What is media planning?
Media Planning is the process of selecting the appropriate media vehicles to achieve marketing objectives by buying media time and space to publicise an advertisement.
In simple words, Media planning is the process of identifying and selecting combination of media that will enable the marketer to communicate the message in the most effective manner possible at minimum cost.
Steps for making a media plan
1. Analyse the market
Every media plan starts with market analysis. Market analysis is also known as environmental analysis. It is a complete review of internal and external environment . Internal environment consist of controllable variables such as management structure, workforce development and layout of operational process. External environment consist of uncontrollable variables such us ; consumer preferences , competitors strategies , legal environment etc.
At this stage media planner try to identify answers of the following questions:
▪ Who is the target audience?
▪ What internal and external factors may influence the media plan?
▪ Where and when to focus the advertising efforts?
The target audience can be classified in terms of age, sex, income, occupation, and other variables. The classification of target audience helps media planner to
understand the media consumption habit, and accordingly choose the most
appropriate media or media mix.
David A. Aaker outlined the following dimensions of a market analysis:
a. Market size (current and future)
b. Market growth rate
c. Market profitability
d. Industry cost structure
e. Distribution channels
f. Market trends
g. Key success factors
2. Establishing media objectives
Media objectives are the achievable goals set by a company which is to be achieved through media strategy. There are five key media objectives that an advertiser or media planner has to consider reach, frequency, continuity, cost, and weight.
a. Reach - Reach refers to the number of people that will be exposed to a media vehicle at least once during a given period of time.
b. Frequency - Frequency refers to the average number of times an individual within target audience is exposed to a media vehicle during a given period of time.
c. Continuity - It refers to the pattern of advertisements in a media schedule. Continuity alternatives are as follows:
Continuous: Strategy of running campaign evenly over a period of time.
Pulsing: Strategy of running campaign steadily over a period of time with intermittent increase in advertising at certain intervals, as during festivals or special occasions like IPL or World-Cup.
Discontinuous: Strategy of advertising heavily only at certain intervals, and no advertising in the interim period, as in case of seasonal products.
3. Determining Media Strategies
Media strategy is the way we seek to achieve media objectives.Media strategy is determined considering the following:
a) Media Mix - From the wide variety of media vehicles, the advertiser can employ one vehicle or a mix suitable vehicle.
b) Target Market
c) Scheduling - It shows the number of advertisements, size of advertisements, and time on which advertisements to appear.
· Seasonal Pulse: Seasonal products like cold creams follows this scheduling.
· Steady Pulse: According to this scheduling one ad is shown over a
· period of time, say one ad per week or one ad per month.
· Periodic Pulse: A regular pattern is followed in such scheduling, as in case of consumer durable, and non-durable.
· Erratic Pulse: No regular pattern is followed in such scheduling.
· Start-up Pulse: Such scheduling is followed during a new campaign or a launch of a new product.
· Promotional Pulse: It is for short time, only for a promotional period.
Reach and frequency
Creative Aspects - Creativity in ad campaigns decides the success of the
product, but to implement this creativity firm must employ a media that
supports such a strategy.
d) Flexibility - An effective media strategy requires a degree of flexibility.
e) Budget Considerations - In determining media strategy cost must be estimated and budget must be considered.
f) Media Selection - It covers two broad decisions - selection of media class, and selection of media vehicle within media class.
4. Selecting Media Mix
Media mix means the advertising strategy encompasses the use of more than one type of advertising media to get its message across the target audience. A combination of media types is known as the media mix. No advertiser can rely only on one medium to reach his audience. Even a small advertiser having a small media budget has thousands of media from which to choose. A typical media mix for consumer products, such as a soft drink, will include television, outdoor, POP and even the print media. this combination plays a crucial role in reaching the maximum number of consumers at the minimum cost. Once a media plan is ready, the decision is to be made about the media mix. Selecting the media mix involves several considerations.
5. Budget and Media Buying
Budget Allocations: Classifies spending my medium, region, and time of year Media Buying:
· Occurs once plan is approved
· Buyers work with media representatives to negotiate final prices for the various activities
· Competitive Strategies and Budget Considerations: Advertisers always consider what competitors are doing, particularly those that have larger advertising budgets. This will affect the media, mechanics, and methodology elements of the media mix. It sometimes makes sense to use media similar to the competition's if the target audiences are the same or if competitors are not using their media effectively. Media planner should analyse the company’s “share of voice” in the market place.
6. Evaluation and Follow-up
Evaluation is essential to assess the performance of any activity. Two factors are important in evaluation of media plan:
▪ How successful were the strategies in achieving media objectives?
▪ Was the media plan successful in accomplishing advertising objective?
A successful strategy helps build confidence and serve as reference for developing media strategies in future, and failure is thoroughly analysed to avoid mistakes in future.
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