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Advertising Research and Media Planning

Obviously research has an important bearing on media planning and implementation. The media scenario has become so complex that the information for media selection and planning is specific to the target, for a sophisticated segmentation of the media in relation to a segmented target, a specific combination, distribution and spacing of advertisements in the media. There is always a spillover of a message in every medium reaching beyond the target. This is wastage. The wider the media options and audience options the larger the wastage. In such a situation, the task is maximization of reach, the opportunity to see for a well defined target with the minimum expenditure.

It is in this context that advertising research takes on a new dimension. By itself it covers a wide field: consumer motivation, pre-testing and post-testing the copy and the advertisement not merely for the credibility and persuasiveness of the message but also compatibility with the medium to reach the specific target audience. It also includes research about the different media categories, competitive advertising both in terms of the advertisements and the media used. There is also the research that follows the release of the advertising campaign: recall of the advertisements, comprehension, impact and so on. These are related to the media used to check their effectiveness, apart from media research to locate target groups in relation to particular media, categories, and balance the reach in relation to the costs involved. Media research permits not only monitor of competitive spending and media strategy, but also monthly variations in brand awareness and brand preferences of consumers in relation to the particular media used. It also helps decide media strategy and tactics of concentrating regionally or nationally, using a single medium or a media mix, how and in what frequency and combination the media-mix is to be operated-concentrated short bursts of advertising with long gaps or a regular release and so on.

Today a certain amount of media information is readily available. Certain publications provide 'reading and noting' studies to identify positions, which attract greater attention. The National Readership Survey is a mine of information. Doordarshan and other channels also provide information regarding the popularity of certain programmes to help identify time slots with the widest reach. In TV, digital service has already come to India. It has begun to provide interactive programme choices to its subscribers. Once this information is availed of on a wider scale, more information would follow about the subscribers. This would help more specific targeting of consumers for advertising purposes. Many studies are undertaken from time to time by advertising agencies themselves, the financial dailies and professional journals. Then, the Indian Market Research Bureau provides information on television viewer ship or television rating points (TRP) for three out of five major cities. Doordarshan too has started its own rating system-DART. All this information is still very inadequate and varies widely in estimates. There are no rules to go by. The only way out is to combine the different estimates available and come to some sort of estimation, which is a little better than guesstimate. Thus the demand is for creativity in media planning. Hard judgment based on available data and business sense.

From all the data available, the media planner would have to work out a consumer profile, not merely in demographic terms, but also as to the identification of the decision-maker, purchase rhythm or frequency of purchase, quantity bought at a time, external influence on purchase decisions; the source of purchase-facilities available, such as credit and exclusive brand 'franchise or rights to sell a particular brand; user recommendation; media habits of decision-makers; advertisement recall as compared with other brands and may be, even other consumer products of different brands and even the media which noticed. The totality of such recall of advertisements, seen or heard, of all the products concerned and their respective brands in relation to media, would provide some idea of the contribution of each medium. Then would be available some understanding of the importance of different media in reaching a target audience. This would also provide guidance to positions in the newspapers and magazines and in relation to particular TV channels and particular programmes in the channels. Then would emerge the relative advantage of each medium and position and thus would the media planner be able to work out a media-mix; work out different possible combinations giving different weights to different media and even positions in the media, taking into consideration reach, opportunity to see and costs. Through such as exercise would it be possible to decide on the most viable media-mix for the marketing communication or advertising task in hand within strict budget limitations-the best use of every advertising rupee.

On the basis of the marketing communication objectives and the analysis of the research data regarding the consumer profile and the related media-mix, the media planner would have to decide on what are called the primary and the secondary media. The primary medium would be selected on the consideration of securing the most powerful impact on the target audience, of the most important source of information for the target audience about the product or service to be purchased and of the most decisive influence on, the decision to purchase. Further more, it must be seen and advertisements in it recalled by the majority of the target audience. And the wastage should be minimum. In the case of satellite TV channels one must also take into consideration a spillover into the neighboring countries, especially in the context of the increasing orientation on exports these days. There are more than one billion Hindi speaking people in our neighborhood. Further, there are more than 1.5 billion Indians and. people of South Asian origin, who speak English and speak or understand Hindi. There are programmes on these channels beamed specifically at them.

The media planner would give the greatest weight to the primary medium and use other media to provide back up, help further persuade the consumer to act on the motivation already triggered by the primary medium. Such media would be considered as secondary media. Obviously the primary medium and the secondary medium would vary from product groups to product groups. In general one might say that consumer goods would possibly require an even spread over the entire media spectrum. Depending on the product and its intimacy one would select TV or a magazine as a primary medium. Shop-windows, point of sale material, hoardings would obviously be secondary media.

For industrial products, one might even consider direct mail including leaflets and catalogues as the primary medium backed by the press, particularly the financial press. TV would be a secondary medium. Exhibitions and trade fairs would also constitute secondary, but very important, media. Financial advertising has gathered tremendous momentum in recent years. Both in the case of industrial advertising and financial advertising, TV cannot possibly be the primary medium because in the time available all the necessary information cannot be provided. Moreover, purchase decisions in such cases call for careful consideration and hence the print medium-the newspaper or magazine or direct mail literature-provides an opportunity for the potential buyer to study carefully the information provided before making a purchase decision. In such cases the print media triumph over TV. In a highly competitive situation and media proliferation, it would be necessary to monitor constantly the changes taking place in consumer behavior patterns in relation to the impact of the different media on purchase decisions of particular target audiences. This is especially true of TV, which does not have homogeneity of viewer ship. Changes in viewer ship among different channels would have to be considered. Even if TV remains the primary medium, the channel originally selected as the primary channel might have to be changed. 'One could even conceive of a situation in which it might cease to be effective as the primary medium. Thus there is need for a great deal of innovative and imaginative flexibility, fitting in modifications within a framework of a long-term plan, even on a monthly basis. This would depend on the changing pattern of competitive advertising or changing popularity of different channels or programmes. As TV penetrates small towns and villages, media planning would become very difficult, particularly in a vast country with a huge population such as ours, caught in the grip of rapid transition from a slow to a much faster pace of growth, creating a race in time between the availability of information and the expansion of the market and proliferation of brand rivalry.

Computers have already become a useful instrument of media research and planning. The technology and the accompanying information explosion have to be tuned to the rapidly growing needs of marketing communication. Specialized institutions and trained personnel to man such institutions are needed. Specialization has to be directed and related to a wide variety of needs. Those of you who take up media planning as the area of your career in advertising would thus be virtually pioneering in a field, which is fast opening up and achieving more and more recognition.

The existing institutional arrangements are unable to cope with the demands made on media planning and buying. The attention to the media is not left totally to the advertising agency. Even the advertisers are entrusting the responsibility of media co-ordination to their product or brand managers. The total demands of media space or time and the media combinations are sometimes pooled together for the most effective utilization of the money spent by a marketing organization with multiple brands. Today there is direct interaction between the media executives of the advertising agencies and the clients.

Because of the increasing competition, media rates have become open to bargaining. Marketing organizations with multiple brands are even approached by the different media with special effects bypassing the agencies. This has made media buying itself a specialized job, as distinct from planning. Thus, new administrative and even institutional arrangements are emerging. The usual organization is of a media director with a media planner and a number of assistants involved both in planning and its operation in terms of scheduling the advertisements in different media, booking time or space, ensuring dispatch of material and checking the fulfillment of the contracts entered into by the media owners with the agency and finally, billing clients. The size of the department depends on the size of the operations. There are agencies today, which have media departments with strength of 40 people. In this set-up the media buyer today has a special role. He has to make a quick analysis of the options available working closely with the media planner. Media buyers have to be familiar with media planning, selection and evaluation techniques. Media buying is becoming a major input to media planning because of multi-channel TV and market fragmentation at the media level.

Thus the media department's task has become quite complex and diverse. It involves media research, planning, buying, finance and accounts and even maintaining close relationship with the advertisement departments of the media. The media planner has to be able to make intricate calculations with the help of the computer, beginning with the feeding of data to the computer: TV rating points for the four metro and five cities separately, for cable TV and satellite households of Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad; audit on all brands of advertising on TV; buying options on radio, especially now with the opening up of the PM channel to private sponsors; radio reach and coverage studies; the data on the press provided by the Audit Bureau of Circulation regarding circulation of publications broken up state-wise, district-wise; the demographic data in relation to the media and their cumulative reach, inter-media duplication and so on. Computers are used to work out mathematical models for the most cost-effective combination in relation to media mix, frequency and reach or penetration. With large volume of media buying even agencies are beginning to club all media requirements of particular groups of clients to secure the best possible price and positions. The financial gains benefit ultimately the client as the media 'buyer only gets the 15 per cent agency commission. The role of the media planner in this environment has become highly specialized and has begun to receive much recognition today. Media buying too is becoming highly specialized. A media buyer has to be a good negotiator in order to reach the target most economically, secure discount on the volume of advertising placed with a particular medium, ensuring effective exposure through securing proper placing to be able to be seen or heard above the clutter. Media planning and buying are thus emerging as separate services both to advertising agencies and clients.

The potential has developed for the emergence of independent media buying agencies as in the advanced market economies. This is seen as a threat to the advertising agencies. Hence, those who have a large business are setting up subsidiary media-buying agencies. Hindustan Lever, for instance, is the single largest buyer of time on TV today. With more than 80 brands if spends more than Rs 145 crore. Bulk advance buying of time on TV for such a large amount of money is profitable in more ways than one. Medium-sized advertising agencies are coming together to form media buying clubs. The market is operating ruthlessly in the area of space and time in the major media.

There are, as should be evident by now, a number of different types of jobs open in the media department of an advertising agency. In the present environment media planning, buying and related activities have tremendous potential for an analytical mind with the ability to use the results of the analysis in a creative fashion, in 'an imaginative and innovative manner within the strict discipline of the marketing communication task and the media budget. The media planner is in a position today to provide even qualitative inputs into the creation of advertisements and identifying advertising opportunities. It has become an important management job in an advertising agency. Obviously there is need for training and experience. This is difficult. The classroom can provide only the basic groundwork and a certain amount of less complicated laboratory exercise.

From my experience I have found that even this limited exposure has generated interest among students to opt for media planning. One of my students of the first batch of trainees in the post-graduate diploma course in advertising at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication in Delhi has reached the top of the profession in media planning. Today someone fresh from the IIMC can expect to start as a trainee in the media department at a salary of Rs. 3,000 a month. For a person with at least two years experience, the starting salary could be at least Rs. 4,000.

After that the sky is the limit. It is what you make of it. Jobs of senior media planners are going for a minimum of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 a month. If you have the qualifications that go into the making of a good media planner or buyer-a combination of business acumen, analytical mind and imagination and creativity-you would be entering the profession when new possibilities are opening up. The fast developing media with their increasingly varied appeals and widening reach would call for many innovative solutions to the challenges and opportunities that would come your way. You would have to learn to find the most effective synthesis between local Indian conditions and the experiences coming from abroad. This itself demands a great deal of understanding of the fast changing, expanding and maturing consumer and his or her relation to the media and the socio-cultural, economic and political environment in which this transition and change is taking place. This in itself is a challenge and opportunity for the right type of person for an interesting and profitable career in a particular area of advertising.