Media Planning and Buying in India
The advertising world is full of terminologies that may sound simple but their in-depth meaning is a combination of analysis, decision and execution of activities that help in designing a perfect advertising material for the audience. Similarly, Media planning is also a term that comprises decisions at multi-level to create the customized promotional messages for a brand’s audience.
What is Media Planning?
- Types of Media planning essentially involves informed decisions to design an advertising material for a brand, product or service.
- It involves and takes importance for decision regarding media vehicle, time and place of the promotional message.
- Media planning aims at analyzing the effectiveness and reach of various media channels and choosing the best media for the promotion of a brand.
- Media planning is cautiously done to prevent wasteful advertising that might lead to wastage of resources and finances.
What are the core decisions taken under Media Planning Process?
-
Who are we trying to reach?
The first and foremost decision is regarding the audience. The brand should know its audience clearly, so that the advertising material is designed keeping in mind the needs, wants and behaviour of the same. Any brand, product or service who is trying to reach their target audience must know the smallest details about them. The deep analysis about the target audience helps in designing a promotional message that will reap maximum results.
-
What are we trying to say?
Once we are aware of our target audience, we should also be well aware of ‘what to communicate’. Media planning aims at designing communication message that reaches the desired audience, delivers the designed message and provokes desired thought or action. The brand must know the right words and the right tone for a clear promotional message. The brand must be clear that whether the promotional message would be educational, informational or persuasive. The media planners consecutively design a message keeping in mind the objective of the brand.
-
What is our budget?
The brand needs to decide the budget for its promotional campaign, so that the various consecutive decisions like selecting media mix, selecting media tools, selecting media slots etc, can be
-
What are the media channels best for our message?
The next important decision is to select the right media buying for the delivery of the promotional message. The decision is taken whether to choose a single media or to involve a media mix to reach the target audience. The ‘media mix’ refers to more than one media channel used for promoting a brand.
-
When should the message be displayed?
Once the media vehicle or media mix is confirmed, the next decision is to be taken regarding the time of displaying the promotional message. If electronic media like television has been finalised for promoting the brand, whether to run the ad at peak hours or to run them at late hours depending on the target audience is to be decided accordingly.
-
Where the message should be displayed?
Now, we decide the location of the advertisement. From the location we may refer to outdoor advertising or indoor advertising, as well as place of advertising. The media planning involves decisions regarding the allocation of cities and areas where the promotional message will run via different media vehicles.
-
What are the expected results from the promotional message designed?
The media planning helps in setting the objective of the promotional message. The brand should be clear what it is trying to gain from the promotional message. The objective is set and the actions are planned and executed to attain the goal of the advertising campaign.
What are the significant steps involved in media planning?
Step 1: Analyzing market and identifying brand’s target audience.
To begin with media planning for a brand, the first step is to analyze the market in which the band is trying to penetrate through various advertising tactics. The work is to analyze the market for its opportunities, weakness, threats and future scope. The other important aspect of media planning is identifying the target audience of the brand and formulating a strong communication message to stimulate them.
Step 2: Setting the media objective.
If we know our target audience, we must also know what we are trying to attain through our promotional message. Deciding the objective, such as maximizing sales, creating brand awareness, special offers and discount announcement or any such objective should be set before drafting a promotional message.
Step 3: Developing Media strategy.
Media strategy stands for ‘plan of action’ that shall be executed to propel the advertising campaign in the right direction. The well defined actions such as choosing the right media mix, time slot, location etc helps in converting the prospective audience into brand buyers.
Step 4: Evaluation and follow up.
Last step is to evaluate the effectiveness of the media plan. Analyzing whether the designed promotional message attained the desired results or not? Does the brand need to customize the media plan for better or to continue the same for longer duration? Such, in-in-depth follow up is done of the advertising campaign is carried out for future reference.