Page 237 - DMGT507_SALES AND PROMOTIONS MANAGEMENT

Unit 13: Broadcast Media and Media Planning

13.4.3 Develop and Implementing Media Strategies Notes

Scheduling
It is neither necessary nor possible for the companies to keep their advertising always in front
of the consumers to serve as a constant reminder of their products or services. Media schedule is
the calendar of advertising plan. Scheduling is concerned with timing the insertion of
advertisements in the selected media. Decisions in this area are essentially based on certain
assumptions regarding how the target audience will respond to the presence or absence of the
advertising messages with respect to the set advertising objectives, such as product recall or
attitudes. There are three approaches to scheduling: (1) continuity, (2) flighting, and (3) pulsing.
Continuity refers to a continuous pattern of advertising, which can mean every day, every
week, or every month. The distinction is that a regular (continuous) pattern is developed without
any gaps or periods when there is no advertising. If the planners believed that product recall
responded easily to the exposure of advertising messages and also decayed easily if there was
no advertising, then probably recall-increasing ad messages are needed continuously, at a low
frequency level. What is required is to develop a continuous pattern of reminder advertising
without any time gaps in which there is no advertising. This strategy is suitable for those
product categories that are regularly consumed on an ongoing basis without any seasonal
fluctuations, such as washing powders, soaps, toothpaste, and soft drinks, etc.
Flighting refers to a less regular schedule of advertising messages and is quite popular. There
are intermittent periods of advertising and no advertising. Because of the possible S-shaped
response function, initial advertising may require heavy expenditures on media to bring about
desired change in attitudes, and once formed, such attitudes are resistant to rapid decay. This
suggests the need for flighting if the advertising objective was to achieve change of attitudes.

Example: This pattern is often used for desert coolers, refrigerators, woolen jackets,
sweaters, beauty care products etc.

Pulsing is a combination of continuity and flighting. The continuity is maintained as a base
throughout, but during certain periods the level of advertising is stepped up. For example,
during the period just before the last date of tax return submission, advertising for cars increases
to motivate customers to buy and avail of depreciation benefit.
Decisions about scheduling strategy are based on the advertising objectives (brand awareness,
or brand attitudes), buying cycles, competitive spending, advertising decay, and available budget,
etc.

Media Reach and Frequency

The media planners face the essential tasks that concern the optimal use of media budget while
deciding about the reach, frequency, and the number of advertising cycles affordable for the
year. We have seen in the hierarchy models that the first stage requires awareness of the product
or brand. Obviously, if more people are aware, there is more likelihood that more of them will
move to each subsequent stage and finally to purchase action. Creating awareness among audience
requires reach. It is exposing potential customers to the advertising message. In case of new
product or brand, quite a high level of reach is needed to make almost all the potential customers
aware of new introduction.
So far, there is no known way to determine how much reach is required to achieve desired levels
of awareness, attitude change, or purchase intentions. Also, there is no certainty that an ad
placed in a particular media vehicle will actually reach the target audience.

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