IMC MEDIA TYPES

IMC has a lot of media types, they include; Television, Radio, Newspaper, Magazines, Telephone, Direct
mail, Telephone, Online advertising etc. The first 3 will be discussed below.

1. TELEVISION ADVERTISING

For power and attention, it's tough to top the many advantages of television advertising. No other
advertising medium combines sight and sound and has such a grand impact. But television advertising
has disadvantages, too, including a glaring disadvantage: Cost. TV ads are expensive to produce and
expensive to run. Weighing the strengths and weaknesses of TV advertising will help you decide if it's
right for you.

Strengths of Television Advertising

i. Grabs attention: Imagine taking your product personally into millions of homes all over the country to
show them why it's better, faster, stronger, higher or longer-lasting, and even demonstrating it right in
front of them. One of the biggest advantages of TV ads is the ability to call out to your potential
customers right where they are. It's akin to tapping them on the shoulder and saying, "Hey, come look at
this!"

ii. Combines sight and sound: With print advertising, you try to use compelling headlines and graphics
to get people to read about your product. You can only hope they read the whole ad, look at the
artwork and tie the two together to understand the message you want them to receive. Radio has the
advantage of voice and sound effects, but no visuals. You're counting on them to envision your product
as you want them to see it. TV ads are intrusive, capable of interrupting whatever else a viewer might be
doing to watch and listen to your pitch.

iii. Fosters emotion and empathy: Good TV ads are more than walking, talking messages. You determine
how you want your audience to react. Smile. Laugh. Cry. Take action. You're putting on a skit or short
play of sorts for their benefit. You can make it lighthearted or even humorous, thought-provoking or
heartbreaking. You can try to do that with print, but you can't control how the words are read, with the
proper emphasis and pauses for emotion. You can put the emotion into radio, but without the visual
effect it's just not as powerful.

iv. Reaches a wide, targeted audience: One of the big advantages of television advertising is the huge
audience you can reach instantaneously. TV ads can be targeted to specific audiences surprisingly well,
too. To reach stay-at-home or work-from-home parents, buy daytime spots. To reach a Hispanic market,
you could buy air time on a Spanish-speaking network. For products that appeal to full-time workers,
advertise in the evening. Toy and cereal manufacturers have known about targeting since TV began and
they advertised during Saturday morning cartoons. Parents didn't always appreciate it, but the ads
worked.

Weaknesses of Television Advertising

i. It's a big production: Even a 30-second ad or the 10- and 15-second clips of recent years, require a lot
of effort. You have to hire a script writer or an ad agency, actors and a director. Rehearsing, shooting
and retakes take an entire day or more. Even if you've hired an agency or producer to do these tasks for
you, it's still wise for you to be at the shoot to see the action and to see how your products are being
presented. Most importantly, you can interject, if things aren't going as you'd planned. It's time-
consuming and stressful, but better that than to be surprised by a finished product you don't like.

ii. Costs can be prohibitive: There's a reason national chains advertise on TV but your local boutique
doesn't: Money. For all of its advantages, advertising on television is very expensive. Producing an ad is a
huge expense. Buying air time to run your ad is another budget-buster. Cutting corners on production
can be disastrous, producing an inferior ad that people will then associate with your product.

iii. Frequency is essential: Just like print ads, TV ads need to run numerous times before they are
remembered by an audience. That's costly with print, and even more so with TV. But if you're going to
advertise on TV, it's not worth your time and money, if you can't afford to run the ad multiple times. The
more your target audience sees your ad, the more they feel they know you and can trust you.

iv. Changes are difficult and costly: Need to make a change to your ad? It's not as easy as editing your
print ad. Most times, a TV ad will need to be shot again, or at least that part of it will need to be re-shot,
and it's difficult to pick up action in the middle of an ad and to come away with the same feel of the ad
as the first time.

2. RADIO ADVERTISING MEDIA

Compared to other media used by advertisers, radio offers affordability, wide reach, target audience
selectivity and timely message delivery. However, poor attentiveness and fragmentation, a lack of visual
appeal and complex national buying processes are common challenges. Before you commit your budget
to radio, you'll need to carefully consider its pros and cons.

Strengths of Radio Advertising

i. Affordability: To make a dent in radio, you typically buy a package that runs for at least a month. The
cost of ad spots and packages varies greatly by location, but expect to pay $2,000 to $3,000 per week in
cities or metro areas, according to Entrepreneur. Campaigns in smaller local markets may run as low as
several hundred dollars per month. Relative to television and other media used to reach a large
audience, radio is cost-efficient.

ii. Wide Reach and Audience Targeting: The ability to schedule ad spots throughout the week at various
times of day allows for wide local reach. The ability to advertising regionally and nationally enhances the
reach for companies with broader geographic offerings. In the same vein, radio is among the best media
at enabling target audience selectivity. Format and music genre greatly influence the types of people
that listen to stations. Before buying spots, you get access to statistics that detail average listeners per
hour with demographic breakdowns. This data allows you to select the right market for your message.
iii. Radio reaches a wide range of listeners: Specific stations and shows appeal to a narrower
demographic, so if you have a particular target market – age, ethnicity, income, gender – you can tailor
your ad-buying to the shows your desired customers are most likely to listen to.

Radio advertising representatives should be able to provide you with demographic breakdowns,
showing who listens to which show and when your ad spots will produce the best results for your
business.

iv. Timely Message Delivery: Placement flexibility is an advantage of radio. You can have a message
produced and presented to the market within a few decisions from your decision to buy. Stations often
include production costs in with package purchases, according to Entrepreneur.

v. Radio's Coverage: Radios are everywhere, playing in stores, restaurants, homes and vehicles.
According to the University of Florida, 90 percent of cars have radios and 95 percent of people in cars
are listening to the radio. People who don't watch TV or read newspapers still listen to a radio. Between
6 a.m. and 6 p.m. radio has a larger audience than television. It's also the one medium that can reach
people easily when they're driving.

Weaknesses of Radio Advertising

i. Poor Attentiveness and Fragmentation: One of the disadvantages of radio advertising is that, unlike a
print ad, radio spots disappear as soon as they're played. The advertisement isn't something listeners
can retrieve to look up your number, your website or your special discount offer when they get some
free time. Many listeners are easily distracted because radio is just background music, not something
they sit and concentrate on like a favorite TV show. Many stations run long strings of commercials,
which give listeners even more reason to tune out.

Among the disadvantages of radio advertising, a primary drawback is that people listening to it are often
engaged in other activities, such as driving. Therefore, you don't normally get the same level of attention
and engagement with your ad as you might through other media. It can take many impressions before a
listener actually hears your message.

ii. Lack of Visual Appeal: Whereas television, the other prominent broadcast medium, has multi-sensory
appeal, radio can only impact your audience through sound. You don't have imagery to play with. It
takes very talented copywriters to instill theater of the mind with the listening audience.

iii. Complex National Buying Processes: Buying radio advertising for regional or national campaigns gets
a bit chaotic. Large media conglomerates often own stations throughout the country; but they are
fragmented across regions. Therefore, national advertisers sometimes have to buy spots through
multiple regional stations rather than through one national station.

iv. Costs Per Listener: Radio spots usually cost less than cable TV ads, even with the same reach in the
same market, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. As radio is strictly an audio medium,
producing ads is usually cheaper than television, too. Because it's so easy for people to tune out radio,
you'll have to pay for enough frequent advertising that your target market will hear and register what
you're selling.

3. NEWSPAPER MEDIA

Newspaper advertising is a great IMC type. It is still being used widely by organizations to communicate.
It has its strengths and weaknesses, which are discussed below.

Strengths of Newspaper media

i. Proactive Audience: The great part about newspaper and magazine advertising is that readers are
actively looking to search for deals and coupons. Placing your ad in a newspaper provides you the
advantage of knowing that your audience is much more likely to notice it because they habitually read
that paper or magazine. They may take the time to read your ad and possibly act on a sale or offer.

ii. Targeted Audience: Newspaper advertising allows you to place your content wherever you want. You
can send out geographically-targeted prints, which allow your ad to be seen by people who have a
higher likelihood of wanting your product or service. Working with a newspaper also allows you to have
a better chance of speaking with someone who can distribute the print real estate better, rather than
leaving it up to an algorithm (as is used for online advertising). You can make your specific needs for ad
positioning known when you work with a print marketing agency.

iii. Affordable: Local newspaper advertising may sound expensive considering that it requires ink,
printing and distribution, however, it actually costs less per thousand readers than when you advertise
on television, through direct mail, or online. Additionally, newspaper campaigns do not require any
expensive costs for creative materials. They can be customized to any budget, and you can choose from
a variety of ad sizes to fit your goals. This is the ideal medium to create brand awareness and start off
connecting with your prospects.

iv. Trustworthy: Print media agencies work very hard to help you create positive relationships with
members of your community, and build a loyal customer base. As your reputation grows through the
use of newspaper and magazine advertising, members of the community can trust you to provide timely
and accurate information about your products and services, and your content can be complemented by
the trustworthiness of the rest of the content in that medium.

v. Engaging: Companies have studied the way consumers respond to ads on different media. Print
newspapers scored the highest on media engagement, when compared to radio, Internet, and
billboards. Consumers are less likely to get annoyed when they see advertisements in newspapers and
magazines, than they are when they see them online. If your primary method of connecting with
prospects is through the use of advertising, print media will be your most successful option.

vi. Impact and Effectiveness: Newspaper advertising is very effective because readers frequently look
for advertisements in this medium. They rely heavily on newspapers to find out about shopping
information, so by beautifully creating your ad with text and images you can engage them both
emotionally and intellectually. It is also a more trusted medium than other forms of advertising, and it is
assumed that print media requires more fact-checking and professionalism than online ads.

Weaknesses of Newspaper Media

i. Demographics: Newspaper demographics may be a drawback for some small businesses anticipating
broad-based exposure through their ad. Readership has been dropping steadily, and ads for businesses
that cater to younger consumers are reaching a fraction of that target audience. According to the Pew
Research Center’s Excellence in Journalism Project, in a 2011 survey only 31 percent of respondents
ages 25 to 34 said they read a daily newspaper. Older people had remained more loyal to newspapers,
but even readers ages 54 to 65 had dwindled to 49 percent.

ii. Clutter: Newspaper ads appear on large, busy pages of type and can easily be overlooked by readers.
Newspapers sell retail ads that appear throughout the paper interspersed with news reports and
photos. Retails ads are typically stacked in a cluster at the bottom of each page where they compete
with one another, and with the news content, for the reader’s attention. Businesses can also buy
classified ads that run in the classified section, which is devoted exclusively to a mix of different styles of
advertising. While the classified section draws readers who are looking for products or services, unless
ads are large and bold they can be lost in a sea of small grey type.

iii. Reproduction Quality: Print ads rely on visual elements to capture a reader’s attention. According to
Scott Young of Perception Research Services, a New Jersey based consulting firm that specializes in
marketing communication, readers are engaged and guided by an ad’s dominant image. The limited
reproduction quality of newsprint is a disadvantage for ads that use detailed photos or illustrations.
Small businesses that rely on smaller and more affordable display ads that are one-quarter or one-eighth
of a page and have limited color may have problems with photos and images that fail to accurately
represent products.

iv. Limited Exposure: Daily newspapers have a brief shelf life. A small business can invest a significant
amount of its advertising budget in a one-shot ad that has 24 hours to reach an audience. Weekly
newspapers hang around on kitchen counters a little longer before they are tossed into recycling bins,
but circulation tends to be much smaller. Although some businesses try to offset the short life span of a
newspaper ad by requesting a plum spot in the A-section, newspapers typically sell "run-of-the-paper"
ads, which means an ad can be placed wherever production crews find space. Newspapers may try to
give an ad a prominent spot, but there are often no guarantees. Some papers sell prime placements for
ads, but they charge higher rates.

REFERENCE

David, K. (2020, Nov 03). Retrieved from https://macromark.com/blog/the-benefits-of-newspaper-

advertising-vs-magazine-advertising