SELECTION OF MEDIA
- Advertising
media are the channels through which a product’s advertising is carried to
perspective consumers. A medium may contain a mixture of editorial or
entertainment material and advertising. Media are usually classified
either in terms of their editorial context or in terms of the way in which
the message is delivered. These media could be in written text, symbols,
icons, graphs, audio, pictures, video, live audio, live presentation or
performance etc. These media requirements are derived from the objectives.
The media requirements define what the media programmer must contribute if
the objectives are to be realized. These requirements are vary from
product to product, because each product has a unique identity.
FACTORS
RESPONSIBLE FOR SELECTION OF MEDIA
- The
problem of selection of the best medium or media for a particular
advertiser will vary greatly, depending on the particular situation,
circumstances and different other factors in which a person in conducting
individual business. Media selection involves a number of major factors
which influence the decision of the advertiser and therefore, the same
must be considered while selecting the media. The most significant of
these factors are:
- THE
OBJECTIVES OF THE CAMPAIGN: The
objectives of the campaign influence media selection from a somewhat
different standpoint. An institutional advertising campaign may be run in
a different media than would a product advertising campaign for the same
company. In the case of product for which the dealer is very important in
the ultimate sale to the consumer, and far more significant than the
influence of consumer advertising, the advertiser may select media
primarily for the effect they will have on dealers. So, the objective of
influencing dealers will be the prime factor in the selection of the
medium to use.
- THE
BUDGET AVAILABLE: The advertising budget is concerned with two
major decisions about how the advertising effort will be carried out.
First, how much is to be spent for advertising in the coming period?
Second, how much budget is to be allocated to different areas within the
company’s total sales territory? And how much budget be allocated for
media? Because the budget determines the weight of advertising effort
which is an important variable in determining the effectiveness of the
entire advertising effort the product might be one for which actual
demonstration on TV would be highly desirable. Yet the advertiser would be
unable to sponsor (or even cosponsor) such a programme because its cost
would exceed the total advertising budget. The advertiser might believe it
desirable to use a multi-color advertisement in a magazine not only to
reach desired prospects, but also to influence the trade favourably. But
if he still find that his budget does not permit even that type of ad in
the magazine, then the advertiser must turn to a medium in which he can
get sufficient participation or a sufficient schedule of insertions to
achieve an effective programme. So the availability of funds must be
considered in planning and selection of media.
- RESEARCH
CONCERNING THE CLIENTELE: A
factor that has become more significant is the number of people actually
reached by a medium. More and more consideration is being given to the
concept that the most significant aspect of coverage from the advertiser’s
viewpoint is in terms of the total audience potential. This is indicated
by the total number of readers of the print medium or total number of sets
turned in the case of electronic media. Audience of different types of
media cannot be compared directly because of the differences in the kind
of advertising message reaching the consumer and somewhat different terms
in which audience is measure.
- THE
RODUCT: The characteristics of the product have an important influence on the
decisions involving the selection of media which shall carry the
advertising message. Most media are becoming extremely liberal in their
criteria for accepting advertisements. Certain individual media will not
take advertising for certain specific types of products. Restrictions also
may prohibit use of certain media by advertisers of specific items. The
general characteristics of the product may also strongly influence the
type of media used. That is, if the product has a certain personality or
image, certain media may be appropriate to maintain or develop the image;
whereas other media may tend to diminish or distort this personality or
image. After having the understanding of different types of product one
can solve the problem of choosing the media best suited for the product.
The types of product may generally be expressed as, consumer product, consumer-durable
product, mass product, luxury product, industrial or technical product,
ethical pharmaceutical product, service product, and public service
product.
- TYPE OF
MESSAGE OR SELLING APPEAL: The remarkable thing about advertising is that it can prompt people to buy
a specific advertised product. Thus an appeal or advertising appeal is any
statement designed to motivate a person to action. In seeking to move a
person towards buying a product, the advertiser likewise must appeal to
some of the manifold motives i.e., the functional needs and psychological
needs of a person, that prompt a man to act as a desire to fulfill a hope,
ambition, need, interest or goal. The central premise of the advertising
appeal or message is its promise of a benefit the product will render to
the buyer.
- RELATIVE
COST: The relative cost is another factor which
influences the selection of media. The total budget available and the
ability to do an effective job of advertising within that budget in a
particular type of medium is significant. When the type of media has been
determined, then the cost factor becomes a matter of the relative cost of
the individual media. In case of newspapers, this relationship is
determined as per centimeter per column, and in the case of magazines, the
cost per page is worked out.
- CLUTTER: In any
medium, the advertiser’s message must compete with other advertisements
for the consumer’s attention. Media in which the advertiser must expect a
great number of competitive messages are termed as “cluttered”. Most
newspapers are highly competitive cluttered media vehicles. In developed
countries large departmental stores frequently purchase multiple full
pages or, at least an advertisement size that dominants the page.
- MISCELLANEOUS
FACTORS: Several other factors which sometimes enter into
the selection of media, are not of enough significance to warrant lengthy
discussion, although they may be of some importance in specific situation.