One of the most important decisions marketing managers need to make in order to promote successfully is to choose advertising media.
Advertising media are the means through which advertisement messages are communicated to the market – current customers and potential customers.
Other promotion decisions include finalizing objectives of promotion, choosing the right elements in the advertising process, compiling the attractive promotion message and choosing the execution style of the communication process.
How to choose the medium, or media, for advertising?
The appropriate choice of advertising media usually influenced many factors including:
- Nature of the product. Different types of product will be using different to get across in the most effective way. While some industrial product will only rely on informing the buyers about technical information, for some other retail luxury products a visual impact will be necessary to persuade consumers. Advertising efforts need to be directed towards potential customers who are likely to buy the certain product. There is very little sense advertising to groups of people that are unlikely to ever buy the product such as a niche product to a mass market, or advertising male-related products in cosmetics magazines for women.
- Cost of each medium. Different media will have different relative cost. Marketing managers need to compare the cost of these media and assess whether they fall within the marketing budget. In small size businesses, choice of advertising media will be restricted by the financial resources of the firm. Advertising on the national TV, radio, magazines or cinema can be very expensive per minute of advert. While local newspapers and outdoor posters will be much cheaper. In contrast, viral marketing through corporate social media can be virtually cost-free. In addition to buying media time or space, businesses will also need to pay for producing the advert.
- Size of target audience. The actual cost of advertisements will depend not only on the time of day that the ads are to be displayed, but also on the size of the potential audience. Marketing managers should know the details of overall audience numbers at different times of day or in different regions, so the cost per person could be calculated. Total numbers are less important than the profile of the audience.
- Profile of target audience. The advertisements need to be specifically directed towards potential customers only and not wasted on groups that are unlikely to ever buy the product. The marketing department needs to know what do target consumers read, watch and interact with, e.g. teenagers are more likely to use the Internet than listen to the radio. The audience profile should include age, income levels, marital status, interests, etc. and reflect as closely as possible the target consumer profile of the market being aimed for.
- Impact on target audience. Using a mass market, low-priced daily newspaper to advertise a new range of exclusive jewelry is obviously aiming at the wrong target audience, hence it will have no impact whatsoever. In order to avoid the waste of money, advertising specialists need to go after making a real impact that will translate into higher sales.
- Message(s) to be communicated. Written forms of communication are likely to be most effective for informative advertising. This is about giving detailed information about a product that needs to be referred to more than once by potential consumers. In persuasive advertising, image-creating adverts displayed in dynamic videos or as glossy photographs should be planned, especially for products such as perhaps for a new range of clothes, cars or sporting equipment.
- Other aspects of Marketing Mix. Marketing Mix for a product needs to integrate all 4Ps and link with all other elements such as price and place. Creating the appropriate Marketing Mix and choosing the right media for adverts is crucial to product success. It will not only by counterproductive, but can also be harmful to the brand overall when cheap and unhealthy foods are promoted in high-end magazines or specialist radio stations for highly educated people.
- Legal constraints. Certain countries may apply widespread bans on harmful or controversial products such as tobacco, sports betting or gambling in certain media. In some countries, there are restrictions on the use of TV advertising aimed at children; therefore businesses need to use other media for advertising their products. In addition to legal controls, other restrictions might include what advertisements can contain and what they cannot. As all advertisements ought to be ‘legal, decent and honest’ advertisers need to meet these standards.
- Competitors’ advertising. The firm should strive for choose similar or even better media than its close competitors in order to be more competitive in the market. Remember that spending more money on the most expensive forms of communication than competitors is not always the most effective way of increasing sales or gaining market share.
- Timing of the advert. While some advertisements are permanent other ones will only be temporary. So, the question is what does the firm want that happens to the massage – remembered for a long time or rather quickly forgotten. Does the firm want potential customers to make future reference to that advert? Additionally, the time of showing the ad is important, e.g. there is likely to be little point in advertising a new children’s toy late in the evening as all kids are already in bed.
In summary, the choice of advertising media may depend on marketing objectives, definition of problem such as falling brand awareness or poor customer loyalty, choice of optimum mix of promotional methods, integration into the overall marketing communication program, etc.
The most important decision facing those responsible for advertising is which advertising media to use. Ultimately, it is the Marketing Manager’s job to make the final decision regarding advertising media.
