STRATEGY PLANNING

Content

1. Basic strategy planning

•Target selec3on
•Choosing market/places
•Choosing 3me

2. Advanced strategy planning

•Weigh3ng
•Reach and Frequency
•Effec3ve Frequency and Reach
•Scheduling

3. Principles of planning media strategy

Target selection (to whom should we target)

A media plan’s target audience is the group of people whom the advertising is
attempting to influence. Most typically, advertising is directed to current users of the
product or service

Targets are defined on the basis of one or more demographic characteristics of

consumers who have purchased the product or brand in the past. Purchasers are
typically described in terms of age, income, occupation, education, and so forth.
Custom research can provide this kind of information, but it is usually quite
expensive and time-consuming. The services listed earlier are known as “syndicated”
research because they cover a broad range of products and services with a single
questionnaire, spreading the cost across multiple buyers. Virtually every advertising
agency subscribes to these services as a cost of doing business
 Index number analysis

An index is a number that shows a

relationship between two percentages or
between two raw numbers. Generally, index
numbers are printed as whole numbers. The
value of an index is that it relates sales or
product usage to population demo-graphics,
enabling one to have a convenient common
method for comparison. If the population
segment is considered to be “average,” then
an index number for sales tells how much
above or below average sales are, in absolute
terms. An index number of 100 is equal to the
average; 125 is 25 percent above average, and
80 is 20 percent below average
 Index Number Analysis

In this example, we compared the percentage of

usage in each age segment to the percentage of
population in that segment. (One could compare
the raw numbers of usage and population
distribution in each segment, but such
comparisons are more difficult than those made
using percentages.) When the percentage of usage
is compared with the percentage of population
distribution in each segment, an index number can
be calculated to make the comparisons easier to
analyze
 Index Number Analysis

An index number higher than 100 means

that the usage of the product is
proportionately greater in that segment
than one that is average (100) or below
average (any number below
100).•Segments with index numbers
higher than 100 do not necessarily have
numerically more users in them than in
other segments; they might only have
proportionately more. •Theoretically, the
segment with the highest index number
represents the best potential for usage
 Index Number Analysis

While looking at the demographic profile, planners

should concentrate on indexes that are greater
than about 110 or less than about 90. Indexes of 98
or 102 are so close to the average that they might
be caused by statistical bounce. Planners should
also look for a pattern in the numbers.

Be careful not to be misled about index numbers:

the demographic segment with the highest index
number does not always represent the best
potential. Aside from the fact that one segment
might have some other qualification of great
marketing value, it is also possible that a segment
with a high index number has a low degree of
product usage or sales or a low population size for
that segment. If so, the segment with the highest
index number would not represent the best
potential for continued usage
Lifestyle Analysis

Demographics paint a general picture of the target and are needed for buying
broadcast media, but by themselves, these dry statistics mask the human side of
product users. To add some personality, media planners also analyze product users’
lifestyles—that is, how they spend time and money •Storyfinder, Psychographics...
Where to advertise

Advertise wherever the brand is distributed

It is better to advertise in geographic

markets where sales for a given brand have
been good or to advertise where sales have
not been good

The greatest risk is to select new markets

where neither the designated brand nor
competitive brands have been exploited
through advertising
Where to advertise
• Classification of geographic areas
• Sales analysis
• Buying power indices
• Brand development index (BDI) this index measures the number of cases, units, or
dollar volume of a brand sold per 1,000 population
• Category development index (CDI) is similar to the BDI, except that it is based on
the percentage of sales of a product category, rather than a brand, in a given
market
When to advertise

• Monthly sales patterns

• Budget constraints
• Competitive activities
• Specific goals for the brand
• Product availability
• Promotional requirements
Geographic Weighting

Geographic weighting is the practice of giving extra consideration to one or more

markets that have more sales potential than other markets, due to location,
demographics, or other reasons. A record of good sales or good potential for sales for
the product category and the brand being advertised can make one market more
important than others. If all geographic markets had an equal record of sales or sales
potential, then there would be no need to add extra advertising weight. But markets
are rarely equal in value, so weighting is necessary

Forms of weighting: dollar allocation technique, gross impression weighting

 Message Weighting – Share of Voice

A planning concept that is sometimes used in making media decisions is called share of voice
or more appropriately, message weight distribution.

This concept requires a planner to determine how much advertising is being done for a brand
relative to the amount being done for competitive brands. A share of voice is a percentage of
total advertising weight for each brand

The assumption underlying share of voice is that if a brand is not spending an amount equal to
or exceeding the expenditures of competitors, then it might not be able to achieve its goals
Reach and frequency – when to emphasize Reach

• New distribution (stores that now carry the brand)

• New features of a product that meet consumers’ needs New
advertising copy (new words or pictures)
• New sales promotion incentives
• New packaging
• New models of the brand being introduced
• New media being used for the first time
• New positions in the store where the brand is to be found
• New servicing opportunities
• New home-delivery patterns
• New marketing or advertising objectives for the brand
Reach and frequency – when to emphasize Frequency?

• Unique of message
• Perceived value of the brand
• Noise level
• Competitors’ levels
• Media values
• (Case study 8-4 –How to set Effective-Frequency
levels)
Scheduling

An important part of timing advertising is scheduling it so that it appears at the most

propitious selling times. A major objective of scheduling is to control when advertising
appears by plotting advertising timing on a yearly flowchart.

There are three major methods of scheduling advertising, each with a somewhat
different pat-tern: continuity, flighting, and pulsing
 Continuity

The continuity pattern (sometimes

called straight-through advertising) is
continuous, sometimes with short
gaps at regular intervals when no
advertising is done. One continuity
pattern would be to run one ad every
day for 365 days. Another continuity
pattern would be one ad a week for 52
weeks
 Flighting

Flighting (sometimes called bursting) is an

intermittent pattern with gaps of time
when no advertising is done.

Advertising done once a month might be

called flighting. Most often, however,
flighting patterns are more irregular, with
heavy concentrations of advertising at
certain times interspersed with no
advertising for shorter lengths of time,
called hiatus periods
Pulsing

Pulsing is a mixture of continuity and

flighting, and represents the best of both
techniques. With pulsing, all of the
advantages of continuity and flighting are
possible, with none of the disadvantages.
Pulsing is the safest of the three because
it covers different marketing situations.
Not all advertisers, however, are advised
to use pulsing. It best fits product
categories that are sold year-round but
have heavier concentrations of sales at
intermittent periods
Principles of planning media strategy

Media strategy as a series of actions that

planners take to attain media objectives.
In addition, media strategies should
achieve an advantage over competitors. If
media objectives are achieved, it is
because optimum strategies were
employed

Questions for planning media strategies

(Exhibit 10-4)
Principles of planning media strategy

• Dominant brand presence in media

• Advertise when people are buying
• Creative strategy’s impact on media strategy
• Alternative media strategies
What media planners should know before starting to plan

• Marketing problems
• Recommended actions
• Complexities of a strategy
• How the product will be sold
• How advertising sells a product to one customer
• How to neutralize the competition’s strategy
• Cost of strategies
Other elements of media strategy

• Media targets
• Creative strategy
• Reach and frequency
• Continuity
• Budget constraints
 Creative media strategy

• Make your media strategy different from

and more innovative than competitors
• The ability to be creative does not depend
on additional dollars
• Creative media strategy should be
relevant to the problems of the brand
• Media strategy should start with
quantitative proof then go beyond
number
• The ability to be creative does not depend
on additional dollars
• Media strategy is not science
Relationships among Reach, Frequency,
Continuity, number of markets and ad size

• You cannot plan for equal strategies on

a fixed budget
• To buy heavy amounts of continuity or
markets, you must sacrifice reach and
frequency
• Other combination strategies must
sacrifice one or another of the goals
• Most media plans do not have enough
money to reach all goals