A media plan must begin with specific objectives as in any aspect of the business. The media strategy lacks direction and control without objectives. The media objectives are generally stated in the form of four dimensions namely Reach, Frequency, Continuity, and Costs. The first two are combined, very often, in one statement of desired monthly or quarterly effective reach.
Reach and Frequency: “Reach’ is the number of people or households exposed to a particular media vehicle or schedule at least once during a specific time period-generally a week or a month. It Sahabharata programme is seen at least once in four weeks period by ex out of ten homes, the reach is 60 percent. (MCom 2nd Year Advertising Sales Management Study Material Notes)
A variety of guides and manuals and mathematical techniques exist to have ready calculations, though determining real reach’ is a very complicated exercise, particularly when dealing with several media vehicles. High reach goals are appropriate when the communication goals are very broad or cognitive. That is when the goal is to achieve consumer attention awareness or knowledge. A wide range of media vehicles is needed with low duplication between vehicles and media categories when reach goals are high.
“Frequency is the number of times within a given period that a consumer is exposed to a message, usually figured on weekly or monthly er both. If a promotional message is given a total of 21 exposures during a period of one week, the total frequency is 21 and the average frequency is 21. These measures indicate the intensity of a particular media buy High-frequency goals make sense when the promotion aims to change attitudes and behavior.
The media plan should provide a great deal of duplication within and between media vehicles and categories when frequency goals are high. “Effective frequency is the number of promotional messages needed for a message to have its desired effect on individuals. That is, “effective frequency reflects an assumption about the effect first, second, third, and all other exposures to a promotion.
Although no one knows exactly what the optimum number of exposure is, there are general approaches to this problem namely, linear, decreasing return, and the learning curve. (MCom 2nd Year Advertising Sales Management Study Material Notes)
While measuring “effective frequency “Impact should also be taken! into account. The impact is the intrusiveness of the message. Impact speaks! of the extent to which the ad message is perceived by the audience. Effective reach builds on the concept of ‘effective frequency. However, whereas ‘effective frequency seeks to determine the average number of times a person must be exposed to a message before the communication occurs ‘effective reach’ measures the number of prospects who are aware of the message.
Continuity. The objective regarding the timing of media insertions is called continuity. How should media rupees and messages be allocated throughout the promotion campaign? Should the message be delivered continuously and uniformly or should there be, times when no media is? purchased and other periods when a large part of the media budget is allocated? These questions are answered well by factors namely, product characteristics, market size, budget, and a host of others.
Costs. Cost considerations represent a final media objective. Media planners receive a specific budget and must plan accordingly. They expected to be aware of factors such as unit costs say-a cost ole Records television on prime time network, production costs, availability, discounts, and other possible trade-offs between cost, production quanto size, and the location
(III) Design the Media Strategy
Once the media objectives are set the media planner develops a comprehensive strategy that spells out how these objectives will be reached. This in fact is a very important and detailed document that raises and answers several questions.
These questions can Who the message be targeted? Are there multiple targets? When should they receive the message? Are there unique features or requirements expected from the media selected? In other words, it is to answer four ‘We namely, Who? Where? What? and When? That is, a useful model building for media plan foresees its attention on (1) WHO are the people we want to reach? (2) WHERE are they located? (3) WHAT is the message? (4) WHEN do we run the advertisements?