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.
