Media Scheduling

What do you mean by media scheduling. Explain the procedure for evaluating advertising programmes with the help of suitable examples.

 

My Answer:

 

Program or plan that identifies the media channels used in an advertising

campaign, and specifies insertion or broadcast dates, positions, and duration of the

messages called media scheduling.

 

Step of advertising programs

1. Analyzing the market

2. Determining advertising objectives

3. Establishing budgetary and control system

4. Developing advertising strategy for:

• Selecting media
• Creating messages

5. Coordinating advertising with other promotional and marketing methods

6. Evaluating results

 

Step 1: Analyze the market

1. Determining the demand factors.

2. Identifying the target group.

3. Assess the competition

4. Legal and regulatory environment

 

Step 2: Determining advertising objectives

Defining the Marketing Objectives: Decide what the marketing objectives is out to

achieve in terms of:

· Increase sales of brand

· Increase market share· Generate 500 new enquiries each month· Increase

distribution penetration

· Establish a network of distributors

 

Step 3: Establishing the budgetary and control system

· Advertising budget is a plan for financing certain future advertising operations

· Mostly a fund will be allocated to this purpose to marketing department

· Within this fund they try to do media selection and other advertising expenses

· An advertising budget must be flexible to change according to changing

marketing conditions

Step 4: Developing advertising strategy

· How we get there- how the objectives are achieved. Strategy drives the

tactics in the same direction

· Adverting strategy must encompass the totality of what a product or

service is and how it is sold to the consumer

· The strategy summarises the tactics, by helping to harmonize and integrate

all tactical communication tools.

· The strategy should also include selection of target markets, positioning,

selection of communication tools, sequence of communication tools (are

different tools used at different stages?), time scales media selection and

creating messages

 

Step 5: Coordinating advertising with other promotional and marketing

methods

· For an advertising program to be successful, elements as production,

delivery and inventory must be integrated with the advertisement plan

· An advertising planning must consider to get the maximum cooperation

from distributors, dealers and salespeople

 

Step 6: Evaluating advertising results

· Pretesting: It is a research technique which determines the reaction to

advertising by a representative sample of the target market before. The

goal of pretesting is to eliminate errors or weaknesses in program design

before considerable sums of money are invested

· Post testing:

This is done only after a full commitment to a creative approach and a

schedule of media has been made . The objective is to ensure that future

campaigns will be more effective.

 

 

Question 1b: Define sales promotion and discuss the different elements

of promotion-mix with the help of suitable examples.

Answer:

An activity designed to boost the sales of a product or service. It may include an

advertising campaign, increased PR activity, a free-sample campaign, offering free

gifts or trading stamps, arranging demonstrations or exhibitions, setting up

competitions with attractive prizes, temporary price reductions, door-to-door

calling, telemarketing, and personal letters on other methods.

 

More than any other element of the promotional mix, sales promotion is about

“action”. It is about stimulating customers to buy a product. It is not designed to be

informative – a role which advertising is much better suited to.

Sales promotion is commonly referred to as “Below the Line” promotion.

Sales promotion can be directed at:

· The ultimate consumer (a “pull strategy” encouraging purchase)

· The distribution channel (a “push strategy” encouraging the channels to

stock the product). This is usually known as “selling into the trade”

 

Methods of sales promotion

There are many consumer sales promotional techniques available, summarised in

the table below:

Price promotions

Price promotions are also commonly known as” price discounting”

These offer either (1) a discount to the normal selling price of a product, or (2)

more of the product at the normal price.

Increased sales gained from price promotions are at the expense of a loss in profit –

so these promotions must be used with care.

A producer must also guard against the possible negative effect of discounting on a

brand’s reputation

 

Coupons

Coupons are another, very versatile, way of offering a discount. Consider the

following examples of the use of coupons:

· On a pack to encourage repeat purchase

· In coupon books sent out in newspapers allowing customers to redeem the

coupon at a retailer

· A cut-out coupon as part of an advert

· On the back of till receipts

The key objective with a coupon promotion is to maximise the redemption rate –

this is the proportion of customers actually using the coupon.

One problem with coupons is that they may simply encourage customers to buy

what they would have bought anyway. Another problem occurs when retailers do

not hold sufficient stocks of the promoted product – causing customer disappointment.

Use of coupon promotions is, therefore, often best for new products or perhaps to

encourage sales of existing products that are slowing down.

 

Gift with purchase

The “gift with purchase” is a very common promotional technique. It is also

known as a “premium promotion” in that the customer gets something in addition

to the main purchase. This type of promotion is widely used for:

· Subscription-based products (e.g. magazines)

· Consumer luxuries (e.g. perfumes)

 

Competitions and prizes

Another popular promotion tool with many variants. Most competition and prize

promotions are subject to legal restrictions.

 

Money refunds

Here, a customer receives a money refund after submitting a proof of purchase to

the manufacturer.

These schemes are often viewed with some suspicion by customers – particularly if

the method of obtaining a refund looks unusual or onerous.

 

Frequent user / loyalty incentives

Repeat purchases may be stimulated by frequent user incentives. Perhaps the best

examples of this are the many frequent flyer or user schemes used by airlines, train

companies, car hire companies etc.

 

Point-of-sale displays

Research into customer buying behaviour in retail stores suggests that a significant

proportion of purchases results from promotions that customers see in the store.

Attractive, informative and well-positioned point-of-sale displays are, therefore,

very important part of the sales promotional activity in retail outlets

 

HAPPY LEARNING TASLEEM