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Selective Advertising Media: Briefing
Importance of
Selecting the
Appropriate
Advertising
Media
Factors to
Consider in
Selecting
Advertising
Media
Selecting the appropriate advertising media is a very important process for a
number of reasons:

The cost of media is usually the largest expenditure of an advertising
budget; therefore, choosing the most cost-effective medium or mix of
media is essential.

The media-selection process is not simple because there is rarely one right
or wrong way to select appropriate media; the process requires careful
analysis involving both research and judgment on the part of the decision
maker.

Perhaps most significant of all is the critical role media selection plays in
advertising efforts; a business must use the medium or media that will do
the best job of delivering advertising messages to potential customers.
Situational factors are existing conditions which affect a business and its
advertising. Situational factors that should be reviewed when selecting
advertising media include:

Objectives
o
Objectives are the goals that a business wants to accomplish through
advertising.
o
A business needs to develop specific objectives before selecting the
appropriate media to use to attain those goals.

Target audience
o
Target audiences, often referred to as target market or customers, are
the most likely prospects for a good, service, image, or idea.
o
The best way to ensure that target customers are exposed to your
advertising message is to identify their media-usage habits.
 Once you know what they watch, read, or hear, you can begin to
narrow your choice of media.
 In other words, your target customers should be part of the
audience of the media you select.
o
By selecting media that attract many of your target consumers, you
can reduce or limit waste circulation, which is the number of people
exposed to an advertising message who are not potential customers
and, therefore, not part of the target audience.

Competition
o
The competition and its media use must be considered.
o
Since most businesses compete for customers, they use the same
advertising media to reach the same target audience.
o
Occasionally, businesses might advertise in a different medium to
bring attention to themselves.

Budget
o
Budget constraints, or the available media budget, are often the most
significant factor affecting media selection.
Selective Advertising Media: Briefing
Factors to
Consider in
Selecting
Advertising
Media (cont’d)

Product
o
The nature of the product will also influence media choice.
o
Certain products, such as those which are colorful or luxurious or
those that need to be demonstrated, lend themselves to certain
media.
 Home furnishings, fashions, jewelry, and automobiles need the
color-reproduction quality of magazine ads or television
commercials.
 Product demonstrations are best presented by television.
 Other items (e.g., hotels, gasoline, etc.) are effectively advertised
on outdoor media.

Distribution
o
Where a product is distributed, or its geography, is also important.
Media-related factors must also be considered. Media factors can be quantitative
or qualitative. Quantitative media factors, those that can be measured
numerically, are believed by many to be the most important factors when
selecting media. These quantitative media factors include:

Cost
o
Cost should be evaluated in terms of both the total cost of using a
medium and the cost per person, often referred to as cost efficiency.
o
Total cost can vary significantly across media (e.g., television vs. print
media) and within a medium (based on length, size, placement, color
requirements, etc.).
o
Measuring cost efficiency, or the cost of reaching potential prospects,
allows advertisers to compare the efficiency of different media
vehicles.
o
This comparison is based on the cost per thousand (CPM) of the total
audience exposed to an advertising message.
 Cost per thousand (CPM) = (Cost of the ad × 1,000) ÷ Audience
o
In most cases, only part of the audience exposed to an advertisement
would be considered likely prospects for a product—the members of
the product’s audience.
 The calculation is basically the same, but the audience size is
adjusted to reflect the number of likely prospects in the audience.
 Weighted cost per thousand (CPM) =
(Cost of the ad × 1,000) ÷ # of likely prospects in audience
Selective Advertising Media: Briefing
Factors to
Consider in
Selecting
Advertising
Media (cont’d)

Media coverage
o
A business must also consider whether extensive or intensive media
coverage is more desirable when advertising its products.
o
Extensive coverage means reaching a large audience—commonly
referred to as reach.
 Reach is the number of different people in the target audience who
are exposed at least once to an advertising message.
 The reach only includes each person once, even if each person
sees the message more often.
o
Intensive coverage means reaching a smaller group of people more
often—known as frequency.
 Frequency is the average number of times a person in the target
audience is exposed to an advertising message.
 Average frequency is determined by dividing the total number of
exposures by the total number of people reached.
o
In general, if your goal is to reach as many likely prospects for a
product as possible, then several media vehicles should be used.
o
If you want to emphasize frequency by exposing a smaller target
audience to an advertising message several times, then several ads
placed in just one or two media will achieve your goal.

Geographic coverage
o
The geographic coverage of selected media should be about the
same as the availability of the product.
o
Generally, advertising a good or service beyond the target market’s
locale is wasteful and inefficient.

Lead time
o
Lead time is the amount of time required by a medium to place an
advertisement.
 Network television and monthly magazines generally require the
longest lead time.
 Daily newspapers and radio have fairly short lead requirements.
o
Businesspeople need to consider their particular needs in light of
lead-time requirements.
Qualitative media factors, which are not as easy to measure as quantitative
factors, play a smaller—yet still important—role in selecting advertising media.
Qualitative factors include:

Credibility
o
Credibility involves a medium’s believability in the minds of
consumers.
o
Consumers often take advertising that appears in highly credible
media more seriously.
Selective Advertising Media: Briefing
Factors to
Consider in
Selecting
Advertising
Media (cont’d)
How to Select
Advertising
Media

Editorial environment
o
The media are different from each other and have their own unique
editorial environments: the type of information, or content, they
present to attract their audiences.
o
Editorial environments also vary within each medium.
o
Each type of editorial environment appeals to a specific group of
consumers.
o
Businesses also consider other aspects that are related to editorial
environment:
 The climate, or mood, of the media vehicle should complement the
product and the advertising message.
 Businesses consider the level of clutter found in the media vehicle;
clutter—the existence of a large number of ads within a medium or
vehicle—can limit the impact of any single ad.
 Businesses consider the impact—the impression an ad will make
on the average consumer in the target audience—that a certain
medium offers in relation to others.
Businesses that handle their own advertising and deal directly with local media can
use the following steps to make sound advertising media selections:

Determine the problem.
o
Analyze the situation in terms of the various situational factors (e.g.,
advertising goals, primary target audience, competition, etc.).

Consider potential media options and total costs.
o
List the media and vehicles that are available along with the cost of
space or time for each.

Select the appropriate media and vehicles.
o
Considering all situational factors as well as quantitative and
qualitative media factors, choose the appropriate media.
o
The best media vehicle to select is the one that advertises your
product at the right time, in the right place, and to the right audience.

Determine the time schedule.
o
Media scheduling or timing relates to the degree of continuity desired
from your advertising.
o
Media scheduling or timing strategies include:
 Continuous strategy (emphasizes a steady, even scheduling of
media, following a regular pattern; good for products that are
purchased regularly)
 Flighting strategy (concentrates advertising during peak sales
periods followed by periods of no advertising)
 Pulsing strategy (involves intermittent bursts of advertising; often
used to support continuous advertising campaigns)
Selective Advertising Media: Briefing
How to Select
Advertising
Media (cont’d)
o
The media-scheduling strategy should be chosen according to the
advertiser’s particular needs and type of product.
 For businesses that sell products that consumers need regularly, a
continuous strategy is probably best.
 Flighting and pulsing strategies might be better for businesses that
have seasonal sales or are introducing new products.