Download Measuring advertising effectiveness.

Advertising 2.
Media selection.
Advertising media selection is the process of choosing the most cost-effective media for advertising,
to achieve the required coverage and number of exposures in a target audience.
Selection of Media:
There are five steps in the selection of media. These are:
1. Write an objective.
2. Determine the domain in which the objective can be classified.
3. Consider various factors affecting media selection.
4. Consider various methods/techniques to be adopted.
5. Select appropriate media.
Need of Media Selection:
Media have an important role in the advertising process. But, all media are not suitable or
appropriate for all types of advertising tasks. Each medium has its own capabilities or attributes.
Attributes are pictorial, Size enlarged, reduced or real), Color (black and white, limited colors, full
colors), Movement (still, semi-motion, full motion), Language (print or oral sounds) and Soundpicture relationship (silent or with sound).
Each advertising task also requires media with specified characteristics or attributes. It is, therefore,
considered that media selection is an important part of advertising design and delivery. Thus,
advertising effectiveness and conversion in sales or given objectives are much dependent on media
selection.
Types of the media.
In terms of overall advertising expenditures, media advertising is still dominated by Press and
television, which are of comparable size (by value of 'sales'). Posters and radio follow some way
behind, with cinema representing a very specialist medium.
Press
In India, spending on advertising is dominated by the national & regional newspapers, the latter
taking almost all the classified advertising revenue. The magazines and trade or technical journal
markets are about the same size as each other, but are less than half that of the newspaper sectors.
Television
Television is one of the most expensive media, and as such is generally only open to the major
advertisers, although some regional contractors offer more affordable packages to their local
advertisers. It offers by far the widest coverage, particularly at peak hours (roughly 7.00–10.30 p.m.)
and especially of family audiences. Offering sight, sound, movement and colour, it has the greatest
impact, especially for those products or services where a 'demonstration' is essential; since it
combines the virtues of both the 'story-teller' and the `demonstrator'.
Radio
Radio advertising has increased greatly in recent years, with the granting of many more licenses. It
typically reaches specific audiences at different times of the day—adults at breakfast, housewives
during the day, and commuters during rush hours. It can be a cost-effective way of reaching these
audiences—especially since production costs are much cheaper than for television, though the lack
of visual elements may limit the message. In radio advertising it is important to identify the right
timing to reach specific radio listeners. For instance, many people only listen to the radio when they
are stuck in traffic, whereas other listeners may only listen in the evenings. The 24 hour availability
of radio is helpful to reach a variety of customer sub-segments. In addition, it is a well-established
medium to reach rural areas.
Cinema
Though national audience numbers are down, this may be the most effective medium for extending
coverage to younger age groups, since the core audience is 15 to 24.
Internet/Web Advertising
This rapidly growing marketing force borrows much from the example of press advertising, but the
most effective use—adopted by search engines—is interactive.
Mobile Advertising
Personal mobile phones have become an attractive advertising media to network operators, but are
relatively unproven and remain in media buyers' sidelines.
Media Planning:
The two basic tasks of marketing communications are message creation and message dissemination.
Media planning supports message dissemination. Media planning helps you determine which media
to use--be it television programs, newspapers, bus-stop posters, in-store displays, banner ads on the
Web, or a flyer on Face book. It also tells you when and where to use media in order to reach your
desired audience. Simply put, media planning refers to the process of selecting media time and
space to disseminate advertising messages in order to accomplish marketing objectives.
Media planners often see their role from a brand contact perspective. Instead of focusing solely on
what medium is used for message dissemination, media planners also pay attention to how to create
and manage brand contact. Brand contact is any planned and unplanned form of exposure to and
interaction with a product or service Word of mouth is an unplanned brand contact -- advertisers
normally do not plan for word of mouth. From the consumer's perspective, however, unplanned
forms of brand contact may be more influential because they are less suspicious compared to
advertising.
Second, media planners are making more use of product placements now, in lieu of advertising
insertions. Advertising insertions, like print ads or television commercials, are made separately from
the content and are inserted into it. The ads are distinct from the articles or TV programs, not a part
of them. As a result, the ads seem intrusive. In contrast, product placement (also called brand
placement or branded entertainment) blends product information with the content itself. Whether
content is a television program, movie, video game or other form of entertainment, product
placement puts the brand message into the entertainment content. On the other hand,
inappropriate or excessive product placements may do more harm than good to the brand.
Finally, the role of media planners has expanded as media planners have moved beyond planned
messages to take advantage of unplanned messages as well. Whereas planned messages are what
advertisers initiate -- like an ad, press release or sales promotion -- unplanned messages are often
initiated by people and organizations other than advertisers themselves. Word of mouth, both
online and offline, is one form of unplanned message. Although advertisers have little direct control
over the flow of unplanned messages, they can facilitate such a flow.
Media Mix:
Combination of media should be used in an advertising campaign. In the past, television and
magazines dominated the media mixes of most national advertising campaigns because these media
reached the broadest segments of the market. However, in recent years, clutter, rising advertising
costs, and smaller audiences have caused advertisers to seek more cost-efficient avenues for their
advertising rupeess. Consequently, media mixes may now include vehicles such as telephone
directories, cable television, ballpark billboards, supermarket shopping carts, and other forms of
media that may reach a narrower market segment but cost less and target more effectively.
Difficulties in Selection of Media Types
Audience Measurement:
The media sell circulation or the opportunity to develop circulation. There is a gross aspect to
circulation (how many products were bought last month) and a net aspect (how many of those
purchasers are prospects for the product saw the advertisement in the broadcast media).
Measurement of the same is not so easy as advertisers would think.
Difficulty of Cost Comparisons:
There is a cost per thousand concept in every medium type such as cost per thousand homes or
thousand viewers, cost per thousand passersby, cost per page per thousand copies sold. How does
the reaction of a thousand housewives, who read a food advertisement about Magi noodles,
compare with that of a different thousand housewives who watch the same on TV?
Reliance on a Particular type of Medium:
How much of his promotion effort should a manufacturer place in magazines and how much on TV,
how mach in outdoor or point of purchase? Which should be dominant and which are
supplementary? These factors play a key role in selection of a particular type of media. Media costs,
the costs of space and time, are the largest single expense item in most advertising budgets. The
selection of media types to be used in an undertaking, therefore, deserves and even demands, the
very best thought and judgment of on the part of the top management.
The points to be considered for media selection are:
1. Availability: Regional markets may be so limited that national circulation of magazines
should not be used. A product may have so slight a market that a medium such as the radio
would not be indicated for use.
2. Selectivity: Some ideas demand visual presentation and others demand oral presentation.
The radio cannot accommodate stories requiring a physical form, and outdoor advertising
cannot accommodate long stories.
3. Competition is a matter which the advertiser cannot ignore. A company may select media
types not used by its competitors, based on distinctiveness and domination.
Measuring advertising effectiveness.
Advertising can be defined as any paid form of non personal presentation or promotion of ideas,
goods or services by an identified sponsor. Most of the managers believe that the advertisement
directly affects the sales volume and hence they evaluate the effectiveness of the advertising
campaign by the increase in the sales volume.
There are two types of measures:

Direct measures and,

Indirect measures.
1. Direct Measures of Advertising Effectiveness.
These measures establish a relationship between advertising and sales. A comparison of sales of two
periods of time or two markets may be done and the comparative changes may be noted. The
following are some of the methods that are generally used in the measurements.
1. Historical Sales Method.
Effectiveness of past advertising may be obtained by measuring the relationship
between the advertising expenditure and the total sales of the product. A multiple
regression analysis of advertising expenditure and sales over several time periods may
be calculated.
2. Experimental Control.
A casual relationship between advertising and sales is established in this method. One
experimental approach to measuring the sales effectiveness of advertising is test
marketing.

Before-after with Control Group Design: Before the advertisement is shown, sales
figures are measured and after the exposure to the advertisements, sales figures are
measured. The effect of advertising campaign, can then, be measured by subtracting
the amount of post campaign figure of sale from the pre campaign sale figures in
test cities

Multivariable Experimental Designs: Multivariable designs Produce explanations to
the success and failures of the campaign and are, therefore used by some very large
firm because of their diagnostic value. For any single medium, eight possible
geographic areas have been exposed and eight have not been exposed. Thus, in this
experimental model it is possible to evaluate how each individual medium behaves
alone and in all possible combinations with other media.
2. Indirect Measures of Advertising Effectiveness
Factors such as customer awareness or attitude or customer recall of advertising message
affect the sales or profits or goals of the business indirectly. They are measured in indirect
ways here.

Exposure to Advertisement: The advertiser is concerned about the number of target
audiences who see or hear the organization message set in the advertisement.
Without exposure, advertisement is bound to failure. It is also known as reach and
frequency factors.

Attention or Recall of Advertising Message Content: Under this measure, a recall of
the message content among a specified group or groups or prospective customers is
measured within 24 hours of the exposure of the advertisement. Attention value is
the chief quality of the advertising copy the advertisements cannot be said to be
effective unless they attract the attention of the target consumers. There are two
methods for evaluating the attention getting value of the advertisements. One is
pre-test and the other is post-test.

Brand Awareness: The marketers who rely heavily on advertising often appraise its
effectiveness by measuring the customer’s awareness about the particular product
or brand. The assumption of this type of measure is that there is a direct relationship
between the advertisements and the awareness.

Comprehension: Consumers here are asked to comprehend the message of
advertisements. Various tests like recall tests, asking questions etc. are used to
measure comprehension.

Attitude Change: The results of attitude changes because of advertisements are
measured in terms of attitudes among groups exposed to advertising
communication.

Action: The action of purchasing or behaviour towards purchasing is measured
because of the advertisements here.
Thus, these above measures (direct or indirect) are used to evaluate the effectiveness of
advertisements. It seems from the analysis of the above methods of measuring effectiveness that
directly or indirectly changes in sales or profits are taken as the measuring rod of the effectiveness
of the advertising.
There are several reasons for measuring or not measuring advertising effectiveness as given below.
Reasons to measure advertisement effectiveness.

Increase efficiency of advertising in general.

Determining if objectives are achieved.

Avoid costly mistakes.

Evaluate alternative strategies.
Reasons not to measure effectiveness.

Cost of measurement.

Problems with research.

Lack of time.

Disagreement about what to test.

Objections of creative personnel.