Tag: Cost Control and Management Accounting Osmania University b.com Notes

The activities involved in buying are called buying process. The activities involved in buying process are buying elements and sub-functions. The process of buying starts from buying plan. But it ends with actual buying and experience from the use after buying.

The sub-function of buying involves in buying process can be divided in four types as making buying plan, making contact with, talking for agreement and contracting.

1. Describe your company

Provide context and background information on your company to help the designer or creative team get a better understanding of your business. Who are you and what services and/or products do you offer? Include links to your website and any other background material that might be helpful.

2. Summarize the project

What is the project? And why do you need it? Do you need a corporate identity kit for your new company? Are you refreshing your company’s Facebook and Twitter pages for a new season? Describe what the project is, what it entails, and why you’re doing it.

3. Explain your objectives

This is probably the most important part of the brief, and it’s essential that you think through your strategy and objectives completely before you get the project underway. Why do you need this project? What are you hoping to achieve with it? What are your goals? Is there a problem you’re trying to solve? How will you measure success? For example, if you’re developing an eBook, you might measure success by the number of downloads. These details will help the designer understand your goals and come up with solutions that address them.

4. Define your target audience

Who’s your customer? Who are you trying to reach with this project or campaign? Share demographic information about who they are and any behavioral insights you may have on them.

5. Outline the deliverables you need

Do you need a one-page brochure? A batch of 10 banner ads? A logo for print, just for the web, or for both? Be sure to include the file formats you need (i.e., JPG, PNG, PSD), size information (i.e., 300×250 pixels), and any other important details needed to deliver the right assets. 

6. Identify your competition

Who are your competitors? You may want to include an overview of the competitive landscape and any trends or market conditions impacting your industry. For this project, what are your competitors doing as a point of comparison and as a point of differentiation? For example, if you’re refreshing your logo, what types of logos and colors do your competitors use? These details can greatly help inform the direction the designer will go in (they’ll do additional research as well). You can also include a few examples of designs you like or don’t like.

7. Include details on the tone, message, and style

The style and tone should be consistent with your brand and will also hinge on what the project is, what you’re trying to achieve, and what action you want your customers to take. To help inform the messaging and ensure it aligns with your objectives, be sure to include your strategic positioning and the key messages that need to be addressed. For example, if you’re creating a landing page for a contest, you’d probably want the messaging and design to be lively and fun to inspire people to enter. If you’re developing an annual report, you’d most likely want something that looks and sounds more formal and professional to instill trust and confidence. If you have a brand style guide or examples of past campaigns or related projects, be sure to share them with your designer. And also provide any other factors or requirements that might affect the creative direction.

8. Provide the timing

If you have a timeline in mind for your project, include it in the brief. During your kickoff meeting or initial conversations with your designer, make sure to discuss the timeline and agree upon a completion date. It’s also a good idea to talk about the overall creative process and discuss if edits and how many rounds of them are possible and whether or not they’re included if it’s a fixed-price contract. 

9. Specify your budget

If you have a set budget for the project (which is often the case), include it in the brief and discuss it with your designer. If the designer’s estimate exceeds your budget, talk it over and agree upon realistic expectations, deliverables, and project costs before getting started.

10. List the key stakeholders

If other people on your team or within your organization need to be included in the review process, provide their contact information. You can also include how you’d like to receive deliverables and provide feedback. On Upwork, the Messages tool makes it easy to communicate and share files.

Elements of Buying Brief

Planning For Buying

Planning for buying is the primary function of buying process. At first, the buyer realizes need of goods. Then makes plan for buying of goods, finally takes decision to buy the goods. Planning begins is buyer’s mind from want or desire for goods. Then the buyer decides when to buy, where to buy from, how to buy the goods. Such decision depends specially on buying situation, buying motive and buying behavior of the buyer.

Hence, need of buying is realized in buying plan. Budget for buying is estimated. Then decision for buying is taken. Finally, buying plan is ready for the combined form of mental and physical activities.

Contact Function

After making buying plan, the customers think from where and which source the goods to buy. For this they should search for suppliers and identify, prepare their list and establish contact with them for supplying the goods. This is called contact function. The customers may contact the suppliers through correspondence or visiting to their supply sources. Generally, if a large amount of goods are to be bought, the buyers contact supplier or sellers personally and find out the capacity and possibility of the supplier for supplying the necessary goods.

Before selecting supplier of necessary goods, the buyers think about different matters such as price of the goods, delivery schedule, transportation cost, quality, capacity of the supplier, means and resources, after-sale services, promotional policy, credibility and responsibility of the supplier, terms and conditions of selling, buying plan etc. Only then, proper supplier should be selected and contacted.

Art of Media Buying Negotiation in Media Buying

Another important function of buying process is to reach the decision to buy and sell goods or services through negotiation. After buying plan has been made, perspective supplier has been identified and contact with seller has been established, negotiation is held between buyer and seller. Such negotiation is held on terms and conditions of supply, price of the goods, discount, mode of payment, time, delivery schedule, means of delivery etc. and then selling and buying reaches the conclusion.

After such negotiation, buyer decides to give purchase order and makes agreement with supplier to supply the goods.

Contractual Function

Contractual function is the actual buying function. After the agreement has been made with supplier on terms and conditions, buyer gives purchase order. If the goods are to be bought by final consumers, they make agreement with seller on price at the selling place and buy immediately. Buying may be on cash or credit depending upon their agreement. If the goods are purchased on credit, the buyer has to follow and implement necessary terms and conditions mentioned in credit documents.

Industrial consumers, institutional buyers, government offices etc also make agreement with supplier to buy necessary goods. Buyer and seller both parties should follow the contract made for the supply of goods. If any party violets the terms and conditions or does not carry out the responsibility according to the agreement, the other party has the right to get compensation or fine or any loss. The seller should supply the goods as according to the agreement and the buyer should make payment of price according to the terms and conditions.

Plan Presentation and Client Feedback

Customer feedback is the information, insights, issues, and input shared by your community about their experiences with your company, product, or services. This feedback guides improvements of the customer experience and can empower positive change in any business even (and especially) when it’s negative.

Customer feedback is important because it serves as a guiding resource for the growth of your company. Don’t you want to know what you’re getting right and wrong as a business in the eyes of your customers?

There are 5 main reasons why you would want to collect feedback.

• Customer engagement
• Understand your customers
• Product improvement
• Obtain testimonials, reviews, referrals
• Evaluate and get better things

Ways of collecting important feedback from your customers.

• Regularly call your customers
• Provide live chat support
• Social media activity monitoring
• Collect feedback from your live chat sessions
• Provide feedback forms
• Customer service performance analytics
• Provide an active online community with support
• New and existing customer email surveys
• Use NPS to evaluate customer loyalty
• Create a feedback area on order confirmation page
• Online Polls
• Review feedback on your competitor’s sites
• Display any Positive Customer Feedback
• Facebook reactions
• Make your online store more ‘human’
• Offer a gift or prize in return for feedback
• Use negative feedback to showcase professionalism
• Create a feedback area for cart abandonment
• In-App feedback
• Ask for feedback at the point of service

An Media budget is an estimate of a company’s promotional expenditures over a certain time period. The term “advertising budget” in essence is nothing but planning the advertising expenditure. The amount of money to be utilized for advertising purpose is charged to the profit and loss account of the co. and therefore is of vital importance both to the company and to the advertising agency that handles advertiser’s account. Advertising costs money & before spending, it is necessary to ensure its proper investment.

Every ad is a long term investment in the personality of a brand. Therefore, when advertising is recognized as a type of future investment, care must be taken today to make it more effective with proper planning of advertising budget.

More importantly, it is the money a company is willing to set aside to accomplish its marketing objectives. When creating an advertising budget, a company must weigh the value of spending an advertising dollar against the value of that dollar as recognized revenue.

Importance

1. Check on Media expenditure

Media budget helps to have a check on advertising expenditure. Depending upon the budget, the advertiser will utilize the right funds to achieve the advt. objectives. There will be no wastage of funds by over spending on advertising the right amount will be spent to achieve the advertising objectives.

2. Approval from top management

The framing of Media budget will enable the advertising manager to obtain approval from the top management. If the top management feels that the budget amount is more, then the advertising manager may have to provide necessary justification for higher budgets.

3. Balanced focus

The ad budget is prepared taking into consideration the requirements of the products that are to be advertised. The right product is to be allocated the right amount of money. Again, there will be proper focus on the right place & the right period of advertising.

4. Facilitates Planned Execution

The right amount will be spent on the right product in the right media at the right period and place. This will enable the advertiser to achieve ad objectives.

5. Provides direction for drafting of Ads

The Ad budget provides a proper direction for drafting of ads. Depending upon the budget, the ads will be filmed or drafted. When there is a large budget, the advertiser may think of selecting popular personalities, shooting the film at exclusive locations, using sophisticated computer graphics & so on.

6. Selection of Media

When Media budget is large, the advertiser can select rich media mix which includes television channels, various magazines, newspapers & even outdoor media. However, if the budget is small, the advertiser has to be very selective in the choice of media.

Companies’ expenditures on print, broadcast and other forms of advertising rely on the funds in their media budgets. Media buyers specialize in wringing the best array of exposures for brands and products out of their clients’ media allocations. Buyers’ efforts drive down the cost of each TV or radio spot, newspaper or magazine ad, billboard, transit ad or any other pay-to-play placement, maximizing advertising impressions and effectiveness. New media options take their places in the 21st-century media budget, expanding brands online.

Advertising Task

A more effective budgeting strategy would be the one which considers the firm’s overall promotional objectives. The budgeting then is done according to the requirements for meeting these goals.

Objective and task method:

The most logical budget setting method is the objective and task method whereby the company sets its promotion budget based on what it wants to accomplish with promotion. This method entails defining specific promotion objectives, the tasks needed to achieve these objectives and estimating the costs of performing these tasks.

Objective setting and budgeting should not come in sequence, one after another. They should be considered simultaneously because it is difficult to establish a budget without specific objectives in mind, and setting objectives without regard to how much money is available makes no sense.

The approach used by the objective and task method is buildup approach consisting of three steps:

• Defining the communications objectives that are to be accomplished,
• Determining the specific strategies and tasks needed to attain them
• Estimating the costs associated with performance of these strategies and tasks. The total budget is based on the accumulation of these costs.

Implementing the objective and task approach is somewhat more involved. The manager must monitor this process throughout and change strategies depending on how well objectives are attained.

This process involves several steps:

1. Finalise Communication objectives.

Any company generally has two kinds of objectives viz. the marketing objectives for the product and the communications objectives. The first job is to establish the marketing objective and when that is done the net task is to determine what specific communications objectives will be designed to accomplish these goals. Communications objectives must be specific, attainable, and measurable, as well as time limited.

2. Determine tasks required:

The strategic plan designed to attain the objectives consists of various elements one of which could be advertising in various media, sales promotions, and/or other elements of the promotional mix. Each has its own role to perform and hence the specific tasks should be finalised.

3. Estimate aggregate expenditures:

The next stage is to determine the estimated costs associated with the tasks fixed the last step.

4. Monitor:

A regular monitoring is required as to how much the objectives have been attained effectively. If advertisements are an investment then a close monitoring of the invested amount and its return is must.

5. Re-evaluate objectives:

Once specific objectives have been attained the budget should be reevaluated to check how better it can be used to attain the other goals. Thus, if one has achieved the level of consumer awareness sought, the budget should be altered to stress a higher-order objective such as evaluation or trial.

The major advantage of the objective and task method is that the budget is developed from the bottom to up, which is a proper and rational managerial approach. The method does not rely on past sales figures, forecasted sales, what the competition spends and considers only those factors, which are under the advertiser’s control.

6. Payout Planning:

The budgeting for a new product is a very different story because the first months of a new product’s introduction require heavier-than-normal advertising and promotion appropriations to stimulate higher levels of awareness and subsequent trial. James O. Peckham studied the Nielson figures of more than 40 years and estimated that a new entry should be spending at approximately twice the desired market share. But the major question is what will be the profitable amount of spending on promotion of the new product.

In order to determine this, marketers often develop a payout plan that determines the investment value of the advertising and promotion appropriation. The basic idea is to project the revenues the product will generate, as well as the costs it will incur, over two to three years. Based on an expected rate of return, the payout plan will assist in determining how much advertising and promotions expenditure will be necessary when the return might be expected.

Competitive Framework

In a market with a large number of competitors and a high advertising spending, a brand must advertise more heavily to be heard.

Market Dominance, Market Coverage

To get a good market share in comparison to their competitors, the company should have a better product in terms of quality, uniqueness, demand and catchy advertisements with resultant response of the customers. All this is possible if the advertisement budget is high.

Despite the empirical relevance of advertising strategies in concentrated markets, the economics literature is largely silent on the effect of persuasive advertising strategies on pricing, market structure and increasing (or decreasing) dominance. In a simple model of persuasive advertising and pricing with differentiated goods, we analyze the interdependencies between ex-ante asymmetries in consumer appeal, advertising and prices. Products with larger initial appeal to consumers will be advertised more heavily but priced at a higher level that is, advertising and price discounts are strategic substitutes for products with asymmetric initial appeal. We find that the escalating effect of advertising dominates the moderating effect of pricing so that post-competition market shares are more asymmetric than pre-competition differences in consumer appeal. We further find that collusive advertising (but competitive pricing) generates the same market outcomes, and that network effects lead to even more extreme market outcomes, both directly and via the effect on advertising.

Media Cost

Media cost is the price you pay display, run, or present your advertisement or campaign during a specified date range or campaign period. There are many different ways to price media including points, impressions, flips, clicks, leads, actions, days, weeks, months, etc. Media Cost excludes the cost to create the advertisement (copy or artwork) and other costs.

Market Task

Marketing management has to do a set of tasks necessary for success in marketing. The basic tasks of marketing are as follows:

• Develop marketing strategies and plans
• Creating marketing information system
• Build customer relationship
• Build strong brands
• Determine marketing mix
• Deliver value
• Communicate value
• Create long-term growth
• Implementation and control

Pricing

Advertising costs are a type of financial accounting that covers expenses associated with promoting an industry, entity, brand, product, or service. They cover ads in print media and online venues, broadcast time, radio time, and direct mail advertising.

Advertising costs will in most cases fall under sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses on a company’s income statement. They are sometimes recorded as a prepaid expense on the balance sheet and then moved to the income statement when sales that are directly related to those costs come in.

Advertising costs are typically not a surprise to a business owner. In fact, many will have budgeted for a certain amount of advertising costs. The U.S. Small Business Administration notes that most companies set their marketing budget based on revenues.

Frequency of Purchase

Purchase Frequency is the number of times an average customer purchases a good or service from your store in a specified time period.

Purchase Frequency = No. orders / No. unique customers

Remember that some businesses won’t typically have people buying from them regularly. Online stores that sell larger, high-value goods can expect to have a lower Purchase Frequency than businesses selling consumable products.

Reasons:

Repeat shoppers drive business success. One of the most common mistakes businesses make is constantly chasing new customers. Why is this a mistake? While new customers are important, it’s your existing customers who drive the success of your business. There are two main reasons for this. Repeat customers are cheaper and easier to acquire than new shoppers. According to one estimate, trying to recruit one new customer costs up to five times more than nurturing an existing one. Second, engaged and retained customers are your best fans and biggest advocates! That same research study found that loyal customers spend 60% more than one-off customers, and are five times more likely to share positive word of mouth messages about your business. If your customers are busy recruiting new customers on your behalf, it means you don’t have to! So, keeping your existing customers coming back time after time makes sense for your bottom line.

It helps you to understand how to drive profitability. You have two main routes for increasing sales among your existing market: you can either attempt to encourage your customers to buy more with each visit, which is known as increasing the average order value, or you can attempt to get your customers to shop more frequently with you. Until you know how frequently your customers are already purchasing from you, it’s impossible to choose the best possible route.

It helps you segment your market and structure your marketing strategy around your segments’ habits. After decades of research, supermarkets know that they can essentially segment their customers into two types based on their habits: weekly shoppers, who try to grab everything they need for the week in one go, and top-up shoppers, who might also do a weekly, or even a monthly shop, but who pop in to buy the odd item they need here and there. Knowing the distinction is important there is little need in trying to tempt top-up shoppers into greater purchasing frequency with bulk discount deals, for instance. By combining knowledge about how often your customers are purchasing with demographic and other information about your customers’ buying behavior, you can perform a segmentation analysis that can help you create highly targeted, powerful marketing campaigns.

It’s the basis for deeper understanding into your operations. While customer purchasing frequency is a simple metric, it holds the key to much deeper analysis that can help you optimize your processes. For example, starting with frequency of purchase data, you can pinpoint the exact days of the week and times of the day when the most profitable purchasing takes place vital information for smoothing inventory management and supply chain operations. You can also identify those customers that contribute the most to your overall revenues and profitability, and develop appropriate methods to reward them.

Defining the Target Group

Identifying your target audience is essential in developing an effective media strategy. In addition to understanding identifying your target audience is essential in developing an effective media strategy. In addition to understanding your audience’s key demographic traits, really dive deep to try to get to know and understand your target audience. Ask yourself these questions:

• Where and how do they spend most of their time?
• What does a typical day look like for them?
• What are their fears?
• What are their interests?
• What media channels do they use?

Have clear objectives for making media

Objectives are even more specific than your goals. Objectives need to be SMART:

S: Specific

M: Measurable

A: Achievable

R: Realistic

T: Time-bound

Market Prioritization

Project prioritization is the process that helps you take on the work that will influence your marketing goals most effectively.

Here are some examples:

• Your regular content marketing brainstorming process
• Notes from customer support and sales teams
• Trending or up-and-coming topics and audience challenges
• Competitor’s content (or gaps in their content)

Chances are, you have a new idea in your head, inbox, or whiteboard more often than you can handle. This is where a project prioritization matrix comes in.

A project prioritization matrix is a decision-making tool that can be used in any type of project management.

Audience Profiling

After you have identified your target audience and participant communities, create a profile for each that includes details such as:

• Demographics: Race, gender, ethnicity, age, education, religion.
• Geography: Local, national, international, remote, urban, rural.
• Attitudes: How do they perceive the issue; how proactive they are? What would it take to get them to take action?
• Media habits: What media do they have access to, use and like?
• Culture: What is their cultural background, what languages do they speak or read?

Media Weights

Media weight is a term used in advertising to refer to the size of the audience reached by an advertising campaign. Media weight is determined by the number and placement of advertisements in media such as television commercials, online ads, or billboards.

Media weight is usually expressed in the form of GRP’s (Gross rating Points), AOTS (Average opportunity to see) and reach of target audience. The main use of media weights is to monitor how well the goals of a communication plan are being reached. There are different ways to measure media weight.

Measurement

The most important method in measuring media weight is analysis of past records. The analysis is done on basis of television, print and magazines reporting. Television spending’s are reported as TAM rates and print as card rates. TV spending’s can be analysed on the basis of program genre, channel type, time duration and total airtime. The print rate analysis is done on the basis of colour/monochrome, magazine, issue, placement of ad, month, and other variables.

Types of brands

Research carried out by John Philip Jones on the advertising of different brands in 23 countries found that the brands could be classified into two types: profitable brands and investor brands.

Profitable brands

These are brands that are advertised less in proportion to market share are categorized as profitable brands. These are brands which may have advertised many times previously but at present are enjoying higher market share with less advertising.

Investor brands

These are brands that are advertised more in proportion to market share. These brands tend to be newly introduced brands, which have less impact on the audience and are in the growth phase of their product lifecycle (PLC) curve.

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.

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.

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.

Integrated Media Work Harder

The components of a media mix are more effective when they are integrated. The benefit of an integrated campaign is that the media mix is more effective when the components work together and communicate consistent messages each time, according to MMC Learning. In practical terms, that means using the same creative themes and marketing messages across all elements of your media mix. Prospects viewing an advertisement, website page, direct mail piece or product guide from an integrated campaign would receive consistent messages, with each element of the mix reinforcing the others.

Media Scheduling

Media Scheduling refers to the pattern of timing of an advertising which is represented as plots on a flowchart on a yearly basis. The plots in the flowchart indicate the pattern of periods that matches with favorable selling periods. The classical scheduling models are commonly known as continuity, fighting, and pulsing.

Media scheduling depends upon a number of factors such as:

• The nature of product: Whether it is consumer usable, durables or industrial.
• The nature of sales: Whether the sales is seasonal or regular.
• The product lifecycle: Whether the product introduction is in growth, maturity or decline.
• The pattern of competitor’s programs.
• The entry of new competitors in the market.
• The availability of funds for advertising and marketing campaigns.

Types of Scheduling:

The advertiser has to consider two types of media scheduling problems:

Macro-scheduling:

The macro-scheduling involves allocating advertising expenditure and frequency (repetition/reproduction of message) in relation to season or broad picture of business cycle. The macro-scheduling problem concerns with how to schedule advertising in relation to seasonal and business cycle trends.

The broad picture of seasonal and/or cyclical trend is considered. This is due to the fact that the demand is fluctuated as per seasons and/or business cycle. Therefore, it is desirable to vary advertising expenditures to follow seasonal patterns. Company, as per its calculation, can spend more or less during the season or particular phase of business cycle.

According to experts, advertising does not have immediate impact on consumer awareness, sales, or profits.

So, one should study relationship between:

(1) Timing of advertising and consumer awareness,

(2) Consumer awareness and impact on sales, and

(3) Sales and advertising expenditure.

Advertising timing should be adjusted as per time gap exists between advertising time and its impact. Computer-based mathematical model can be formulated to study these time relations. Advertiser has to decide on advertising time for different types of products, such as frequently purchased, seasonal products, and low-cost daily consumed products. Along with seasonal or cyclical aspect, an advertiser should also consider impact of the past advertising. Many consumers continue buying even without the present advertisement.

Micro-scheduling:

The micro-scheduling problem concerns with allocating advertising expenditure and frequency within a short period to obtain the maximum response or impact. In other words, the problem deals with how to distribute advertising expenditure within the given time.

For example, a company has decided to advertise specific message 60 times (that requires approximately Rs. 500000) through daily regional newspapers in a year. Now the question is to decide on which days/weeks/months/seasons the 60 times advertisement is to be allocated. Similarly, the same issue is related to radio or television spots.

Alternative Scheduling Strategies:

A company has following alternative scheduling strategies to decide on micro-scheduling:

1. Continuous Advertising:

This scheduling involves advertising the message evenly throughout a given period. For example, if company wants 48 television/radio spots, it will advertise 4 times in a month or once in a week, or on every Monday.

2. Concentrated Advertising:

This scheduling involves giving all the advertisement in a single period. Thus, the concentrated advertising means to spend the entire advertising budget within one flight. It is applicable when product is sold in one season, event, festival or holiday. For example, the company advertises 48 spots within four days during Diwali festivals, 12 times a day.

3. Fighting Advertising:

This scheduling involves giving advertisement at specific intervals. Company advertises for some period, followed by break of no advertisement, followed by the second flight of advertisement and likewise. Company with seasonal, cyclical, or infrequently purchase products follows such scheduling. Company with a limited fund prefers to advertise during a specific season or festival only.

4. Pulsing Advertising:

This scheduling is the combination of both continuous and fighting advertisements. It includes continuous advertising at low-weight level, reinforced periodically by waves of heavier activity. In other words, the company spends certain portion of advertising fund for continuous advertising, and the remaining fund for fighting advertisement.

For example, the company may advertise once in a day with a brief advertisement message. And, its detail advertisement appears for a week regularly after every three months. This timing is preferred by the financially sound companies.

Factors Affecting Advertising Scheduling:

The allocation of advertising expenditure/frequency over time depends on advertising objectives, nature of product, type of target customers, distribution channel, and other relevant marketing factors. But, mostly, following five factors are considered to decide on the timing pattern.

Turnover:

It shows the rate at which new buyers enter the market. The rule is, the higher the rate of buyer turnover, the more continuous the advertisement should be.

Purchase Frequency:

It shows the number of times during the specific period that the average buyer buys the product. The common rule is, the higher the purchase frequency, the more continuous the advertisement should be.

Forgetting Rate:

It shows the rate at which the buyer forgets the brand. The rule is, the higher the forgetting rate, the more continuous the advertisement should be.

Financial Condition of Company:

It shows an ability of a company to spend for advertisement. The rule is, the more is the ability to spend, the more continuous the advertisement will be.

Level of Competition:

Company facing a severe market competition will opt for more continuous advertisement through multiple media. The rule is, the more is the intensity of competition, the higher the frequency of advertisement will be.

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 behavior 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.

• Where is the place for showing or delivering advertisement. In short it means the geographical area from where it should be visible to the customers who use or are most likely to use the product or services offered. The place does not mean only TV or radio but it can also be newspapers, blogs, sponsorships, hoardings on roads, ads in the movie break in theatres, etc. The area varies from place to place like it can be on national basis, state basis and for local brands it can be on city basis.
• When is the timing to show or run advertisement. For e.g. you cannot show a raincoat ad in the winter season but you need to telecast ad as soon as the summer season is coming to an end and rainy season is just about to begin. The ad should be delivered with perfect timing when most customers are like to buy the product. The planners need to plan it keeping the budget in mind as the maximum of 20% of revenues of the company can be used in the advertisement section. Different products have different time length for advertisements. Some products need year long ads as they have nothing to do with seasonal variations e.g. small things like biscuits, soaps, pens, etc and big services like vehicle insurance, refrigerators, etc. Some products need for three or four months. E.g. umbrellas, cold creams, etc. So the planners have to plan the budget according to the time length so that there is no short of money at any time in this process.

There are basically two media approaches to choose from.

• Media Concentration approach
• Media Dispersion Approach

In media concentration approach, the number of categories of media is less. The money is spent on concentrating on only few media types say two or three. This approach is generally used for those companies who are not very confident and have to share the place with the other competitors. They don’t want anyone to get confused with their brand name so this is the safest approach as the message reaches the target consumers.

In media dispersion approach, there are a greater number of categories of media used to advertise. This approach is considered and practiced by only those people who know that a single or two types of media will not reach their target. They place their product ads in many categories like TV, radio, internet, distributing pamphlets, sending messages to mobiles, etc.

Selection of Media Category

Whichever category is selected by the planners of the organization, they should select a proper media to convey their message.

If the product is for a big amount of customers then a mass media option can be selected like TV, radio or newspaper. The best examples for this type are detergent ads, children health drinks and major regular used products such as soap, shampoo, toothpastes etc.

If the planners want to change the mind of people doing window shopping or just doing shopping for sake of name, then point of purchase type can be opted by the company. This helps the company to explain their point to the buyers and convince the buyers to go for their product.

If the planners want to sell their product on one to one basis, then the third option is direct response type. Here, the company people directly contact the customers via emails, text messages, phone calls or meeting for giving demos. The best example of this type of media is the Life cell Cord Blood Banking. They go to their customers, explain them what it is all about and try to convince them.

Thus, this process of media strategy plays an important and vital role in the field of Advertising.

Types of media strategies

Understanding the different types of media strategy is key when deciding which one to implement to achieve your desired outcome. The following are the primary types of media strategies:

Media concentration strategy

A media concentration strategy is an approach that focuses only on a select few types of media to reach a distinct target audience. Whereas some other media strategies incorporate the use of several media types, a media concentration approach narrows down the types of media used based on a specific target audience’s trend. For example, a company may choose to only advertise or market on a specific social media platform rather than divvying up its resources to market on multiple social media platforms.

This type of strategy is ideal for companies that only want to attract a particular audience rather than a broader customer base. For example, a company that makes pool tables likely doesn’t want to market to a broad audience as many people aren’t in the market for purchasing a pool table. So, the company is more likely to use a media concentration strategy to reach a select group of consumers the company knows is interested in purchasing this type of product.

Media dispersion strategy

A media dispersion strategy is an approach that uses a large variety of media types to reach a broad audience. This approach is most frequently used when a company’s target audience can’t be reached by marketing on only a few media platforms. A company using a media dispersion approach may place advertisements in several different media categories such as radio, social media, television and search engines. Using this strategy allows a business to reach a mass audience that may or may not be interested in its goods or services.

Earned media strategy

An earned media strategy refers to a marketing and advertising approach that aims to gain media or publicity organically. This is considered one of the best types of media strategies because it requires no payment or commission and is generated by a third party. Earned media strategies work because they increase trust in a brand or company through the promotion of that brand or company by others or third-party credibility. For example, a customer is more likely to purchase a product they see their favorite social media influencer using than they are a product they see a paid ad for.

Paid media strategy

A paid media strategy refers to a media approach in which the company promotes its content, services or goods through paid advertisements. These paid ads can be placed on various platforms, including social media, TV and radio. For example, pay-per-click advertising is a type of paid media that charges the company a small fee every time a user clicks on its ad.

Other examples of paid media include:

• Paid ad placements
• Branded content
• Display ads
• Influencer collaborations

Owned media strategy

An owned media strategy refers to an approach in which a company uses its own media to advertise or market its products or services. For example, posting information about an upcoming product launch on your company’s blog is a type of owned media strategy. Owned media is any online property that is owned by the company or brand. Examples of owned media include social media platforms, websites and blogs. Having more owned media channels allows a company to have a larger digital footprint and reach more potential customers.

Need for Media Strategy

Definition of the target audience. An insufficiently thorough approach to this stage threatens the failure of the entire advertising campaign. The target audience should be determined very accurately. It depends on how effective the tactics of action will be. And additional differentiation of the target audience into target groups will help to direct the advertising campaign even more precisely.

Analysis. At this stage, competitor strategies, market conditions and consumer behavior are analyzed. However, it should be understood that it is not always possible to obtain such information. Sometimes it’s extremely difficult to guess how a competitor or a consumer acts. As a result, either an incomplete or a not entirely relevant picture is formed. But research in this area allows you to adjust the media strategy taking into account the behavior of the main players in the market.

The place of the advertising campaign, or the choice of communication channels. The choice of a communication channel for an advertising should take into account the following factors:

• Weaknesses and strengths of a particular channel;
• Possibilities of a communication channel for solving tasks;
• Features and specifics of the promoted product or service;
• Budget size.

It’s not easy to choose from the variety of channels those that most closely meet your goal. For this, there is not always all the necessary data.

Budget management for the implementation of the media strategy. The formation of a media strategy should be built in strict accordance with the funds allocated for promotion. In this case, it is necessary to select from possible methods those that are able to convey information to consumers most effectively. Media strategy should be part of the brand’s overall communication strategy.

Situation Analysis for Media Strategy and its Components

The definition of a situation analysis refers to a set of methods that marketing managers use to analyze a company’s internal and external environment to understand the organization’s capabilities, customers, and business environment.

Your marketing plan is critical and the importance of situational analysis in your marketing plan is paramount.

Situation analysis refers to a collection of methods that managers use to analyze an organization’s internal and external environment to understand the organization’s capabilities, customers, and business environment. The situation analysis consists of several methods of analysis: The 5Cs Analysis, SWOT analysis and Porter five forces analysis. A Marketing Plan is created to guide businesses on how to communicate the benefits of their products to the needs of potential customer. The situation analysis is the second step in the marketing plan and is a critical step in establishing a long term relationship with customers.

Marketing Plan

• Introduction
• Situation analysis
• Objectives
• Budgeting
• Strategy
• Execution
• Evaluation

5C Analysis

While a situation analysis is often referred to as the “3C analysis“, the extension to the 5c analysis has allowed businesses to gain more information on the internal, macro-environmental and micro-environmental factors within the environment. The 5C analysis is considered the most useful and common way to analyze the market environment, because of the extensive information it provides.

Company

The company analysis involves evaluation of the company’s objectives, strategy, and capabilities. These indicate to an organization the strength of the business model, whether there are areas for improvement, and how well an organization fits the external environment.

• Goals & Objectives: An analysis on the mission of the business, the industry of the business and the stated goals required to achieve the mission.
• Position: An analysis on the Marketing strategy and the Marketing mix.
• Performance: An analysis on how effective the business is achieving their stated mission and goals.
• Product line: An analysis on the products manufactured by the business and how successful it is in the market.

Competitors

The competitor analysis takes into consideration the competitors position within the industry and the potential threat it may pose to other businesses. The main purpose of the competitor analysis is for businesses to analyze a competitor’s current and potential nature and capabilities so they can prepare against competition. The competitor analysis looks at the following criteria:

• Identify competitors: Businesses must be able to identify competitors within their industry. Identifying whether competitors provide the same services or products to the same customer base is useful in gaining knowledge of direct competitors. Both direct and indirect competitors must be identified, as well as potential future competitors.
• Assessment of competitors: The competitor analysis looks at competitor goals, mission, strategies and resources. This supports a thorough comparison of goals and strategies of competitors and the organization.
• Predict future initiatives of competitors: An early insight into the potential activity of a competitor helps a company prepare against competition.

Customers

Customer analysis can be vast and complicated. Some of the important areas that a company analyzes includes:

Demographics

• Advertising that is most suitable for the demographic
• Market size and potential growth
• Customer wants and needs
• Motivation to buy the product
• Distribution channels (retail, online, wholesale, etc…)
• Quantity and frequency of purchase
• Income level of customer

Collaborators

Collaborators are useful for businesses as they allow for an increase in the creation of ideas, as well as an increase in the likelihood of gaining more business opportunities. The following type of collaborators are:

• Agencies: Agencies are the middlemen of the business world. When businesses need a specific worker who specializes in the trade, they go to a recruitment agency.
• Suppliers: Suppliers provide raw materials that are required to build products. There are 7 different types of Suppliers: Manufacturers, wholesalers, merchants, franchisors, importers and exporters, independent crafts people and drop shippers. Each category of suppliers can bring a different skill and experience to the company.
• Distributors: Distributors are important as they are the ‘holding areas for inventory’. Distributors can help manage manufacturer relationships as well as handle vendor relationships.
• Partnerships: Business partners would share assets and liabilities, allowing for a new source of capital and skills.

Businesses must be able to identify whether the collaborator has the capabilities needed to help run the business as well as an analysis on the level of commitment needed for a collaborator-business relationship.

Climate

To fully understand the business climate and environment, many factors that can affect the business must be researched and understood. An analysis on the climate is also known as the PEST analysis. The types of climate/environment firms have to analyse are:

• Political and regulatory environment: An Analysis of how active the government regulates the market with their policies and how it would affect the production, distribution and sale of the goods and services.
• Economic Environment: An Analysis of trends regarding macroeconomics, such as exchange rates and inflation rate, can prove to influence businesses.
• Social/cultural environment: Interpreting the trends of society, which includes the study of demographics, education, culture etc…
• Technological analysis: An analysis of technology helps improve on old routines and suggest new methods for being cost efficient. To stay competitive and gain an advantage over competitors, businesses must sufficiently understand technological advances.

Media Strategy Components

These are the steps involved in creating your media plan:

Research and Identify Your Target Market: Take the demographics of your target audience into consideration. The more you know about your target market, the more effective your overall marketing strategy will be. Identify your market, where and how they spend their time, and the media and messaging to most effectively reach them. For example, marketing through mobile apps and social media would be more effective to reach the teenage demographic than advertising in print and traditional media.

Set Measurable Objectives and Goals: Keep in mind your overall marketing objective and goals during the strategy creation process. These must be measurable and specific. Use the SMART method, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-Based. The simple goal to “Make more money” can be measured, but “Increase profits by 20% by Q3” is a much more specific goal and it offers a way to create a timeline that keeps you on track.

Determine Your Marketing Budget: The marketing budget is also part of your media strategy. Without a budget, it is possible to throw thousands of dollars at a problem and get no clear solution. Having a set budget encourages you to think each tactic through and be more creative in your problem-solving. It protects you from overspending or spending money you do not have. 

Craft Your Message: The marketing proposition is the customer problem your business will solve and how it will do it. The message is based on your research into what will appeal to the target audience. You can have different messages for different objectives, all tying into one theme. Remember to include a call-to-action.

Learn From Your Results: The most effective media strategies evolve over time. If you launch one strategy that doesn’t have the expected business results, your company can learn from where it went wrong and improve subsequent launches.

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising, also called outdoor advertising, outdoor media, and out-of-home media, is advertising experienced outside of the home. This includes billboards, wallscapes, and posters seen while “on the go;” it also includes place-based media seen in places such as convenience stores, medical centers, salons, and other brick-and-mortar venues.

OOH advertising formats fall into four main categories: billboards, street furniture, transit, and alternative.

The OOH advertising industry in the United States includes more than 2,100 operators in 50 states representing the major out of home format categories. These OOH media companies range from public, multinational media corporations to small, independent, family-owned businesses.

Digital out-of-home

Digital out-of-home (DOOH) refers to dynamic media distributed across place-based networks in venues including, but not limited to: cafes, grocery stores, bars, restaurants, health clubs, colleges, arenas, gas stations, convenience stores, barber shops, airports and public spaces. PQ Media defines DOOH by two major platforms, digital place-based networks (DPN) and digital billboards & signage (DBB); DOOH networks typically feature independently addressable screens, kiosks, jukeboxes and/or jumbotrons. DOOH media benefits location owners and advertisers alike in being able to engage customers and/or audiences and extend the reach and effectiveness of marketing messages. It is also referred to as digital signage.

DOOH includes stand-alone screens, screens on buildings, kiosks, and interactive media found in public places. The availability of inexpensive LCD screens with built-in media players has opened the door for companies to add interactive video messages in point of purchase (POP) displays. The displays allow consumers to get additional information at the moment of decision on a product or service. Growth in the DOOH industry has been increasing in 2009, with more POP manufacturers, advertisers, and content developers moving to digital. Technological improvements are holding down costs, and low-cost digital signage is making it easier to reach consumers on a larger scale. For example, beacons are small devices placed on out-of-home advertising structures that use Bluetooth technology to connect with mobile devices.

Types:

Aerial advertising: Aerial advertising includes towing banners via a fixed-wing aircraft as well as airships like blimps and other airborne inflatables above beaches, events and gridlock traffic.

Billboard bicycle is a new type of mobile advertising in which a bike tows a billboard with an advertising message. This method is a cost-efficient, targeted, and environmentally-friendly form of advertising.

Brochure Distribution: Information displays in public gathering spaces such as transportation centers, lodging facilities, visitor centers, attractions, and retail environments are targeted methods to distribute effective messaging to a targeted audience. This method is slightly different from traditional OOH as the consumer self-selects the messaging material, and can take that message with them.

Billboard: Billboards (or Bulletins) are usually located in highly visible, heavy traffic areas such as expressways, primary arterials, and major intersections. In the US bulletins are usually illuminated. The ad artwork, commonly digitally printed on large vinyl-coated fabric membranes, is often “rotated” by the outdoor plant operator amongst several locations in a metropolitan area to achieve the desired reach of the population as defined in the sales contract. With extended periods of high visibility, billboard advertisements provide advertisers with significant impact on commuters. This is the largest standard out of home advertising format, usually measuring at 14ftx48ft in overall size. Vinyl decals allowing use of windows, on a side and rear advertisement for alcohol on a Berlin bus

Bus advertising: Firmly establish brand awareness and generate quick recall with high-profile exposure near point of purchase locations.

Commuter rail display: Reaches a captive audience of upscale suburban commuters. Additionally, reaches lunch-time patrons, shoppers and business professionals.

ComPark advertising: ComPark is a device used for car park advertising, which is placed onto the parallel lines of a bay and is able to gain instant exposure from motorists that have parked their vehicle. The ComPark also serves as a guide to assist motorist in adhering to the parking bay size.

Gas Station Pump Top Advertising: Printed Signage is inserted into sign holder frames above the Pumps. These are called Pump Top advertising and are generally eye-level height. Average dwell time for customers to refuel their vehicle is 3-5 minutes which make this form of advertising very effective to reach automobile drivers.

Inflatable billboard: Similar to regular 2D billboard, but imposed on 3D object. Best used to market physical products rather than services. A cost-effective approach that is able to achieve high brand awareness and increase product purchases.

Lamppost banner advertising: Lamp columns are sited everywhere, allowing advertisers and events to use banners to target precise geographical locations and create massive promotional awareness.

Mobile billboard: Mobile billboards offer a great degree of flexibility to advertisers. These advertisements can target specific routes, venue or events, or can be used to achieve market saturation. A special version is the inflatable billboard which can stand free nearly everywhere. This product can also be used for outdoor movie nights.

Poster: Target local audiences with these billboards, which are visible to vehicular traffic, and are ideal for the introduction of new products/services. Marketers use posters to achieve advertising objectives and increase brand awareness by placing multiple units in strategic locations while lowering the cost per thousand impressions. This is a standardized poster format, typically measuring 12’3″ x 24’6″; formally known as a 30-Sheet Poster.

Premier panel: Premiere panels combine the frequency and reach of a poster campaign with the creative impact of a bulletin.

Premier square: Bright top and bottom illumination on a premiere panel provide extra impact after dark.

Street advertising: The use of pavements and street furniture to create media space for brands to get their message onto the street in a cost-effective approach.

Taxi advertising: Taxi advertising allows advertisers to highlight their products, whether brand awareness, or a targeted message, directly to areas where people work, shop, and play.

Wallscape: Wallscapes are attached to buildings and are able to accommodate a wide variety of unusual shapes and sizes. These billboard advertisements are visible from a distance and provide impact in major metro areas.

Aircraft Advertising: Aircraft advertising includes product or service branding inside and outside the aircraft. This includes wrapping the aircraft with printed SAVs, baggage tag branding, boarding pass branding, tray table branding and more.

Walking Billboards: These billboards are strapped on to the human shoulder and are carried along the targeted geographic area. These billboard advertisements are also visible during night.[citation needed] It helps the local advertisers as it is very cost effective and can be geographically targeted to a particular area.

Other types of non-digital OOH advertising include airport displays, transit and bus-shelter displays, headrest displays, double-sided panels, junior posters and mall displays.

Factors Affecting OOH Planning Decision

1. Plan a budget

Budget is the base of all your advertising plans, it can range from small to very large and is dependent on the type of marketing you want for your product. Making a proper budget plan for the advertisement helps you select the right media and locations you will be using for your outdoor advertisement.

2. Know the target market

Identify your target consumer and start advertising from there. For example, if you are selling clothing for working women, start from those areas which have most of the offices of the city. Outdoor advertising companies will advise their clients about the geographical facts that can decide a successful marketing campaign. Advertising a product on a very large scale yet still unable to find an increasing demand in the consumer market? This is usually the result of neglecting to analyze where your target market is and missing the opportunity to best to communicate your message to the targeted, potential consumer.

3. Collect information about your competitor’s strategies

Find out who your competition is, and who’s already advertising a similar product or service that may have the same appearance as your brand. Then research and analyze them to get useful information. What outdoor advertising strategies are they using? What kind of messages are they conveying? Are these messages precise or are they suggestive? What types of illustrations and visuals and are being used? Understanding your competitors will help you boost the effectiveness of your outdoor advertising campaign.

4. Consider offering promotional incentives

Offers that announce discounts or prizes can be likely to get more attention. Examples include offering prizes for the first few customers, discounts for repeat customers, or cash-based referrals for referring a friend or neighbor. Always be cautious when using this technique though as not to “cheapen” your brand.

Advantages

Outdoor advertising offers a number of advantages as depicted as under:

• Frequency: Because purchase cycles are typically for 30-day periods, consumers are usually exposed a number of times, resulting in high levels of frequency.
• Wide coverage of local markets: With proper replacement, a broad base of exposure is possible in local markets, with both day and night presence.
• Geographic flexibility: Outdoor advertising can be placed along highways, near stores, or on mobile billboards, almost anywhere that law permits. Local, regional, or even national markets may be covered.
• Ability to create awareness: Because of its impact (and the need for a simple message), outdoor can lead to a high level of last minute awareness and reminder of a product.
• Creativity: Outdoor ads can be very creative. Large prints, colours, and other elements attract attention.
• Efficiency: Outdoor usually has a very competitive cost per thousand measures when compared to other media.
• Production capabilities: Modern technologies have reduced production time for an outdoor advertising to allow for rapid turnaround time.
• Effectiveness: Outdoor advertising can often lead to increased sales, particularly when combined with a promotional program.

Limitations

• Limited message capabilities: Because of the speed with which most people pass by outdoor ads, exposure time is short, so messages are limited to a few words, and/or an illustration. Lengthy appeals are not likely to be effective.
• Waste coverage: While it is possible to reach very specific audiences, in many cases the purchase of outdoor advertising results in a high degree of waste coverage. It is not likely that everyone driving past a billboard is part of the target market.
• Wear out: Because of the high frequency of exposures, outdoor advertising may lead to a quick wear out. People are likely to get tired of seeing the same ad every day. Moreover, because of the severe weather conditions, the life of the outdoor banners and posters is generally very short.
• Measurement problems: One of the more difficult problems of outdoor advertising lies in the accuracy of measuring reach, frequency, and other effects.
• Cost: Because of the decreasing signage available and the higher cost associated with inflatable, outdoor advertising can be expensive in both an absolute and a relative sense.
• Image problems: Outdoor advertising has suffered some image problems as well as some disregard among consumers. People do not consider this medium a very authentic and prestigious. So, most of the renowned companies do not use this medium for advertising their products.
• Legal constraints: This medium also confronts lots of legal problems from time to time.

Television has often been referred to as the ideal advertising medium, and to many people it personifies the glamour and excitement of the industry. Radio, on the other hand, does not enjoy much of a respect from many advertisers. Dominated by network programming and national advertisers before the growth of TV, radio has evolved into a primarily local advertising medium.

Radio advertising sales represent the sale of airtime on local radio organizations, typically to local businesses and nonprofit organizations. This type of advertising is one of the oldest forms of business advertising. Different factors can affect radio advertising sales made to businesses, and many of these factors depend on the local market and radio station. These factors include time of advertisements, competition with other stations, types of advertisements available and cost of advertisements. Other economic factors might result in times of greater or lesser sales, just like with any other business.

Factors:

Radio Advertising Cost 1: Time and frequency

The time of day and frequency of playing your ad are important factors for radio advertising costs.

Time

A 15-second ad played during prime hours may cost the same as a 60-second ad played outside of peak periods. Keep in mind the morning and evening hours are more expensive than airtime in the middle of the day since many listeners turn on their radios during their commute.

Because the size of the radio audience changes drastically during the day, the radio rates will reflect the number of listeners you are expected to reach at any given time. For instance, during the midday, or from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., there may be few employed listeners tuning in to the radio station. This situation is because many people do not listen to the radio while at work.

The best airtimes to maximize the size of your audience are from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., and 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. After this hour, people tend to switch to television time. Note that radio stations often provide their audience data when you enquire about the slot you are interested in taking.

Aside from the time slot, another factor that may cause a price surge is when there are events in your area, such as festivals or elections. Many companies or candidates may want to advertise during these times, so expect to shell out extra money during these times.

Frequency

Another factor that will affect your radio advertising costs is the frequency of playing your ad. The key to a successful ad campaign is consistency. If your target audience only hears your ad once, it may not stick in their mind. If you want to engage current and future customers, your ad should run regularly over a suitable period of time. This tip will not only lead to increased foot traffic but also improved social media statistics.

Most brands use the 21/52 strategy, which specifies that your ad should run 21 times per week throughout the year. By following this, you will have around 1,100 opportunities to connect with your audience in the span of one year.

Radio Advertising Cost 2: The Market

One of the major factors that can affect your radio advertising costs is the radio market size of your preferred station. This consideration covers the surrounding area and communities, as well as the households and listeners that tune in to a particular station.

If you run a marketing campaign in large cities such as New York, expect to pay a higher fee compared to fees in a small town. When a radio station has a broader reach, this larger audience commands higher advertising costs.

Radio Advertising Cost 3: Ad quality

When it comes to your radio advertising costs, you get what you pay for. This factor is not only true when it comes to the time slot, but also your radio ad quality. The efficiency of the production, creative side, copy, and even call to action of your radio ad will significantly impact its effectiveness in urging customers to act. Your radio ad should be consistent across all marketing channels. So, it is highly recommended that you invest in hiring experienced professionals that can tailor your ads perfectly to your goals and vision.

Radio Advertising Cost 4: Regional rates

You may run your radio ad on local stations and pay less because they do not have the same number of listeners compared to a national radio station. If you have a small local business, there is no need to invest in national exposure. You just have to shoulder the flat rate of the local radio advertising costs. Because of this, you can run radio ads even if you’re on a tight budget.

Radio Advertising Cost 5: Negotiating Factors

When considering radio advertising costs, what you see isn’t always what you get. In other words, keep in mind that prices can be negotiable. For example, a local radio station might give you a larger discount if you commit to running an ad for a longer period.

Advantages of Radio Advertising

Radio has many advantages over other media, including cost and efficiency, selectivity, flexibility, mental imagery, integrated marketing opportunities etc. Some of the important ones are listed as under:

Selectivity: Another major advantage of radio is the high degree of audience selectivity available through the various program formats and geographic coverage of the numerous stations. Radio lets companies focus their advertising on specialized audiences such as certain demographic and lifestyle groups. Most areas have radio stations, which format such programs as adult contemporary, classical music, news, talk shows, top 20, to name a few. Some of the radio programs are meant exclusively for women and children. This provides radio geographic selectivity as well as target audience selectivity.

Cost and efficiency: One of the main strengths of radio as an advertising medium is its low-cost. Radio commercials are very inexpensive to produce. They require only a script of the commercial to be read by the radio announcers or a copy of the pre-recorded message that can be broadcast by the station. The cost for radio time is also low. The low cost of radio means advertisers can build more reach and frequency into their media schedule within a certain budget. Radio commercials can be produced more quickly than TV spots, and the companies can run them more often.

Flexibility: Radio is probably the most flexible of all the advertising media because it has a very short closing period, which means advertisers can change their message almost up to the time it goes on the air. Radio commercials can usually be produced and scheduled on a very short notice. Radio advertisers can easily adjust their messages to local market conditions and marketing situations.

Mental imagery: A potential advantage of radio that is often overlooked is that it encourages listeners to use their imagination when processing a commercial message. While the creative options of radio are limited, many advertisers take advantage of the absence of a visual element to let consumers create their own picture of what is happening in the radio message. Radio may also reinforce television messages through a technique called image transfer, where the images of a TV commercial are implanted into a radio spot. The idea is that when consumers hear the radio message, they will make the connection to a TV commercial, reinforcing its video images. Image transfer offers advertisers a way to make radio and TV ads work together synergistically.

Widest possible geographic coverage: Radio can and does reach almost every where, in India. Even at those places, where there is no television connectivity, people cannot read and write, still, they do have a radio or a transistor with the help of which they connect themselves with the rest of the world. This makes radio a truly mass media.

Mobility: Radio is extremely mobile. It follows the listener’s from room to room, goes to the beach, and rides in the car. There are few places it cannot go. It can even follow workers to their place of business.

Integrated marketing opportunities: Radio provides marketers with a variety of integrated marketing opportunities. Radio stations become an integral part of many communities, and the DJs and program hosts may become popular figures. Advertisers often use radio stations and personalities to enhance their involvement with a local market and to gain influence with their local retailers. Radio also works very effectively in conjunction with place-based/point-of-purchase promotions. Retailers often use onsite radio broadcasts, combined with special sales or promotions to attract consumers to their stores and get them to make a purchase. Live radio broad casts are also used in conjunction with events marketing.

Mass appeal: Radio as a medium is good for people from all the backgrounds, whether they are rich or poor, literate or illiterate, from every religion, caste, creed, or sex.

Sales promotion schemes: Radio is a very effective medium for the introduction of a new product, or a special announcement or for the promotion of a new sales promotion incentive.

Audio element: It depends solely on the spoken words in human voice. Listeners can hear the programs and the commercials, while doing other things such as driving a car or doing other household work. The touch of human voice also adds to the reception of radio commercials. Human voice has a warmth and persuasiveness in conveying a message that can be most effective. So, radio commercials call for least effort on the part of the target audience to listen to the commercials and get the message across.

Limitations of Radio Advertising

Several factors limit the effectiveness of radio as an advertising medium, among them, creative limitations, fragmentation, chaotic buying procedures, limited research data, limited listener attention, and clutter. Media planner must consider them in determining the role the medium will play in the advertising program.

Fragmentation: Another problem with radio is the high level of audience fragmentation due to the large number of stations. The percentage of the market tuned to any particular station is usually very small. The top-rated radio station in many major metropolitan areas with a number of AM and FM stations may attract less than 10 percent of the total listening audience. Advertisers that want a broad reach in their radio advertising media schedule have to buy time on a number of stations to cover even a local market.

Creative limitations: A major drawback of radio as an advertising medium is the absence of a visual image. The radio advertiser cannot show the product, demonstrate it, or use any type of visual appeal or information. A radio commercial is, like a TV ad, a short lived and fleeting message that is externally placed and does not allow receiver to control the rate at which it is processed. Because of these creative limitations, many companies tend to ignore radio, and agencies often assign junior people to the development of radio commercials.

Limited research data: Audience research data on radio are often limited, particularly compared with TV, magazines, or newspapers. Most radio stations are small operators and lack the revenue to support detailed studies of their audiences. And most users of radio are local companies that cannot support research on radio listenership in their markets. Thus, media planners do not have as much audience information available to guide them in their purchase of radio time as they do with other media.

Clutter: Clutter is just as much a problem with radio as with other advertising media. Most radio stations carry an average of nearly 10 minutes of commercials every hour. During the popular morning and evening rush hours, the amount of commercial time may exceed to 12 minutes. Also contributing to the clutter problem is the practice of some stations to offer “commercial-free” blocks of music to attract listeners.

Limited listener attention: Another problem that affects radio is that it is difficult to retain listener attention to commercials. Radio programming, particularly music, is often the background to some other activity and may not receive the listeners’ full attention. Thus, they may miss some or all of the commercials. One environment where radio has a more captive audience is in cars. But getting listeners to pay attention to commercials can still be difficult.

Transient Quality: Radio, like any time medium, is fleeting. The message is not available for reference or for rereading.

Keeping your finger on the pulse of your competition is one of the best ways to learn what works and what doesn’t. How successful are they in using certain channels? Chances are, they’re after the same demographic you are, right? Learn from them and make yours better.

Digital trends come and go. Instagram and Vine were extremely useful for many brands, but that doesn’t mean they were right for yours. Hang back and see what works for others before you spend money that could be wasteful.

Once you understand the pros and cons to various media, you can better determine what is right for your target consumer. Print ads in the paper will probably never be seen by a millennial, for example, who goes first to digital content. Whereas a baby boomer may not catch that Pinterest ad you’re running. Research, investigate, test. Then you’ll determine the right mix for your campaign.

Honest considerations about your product and brand.

• Budget carefully. Figure out how much money you’re working with. This will help you narrow down and prioritize the channels that will give you the best ROI.
• But know that just spending lots of money won’t automatically bring high results. The most important factor weighing on your campaign is the message. Invest in good branding and writing so that your ads have substance.
• Understand and define your product, brand, and value proposition. This will help you craft a message that speaks to who you are.
• Know your audience. Know not just who they are and where they shop, but also what they value so that your message reflects those same values.
• Know where your competitors are advertising. This can give you an indication of where you yourself may get the best ROI.
• Set realistic goals and then measure them. There’s no better way to refine your marketing strategy than by monitoring your results and implementing the findings on future campaigns.

Strategy:

Find the Right Media Mix

Using multiple advertising mediums to promote your products and services is often a great idea for a campaign, but it’s important to get that mix right. Different combinations work better with different audiences. It’s essential that you understand your target audience to determine what media mix to use to use. The choices you make in your media strategy will determine how successful you are with your advertising strategy.

Here are two key thoughts for guidance with your eventual media mix:

1) Defining your target audience with a reasonable amount of certainty.

2) Backing up your choices of media with accurate and current data of your audience’s media consumption habits.

Define the target audience

Defining the target audience for your product or service should take into account basic demographic data like gender, income, age, location and education levels. You should also know who are likely customers for your offering. Your team can develop customer personas to further drill down on your likely target audience types.

Use good data to choose media targets

Collecting more data on your target audience increases your opportunities to see relevant media matches, across formats, platforms and time zones. This should be clean data. This data can include organic research, industry research, competitor audits and more. Learning how to gather, analyze and effectively use data is one of the most important tools in any digital marketer’s toolkit.

Check the data from media viewing research sites including comScore, Nielsen, and local network affiliates, depending on your product or service. Collect specific data on gender, income, and region. Using the right data can provide the insight needed to boost engagement among target audiences and increase return on investment (ROI).

Omnichannel approach

Marketers are increasingly adopting an omnichannel approach to online advertising. Instead of narrowly focusing on a few niche channels, advertisers are going wide across the board. This means using retargeting, web ads, email marketing, online display ads, direct mail, social media ad programs, and pay-per-click channels to gain the attention of online customers.

The ultimate goal in an omnichannel approach is to spread the touches with your customers. The more times they see your ads, the more attention you can bring to your product or service

Use different media effectively

Maybe your budget doesn’t allow for for a wide omnichannel approach. Maybe your target audience stays glued to YouTube sports clips every evening. You’ll find this out by analyzing the YouTube viewer data for your preferred target customer. If that’s the case, you can concentrate a portion of your ad spend on this particular platform.

The concept of Mass Communication entails the transmission of messages to a large number of assorted, heterogenous people who are anonymous. These recipients or receivers of the messages delivered through the process of Mass communication are also called the Audience.

The term Mass Media Audience is often identified by the choice of Media made by the Audience. For instance the Audience of a ‘Newspaper’ includes the readers of a Newspaper; the audience of a particular Author or a series of books like Harry Potter, are its readers from all across the world; the audience of an FM channel on Radio or a given Radio Station are its listeners who regularly tune into the channel; The audience of a given Television Channel or a News Channel are those who watch the particular channel or serial from all across the world; the same applies in todays context for OTT content (Over the Top Content) like Netflix and Amazon Prime, Hotstar, etc which are accessible on your mobiles or your laptops, etc. The audience downloads these apps for a price and starts watching programmes, movies or series of serials which are available for them on these applications.

The Mass Media Audience is often characterised by the term Mass which enumerates how a Mass Audience is. The term Mass can be identified here as a large number of people who are heterogenous, assorted and anonymous in nature.

‘Large’ here would mean a relatively big audience or people who are many in number. However, it does not include everyone. People have their own choices in the consumption of Mass mediated messages. The Mass Media audience could be a small community with a thousand listeners or a large audience with billions glued to watching the Football World Cup finals.

‘Assorted’ here would mean a varied lot. Mass Media Channels have a huge audience but they are often assorted and spread out. They need not always be accumulated in the same place. The audience for a particular Media channel can differ not just from place to place but even in the precincts of a house. For instance, the children in the house may only prefer to watch cartoons on a particular channel, however, the parents may want to watch news, sports or any other tele-serial. The audience is scattered. Children in different homes from all across India may be watching a particular cartoon. Due to satellite Technology, this serial could even have an audience across countries. They may or may not be from a particular geographical context. They are assorted and from different places. However, for a Mass Media channel like a Community Radio, the audience is normally a particular community of people to whom the channel caters.

As Marco Dohle (2008) writes on the topic ‘Audience’ in the book, ‘The international Encyclopedia of Communication- Vol 1’ Contrary to the traditional Audience, the mass media Audience is not assembled where the received contents take place or are produced. The audience of Mass media is dispersed: as a general rule, the individual audience members are spatially separated from each other or, at the most, assembled only in small groups (Co-viewing). The members of an audience do not know or see each other; they do not communicate with each other either. However, they are aware that they are not the only recipients of mass media content, but that co- audience exists.

‘Heterogeneous’ here would mean that the audience includes different types of people. A Mass Media channel may have viewers from rich or poor backgrounds, educated or uneducated based on the content, it could be youth or adults, bureaucrats or ordinary middle- class family members.

‘Anonymous’ would mean that the audience is nameless and unspecified.  While analysis can predict the number of hits a channel gets or the popularity a particular serial or book garners, once cannot identify the specific characteristic of every individual audience member. You may identify the place in which your audience exists but you will not be able to identify the person by his or her name. The Audience is Anonymous.

However, in some cases, in todays digital arena where the Mobiles have people’s identity registered, it is easier to recognise the Audience from the details fed into the App.

Another factor that accompanies the Mass Media Audience member is the fact that a particular Mass Media Consumer can be part of the News Paper audience, an avid book reader, and a particular tele-serial follower at the same time. Which means such a person categorises as an audience for a newspaper as much as he or she categorises as a book reader or a Particular tele serial audience.

Media Reach

The owners and producers of the mass media conceive the total population whom their communications can reach. The signals of All India Radio are available to about 95 per cent of the population living in about 85 per cent of the country’s area.

So, the total population of India may be treated as audience for All India Radio. Similarly, Doordarshan can claim more than 80 per cent of the population as its audience because its signals can reach that many people. For a newspaper, audience would be defined in terms of all individuals who are within the distribution range of the papers. For a cable TV system, the audience reach will include all residents within the wired area.

Media Access

Mass media may be available but the capacity or willingness tome the media may not be there. A large section of the population does not have the radio receivers or television sets. Thus, only those who own the radio sets may be treated as audiences of All India Radio. But access may not overlap ownership. In fact, there are many people who watch television programmes at the houses of neighbours or friends or in community centres. Groups watching a popular television programme at a television shop is a common sight.

Media Exposure

Everyone who has access to radio or television does not necessarily use them. In a family that subscribes to a newspaper, everyone does not read it. So only these individuals who actually expose themselves to the media are the media audiences.

Media Effects Another way to think about audiences is in terms of individuals who have been exposed to mass communication products and have undergone a change in their knowledge, opinions, attitude or behaviour. A person may not recall anything of the information received after listening or watching a news Programme. The same person, after watching an advertisement, may immediately rash to buy the advertised product. Voters generally do not change their voting preference after listening to election broadcasts by the representatives of political parties.

Mass Media Audience and the Social Context

The Social Context also plays an important role in defining some of the Audiences. Particular serials in particular languages or dialects or cultures are often aimed at a particular audience. McQuail says, “Actual audiences were shown to consist of many overlapping networks of social relations based on locality and common interests, and the mass media were incorporated into these networks in different ways. Many Media operate in local environments and are embedded in local cultures. Since most people make their own media choices freely, they do not feel manipulated by remote powers.”

The audience may be large and assorted, but may follow similar cultural contexts. For instance, some serials that are popular in the Hindi language in India are often dubbed in other languages for people’s consumption across India. And these have a varied Indian Audience who just the same identify with the Indian culture and its practices and context.

As McQuail says, “Audiences are both a product of social context, (which leads to shared cultural interests. Understandings and information needs) and a response to a particular pattern of media provision. Often, they are both at the same time, as when a medium sets out to appeal to the members of a social category or the residents of a certain place. Media use also reflects broader patterns of time use, availability, lifestyle and everyday routines”.

A Targeted ‘Mass Media Audience’

Another important factor, that one should remember is that Mass Media Content is often made keeping in mind a target audience. For instance, Harry Porter series was a huge craze among children and teens. Cartoons like Mickey Mouse or Duck tales are meant for Kids. In case of Mass Media like Television or Radio, we need to understand that Tele- serials are made keeping in mind the Audience of the place the serial is aired. Or the Music aired on particular Radio Channels are aimed at particular audiences.

Audience as Market

The Audience and its receptivity of a particular Media product decides the fate of that product. Thus, before producing a product or making a product for general consumption of the people, a lot of hard work and Money is spent on Target Analysis and ‘Audience Research’. Secondly, if a particular Media product has a huge audience, the Advertisement revenue garnered for this serial is also big. Which would mean, the audience is actually compelled to see a particular Advertisement, due to the popularity of the serial. We are prospective consumers being doled out to an Advertisement company for the sale of their products.

Keval J. Kumar (2010) in his book ‘Mass Communication in India’ says, “The primary objective of market research is to provide advertisers and advertising agencies with quantitative data about the access and exposure of selected (segmented) audiences to the various mass media or to their various components. Armed with such ‘reliable’ data (believed to be ‘scientifically’ collected), advertisers can ‘slot’ their advertising spots in newspapers or magazines with the highest readership among audiences that have a good purchasing power (often termed ‘target audience’) or on the radio or TV programmes which have the highest rating or even on websites, search engines, blogs and social networks hat have the highest number of ‘page-views’, ‘hits’ or ‘click throughs’.”

McQuail puts it rightly in his book ‘Mass communication theory,’ “In an innovative and sophisticated move, the Canadian Dallas Smythe gave birth to the theory that audiences actually work for advertisers (thus for their ultimate oppressors). They do so by giving their free time to watch media, which labour is then sold by the media to advertisers as a new kind of; commodity.’ The whole system of commercial television and the press rests on this extraction of surplus value from an economically exploited Audience. The same audience has to pay yet again for its media, by way of the extra cost added to the advertised goods.”

Growth in the definition of the concept Mass media ‘Audience’

Thus, Mass Media Audience which was once relegated to town halls, theaters, stages and forums of rhetoric in different parts of the world has today become a diversified concept. In India too, this concept has existed over a period of centuries, where there has been preaching and talk, dance and folk dance performances, folk lore and folk art have drawn mass audiences in a time when Mass communication using mass media did not exist.

The concept of Audience was initially considered to be those who entered a hall to hear a talk or watch a Live performance, etc. It was with the arrival of the Mass Media, especially the Printing press, the radio and the television in the second half of the nineteenth and the early twentieth century, that the concept of a Mass Media Audience began getting defined.

In the words of McQuail (1997), one can’t speak of a “Mass media audience” before the circulation of printed- books and their use by a reading public at the end of the sixteenth century.

In the twenty-first century, the concept of Audiences has gone through a drastic change. Digitised content, the internet and the world wide web, has led to the Audience no more remaining passive in their behavior. The mediatisation of daily life where, people are buying, reading, shopping, banking, and interacting online has transformed the concept of Audience and its feedback. Audiences are responding, giving feedbacks, and are reciprocating to Mass Media content. The ‘Online’ world is virtual, large and perhaps unidentifiable but none the less, it is for real.

The social networking forums where Media content gets displayed has active audience interactions. Audience’s comment, are free to like or dislike and state their grievances on different forums. While there may be blocks, today’s audience finds its own way of sending its message loud and clear. The advertisers too are making drastic move towards online audiences with the huge increase in the number of people who are active online.

Various Categories Of Media Audiences

• The Mass Audience represents the dominant majority in a society. They are relatively average people. Mass audience represents almost all segments of the society.
• The Elite Audience comprises of highly educated people and their number in the society in relatively small.
• The Specialized Audience refers to the special interest groups in the society.
• The Interactive Audience consists of those who have control over the communication process in a society. They may be newspapers journalists or Radio or TV broadcasters.

Media mix is used to refer that the combination of communications channels which is used for the purpose of advertising particular goods or services by any particular business entities. The main objective of the media mix is to help the businesses in meeting up with the various 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.

Integrated Media Work Harder

The components of a media mix are more effective when they are integrated. The benefit of an integrated campaign is that the media mix is more effective when the components work together and communicate consistent messages each time, according to MMC Learning. In practical terms, that means using the same creative themes and marketing messages across all elements of your media mix. Prospects viewing an advertisement, website page, direct mail piece or product guide from an integrated campaign would receive consistent messages, with each element of the mix reinforcing the others.

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.

Fine-Tuning the Mix

Analytical tools are available to assess your media mix and improve the results you achieve. These tools identify the strengths and weaknesses of your marketing programs and your media mix. By demonstrating how changes in the mix can affect results, the tools help you to reallocate your budgets and create a better mix to improve marketing performance.

Advantages

• It helps the marketers in understanding the latest marketing trend that is going on in the market.
• Its take into account various external factors which makes it an effective tool for planning of the budget.
• It also helps in formulating a better strategy so that more and more people can get encouraged to buy the product.

Disadvantages of media mix

The disadvantage of them is that it is not able to provide gradual and person level insight which one important factor on which most of the modern marketers truly rely on. This way the media missing dens did not help in measuring the digital and the traditional form of marketing ROI when combined together.

It is a very powerful strategy to help advertise a product or any service that is being newly launched in the market.  The only things that should be taken care of are that it should be prepared by first researching well.

Usage of media mix

It is majorly used in the marketing industry. It is considered to be one of the masters marketing strategies and should be inculcated by all the businesses that are planning to grow at a rapid rate and survive in the industry for the longest time.  The media mix is used by all kinds of companies be it a new startup or a small company to any really big and well-established company.

Media mixing is a selling strategy which is compulsory for all. it is used by these companies to select the right kind of advertising channels that will help them advertise their products as many people as possible.

Thus, there is plenty of usage of the media mixing and when it is used with the right kind of approach will help the companies to generate a lot so sales revenue and profit.

Importance of media mix

It is a powerful media to help advertise the goods and services of a particular business entity so that its sales revenue and profit can grow at a rapid rate.  The importance of the media mix can be stated from the fact that if it is used in the right manner, the companies are able to deliver exactly the same kind of message that they want to.

It prospects lower cost and minimum waste. it holds importance as it lets the company reach to even those parts of the locations which are quite separated from the rest of the world.

No to reach for a particular ours which includes all kinds of decisions makers, the technical analyst then it is possible for the media mix to consist of business magazines and even a few of the exhibition which is entirely aimed at those directors. Also, it helps in reaching a small segment of the population which can be done by contacting the customers via personalized email and even an executive session in the media mix.

Also, a well-planned media mix helps in strengthening the media channel so that more and more people can get influenced.  The media mix helps in coordinating creativity with the right kind of timing and an apt frequency.

This creates a powerful impact on the demographic and encourages them to purchase the goods or the services that are being advertised. The media mix is also important because it does not remain fixed with time.

It understands the need for continues changes that people are going through and hence is adjustable according to the demand of the time. Also for a media mix to be effective is essential that continuous research is done and progressive changes are eking made to keep in touch with the latest trends and create an impact on the masses.