Selecciones - Webs

Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
V. Developing the
Integrated Marketing
Communications Program
10. Media Planning and
Strategy
The message may require a specific medium and a certain media vehicle to achieve
its objectives. Likewise, certain media and vehicles have images that may carry over
to the perceptions of messages placed within them.
Flexibility
An effective media strategy requires a degree of flexibility. Because of the rapidly
changing marketing environment, strategies may need to be modified. If the plan has
not built in some flexibility, opportunities may be lost and/or the company may not be
able to address new threats. Flexibility may be needed to address the following:
1. Market opportunities. Sometimes a market opportunity arises that the advertiser
wishes to take advantage of. For example, the development of a new advertising
medium may offer an opportunity that was not previously available.
2. Market threats. Internal or external factors may pose a threat to the firm, and a
change in media strategy is dictated. For example, a competitor may alter its media
strategy to gain an edge. Failure to respond to this challenge could create problems
for the firm.
3. Availability of media. Sometimes a desired medium (or vehicle) is not available to
the marketer. Perhaps the medium does not reach a particular target segment or has
no time or space available. There are still some geographic areas that certain media
do not reach. Even when the media are available, limited advertising time or space
may have already been sold or cutoff dates for entry may have passed. Alternative
vehicles or media must then be considered.
4. Changes in media or media vehicles. A change in the medium or in a particular
vehicle may require a change in the media strategy. For example, the advent of
cable TV opened up new opportunities for message delivery, as will the
introduction of interactive media. The Internet has led many consumer companies
to adopt this medium, while for business-to-business marketers the Web has almost
become a requirement to succeed. Likewise, a drop in ratings or a change in editorial
format may lead the advertiser to use different programs or print alternatives.
Fluctuations in these factors mean the media strategy must be developed with enough
flexibility to allow the manager to adapt to specific market situations.
Budget Considerations
One of the more important decisions in the development of media strategy is cost estimating.
The value of any strategy can be determined by how well it delivers the message
to the audience with the lowest cost and the least waste. We have already
explored a number of factors, such as reach, frequency, and availability that affect this
decision. The marketer tries to arrive at the optimal delivery by balancing cost with
each of these. (Again, the Bumble Bee plan in Appendix B demonstrates how this
issue is addressed.) As the following discussion shows, understanding cost figures
may not be as easy as it seems.
Advertising and promotional costs can be categorized in two ways. The absolute
cost of the medium or vehicle is the actual total cost required to place the message. For
example, a full-page four-color ad in Newsweek magazine costs about $183,000. Relative
cost refers to the relationship between the price paid for advertising time or space
and the size of the audience delivered; it is used to compare media vehicles. Relative
costs are important because the manager must try to optimize audience delivery within
budget constraints. Since a number of alternatives are available for delivering the message,
the advertiser must evaluate the relative costs associated with these choices. The
way media costs are provided and problems in comparing these costs across media
often make such evaluations difficult.
Determining Relative Costs of Media To evaluate alternatives, advertisers
must compare the relative costs of media as well as vehicles within these media.
Unfortunately, the broadcast, print, and out-of-home media do not always provide the
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
323
Chapter Ten Media Planning and Strategy