Advertising Planning Process

Selecting the Media

Before effort is placed in developing a message the organization must first determine which media outlets will be used to deliver its message, since the choice of media outlets guides the type of message that can be created and how frequently the message will be delivered.

An advertising message can be delivered via a large number of media outlets. These range from traditional outlets such as print publications, radio, and television to newly emerging outlets, such as the Internet and mobile devices. However, each media outlet possesses different characteristics and, thus, offers marketers different advantages and disadvantages.

The characteristics by which different media outlets can be assessed include the following seven factors: creative options, creative cost, market reach of media, message placement cost, length of exposure, advertising clutter, and response tracking.

Market reach can be measured along two dimensions, channels served and geographic scope. Channels served relates to whether a media outlet is effective in reaching the members within the marketer's channel of distribution. Channels can be classified as: consumer channel (does the media outlet reach the final consumer market targeted by the marketer?); trade channel (does the media outlet reach a marketer's channel partners who help distribute their product?); and business-to-business (does the media outlet reach customers in the business market targeted by the marketer?).

Geographic scope refers to the geographic breadth of the channels served and includes international (does the media outlet have multi-country distribution?); national (does the media outlet cover an entire country?); regional (does the media outlet have distribution across multiple geographic regions such as counties, states, provinces, territories, etc.?); local (does the media outlet primarily serve a limited geographic area?); individual (does the media outlet offer individual customer targeting?).

Message placement costs vary greatly by the media being used but in general the planning process considers three main factors: audience size, audience type, and characteristics of the advertisement that create ad rate differences, such as run time (e.g., length of television or radio ads), size (e.g., [Page 32]print ads size, billboard size), print style (e.g., black-and-white versus color), and location in media (e.g., back magazine cover versus inside pages).

Length of exposure is largely geared toward what is being advertised. Simple products require customers to only be minimally exposed to the advertisement to build interest and gain attention. Complicated products require longer exposure for customers to fully understand the product. Consequently, advertisers of these products will seek media formats that allot more time to deliver the message. Magazines and other publications (including the Internet) provide opportunities for longer exposure times since these media types can be retained by the audience. Conversely, exposure on television and radio are generally limited to the time the advertisement was broadcast.

...