Media exist primarily to deliver message content--entertainment, information, and advertisements---to a vast audience. Media should be thought of as both carriers and delivery systems. They carry advertisements and deliver them to individuals who buy or choose media first on the basis of the kind and quality of entertainment and information, and secondly on the kinds of advertisements they deliver. Advertisers find media convenient and relatively inexpensive delivery systems. It could be more expensive to deliver advertisements to a mass audience by buying media that did not carry entertainment and information.
It is important to recognize that consumers have specialized needs that media can meet, such as wanting to know more about certain kinds of products and brands. At times, audiences browse a print medium, stopping to look at or read any advertisements that seem interesting. At other times, they deliberately search a medium looking for a certain kind of product. Print media, therefore, tend to serve as catalogs for readers. Broadcast media audiences also pay attention to many commercials, but not in the same way as print audiences.
Advertisers often want to reach both mass and specialized audiences and find it is more expensive to buy media that reach specialized audiences. However, no matter which kind of audience advertisers want to reach, it is imperative that someone plan the purchase of media as far ahead of publishing or broadcast dates as possible. Advertisers cannot afford to buy media impulsively or capriciously. Therefore, the planning function is a major operation in advertising agencies and at client companies. Too much money is involved for advertisers to fail to plan. This book concentrates on the planning function.
In discussion of this subject, two words are sometimes used as if they meant the same thing; medium (the plural is media) and vehicle. They are exactly the same. A medium refers to a class of carriers such as television, newspapers, or magazines. In other words, a medium is a group of carriers that have similar characteristics. A vehicle is an individual carrier within a medium. The Chicago Tribune is a vehicle within the newspaper medium. "60 Minutes" is a vehicle within the television medium. Martha Stewart Living and People are vehicles within the magazines medium.
Media Planning
The process of media planning consist of the series of decisions made to answer the question, "What are the best means of delivering advertisements to prospective purchasers of my brand or service?" This definition is rather general, but it provides a broad picture of what media planning is all about.
Within this broad context, a media planner attempts to answer specific questions, such as the following:
1. How many prospects (For purchasing a given brand of product) do I need to reach?
2. In which medium (or media) should I place ads?
3. How many times a month should prospects see each ad?
4. In which months should ads appear?
