Advertising planning does not occur in a vacuum. Advertising objectives are derived from marketing objectives. Therefore, the first step in any advertising planning is to review to the objectives as set out in the
marketing plan. This is designed to ensure that all promotional efforts, including advertising, are working towards achieving both short-term and long-term corporate and marketing goals and align with the company's values and vision.
Review the marketing plan A review of the marketing plan can be a relatively simple process, or it can involve a formal review, known as an
audit. The review or audit might consider such issues as prior marketing communications activity, an evaluation of what has been effective in the past, whether new market research studies are warranted, an outline of competitive advertising activity and a review of budgetary considerations. The marketing plan can be expected to provide information about the company's long and short-term goals, competitive rivalry, a description of the target market, products offered, positioning strategy, pricing strategy, distribution strategy and other promotional programs. All of this information has potential implications for developing the advertising program. The advertiser must study the marketing plan carefully and determine how to translate the marketing objectives into an advertising program. Each
advertising campaign is unique, so that the review requires a great deal of analysis as well as judgement.
Overall communications objectives Communications objectives are derived from marketing objectives. However, communications objectives must be framed in terms of communications effects. For example, a company's short-term marketing objective might be to increase sales response for a given brand. However, this objective would require that a large number of consumers are aware of the brand and are favourably disposed towards it. Furthermore, consumers' purchase intentions may be dependent on other marketing activities such as access, price, the ability to trial the brand prior to final purchase and other marketing activities. It is unfair to hold marketing communications accountable for all sales when it is only one element in the total marketing effort. While advertising is an excellent tool for creating awareness and interest in a brand, it is less effective at turning that awareness and interest into actual sales. To convert interest into sales, different promotional tools such as personal selling or sales promotion may be more useful. Many authors caution against using sales or market share objectives for marketing communications or advertising purposes. Communications objectives might include such things as to: • increase purchase • encourage trial • encourage loyalty • position or re-position a brand • educate customers These will need to be translated into advertising objectives.
Target market and target audience The review should take note of the overall target market. However, this does not necessarily mean that the advertising campaign will be directed at the total target market. Marketers and advertisers make a distinction between the
target audience for an advertising message and the
target market for a product or brand. By definition, the target audience is the intended audience for a given advertisement or message in a publication or broadcast medium, while the target market consists of all existing and potential consumers of a product, service or brand. Companies often develop different advertising messages and media strategies to reach different target audiences. For example, McDonald's Restaurants uses the anthropomorphic brand characters, Ronald McDonald and Hamburgler, in its advertising directed at children who are important brand-choice influencers. However, for adult target audience members, McDonald's uses messages that emphasise convenience and quality. Thus, the target audience for a given advertising message may comprise only a subset of the total market as defined in the marketing plan. Careful perusal of the marketing plan will assist marketers in the process of defining the optimal target audiences for specific advertising objectives.
Push vs pull strategy The communications objectives will, at least in part, depend on whether the marketer is using a push or pull strategy. In a
push strategy, the marketer advertises intensively with retailers and wholesalers, with the expectation that they will stock the product or brand, and that consumers will purchase it when they see it in stores. In contrast, in a
pull strategy, the marketer advertises directly to consumers hoping that they will put pressure on retailers to stock the product or brand, thereby pulling it through the distribution channel. In a push strategy the promotional mix would consist of trade advertising and sales calls while the advertising media would normally be weighted towards trade magazines, exhibitions and trade shows while a pull strategy would make more extensive use consumer-oriented advertising and sales promotions while the media mix would be weighted towards mass-market media such as newspapers, magazines, television and radio.
Devising advertising objectives Setting advertising objectives provides the framework for the entire advertising plan. Therefore, it is important to specify precisely what is to be achieved and outline how advertising will be evaluated. Advertising objectives should be
Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable,
Relevant, and
Time-dependent (SMART). Any statement of advertising objectives must include measurement benchmarks – that is the norms against which advertising effectiveness will be evaluated. One of the first approaches to setting communications-oriented objectives was the DAGMAR approach (
Defining
Advertising
Goals for
Measured
Advertising
Results) developed in the 1960s. While memorable, the DAGMAR approach fails to provide concrete guidance on how to link advertising objectives with communications effects. In order to set realistic and achievable advertising objectives, most advertisers try to link advertising or communications objectives with the communications effects. Rossiter and Bellman have argued that, for advertising purposes, five communications effects should be considered, namely: :
1. Category Need: The consumer's acceptance that the category (the product or service) is necessary to satisfy some need :
2. Brand awareness (brand recognition and brand recall): The consumer's ability to recognise a brand or to recall a brand name from memory :
3. Brand preference (or brand attitude): The extent to which a consumer will choose one brand over other competing brands in the category :
4. Brand action intention (purchase intent): The consumer's self-instruction to purchase a given brand :
5. Purchase facilitation: The extent to which the consumer knows how and where to purchase the brand For many purchases, category need and purchase facilitation will be present in the customer's mind and can be omitted from the advertising objectives. However, for some purchases, the customer may not be aware of the product category or may not know how to access it, in which case these objectives will need to be addressed in the communications objectives. Brand awareness, brand preference and purchase intention are almost always included as advertising objectives.
Setting advertising budgets A firm's advertising budget is a sub-set of its overall budget. For many firms, the cost of advertising is one of the largest expenses, second only to wages and salaries. Advertising expenditure varies enormously according to firm size, market coverage, managerial expectations and even
managerial style. Procter and Gamble, the top US advertiser, spent US$4.3 billion in 2015 on national media (exclusive of agency fees and production costs) while a small local advertiser might spend just a few thousand dollars in the same period. The size of the budget has implications for the promotional mix, the media mix and market coverage. As a generalisation, very large budgets are required to sustain national television campaigns. Advertisers with tight budgets may forced to use less effective media alternatives. However, even advertisers with small budgets may be able to incorporate expensive main media, by focusing on narrow geographic markets, buying spots in non-peak time periods and carefully managing advertising schedules. A number of different methods are used to develop the advertising (and/or marketing communications) budget. The most commonly used methods are: percentage-of-sales, objective and task, competitive parity method, market share method, unit sales method, all available funds method and the affordable method.
Percentage-of-sales method Using the percentage-of-sales method, the advertiser allocates a fixed percentage (say 5% or 10%) of forecast sales value to the advertising budget. This method is predicated on the assumption that advertising causes future sales volume. The percentage of sales method is the easiest method to use and for this reason remains one of the most widely used methods for setting budgets. A major problem with the %-of-sales method is that there is no consensus about the percentage value to apply. Some companies use industry averages as a guide to set their marcomms budget. The following table, based on industry averages, shows that the % value can vary from around 20% of sales to less than 1 percent.
Objective and task method The objective and task method is the most rational and defensible of all budgeting methods. In this method, the advertiser determines the advertising objectives and then defines specific, measurable communication tasks that will need to be undertaken to achieve the desired objectives. Cost estimates are developed for each communication task in order to arrive at a total budget estimate. This method is time-consuming and complex, and as a consequence has been less widely used in practice, however, recent research suggests that more marketers are taking up this approach.
Competitive parity method The competitive parity method allocates the advertising or promotional budget based on competitive spending for comparable activities. This approach is a defensive strategy used to protect a brand market position. It assumes that rival firms have similar objectives and is widely used in highly competitive markets. The main criticism of this method is that it assumes competitors know what they are doing in relation to advertising expenditure. There are several approaches to using the competitive parity method: : a) Allocate the same budget on advertising as a key rival; : b) Allocate the budget based on the industry average expenditure levels; : c) Allocate a similar percentage-of-sales as a key competitor; : d) Allocate the same percentage-of-sales on advertising as the industry average; : e) Use competitive activity as a benchmark to which sums are added or subtracted based on managerial judgement. Competitive parity requires a detailed understanding of competitor's expenditure in key areas.
Market intelligence used to inform this approach can be obtained by consulting company annual reports and also from commercial research service providers such as Nielsen's AdEx. Other methods used to set advertising and promotional budgets include the
market share method,
unit sales method,
all available funds method,
affordable method,
marginal analysis and others. Contemporary budgeting rarely relies on a single method, but instead uses a combination of methods to guide the marketer in determining the optimal expenditure levels.
Devising the creative strategy The creative strategy is also known as the
message strategy. The creative strategy explains how the advertising campaign will address the advertising objectives. Developing the creative strategy typically begins by identifying the big idea (also known as the
creative concept that will establish the intended product position in the minds of the customer. Another way of thinking about the creative concept is that it refers to the one thing that will make consumers respond. The creative concept should show how the product benefit meets the customer's needs or expectations in a unique way. Laskey et al. developed a typology of nine creative strategies. Initially devised for television, this typology has been widely adopted for other media including print media and social media. Laskey, Day and Crask's typology first identifies two broad classes of creative strategy: • Informational: rational appeals that typically provide information about the brand's benefits • Transformational: emotional appeals that assist consumers to imagine an aspirational lifestyle Informational appeals typically involve factual claims that list the product's benefits in a straightforward manner and are more likely to be used with high involvement goods. Transformational appeals play on emotions and are designed to transform the consumer's perceptions of themselves or of the product. Transformational appeals are more likely to be indicated for low-involvement goods or services. Emotional appeals are often known as a
soft-sell approach. Because they bypass rational cognitive processing, transformational appeals are less likely to result in counter-arguing in the consumer's mind. In addition to determining the overall creative strategy, the advertiser also needs to consider the creative execution – which refers to the way that the message is presented. Examples of creative execution include: problem-solution formats, fear appeals, sex appeals, humour, parody, slogans or jingles, mnemonics, slice-of-life, guarantee, celebrity endorsement, testimonial, news style, scientific appeals, dramatisation and
product demonstration.
Media planning Strategic media planning consists of four key decision areas: For example, L'Oreal Men's Expert promoted its skincare range on dry-cleaner hangers. When customers picked up their shirt, they found a $2 coupon and a message, "Your shirt doesn't come with wrinkles, why should your face?" This novel execution shows how media and creative can be integrated to generate powerful advertising.
Setting media objectives In terms of setting media objectives, the planner needs to address several key decisions: • Who do we want to talk to? (Target market/ audience definition) • How often does an audience member need to hear our message before it is noticed or achieves the desired consumer response? (Effective frequency) • When do audiences cease to notice the ad, or become tired of seeing the ad? (Advertising wear-out) A number of key definitions are essential for media planning purposes: :
Reach is defined as the number of households (or people) exposed to an advertising message in a given time period. :
Frequency is defined as the average number of times a household (or person) is exposed to an advertising message in a given time period. :
Effective frequency refers to the minimum number of media exposures in order to achieve a specified communication goal :
Effective reach refers to the reach (% of households or people) at the effective frequency level. :
Gross Ratings Points (GRPs) is defined as reach multiplied by frequency and is a measure of overall campaign weight or intensity With respect to reach objectives, planners must decide what proportion of the target market need to be exposed to the advertising message. It is not always necessary to reach 100% of the target market. For new brands or brands with very low levels of awareness, it may be desirable to reach every member of the target market. However, for reminder type campaigns lower levels of reach may be all that is required. Reach objectives are normally framed in terms of a percentage of market. For example, a reach objective might read;
To reach 50% of women aged 18–25 years. With respect to frequency objectives, the planner must determine the optimal level of frequency in order to achieve the desired communications objective. Media planners often work with rules of thumb for setting frequency objectives that are based on an extensive body of evidence drawn from research findings. For example, empirical evidence suggests that the average consumer needs to be exposed to a message at least three times before they become aware of the brand information. This is sometimes known as the
3+ Rule. To this basic benchmark of three exposures, media planners recognise that to achieve higher-level communication goals, such as persuasion and lead generation, higher levels of frequency are required. To achieve simple brand awareness, three exposures may be sufficient, but for consumers to act on that awareness, higher levels of exposure may be required. Some theorists have developed sophisticated decision models to assist with planning optimal frequency levels. Planners also need to consider the combined effects of reach and frequency (GRPs). In an intensive campaign, the schedule will utilise both broad reach (expose more people to the message) and high frequency (expose people multiple times to the message). The overall campaign weight has implications for budgets and for media selection. In an intensive campaign (heavy weight campaign), the media strategy is normally skewed towards main media, which remains the most cost efficient means of reaching large audiences with the relatively high frequency needed to create stable brand awareness levels.
Media channel strategy The first channel decision that needs to be made is whether to use a
concentrated channel strategy or a
dispersion channel strategy: ; Concentrated channel strategy : In a concentrated approach the planner invests most of the media expenditure in a single medium or a narrow range or media. ; Dispersion channel strategy : In a dispersion approach, the planner spends across a broad range of
advertising media. The main advantage of a concentrated channel strategy is that the advertiser has the opportunity to achieve a high share-of- voice and can become the dominant advertiser in the selected channels. A dispersion approach allows the advertiser to reach a broader cross-section of the defined target market. With reach and frequency objectives firmly in place, the planner turns to determining the media mix and selecting appropriate media vehicles to carry the message. The media planner must determine the way that the advertising budget is to be allocated across the relevant media options (e.g. 50% TV; 30% Mags; 15% Digital and 5% Out-of-home). To make these decisions, the planner requires a detailed understanding of the target market and its media usage habits. Accordingly, the design of the media channel strategy requires a rich understanding of the media options and what each type of media can accomplish in terms of audience reach and engagement.
Media audience research Media audience research is a central feature of media planning. The main purpose of media research is "to eliminate waste in advertising by objectively analysing the media available for promoting products and services". In a few countries, where the industry is more fragmented or where there is no clear peak industry association, two or more competing organisations may provide audience measurement services. In such countries, there is said to be no industry currency. Research companies employ different methodologies depending on where and when media is used and the cost of data collection. All these methods involve
sampling – that is taking a representative sample of the population and recording their media usage which is then extrapolated to the general population. Media owners typically share research findings with prospective advertisers, while selected findings are available to the general public via the media research company or an entity, such as a broadcast commission, established to administer the audience research process. Media research acts as form of industry regulation and the legitimacy of research methodologies and provision of audience metrics. Media owners rely on metrics of both audience size and audience quality to set advertising rates. Measures of media audience that are of especial interest to advertisers include:
Print Media •
Circulation: the number of copies of an issue sold (independently assessed via a circulation audit) •
Readership: the total number of people who have seen or looked into a current edition of the a publication (independently measured via survey) •
Readership profiles: Demographic/ psychographic and behavioural analysis of readership (sourced from Readership surveys)
Broadcast Media •
Average audience: The average number of people who tuned into the given time or given program, expressed in thousands or as a percentage. Also known as a
Rating or T.A.R.P (Total Audience Rating Point). •
Audience share: The number of listeners (or viewers) for a given channel over a given time period, expressed as a percentage of the total audience potential for the total market. (The audience share is normally calculated by dividing a given channel's average audience by the average audience of all channels). •
Audience potential: The total number of people in a given geographical area who conform to a specific definition, such as the number of people with a television (or radio) set or the total number of people aged 6–12 years. Population potentials are normally derived from the census figures and are used to estimate the potential market reach. •
Audience movement by session: The number of listeners (or viewers) who switch channels during a given time period. •
Audience profile: Analysis of audience by selected demographic, psychographic or behavioural variables. •
Cumulative audience (CUME): The number of
different listeners (or viewers) in a given time period; also known as
reach. •
People Using Television (PUT): The number of people (or households) tuned to any channel during a given time period.
Out-of-home media •
Opportunities to see (OTS) – a crude measure of the number of people who were exposed to the medium, For example, the number of cars that drive past an outdoor billboard in a given time period
Internet and digital media •
Site traffic: The number of visitors to a website within a given time period (e.g. a month) •
Unique visitors: The number of
different visitors to a website within a given time period •
Site stickiness: The average length of time a person remains on a page (a measure of audience engagement) •
Average page views per visit: The number of different pages generated by a visitor to a site (a measure of engagement) •
Click through rate (CTR): The number of people who clicked on an advertisement or advertising link •
Cost per click (CPS): The average cost of generating one click through •
Rate of return visitors: The number of unique visitors who return to a site •
Bounce rate: Number of site visitors who leave the site within a predetermined time (seconds) Although much of the audience research data is only available to subscribers and prospective advertisers, basic information is published for the general public, often as topline survey findings. The type and depth of freely available information varies across geographic markets. The following table provides principal sources of information for main media audience research in English speaking markets. :
Notes: : * Also see Nielsen Media, for
Trends in Canadian TV Viewing : ** English is one of the three official languages spoken in Malaysia. Print and broadcast media are normally segmented into language first and demographics second. : *** There is so single, official currency for measuring TV audiences in Malaysia. Currently two competing companies provide data, using different methodologies (Nielsen Media and Kantar Media) : **** Think TV is a consortium of commercial TV networks that oversees the TV ratings process
Media buying While it is certainly possible for advertisers to purchase advertising spots by dealing directly with media owners (e.g. newspapers, magazines or broadcast networks), in practice most media buying is purchased as part of broader negotiations. Prices depend on the advertiser's prior relationship with the network, the volume of inventory being purchased, the timing of the booking and whether the advertiser is using cross-media promotions such as product placements. Advertising spots purchased closer to airtime tend to be more expensive. Many advertisers opt to centralise their media buying through large media agencies such as Zenith or Optimedia. These large media agencies are able to exert market power through volume purchasing by buying up space for an entire year. Media agencies benefit advertisers by providing advertising units at lower rates and also through the provision of added value services such as media planning services. Buying advertising spots on national TV is very expensive. Given that most media outlets use dynamic pricing, rates vary from day to day, creating difficulties locating indicative rates. However, from time to time, trade magazines publish adrates which may be used as a general guide. The following table provides indicative advertising rates for selected popular programs on American national television networks, broadcast during prime time viewing hours. :Notes: ::: * Rates for programs such as
American Idol increase as the program moves closer to finals ::: ** Rates for Mon-Fri programs such as
Jay Leno vary depending on the day of the week and the expected audience size
Pulling it all together: Media tactics and the media schedule A media schedule is a program or plan that "identifies the media channels used in an advertising campaign, and specifies insertion or broadcast dates, positions, and duration of the messages". Broadly, there are four basic approaches to scheduling: :
Blitzing: one concentrated burst of intense levels of advertising, normally during the initial period of the planning horizon :
Continuity: a pattern of relatively constant levels throughout a given time period or campaign (i.e. a relatively expensive spending pattern) :
Flighting: an intermittent pattern of bursts of advertising followed by no advertising (i.e. a moderate spending pattern) :
Pulsing: a combination of both continuity and pulsing; low levels of continuous advertising followed by bursts of more intense levels of advertising; (i.e. alternates between a high spending pattern and a low spending pattern) Empirical support for the effectiveness of pulsing is relatively weak. However, research suggests that continuous schedules and flighted schedules generally result in strong levels of consumer recall. With flighted schedules, the second and subsequent flights tend to build on the first flight, resulting in awareness levels similar to a continuous schedule, but often with reduced costs. A major consideration in constructing media schedules is timing. The advertiser's main is to place the advertisement as close as practical to the point where consumers make their purchase decision. For example, an advertiser who knows that a grocery buyer does a main shop on Saturday afternoons and a top-up shop on Wednesday nights, may consider TV to achieve general brand awareness, supplemented with radio spots to reach the shopper while he or she is driving to the supermarket or regular place of purchase on the days when the majority of consumers carry out their shopping. ==Measuring advertising effectiveness==