Media planning
Magazines, unless local, usually cover too much territory to be cost-efficient for a small firm, although some national publications offer regional or city editions.
The fundamental purpose of a media plan is to determine the best way to convey a message to the target audience.
A media plan sets out a systematic process that synchronizes all contributing elements in order to achieve this specific goal.
Enabling the marketers to understand where the prime advertising space would be to gain sufficient exposure, what factors affect that certain demographic, and how to promote to the audience effectively.
[1] Media strategy development and implementation is the third phase and is the point in the process that is directly influenced by the actions from previously determined objectives.
It is important to assess whether each individual marketing and media objective was met, as if they were successful it will be beneficial to use a similar model in future plans.
Generally speaking, you will use reach when you are looking to increase your consumer base by getting more people buying your product and you will privilege frequency when you need to narrow down your communication to a more specific audience but need to increase the number of times they could be exposed to your message in order to generate a change in behavior.
These tabulations are put into formulas from which the level of delivery (reach) for any given schedule can be estimated.
Now assume the same schedule of one commercial in each of four TV programs (A, B, C, D) to determine reach versus frequency.
To increase reach, include additional media in the plan or expand the timing of the message.
For example, if purchasing "drive time" on the radio, some daytime and evening spots will increase the audience.
Gross rating points (GRPs) are used to estimate broadcast reach and frequency from tabulations and formulas.
Therefore, starting with a broader reach and then choosing target markets would be a much-informed decision; derived from actual data rather than just assumption.
Most small businesses say "We just want to see what happens", which just wastes their money leading to disappointment on media planning ("The importance of frequency," n.d.).
The understanding of how exactly a consumer goes through the buying cycle is very essential to grasp the importance of frequency in media planning.
Patience and effective frequency plays a great role in a business's long-term success.
Prior to having historical and current data for new media options, many of the conventional planner's tools are stymied.
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