Advertising - MCM501 VU

LESSON 30
MEDIA PLANNING AND STRATEGY PART 3
_________________________________________________________________________________

MEDIA STRATEGIES
• Media planners make three crucial decisions: where to advertise (geography), when to advertise
(timing), and what media categories to use (media mix).
• Moreover, they make these decisions in the face of budget constraints.
• The actual amount of money that an advertiser spends on marketing communications can vary
widely.
• In general, companies spend as little as 1% to more than 20% of revenues on advertising, depending
on the nature of their business.
• Regardless of the budget, some media options are more cost effective than others. It is the job of
media planners to formulate the best media strategies---allocating budget across media categories,
geographies, and time.

Media Mix Decisions

• Which media should the advertiser use? Media planners craft a media mix by considering a budget-
conscious intersection between their media objectives and the properties of the various potential
media vehicles. That is, they consider how each media vehicle provides a cost-effective contribution
to attaining the objectives, and then they select the combination of vehicles that best attain all of the
objectives.
• When making media mix decisions, planners look to a whole spectrum of media, not just to
traditional media vehicles such as TV, radio, and print.
• That is, media planners consider all the opportunities that consumers have for contact with the
brand.
• These opportunities can be non-traditional brand contact opportunities such as online advertising,
sweepstakes, sponsorships, product placements, direct mail, mobile phones, blogs, and podcasts.
• The scale and situations of media use are especially important
• when evaluating suitable brand contact opportunities.
• For example, product placement in a video game makes sense if the target audience plays video
games. Sweepstakes make sense if many of the target audience find sweepstakes attractive.

Mix Strategy: Media Concentration vs. Media Dispersion

• A media planner's first media mix decision is to choose between a media concentration approach or a
media dispersion approach.
• The media concentration approach uses fewer media categories and greater spending per category.
• This lets the media planner create higher frequency and repetition within that one media category.
• Media planners will choose a concentration approach if they are worried that their brand's ads will
share space with competing brands, leading to confusion among consumers and failure of the media
objectives.
• e.g. when Nestle launched its 99% fat-free cereal Fitness, the similarity of ads actually increased the
sales of the competing Kellogg's Special K Cereal.
• Media planners can calculate or measure share of voice to estimate the dominance of their message in
each category of media they use.
• Share of voice is the percentage of spending by one brand in a given media category relative to the
total spending by all brands that are advertising in that media category. A company can create a high
share of voice with a concentrated media strategy.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Advertising - MCM501 VU

• That is, the company can be the dominant advertiser in a product category in the chosen channel.
• Moreover, because only one set of creative materials will need to be prepared, a concentrated media
strategy lets advertisers spend a higher percentage of their budget on frequency and reach.
• But a concentrated strategy is also an "all-eggs-in-one-basket" strategy.
• If the particular ad is not well received or the particular media category only reaches a fraction of the
intended target audience, then it will perform poorly.
• In contrast, media planners choose a media dispersion approach when they use multiple media
categories, such as a combination of television, radio, newspapers and the Internet.
• Media planners will use dispersion if they know that no single media outlet will reach a sufficient
percentage of the target audience.
• e.g. a concentrated approach using only ads on the Internet might reach only 30% of the target
consumers because some consumers don't use the Internet.
• Similarly, a concentrated approach using national news magazines might reach only 30% of the target
audience, because not every target customer reads these magazines. But a dispersed approach that
advertises in print magazines as well as on Web sites might reach 50% of the target audience.
• Media planners also like the dispersion approach for the reinforcement that it brings -- consumers
who see multiple ads in multiple media for a given brand may be more likely to buy.
• The media concentration approach is often preferable for brands that have a small or moderate
media budget but intend to make a great impact.

Media Category Selection

• Whether media planners select media concentration or media dispersion, they still must pick the
media category(ies) for the media plan.
• Different media categories suit different media objectives. Most media options can be classified into
three broad categories:
• mass media, direct response media, and point-of-purchase media. A media planner's choice will
depend on the media objectives.
• If the media planner wants to create broad awareness or to remind the largest possible number of
consumers about a brand, then he or she will pick mass media such as television, radio, newspaper and
magazine.

• If the media planner wants to build a relationship with a customer or encourage an immediate sales
response, then direct response media such as direct mail, the Internet and mobile phone are good
choices.
• e.g. online ads for car insurance such as link directly to the application process to capture the
customers right at the time they are interested in the service.
• Finally, if media planners want to convert shoppers into buyers, then they might use point-of-purchase
media such as sampling, coupons and price-off promotions.
• Each of these three categories of media serve a different role in moving the customer from brand
awareness to brand interest to purchase intent to actual purchase and then to re-purchase.
• An integrated campaign, such as the one for P&G's Fusion shaving system, might use multiple
categories --combining national TV ads to introduce the product, Internet media to provide one-to-
one information, and in-store displays to drive sales.
• The creative requirements of a media category also affect media planners' decisions. Each media
category has unique characteristics.
• For example, television offers visual impact that interweaves sight and sound, often within a narrative
storyline.
• Magazines offer high reproduction quality but must grab the consumer with a single static image.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Advertising - MCM501 VU

• Direct mail can carry free samples but can require compelling ad copy in the letter and back-end
infrastructure for some form of consumer response by return mail, telephone or Internet.
• Rich media ads on the Internet can combine the best of TV-style ads with interactive response via a
click through to the brand's own Web site.
• Media planners need to consider which media categories provide the most impact for their particular
brand.
• The costs of developing creative materials specific to each media category can also limit media
planners' use of the media dispersion approach.

Geographic Allocation Decisions

• In addition to allocating advertising by media category, media planners must allocate advertising by
geography.
• In general, a company that sells nationally can take one of three approaches to geographic spending
allocation:
• a national approach (advertise in all markets), a spot approach (advertise only in selected markets), or a
combined national plus spot approach (advertise in all markets with additional spending in selected
markets).
• Media planners will choose a national approach if sales are relatively uniform across the country,
such as for Tide laundry detergent or Toyota automobiles.
• A national approach will reach a national customer base with a national advertising program.
• For many other products, however, a company's customers are concentrated in a limited subset of
geographic areas, which makes a spot approach more efficient.
• Media planners perform geographic analyses by assessing the geographic concentration of sales in
two ways. The first method is called the Brand Development Index (BDI) of a geographic region.
• BDI measures the concentration of sales of a company's brand in that region.
• Media planners use BDI to measure a brand's performance in a given market in comparison with its
average performance in all markets where the brand is sold.
• Mathematically, BDI is a ratio of a brand's sales in a given geographic market divided by the average
of its sales in all markets.
• BDI doesn't tell the whole story, however, because BDI only measures the concentration of current
sales.
• BDI doesn't reflect the concentration of potential sales as measured by sales of the entire product
category.
• So, media planners use another number, CDI, in addition to BDI when allocating resources for spot
advertising.
• CDI is a measure of a product category's performance in a given geographic market in comparison to
its average performance in all markets in the country.
• The sales of a product category include the sales of all the brands (the company's and competitors'
brands) or at least all major brands that fall in the category.
• Because BDI and CDI can vary independently, media planners use both numbers to guide allocation
decisions.
• In general, BDI reflects the concentration of existing sales while CDI reflects the concentration of
potential sales in a geographic region.
• A market with a high CDI and a low BDI deserves serious consideration because it suggests a large
opportunity for increased sales.
• Before devoting advertising money, the company will want to understand why it has such poor sales
of its brand (low BDI) in an area with high category sales.
• A low CDI and high BDI represents the enviable position of selling well in a market that does not
otherwise buy products in that category.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Advertising - MCM501 VU

• A market with low CDI and a high BDI requires continued advertising support to maintain the
superior brand performance.

Media Schedule Decisions

• Having decided how to advertise (the media mix) and where to advertise (allocation across
geography), media planners need to consider when to advertise.
• Given a fixed annual budget, should all months receive equal amounts of money or should some
months receive more of the budget while other months receive less or nothing?
• Media planners can choose among three methods of scheduling: continuity, flight, and pulse.
• Continuity scheduling spreads media spending evenly across months. This method ensures steady
brand exposure over each purchase cycle for individual consumers. It also takes advantage of volume
discounts in media buying.
• However, because continuity scheduling usually requires a large budget, it may not be practical for
small advertisers.
• The flight scheduling approach alternates advertising across months, with heavy advertising in
certain months and no advertising at all in other months.
• Pulse scheduling combines the first two scheduling methods, so that the brand maintains a low
level of advertising across all months but spends more in selected months.
• How do media planners select among continuity, flight, and pulse scheduling approaches?
• The timing of advertising depends on three factors: seasonality, consumers' product purchase cycle,
and consumers' interval between decision-making and consumption.
• The first, and most important, factor is sales seasonality.
• Companies don't advertise fur coats in summer and suntan lotions in winter.
• Likewise, some products sell faster around specific holidays, such as flowers on Mother's Day, candy
on Halloween, and ornaments around Christmas.
• Companies with seasonal products are more likely to choose flight scheduling to concentrate their
advertising for the peak sales season.
• Other goods, however, such as everyday products like milk and toothpaste, may lack a seasonal
pattern. Everyday goods may be better served by a continuity approach.
• Media planners can use a breakdown of sales by month to identify if their brand has seasonal
fluctuations, which can serve as a guide for the allocation.
• They can allocate more money to high-sales months and less to low-sales months.
• The second factor that affects when advertising is scheduled is the product purchase cycle: the
interval between two purchases.
• Fast-moving consumer goods such as bread, soft drinks and toilet paper probably require continuous
weekly advertising in a competitive market to constantly reinforce brand awareness and influence
frequently-made purchase decisions. In contrast, less-frequently purchased products such as carpet
cleaner or floor polisher may only need advertising a few times a year.
• A third factor that affects media scheduling is the time interval between when the purchase decision
is made and when a product or service is actually bought and consumed.
• For example, many families who take summer vacations may plan their trips months before the
actual trips. That is, they make purchase decision in advance. Thus, travel industry advertisers will
schedule their ads months before the summer.
• Destination advertising has to be in sync with the time of decision making, instead of the actual
consumption time.
• New product launches usually require initial heavy advertising to create brand awareness and interest.
The launch period may last from a few months to a year.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan
Advertising - MCM501 VU

• If consumers like the product, then personal influence in the form of word-of-mouth or market
force (brand visibility in life and media coverage) will play a role in accelerating the adoption of a new
brand. Personal influence and market force are "unplanned" messages, which often play an important
role in new product launches. Media planners should take advance of these "unplanned" messages in
a new product launch campaign.

_________________________________________________________________
© Copyright Virtual University of Pakistan