Assess the pros and cons of various media channels in communicating brands to diverse audiences

Media planners can choose among the following options to employ for their marketing plan:

Newspaper

It is impossible to believe that any business at any point in time will not require newspaper advertising. This option has certain advantages in the shape of higher flexibility of managing and designing the content, timeliness of the exposure because the ad remains in the paper for as long as the paper on a particular date can be accessed again. Good market coverage for a product locally by means of local newspaper. Newspaper advertising also results in broad acceptance and high believability because, audience perceives information available in the newspapers as less exaggerated more believable content, thus it increases the effectiveness of the message. 

However, newspaper advertising also has disadvantages mainly in the shape of small pass along audience, because rarely it happens that people carry newspaper to share an ad, moreover, once is the paper reading is done, the exposure to the ad is zero, hence the ad’s exposure life is very short in case of newspaper advertising. Lastly, if the ad is not reappearing at regular intervals it will be out mind of the audiences.

Television

Television adverting is the most highly employed medium for advertising these days. It has the highest reach and also gains high attention from the audiences. Television ads not only have messages but the content combines sight, sound and motion which appeals to the senses. Hence TV ads help increase the exposure and frequency along with increased effectiveness of the message to be conveyed.

The list of advantages does not mean that the medium is free of disadvantages. The biggest advantage is huge cost associated with TV ads. Moreover, high clutter also reduces the effectiveness of the message. Clutter is increased due to many thousands of ads running on the channels which results in reduction of ads high degree of selective attention by the audience. Moreover, markets cannot fully control the audience selection in case of TV ads unlike in other mediums.

Direct mail

Direct mail allows the marketers to specifically select their audience and provide information in as flexible manner as possible which they deem can result in higher effectiveness of the ad. And the most important advantage of direct mail is the high level of personalization which not only grabs attention and provokes a purchase but also enables the audience to feel valued which strengthen the brand image or increase brand loyalty. 

 

However, direct mail results in junk mail image because many a times audiences don’t have time or willingness to get exposed to the ads contents, which results in higher cost borne by the company which is getting wasted since it does not produce the required results. Moreover, the marketers cannot make sure that their ad has been viewed by the audiences in the right manner.

Radio

The advantages of radio adverting include lowest cost advertising medium, along with mass coverage in domestic regions. Not only this, but marketers can also select the type audience which should be exposed to their ads by opting for broadcasting their ads based on different channels nature.  The disadvantages are the audio presentation only which is very unimpressive and hence gains very low attention as compared to tv ads. Secondly, radio ads have fleeting exposure, i.e. audience

Magazines

Magazines provide marketers with high geographical and demographic selectivity because there are different types of magazines available and at different regions in the world that can cater to large markets globally. It also has high credibility and prestige because readers associate the ads contents credibility with the magazines credibility and prestige. They have multiple readership hence, magazines ads have long life and good pass along readership  because, magazines are borrowed and lent amongst a  good percentage of population and are kept for a longer time period. 

The disadvantages include long deadlines i.e. magazines require two three months prior notice before putting the ad up in the magazines. Moreover, there is no guarantee of where will the ad be placed in the magazine, which might result in reduction of the message effectiveness.

Outdoor

Outdoor advertising has high repeat exposures because neither can this be thrown out nor switched off. It also low competition and zero clutter because at a time not all the companies can adopt outdoor advertising at a particular region. It also is low in cost and finally it also helps in increasing the permanence of the message in the target market. 

The disadvantages for outdoor advertising include brief message life, because an audience is exposed to it for a very short time period on outdoor regions. Secondly in outdoor advertising limited audience selectivity becomes a disadvantage too because such messages provide exposure to only a particular locality’s regular visitors or audiences.

Yellow pages

This medium has the excellent local coverage, wide reach domestically and allows people to get aware about your product or service even if initially they did not know about it. Secondly, it has highest believability because people do not doubt the information available in yellow pages, the higher longevity of the message and better positioning of your product in the directory and yellow pages results in stronger brand image of your product. 

The disadvantages of yellow and directory advertising are high competition, since a lot of companies advertise in yellow pages. Secondly ads are not creative or the creativity is limited which fails to gain instant attention. Finally, long ad purchase lead time requires markets to wait for two three moths before their ad appears which might not be the right time for the ad.

Printed promotion materials

It ranges from business cars and brochures to flyers and newsletters. The advantages of such advertising include low cost because you print only as many as you need, high selectivity because you give such materials only to the target audiences, also it allows higher flexibility in the message conveyance.

The disadvantages are that such materials if overproduced can result in increased costs and these materials can also be thrown away hence zero exposure for the audiences.

Telephone

It allows the opportunity to give a personal touch which can help improve brand image, increase brand loyalty and also can provoke a purchase behavior. But this can result in audiences getting irritated and not responding to the messages s required, and higher advertising cost.

Internet 

The biggest advantage of internet advertising is the huge audience exposure globally, relatively low cost of doing advertising. Moreover it also allows interactive possibilities with customers, which helps increase mass customization and differention. Finally high selectivity is also an advantage because marketers can select exactly target audience will get exposed to their message. For e.g. CNN website can have ads related to cars, cruises and airlines. Business executive who visit CNN website will get exposed to such ads which is a huge proportion of the target audience of such industries. The disadvantage is lack of credibility and avoid-ability of audiences to look into these ads on the websites.

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