction with consumers.

“Social Media can be a huge advantage if the organisation has limited resources…it can be used
to bring content onto one level”Torin Douglas MBE

However Bob Hoffman author of 101 contrarian ideas about advertising (2012) suggests that
social networks are very much ‘a party that brands are not invited to’ and that no consumer
wishes to engage with brands on a platform designed for social interaction. It can be used as an
almost ‘side salad’ to a campaign, simply for awareness or it can be used to generate trust within
a brand. It is this trust -research suggests – built on information exchanges and experiences that
increases willingness to buy (Han & Windsor 2011).

Technology can also have a massive impact on the media industry with innovation offering more
interactive platforms. With the introduction of wearable technology it has opened up
opportunities that marketers could only have dreamt about, the ability to asses a consumer habits
and daily routine. Mobile phones offered a certain about of geographical location and at what
times they were shopping, however wearable tech allows marketers to see exactly where they are
and what they are doing. Placement of ads can become incredibly targeted with this information.
The simple reason that these technologies are wearable offers marketers a huge opportunity for
24 hour consumer engagement, as in most cases the platform in which to do this is quite literally
on their person at all times (Hamms E 2014).

Environmental issues begin predominately in the manufacture of advertisements, like a tale as

old as time, we are constantly warned about the impact of deforestation. With many print media
being made with consumable materials, even the ink used can have a direct affect on the
environment. With this in mind the Environmental Protection Agency National Emissions
Inventory stated that using solvents within the ink used in print ad, directly impacts air pollution
due to the solvents used in preparation (Ingram D 2012).

Legal issues have become a major issue within the marketing industry, with the risk of data
protection and information being sold onto third parties. The data protection act (YouGov 2014)
which states that data collected by organisations needs to be used fairly and lawfully and only
kept for as long as is absolutely necessary. As mentioned before with the advancements of
technology meaning more information provided to companies about consumers, resulting in
more sensitive information being collected.

Media strategy, as used in the advertising or content delivery (online broadcasting) industries, is
concerned with how messages will be delivered to consumers or niche markets. It involves:
identifying the characteristics of the target audience or market, who should receive messages and
defining the characteristics of the media that will be used for the delivery of the messages, with
the intent being to influence the behaviour of the target audience or market pertinent to the initial
brief. Examples of such strategies today have revolved around an Integrated Marketing
Communications approach whereby multiple channels of media are used i.e. advertising, public
relations, events, direct response media, etc.
This concept has been used among proponents of entertainment-education programming where
pro-social messages are embedded into dramatic episodic programs to change the audiences
attitudes and behaviors in such areas as family planning, literacy, nutrition, smoking, etc.
 Media Planning

Media planning is the process of identifying and selecting media outlets – mainly newspapers,
magazines, websites, TV and radio stations, and outdoor placement – in which to place paid
advertisements. The person responsible for evaluating the many media options and strategizing
campaigns to support a particular product, service, or brand is called a media planner. Media
planners typically are employed by advertising agencies.

A media planner’s job is to develop a coordinated plan for a particular client’s advertising
budget. They decide where, when, and how often to feature a specific ad. The more the planner
can optimize – meaning stretch – a client’s budget to reach the largest number of people, the
better his or her odds of seeing results. The whole purpose of advertising is to make potential
customers aware of a company’s products or services and to persuade them to buy them.

Media planning is one of the four key divisions of most advertising agencies, which also include:

 Brand planning
 Account management
 Creative
Some agencies specialize only in media planning.

Indoor advertising media:

Indoor advertising media: - indoor advertising means the use of vehicles by that advertiser who
carry the right in the houses. These vehicles are newspaper,magazine, radio, television,
and video film. Outdoor advertising media:-outdoor advertising is the only one of its kind
that has been carried for ages.
 Creating a Media Plan

The goal when creating a media plan is to reach target customers - those who are most likely to
buy from you, at the exact moment that they have decided to buy. Using advertising, you can
educate and inform those likely customers, to make them aware of your business and to persuade
them to buy a particular product from you rather than another business.

To make that happen as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible, it is important to weigh the
following when developing your media plan:

 Reach. One of the two most important factors to consider, reach is the number of people you
want to get in front of during a particular timeframe, such as a week or a month.
 Frequency. The second most important factor is frequency, which is the number of times your
target customers will see your ad. Obviously, the higher the number, the better, but cost is also
a factor. For example, you may want to run an ad daily in your local newspaper, but the cost
for such a purchase may exceed your annual budget.
 Cost-per-thousand. One way to measure the cost of advertising is to divide the total cost of
advertising in a particular outlet by the media’s thousands of customers, to get the cost-per-
thousand value. For newspapers and magazines, you’d divide the cost by total subscribers. For
blogs, you’d divide by subscribers.
 Selectivity. Depending on how targeted your product is, you may want a measure of how well
the media outlet reaches your particular prospect. For example, advertising Rolls Royces
through the local newspaper will attract attention, but what percent of the newspaper’s
 subscribers fall into the target market of prospects likely to buy? It might be too low a number
to make sense.
 Impact. How many senses can the media outlet being considered reach? Magazines can
appeal to sight, and perhaps smell (with those perfume inserts), while websites can appeal to
sight and sound. The same is true with TV. You should consider what senses will make the
biggest impact on a customer’s purchase decision.

Indoor advertising media:

Indoor advertising media represents the use of those vehicles by the advertisers that carry the
message right into the houses or indoors of the audiences.

(1) Newspapers

(2) Magazines

(3) Radio

(4) Television and Film.

Here, the message reaches the audience indoors when it is cozy and in receptive mood
because, house is the resting place for the inmates to relax.
1. Newspapers:
Life without newspapers is like life without a cup of tea or coffee. Newspaper is one that gives
news, views, interpretations, opinions, comments and explanation regarding social, economic,
political, cultural, moral, ecological, meteorological and wide variety of walks of fast changing
life. In India, there are 21 major languages, published in 91 languages, India has 20,000
newspapers. For every 40 literate persons there is one paper.

3. Regularity and frequency.

4. Flexibility and speed.

5. Economical.

The relative demerits are:

1. Shortest life.

2. Lack of quality reproduction.

3. Waste in circulation.

4. Possibility of duplication.
2. Magazines:
Magazines are the periodicals published weekly, fortnightly, monthly, quarterly and annually.
They cover a wide variety of topics providing light leisure reading in easy chairs. Well known,
though provoking and authentic articles from almost all branches of human knowledge are given
along with entertaining items like puzzles, cartoons, comics and the like.

Indian magazine-world supplies at present 4,200 weeklies, 2,000 fortnightlies, 7,800 monthlies,
400 quarterlies and 10,000 annual numbers totaling 22,600. For every 35 literate persons, there is
one such magazine.

The relative merits, are:

1. Longer life.

2. Visual display.

3. Selectivity.

4. Loyalty and prestige.

5. Geographic flexibility.

The relative demerits are:

1. Inflexibility.

2. Waste in circulation.

3. Costlier.

4. Restricted frequency.

3. Radio:
Radio advertising can be aptly called as ‘word of mouth’ advertising on a wholesale scale which
was accepted in 1920. It has a history of 71 years to-date. India, as a late beginner, started
commercial broadcasting only in 1967 by now radio has covered 100 per cent of population. At
present, there are 175 medium wave transmissions, 60 short wave transmitters and 110 F.M.
transmitters.

At present, there are 60 million sets which work out a set for every two people. The
advertisements may be straight commercials dialogue, commercials dramatised , commercials
integrated commercials and musical commercials.

The relative merits of radio advertising are:

1. Human touch.

2. Flexibility and timing.

3. Mass coverage.
4. Economy and

5. Selectivity.

The demerits are:

1. Message perishability.

2. Lack of illustration.

3. Limited time.

4. Wastage.

4. Television:
Radio ruled the scene between 1920 and 1970. Its greatest and latest rival has been television
that smashed its supremacy from 1950s.

In India, it was commissioned for the first time in 1959 and went commercial in 1976 and
transformed into colour in 1982. By now, 90 per cent of the population is covered by the way of
television.

We have 10 million sets working in India giving a figure of one set for every 100 people.
Television advertisements are called as television commercials lasting for 10, 15, 20 and 30
seconds. These may be ‘stop motion’, ‘puppets’, ‘cartoons’ or ‘line-action type’.

The relative merits are:

1. Deep impact.

2. Selectivity and flexibility.

3. Mass communication media.

4. Upper hand in distribution and

5. Life like presentation.

The demerits are:

1. Shortest life.

2. Costlier.

3. The clutter problem.

4. Time taxing.
5. Film advertising:
Film advertising is yet another medium of publicity characterized by sound, motion, colour,
vision and timeliness. This audio-visual medium has a wide range of exhibits starting from an
ordinary slide presentation to the ad films screening.

Slide is the protected glass piece covering ad message. The films shot and screened are
‘filmlets’, ‘solus’ and ‘magazine’ type. They are in the time range of 15 second to 300 seconds.
In India, Blaze Advertising Agency takes film production and distribution.

The exhibition is done by theatre owners. There are 6,000 cinema towns with 15,000 permanent
cinema houses with an average capacity of 1,000 seats. There are 3,000 touring theatres with the
average capacity of 450 seats.

Of late, the importance of cinema has been reduced as India has more than 3 million sets of
VCRs and VCPs. and 1 lakh video parlours.

The relative merits are:

1. Dramatic impact.

2. Selectivity and flexibility.

3. Mass publicity 4. Least waste and

5. Supplementary, the demerits are:

The demerits are:

1. Costlier.

2. Interjection.

3. Limited coverage.

4. Clutter problem.

B. Outdoor advertising media:

Outdoor advertising is the only one of its kind that has been carried for ages. This Is the media to
reach the people when they are out of doors. The ad message is delivered to the audience like
print and broadcast media; rather the message is placed in strategic places exposed to moving
audience.

Its strength is tremendous because, 97 per cent of the total adult population moves out of doors
every week. Its vehicles are: posters, printed displays, electric signs, travelling displays, sky
writing, sandwich men and the like.

A ‘poster’ is a sheet of paper pasted on a wooden or a card or metal board depicting the ad
massage. It can be standardized or non-standardised as to size and colours.
The success of poster rests on poster designing and the site of pasting. A ‘printed display’ is the
painted bulletin and the wall painting. It is standardised metal sheet of rectangular shape hung on
hoarding stands at strategic places.

An ‘electrical sign’ is a spectacular sign giving light effects, creating charming and enchanting
scene in the dark. A ‘travelling display’ is an advertising sign seen in and outside travelling
vehicles like train, buses, car, taxis, trams, autos and the like.

A ‘sky writing’ is a kind of publicity where message is spread in the sky in the form of a smoke
or fire-workers nor the lights. A ‘sandwich-men’ advertising is the team of tall and dwarf men
singing and spending the ad message and is the oldest and the simplest of all vehicles of outdoor
advertising.

The relative merits are:

1. Wider and deeper appeal.

2. Greater flexibility.

3. Economy.

4. Easy accommodation and

5. Beautification.

The demerits are:

1. A reminder publicity.

2. Uglification.

3. Heavy investments.

4. Immeasurability.

C. Direct advertising media:

Direct advertising is one of the oldest methods of reaching the consumers. Direct advertising
covers all forms of printed advertising delivered directly to the prospective customers instead of
indirect distribution like news-papers and magazines.

This printed matter is distributed house to house by personal delivery, handed to persons on the
sidewalks, placed in the automobiles, stuck under the wind-screen of an automobile, handed over
at the retail outlets or sent through post.

It takes different forms to deliver the sales message to the prospects through the medium of mail
or person. These are post cards envelope enclosures, broad-sides, booklets, catalogues, sales
letters, gifts novelties, stores publications, package inserts and free samples.

The merits are:

1. Highly selective.

2. Flexibility.

3. Personal touch.

4. Deeper impact and

5. Results measurability.

The demerits are:

1. High cost.

2. Low reader interest

3. Warrants special skill.

4. Limited span.

D. Display advertising media:

Display advertising or promotional advertising is hinged on the concept of display. Display is the
systematic arrangement of samples of saleable products to catch the imagination and the notice
of the people.

Display demonstrates directly about the product or products by presenting them than by telling
and selling the points indirectly. It is also called as P.O.A. or point of advertising.

The significance of display advertising lies in four points:

1. It allows the prospects to experience the product before buying,

2. It is an effective dealer aid,

3. It attracts the consumers to the shop, and

4. It makes possible impulse buying.

Promotional advertising has three vehicles namely, displays, showrooms and show- cases and
exhibitions and fairs.

‘Displays are basically of two types namely, ‘window’ and ‘counter’. ‘Window’ display implies
showing of goods in the front window of the shop. It is window showmanship.

The merits are:

1. Point of purchase impact.

2. Colourful life-size presentation.

3. Acts as a beauty mask. ‘Counter’ display or ‘interior’ display stands for all arrangement that is
made in the sales hall of the shop. It is internal showmanship in the garb of storage.

The merits are:

1. Easy location of products.

2. Impulse buying.

3. Consumer loyalty.

However, there are some specific problems which are to be tackled for better results. These
are:
1. Creativity.

2. Placement.

3. Wastage.

The success of display advertising depends on the perfect understanding of:

1. The shopping habits of consumers.

2. The needs of the store manager.

3. Forms of display.

4. The display idea and

5. Getting the displays used.

Coming to ‘showrooms’ and ‘show cases’, ‘showroom’ is a specially designed room or a room-
cum-office, rented or owned, located in the prominent place of the sales territory used mainly for
display, demonstration and after sale services.

On the other hand, ‘show case’ is a glass-box, a glazed case, a cabinet with glass-doors or glass-
panes or a glass cupboard designed to display the products in an artistic way.

These are placed in the conspicuous places like railway stations, airports, bus terminals, cinema
houses, or specially rented buildings, city squares, parks, post offices and other market places.

The merits of showrooms and show cases are:

1. The place to get orders.

2. The training ground.

3. The centre for after-sales services.

Coming to ‘exhibitions and fairs’, ‘exhibition’ is a congregation of showrooms of different
manufacturers under as single roof. It is a huge gathering of manufacturers for the purposes of
display, demonstration and booking orders.

On the other hand, ‘trade-fairs’ is a huge fair where the display and demonstrations are combined
with entertainment. Trade fair is more than an exhibition.

The merits of exhibition and trade fair are:

1. The place for display and demonstration.

2. Deeper impact.

3. Market development.

However, the basic problems involved in success of these exhibitions and trade fairs are:
1. High cost and

2. Management, the success depends on sound planning as to size, site, design of exhibition spot,
technical and sales staff and display and demonstration tactics and styles.

Developing a Media Mix:

The market diversities in terms of consumer preferences, competitive pressures, availability of
media and the like necessitate the designing of a media-mix so as to meet the requirements of
these diversities with view to maximize the message impact. That is, there is hardly any
company that is happy with only one medium or media vehicle. This media mixing is also called
as ‘multimedia strategy’.

Basically, development of a media-mix is a problem of determining the optimum allocation of

firm’s advertising funds. The funds earmarked are to be so distributed over different media and
media vehicles that the marginal returns from each component are equal.

In other words, the last rupee spent on any component should produce the same rupee return as
the last rupee spent on other components.

This marginal or equimarginal concept of media-mix development therefore, is a matter of

three broad steps namely:
1. Media-wise collection of data of past expenditure.

2. Analysis of data so as to get reasonably accurate representations of the net returns curves for
each medium, together with sales results.

3. Subsequent adjustment of budget allocation to different media so that the slopes of the several
net returns curves tend to equalize. This last step is trial and error approach in which one starts
with a given feasible allocation, lest it locates profitable changes and brings changes leading to a
raise in the net returns.
At a point when there are no further chances of rising net returns, one arrives at the optimum
allocation of funds representing the optimum media mix. This trial and error method is like the
linear programming model of media-mix which has been developed to help the advertising
executives in making media-mix choices. The best examples of this kind are:

High Assay Model,

Simulation Model and

Mediac Model.

Media Scheduling:
Media scheduling is the very next managerial task, once the media-mix is developed. A media
schedule is a time-bound detail of advertisements with reference to the media selected.

Media schedule portrays the total audience coverage, the message frequency and the continuity
of the message. As noted earlier, coverage, reach, frequency and continuity are interrelated
concepts and are to be carefully considered and weighed while developing media schedule.

Media scheduling decisions are extremely important for two reasons namely:
1. Purchases of radio and television time and news-paper and magazine space represent the
largest elements of the cost in the advertising budget.

2. The success of an advertisement in achieving advertising objectives largely depends on how

each show or magazine reaches the consumers in the target market segment.

Following are some of the media scheduling theories that assist the advertising executives in
media schedule development. Though these provide quantitative tools of media scheduling, an
advertising manager is expected to employ his judgment because, he has failed to measure
accurately all the attributes of all the media open to him. Here, a mention is made of three
theories of scheduling.

The first one is the Wave Theory, according to which the advertiser purchases time and space in
different media for a relative short time and moves out of these media in ‘waves’ in the hope that
the impact of his advertising will carry over from the periods of heavy concentration to those of
no advertising. In essence, this theory sacrifices continuity and builds-up coverage and
frequency.

The second one is Media Dominance Theory according to which an advertiser buys unusually
large amounts of space in one medium; after building up coverage and frequency in that medium,
he shifts another medium for a short period. Thus, it speaks of saturating one medium at a time
before touching another.

The third one is Media Concentration Theory which states that the advertiser concentrates fully
on only one medium than spending on different media for a short period. This theory values
continuity for longer periods. The actual applicability of these theories depends on their relative
merit in a given marketing situation.
The Advertising Message:
Formulation of advertising message is an integral part of media planning and selection.

The phrase ‘advertising message’ includes two basic elements namely:

1. The appeals (copy claims) that represent the central idea of the message.

2. The method of presentation (the style of execution) that is used to present the copy claims.
Message formulation involves designing of the advertising copy and structuring the advertising
layout so that the company’s claims (USPs) can be presented effectively before the audience for
appropriate product-positioning. Let us know in brief these concepts namely, product
positioning, unique selling proposition, copy and layout.

Product Positioning:
The phrase ‘product-positioning’ signifies an effort to find a new segment of the market, a
unique niche not tightly controlled by a competitor. Thus, it refers to the placement of company
product or products in the minds of target consumers relative to the competitive products, as
having certain distinctive benefits and want-satisfying potential.

In other words, it is an attempt to capitalize on distinctive appeal not exploited by the competitor.
Positioning represents more a state of mind or image than different ingredients or attributes; such
a state of mind is derived from advertising, more than from product-planning and design.

Advertising is an instrument of positioning or repositioning a product or products of the

company in the minds of the consumers by focusing their attention on ‘claims’ or ‘unique selling
proposition’ or the ‘theme’ being conveyed through the message.

The Unique Selling Proposition (USP) (Theme):

Advertising theme or campaign theme is the appeal or the substance of a given advertisement
message. It is the key-note concept that gets the message in a challenging manner across the
prospects.

It is that central idea around which the campaign is built. It is the ‘big selling idea’ known as
unique selling proposition or the USP. The USP is the heart of advertising campaign.

It is an offer that an advertiser makes to his consumers which is unique in relation to the
competing offer or offers and promises to deliver a certain distinctive benefit or benefits or a
package of satisfaction.

It is conveyed through the copy or the artwork or both. The underlying idea behind the USP is
that it differentiates qualities of a product or a service. It means that each campaign should
promise the prospect a specific benefit based on the USP and particularly one that is not offered
by the competitors. The selling proposition or the appeal or the claim must entice the prospects
to gain new customers for the product or the service.
A good campaign theme is one that aims at any basic buying motive, attracts the right group of
prospects, ties in logically with the product and its qualities and is capable of being used in
multiple media.

Thus, MRF Company says about its tyres as ‘the tyre with muscles’, CEAT Company says of its
tyre as ‘born tough’ Food Specialties India says about noodles ‘two minutes’. Thus, the theme is
prime ad message.

Television: Television is the latest medium of mass communication. It can create audio-
visual impression. It makes appeal through the eyes and the ears. Television is becoming
popular in India since the inception of cable T.V.

Indoor advertising media:

indoor advertising means the use of vehicles by that advertiser who carry the right in the houses.
These vehicles are newspaper,magazine, radio, television, and video film. Outdoor
advertising media:-outdoor advertising is the only one of its kind that has been carried for ages

Outdoor Advertising

Outdoor advertising works well for promoting your product in specific geographic areas. While
billboards, bus benches, and transit advertising can be very effective for the small-business
owner, any successful outdoor campaign begins with your own location's signage.

Your outdoor sign is often the first thing a potential customer sees. Your sign should be
sufficiently bright and conspicuous to attract attention (without being garish) and sufficiently
informative to let prospective customers know what's sold there.

Ride around town and observe which signs catch your eye. Note which ones don't. Then think of
the impression each sign gives you. Remember that you never get a second chance to make a
first impression, so give this important marketing tool your best efforts.

If you're involved in a business that has a fleet of vehicles conducting deliveries or providing a
service, your company's name, logo, and phone number should be clearly visible on the vehicles.
It's free advertising that allows you to increase your exposure in your market.

Billboards are most effective when located close to the business advertised. Because of their high
cost, they're usually used to reach a very large audience, as in political campaigns. They're likely
to be too expensive for most small firms, and some communities have strict ordinances
governing the placement of billboards. In Vermont, for example, they're prohibited.
Bus-bench advertising is an excellent medium because it's highly visible, like a billboard.
Essentially, bus-bench advertisers have a huge audience, held captive at red lights or in slow-
moving traffic. An account executive of a Los Angeles-based bus bench manufacturing company
said that an advertisement on one bus bench at a busy Los Angeles intersection would be seen by
35,000 to 50,000 people per day.

Usually, the advertising consists of simple two-color artwork with your company's name, brief
copy describing the product or service, address and phone number. Rates and terms vary
depending on the city you're in.

Call your city's mass transit department or local bus company to find out who rents advertising
space on their bus-stop benches. Some outdoor advertising companies also handle this type of
advertising.

Transit advertising on buses and taxicabs reaches lots of people, especially commuters. Your ad
is highly visible, and market research on transit advertising shows that it's very effective.

Measuring Advertising Effectiveness

When a child writes the examination papers, he has to see the result come what it may be, so that
he comes to know where he is wrong and where he should pay more attendance. This will help
him work better in future.”

This is exactly the case of the advertisement. The work is not complete if the effectiveness of
advertise is not measured. This is the only way to know how the advertisement is performing, is
it reaching the targets and is the goal achieved.

It is not at all possible to measure advertisement effectiveness accurately as there are many
factors like making a brand image, increasing the sales, keeping people informed about the
product, introducing new product, etc, which affect the effectiveness of an advertisement.

We all know that there are some companies who advertise at very low level but still their
products are a hit and some companies indulge in very heavy advertisements but they don’t get
desirable results. But then, there are some traditional and modern tools to measure most of the
effectiveness of an advertisement through which the advertiser can or may get more and more
information about how their ads and product are performing in the market. According to Philip
Kotler and Armstrong, the Gurus Of Marketing, there are two most popular areas which need to
be measured for knowing the effectiveness of advertisement and they are:

 Communication Effect
 Sales Effect

Communication Effect Research consists of three types of researches:

1. Direct Rating Method - here, customers are directly asked to rate the advertisement and
then these rating are calculated.
 2. Portfolio Tests - here, the customers see the ads and listen carefully to the ads and all the
contents of the ads and then they are asked to recall the ad and the contents. Then the
calculations are done with help of this data.
3. Laboratory tests - here, the apparatus to measure the heart rates, blood pressure,
perspiration, etc are used on the customer after he watches the ad, to know the
physiological reactions of the body.

Sales Effect Research totally depends on the sales of the company. The sales keep varying from
time to time. There are some factors affecting sales like product availability, the price of the
product, contents of the product, and sometimes the competitors. So this method is a little
difficult than the communication one. The company doing sales effect research generally bothers
about the sales of the product, they try to know whether or not the money they are spending on
the ads is enough or excess.

As earlier said, it is not possible to measure each and everything and the chances are at the lower
end if the company has many ads running through various mediums at the same time. So
suggestion is that the advertiser or the company should use appropriate and different methods
which are most suitable for the media under use.

 The company can hold surveys and product recognition tests

 Questionnaire or feedback flyers can be distributed and customers could be asked to fill it
up.
 Toll free number can be highlighted on the ads so that customers can call up.
 The response rates can be increased by telling customers what to do. For e.g. some ads
have lines in flashy color like “Hurry Up” or “No one can eat just one” or “be the first”
etc.

These are the traditional ways. Now days, internet is the modern tool for measuring the
effectiveness of an advertisement. There are some types such as:

Integrated direct marketing - This is an internet based tool where they have a response corner
designed on the websites. Whenever the customers visit the sites, they fill up their contact details
and give feedbacks. Thus the company supplies more information and sends newsletters and also
gets the idea for further action. But then its not that only online advertiser have this facility but
then advertisers who don’t work online can use coupons, discount vouchers, etc. to do this.

Analysis tool - there is an analysis tool available on internet by using which the advertiser will
know how many customers are visiting the site, who are shopping online, how many pages are
viewed, etc. which in turn will help advertiser to measure the effectiveness.

Internet is the most easy, cheaper and cost effective way to measure the effectiveness because
here no money is wasted as the ad is only viewed when the customer want to view it where as in
normal print method or using TV, the ad sometimes goes unwatched or unattended and viewed
for the sake of viewing.
Media Mix

A media mix is the combination of communication channels your business can use to meet its
marketing objectives. Typically, these include newspapers, radio, television, billboards, websites,
email, direct mail, the Internet and social media, such as Facebook or Twitter. Combining these
channels in a media mix enables you to communicate in the most effective way with different
types of customers and prospects at different stages of the purchase decision, according to
Entrepreneur.

Right Message to the Right Audience

An effective media mix delivers the right marketing message to your customers and prospects at
the lowest cost and with minimal waste. If you want to reach a consumer audience across the
country, you might use a media mix that includes national newspapers, radio or television. If you
wanted to reach a specific group of business decision-makers, such as technical directors, your
mix might include specialist business magazines or exhibitions aimed at those directors. To reach
a small number of key executives who influence a major purchasing decision, you might include
personalized direct mail or an executive briefing session in your mix.

Aligning Media Mix With Buying Stages

Entrepreneur notes that the emphasis in the media mix changes at different stages in the buying
cycle. When prospects are looking for information, they may read publications covering their
interests, search websites, visit trade shows or check product review sites. So, it’s important that
you have information in the places they are likely to visit. The emphasis in your media mix
would be on raising awareness through advertisements, press releases, product pages on your
website, participation in trade shows or comments on social media. When prospects have
expressed an interest in your products, you can use a different media mix to nurture them and
move them toward a buying decision. The mix at this stage might include email offering detailed
product information, a seminar or a customized sales proposal.

What Is Media Planning?

You are creating advertising for a new product. To complete this task, you need to go through
the media planning process. Media planning in advertising is the making of decisions to deliver
a message to the target audience.

The Process
Now that you understand what media planning is, it is time to review the process. The process
includes:

 Market analysis
 Establishing the media objective
 Setting the strategy
 Implementation
  Evaluation and follow-up

Let's look at these steps in more detail.

Market Analysis
Performing a market analysis involves determining who your audience is. The audience is the
number and type of people your advertising targets. The audience can be classified according to
age, sex, income, occupation, etc. Performing this analysis will help you to project costs and
determine the right media for your campaign.
Establishing the Media Objective
The media objective is the goal of the media plan. To establish this objective, you must
determine your goal for reach, frequency, circulation, cost, and penetration. Reach is the amount
of people the message is in front of over a period of time. Frequency is the average number of
times the message is in front of those people. Circulation is used for printed advertisements.
This is the number of prints that are produced and sent out. Cost is broken down into two
different sections: cost per thousand (CPM) and cost per person (CPP). It is important to
understand the cost as you are budgeting. The cost will tell you which form of media is the best
option for your business. Penetration is the number of audience members reached by the
advertising. The company must determine if it wants to take over a market or just reach a certain
group prior to setting the penetration goals and strategies.
Setting the Strategy
Now that you understand who you are marketing to and how much it will cost you, you will need
to make a decision about what type of media you will use. Some options include Internet,
television, radio, newspaper, consumer and business publications, and interactive media
platforms. Which option reaches the largest audience? How often will it reach the audience?
Does it fit in your budget?
Implementation
Now you have a plan. Now it's time to set it in motion. This is when you buy media. Media
buyingis the purchasing of the space in the selected media. This involves committing to the
media provider, submitting the ad, and paying the bill. This is the exciting part. You see all your
hard work come together.
Evaluation and Follow-up
After everything is said and done, it is time to see how successful your media plan was. To do so,
you need to follow-up and evaluate the results. Ask yourself, 'Did we meet media objectives?
How successful were the strategies?' The success of this media plan will determine future media
plans.
Now that you understand the process, let's take a look at a few examples.