Page 495 - Foundations of Marketing

462 Part 6 | Promotion Decisions

Developing Media Vehicles
Kia has created memorable
advertising by using music-
loving hamsters on TV and in
print promotional materials.

AP Photo/Anonymous/PRNewsFoto/Kia Motors America

is decreasing, online and television are popular advertising venues. To derive maximum
results from media expenditures, marketers must develop effective media plans. A media plan
sets forth the exact media vehicles to be used (specific magazines, television stations, social
media, newspapers, and so forth) and the dates and times the advertisements will appear. The
plan determines how many people in the target audience will be exposed to the message. The
method also determines, to some degree, the effects of the message on those specific target
markets. Media planning is a complex task requiring thorough analysis of the target audience.
Sophisticated computer models have been developed to attempt to maximize the effectiveness
of media plans.
To formulate a media plan, the planners select the media for the campaign and prepare a
time schedule for each medium. The media planner’s primary goal is to reach the largest num-
ber of people in the advertising target that the budget will allow. A secondary goal is to achieve
the appropriate message reach and frequency for the target audience while staying within
budget. Reach refers to the percentage of consumers in the target audience actually exposed to
a particular advertisement in a stated period. Frequency is the number of times these targeted
consumers are exposed to the advertisement.
Media planners begin with broad decisions but eventually make very specific ones. They
first decide which kinds of media to use: radio, television, newspapers, digital or online adver-
tising, magazines, direct mail, outdoor displays, or signs on mass-transit vehicles. Digital
marketing in particular is growing, with spending on online advertising expected to account
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for one-fourth of advertising dollars by 2015. Media planners assess different formats and
approaches to determine which are most effective. Some media plans are highly focused and
use just one medium. Others can be quite complex and dynamic.
Media planners take many factors into account when devising a media plan. They analyze
location and demographic characteristics of consumers in the target audience, because people’s
tastes in media differ according to demographic groups and locations. Media planners also
consider the sizes and types of audiences that specific media reach. For instance, Glamour
magazine reaches relatively affluent women who are interested in fashion. Many marketers
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of cosmetics, clothing, and fashion items would consider this an attractive demographic.
Declining broadcast television ratings and newspaper and magazine readership have led many
companies to explore alternative media, including not only cable television and digital advertis-
ing but also ads on cell phones and product placements in video games. New media like social
media plan A plan that
specifies the media vehicles to networking sites and mobile advertising are also attracting advertisers due to their large reach.
be used and the schedule for When advertising is a part of a social networking site, consumers need to see the advertising as
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running advertisements beneficial, or it may lead them to abandon the site.

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