●A Media Plan ...

Media Plans

The largest category in your advertising
budget is likely to be your media costs--
the dollars you spend for air time on radio
or for ad space in newspapers, magazines,
and more. Because of this, it makes
sense to have a sound plan to manage
that investment. You'll want to set goals.
You'll want to describe strategies for
achieving them. You'll have to organize
the day-to-day tasks of carrying out the
strategies. The tool you'll need to do this
is a media plan that begins with an
overview and works its way down to the
details. It will help you with every phase
of your advertising.
Here's how many businesses manage
their media buying. The person in charge
of the budget starts saying yes to the
salespeople who call. Advertising appears
here and there as a result. When the
budget's gone, the person in charge starts
saying no, and the ad campaign is over.
It's a method, but you wouldn't call it a
media plan. And if that approach sounds
familiar, you can bet you're passing up
opportunities to maximize your return on
investment.
Media planning is the process of choosing
a course of action. Media planners
develop yearly plans that list each media
outlet--print or broadcast. Planning then
gives way to buying, as each separate
contract is negotiated, then finalized.
The media plan is a document in sections.
A ring binder notebook is a good way to
keep a media plan, because it's easy to
update and easy to refer to. Or if you
prefer to work on computer, simply think
in terms of folders and files. The sections
in your notebook will be:
Media outlets (newspapers, etc.). This
section lists all of the media in which
advertising will be placed.
Goals. This section describes the goals of
the advertising, and explains why and
how this plan meets these goals.
Audience. In this section, collect all the
information you can about your target
audience. You will want statistics by
demographics or lifestyle; your
professional association can help you find
this information, as can trade journals or
your banker. Look for any relevant
articles or information about your
potential buyers. Pay attention to
everything that helps you imagine an
individual buyer who is typical of the
whole.
Strategy. You will write a statement of
strategy backed up by a rationale. The
action steps you describe here will guide
a year's activity.
Budget and calendar. Your media plan will
outline what money is to be spent where,
and when.
The document you've compiled in this
notebook guides you in the execution of
the plan throughout the year.
Over time, these plans provide a history
of your advertising. If you make
alterations to the schedule in the course
of the year, be sure to record those
decisions in your notebook. Ring binders
make it easy to update your plan as it
evolves.
When you've finished this section, you
will have an overview and the tools you
need to create a media plan for your
business. Let's start with basic
vocabulary. The term you'll hear most
often is CPM, or cost per thousand. CPM
analysis is the method media buyers use
to convert various rate and circulation
options to relative terms. CPM represents
the cost of reaching one thousand people
via different types of media. To calculate
CPM, you find the cost for an ad, then
divide it by the total circulation the ad
reaches (in thousands). By finding this
information and calculating this cost for
each of your options, you can give them a
numerical ranking for comparison. CPM is
a basic media concept.
Print advertising prices are based on the
circulation of the publication in question.
Publications will quote you a circulation
figure based on paid subscribers. The
audited circulation figures are verified by
monitoring organizations. The publications
will try to convince you that actual
circulation is higher by including the free
copies they distribute and the pass-along
readership they claim. Sometimes these
claims of "bonus" circulation are valid--for
example, magazines distributed on
airlines get at least eight readers per
copy. Still, you should be wary of inflated
circulation figures.
Audience is the equivalent of circulation
when you're talking about broadcast
media. Audience size varies throughout
the day as people tune in and tune out.
Therefore, the price for advertising at
different times of day will vary, based on
the audience size that the day-part
delivers.
Penetration is related to circulation.
Penetration describes how much of the
total market available you are reaching. If
you are in a town with a demographic
count of 200,000 households, and you
buy an ad in a coupon book that states a
circulation of 140,000, you're reaching 70
percent of the possible market--high
penetration. If, instead, you bought an ad
in the city magazine, which goes to only
17,000 subscribers (households), your
penetration would be much less--8.5
percent. What degree of penetration is
necessary for you depends on whether
your strategy is to dominate the market
or to reach a certain niche within that
market.
Reach and frequency are key media terms
used more in broadcast than in print.
Reach is the total number of people
exposed to a message at least once in a
set time period, usually four weeks.
(Reach is the broadcast equivalent of
circulation, for print advertising.)
Frequency is the average number of times
those people are exposed during that
time period. To make reach go up, you
buy a wider market area. To make
frequency go up, you buy more ads
during the time period. Usually, when
reach goes up, you have to compromise
and let frequency go down. You could
spend a lot of money trying to achieve a
high reach and a high frequency. The
creative part of media planning comes in
balancing reach, frequency, and budget
constraints to find the best combination
in view of your marketing goals.
In developing your media plan, you will:
Review your marketing objectives through
the "lens" of media planning.
Review the options available.
Evaluate them against your objectives.
Set your minimum and maximum budget
constraints.
Create alternative scenarios until you
uncover the strategy that accomplishes
your objectives within those constraints.
Develop a schedule describing ad
appearances in each medium.
Summarize your plan in the form of a
calendar and a budget.
Negotiate with media representatives to
execute your plan.