Media Planning

To plan communication measures.
Communication means reaching the right recipients by means of the selected messages.
Communication is the process of transferring information.

WHO = sender, communicator
says WHAT = signal, message, media content
in WHICH CHANNEL = channel, medium
to WHOM = recipient, audience, public
with WHAT EFFECT = reaction, individual or
social impact

efficiently transmit
a particular message
to a particular group of persons,
as often as needed,
within a set media budget,
within the right period of time and
within a selected location
by means of suitable media channels.

1. It is about fulfilling a communication objective by using the right kind of advertising media in a cost-efficient way.
2. It means using a budget in a cost-efficient way by selecting the best suitable advertising media.

effectively and efficiently conveying
an advertising message
to a predefined target group
by means of the most suitable media channels.

- Group
- Advertising message
- Advertising medium
- Time
- Location
- Advertising frequency
- Advertising budget

The media planner must make sure, that the right people come into contact with the best suitable communication means at the right moment in time. He must be familiar with the media landscape. Media planners convey a message via suitable communication channels to potential consumers or recipients. Media planning is about
effectively and efficiently conveying an advertising message to a predefined target group by means of the most suitable media channels.

Media Planning is defined in quantitative and qualitative terms:
- By selecting different media categories
- By different formal criteria of media: the size and presentation of advertisements or the length of radio pieces and advertisements.

- marketing objectives and the deriving communication objectives
- plus the budget.
Problem: Advertising actions are often not enough to achieve the predefined objectives.
The budget is often already determined in advance of the media planning strategy!

First tasks are:
- to evaluate the company,
- to analyse the market,
- the society as a whole and
- the product which will be advertised.

-Company image and brand
-Strenghts and weaknesses,
-The financial power compared to the competition in the market,
-The communication style in use,
-The future range of products
-The branding.

-Market life cycle,
-Market potential,
-Market volume,
-The competition, the trading and the consumers

- single objects,
- the brand or
- the entire company.
The type of selected advertising material (advertisements) highly determine the advertising strategy of a company.

Marketing objectives: Are related to the purchase/buying behaviour of consumers.
Marketing objectives depend on monetary aspects (value, price, return etc.) or on market shares and on the observable consumer behaviour.

Communication objectives:
Are determined based on the degree to which consumer behaviour, desires or opinions can be influenced.

Advertising objectives:
Must be integrated into a system of communication objectives.

Media objectives derive from advertising objectives: They indicate the goals that will be achieved by media planning.
Background:
Reaching a predefined share of a target group (reach) with a certain contact frequency.

When the budget is limited and when there is a high reach, consumers are not exposed often enough to the advertisement and therefore the desired advertising impact is not achieved.
Reach and contact frequency are in competiton against each other!

Gross Rating Points (GRP) = Net reach (e.g. in Million people) x average contact frequency
The result has low value:
- It means either that there is a high reach and a low contact frequency or
- there is a low reach and a very high contact frequency.

-lifestyle,
-values and
-personal preferences.
They create consumer typologies
Further factors for consumer development:
-Socio-demographic development processes
-Changes in terms of financial aspects
-Changes in terms of values

Here, people are analysed at two levels:
- Social status (lower, middle or upper class) and
- Value orientation (progressive vs. conservative)
Sinus Milieus are a worldwide standard nowadays.
Sinus-Milieus: result from a questionnaire (based on the self-assessment about the
personal lifestyle and the perception about the social environment). Similar results are then grouped into clusters.

- are strategic core-decisions,
- and are among the most complex issues in the advertising field.
A communication budget is determined by three elements:
1.the type and number of people aimed to be reached,
2.the type of advertising media and
3.the necessary contact frequency.
The contact frequency is a crucial element. If the contact frequency is reduced too much, this can lead to a lower advertising impact.

A communication budget includes all financial means.
The size of the necessary communication budget should be defined based on the communication objectives.
Further relevant elements for the budget size:

Advertising material:
In which phase of their life cycle are the advertising materials? How big is the market share? What are the qualities of the advertising material?

Target groups:
Which consumers must be reached? What are the objectives?

Advertising material and advertising media:
Which advertising material and which media are necessary in order to reach the selected objectives?

Competition:

Market position:

Assigning tasks to an advertising agency, communications agency or to a media agency.
The following issues will be solved together with the agency:
- conceiving and designing the advertising message,
- discussing further media decisions and
- the production of media products.
- Defining the target groups,
- defining reach and contact frequency,
- setting a time table,
- selecting the advertising media and the form of distribution,
- defining the marketing and communication objectives.

-Media analysis and media consultancy,
-Media planning
-Media reports and
-Recommendations for further actions.
Assigning tasks to the agnecy is called briefing

-the message
-the access to the target group
-the way the advertising media are used
-the perception of the advertisement and product -the budget
-media technical controllability
-the advertising environment.

Relevant:
Different advertising media are suitable in different ways for delivering advertising messages to the target audience.
For example:
Bilboard advertisements are suitable for delivering few information only. The selection of advertising media/channels is therefore strongly
determined by the predefined marketing and communication objectives.

-Defining the target group
-Selecting the type of advertising media
-Defining the type of distribution
-Reach and contact frequency
-Designing alternative media plans
-Evaluating the media plans based on costs and output

The task of media planning:
To deliver an advertising message to its target groups in the most cost- efficient way.

The selection of a particular target group directly influences the selection of the advertising media.
There are: Media analyses which analyse, on a regular basis, the way people use the
media and Media market analyses which additionally analyse the consumer behaviour.
The most important criteria to select a target group are: Socio-demographic attributes or psychographic attributes

Arbeitsgemeinschaft Media-Analyse e.V. (agma):
An association of about 240 companies from the advertising and media sector.
The aim:
To conduct research in the field of mass communication.
The data concerning the reach (the number of consumers reached) are essential for designing media planning strategies.
Range of topics: newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, outdoor advertising and online media.

Allensbacher Markt- und Werbeträgeranalyse (AWA):
Is conducted by the Institut für Demoskopie Allensbach on behalf of currently about 70 publishing houses and TV stations.
The aim:
To research and analyse consumer preferences, consumer habits and the media usage behaviour the population in Germany.
It describes media consumers in terms of socio-demographic and psychographic criteria.
Range of topics: print, TV, radio, Internet, cinema and outdoor advertising.

Is a media market study conducted by the four media houses: Axel Springer, Bauer Media Group, Gruner+Jahr and Hubert Burda Medien.
The study analyses opinions, preferences, interests, consumer behaviour and media usage of people in Germany. Thus, it collects information about consumer habits and media usage patterns.
In 2013 this study replaced the former consumer analysis.

It electronically records all activities that take place while the TV set is
on.
GfK-Meter: Collects information about activities on screen, video text, telegames,
video recordings and play-back of TV shows.
People-Meter (infrared remote control):
By this tool, information is collected about the exact times when family members watch TV, what they watch, when they switch the TV set off or leave the room. The attendance is recorded to the second.

The advertising effect (the contact quality) is determined by the advertisement format.
-Different spot duration,
-different formats, sizes and cromatics.
Different advertising forms have different costs and the decisions are based on the budget
The perception intensity:
depends on the size of the advertisement, on the chromatic design and the duration of the spots.

Reach: The total number of people which are reached by a planned
communication action.
Contact frequency:
The number of repeated actions necessary to reach the target audience.
The number of contacts which a member of a target gorup has with the advertising medium (not with the advertisement).
Hypotheses need to be established.

-marketing objectives
-the complexity of the message
-the interest of the target group: „high“- and „low-involvement“ products.
-the type of advertising media selected by the target group and the media usage of the target group
-the use of synergy effects
-contact frequency in comparison to the market comptetitors

After the briefing, the media department establishes alternative media plans.
Media plans include information about
- the advertising channels,
- the frequency of ditribution,
- the exact time of distribution and
- the costs per distribution.
In order to analyse and select the adequate advertising media, the information is organized in a ranking based on the costs and the output values.

Target group affinity:
Indicated to what extent the users of a particular advertising medium coincide with the selected target group in the context of a certain advertising action.

- Costs per thousand users / Tausendnutzerpreis (TNP):
Shows the costs needed for reaching 1.000 people in the target group.
Costs per thousand users (Tausendnutzerpreis) = (Advertising costs / net reach) x 1000

- The net reach:
Indicates the percentage of the target group which comes into contact with the advertising medium at least once.

- The gross rating point:
Indicated the sum of all contacts. Gross rating point (GRP in %) = net reach x contact frequency (OTC)

Disadvantage: What is the GRP-value composed of?

-Is there always a real advertising contact?

-The reach does not provide any information about how many people actually had contact with the the advertisement.

-It is simply a quantitative value which does not indicate how the advertising message reaches the consumers.

-The reach,
-reaching a certain number of persons in the target group in a specific time span
-the costs
These „hard“ criteria can be quantified based on data and as such they
allow a comparison between different advertising channels.

Intramedia selection (selecting the advertising media inside the media categories)
The objective of intermedia selection is to identify the best suitable advertising media category out of all available media categories. („Intermediaselektion“ / intermedia selection).
Which media type categories are the most suitable always depends on the precise issue, that is
- the target group,
- the product,
- the campaign type and
- the budget.

Product type:
What effects should be achieved by the product selected for advertising: demonstration, visualising, sympathy, credibility or cromatic effects?
Communication requirements for advertising messages:
Reasonable presentation of facts Emotional messages Messages that should refresh customers‘ memory for a short-term period Building an image.
Cost structure:
TV spots are more expensive than radio spots.
Selection options:
General-interest magazines target group-based selection Newspapers region-based selection
Availability and actuality:
Daily newspapers (time to market: 2 to 3 days). General interest magazines (time to market: 4 to 8 weeks). Less flexibility in TV and radio.
Short-term sales deals and spontaneous references to current events are rather possible in daily newspapers and online media.
Frequency and market penetration:
How fast is it possible to increase the reach?
Why are daily newspapers, radio and TV better than general interest magazines?

is a precondition for establishing an effective media plan:
For example: Conducting a market research on a selected target group, which should then be reached by the advertisement.
Market research can be:
Studies by market research institutes, studies by publishing houses or research carried out by agencies.

The advertising sector is now focusing on the target group-oriented marketing.
- This type of differentiated marketing makes it easier to reach the desired target market with the suitable advertisement and
- to adjust the price, distribution channels and sales promotion to the target group.

1. Market segmentation:
Dividing the market into separate consumer groups based on different criteria. These groups will be targeted by different product campaigns and a specific marketing mix, specially selected for these groups.
2. Defining the target market: The company analyses which market segments are most attractive and selects then one or more segments.
3. Market positioning:
The company positions itself sustainably in the market against its competitors.

Markets consist of potential consumers which can differ based on
- their desires,
- resources,
- place of residence or
- their consumption preferences.
Based on these variables, any market can be segmented into different groups.

Geographical segmentation:
Dividing the market into different geographical units, e.g. countries,
counties, cities or urban districts.
Demographic segmentation:
Dividing the market based on demographic attributes like age, gender, family size, family life cycle, income, profession, education, confession and national origin.

Psychographic segmentation: Grouping consumers based on criteria like lifestyle or personality traits.

Behavioural segmentation:
Consumers are grouped based on their knowledge of products, their opinions, their consumption behaviour or their reaction to a certain product.
Beheavioural variables are the best research data for establishing market segments.

The elements of the profile:
Demographic and psychographic attributes, media consumption habits, opinions and behaviour.
Segments should be as homogenous as possible and heterogenous among each other.

1.Purchase relevance:
The segmentation criteria must clearly indicate the consumer purchase behaviour.

2.Measurability:
Segments must be measurable in order to determine their size, the purchase power and other important values for the marketing plan.

3.Essence:
A segment must be sufficiently big or broad, in accordance to its profit potential.

4.Accessibility:
A market segment must be reachable and easily operated by media channels.

5.Separability:
Segments must be conceptually distinct. They should react differently to separate marketing strategies and elements of the marketing mix.

- Presents possible marketing opportunities,
- Offers clues for determining how attractive certain segments are,
- Helps to make a decision when selecting a market segment.
The company should focus on three factors during its market segment analysis:
- the size and growth potential of the segments,
- the attractiveness of the segments‘ structure,
- the objectives and the resources of the company.

To expose the differences among the consumers that will create a differentiated market development.

To achieve a high compliance between the company‘s products and services and the preferences of a specific consumer group.

Market segmentation makes the market more transparent and helps identify opportunities, market gaps and neglected submarkets.
By market segmentation, the company can adjust its product supply to the preferences and expectations of a clearly defined consumer group.

-target group-oriented creation of advertising messages.
-effective selection of advertising media.
Once the target group and the advertising media have been selected, the next step is to decide on the marketing mix.

-To get to know the target group as closely as possible,
-in order to precisely match the communication strategies
-to the specifics of the target group.
There are two different perspectives on the target group:
-The „outside“ view: Using statistical analyses of survey data, it is possible to derive the quantitative composition of the market segment (search for significant differences between the segments, in order to establish a highly precise
consumer profile)
-The „inside“ view: discover the target group also from an inside perspective, based on peoples‘ mentality, their desires and wishes and their emotions.
These insights are especially important for defining the content of the communication strategies.
Understanding the target group by interpretation: Comsumer Insights

-Media usage behaviour in all media categories,
-sociodemographic data,
-personal opinions and preferences,
-consumption behaviour in preferably all product categories etc.
Because all the collected data is based on surveys, studies must define some key aspects to focus on.

Conclusion by analogy: is necessary when there is no data to be analysed.
Single Source Surveys: All information comes from a single source. Is an extensive and diverse picture of the media usage of a person or a household.

Data Merging: Reflects the necessity to distribute the need for information in different
surveys and samples. The collected data can still be used for planning crossmedia campaigns.

- The quality of products is difficult to assess.
- Customers experience the products only when they
consume them.
The perception of the products‘ quality is nevertheless influenced by consumers‘ expectations.
Expectations are highly influnced by marketing communication strategies.

1. Informative advertising: Is used when introducing a new product type in the market. The purpose is to create and stimulate a primary demand for this type of product.
2. Persuasive advertising: Is used to develop demand for a particular product by convincing people of its qualities.
3. Reminder advertising: Is used to keep the product and the brand alive in consumers‘ perception.

Advertising objectives are the source for deriving media strategical objectives.
By which frequency should how many people from the target group be reached?

Top down: A given budget is used to achieve the best possible media performance (output) by implementing different marketing
strategies.
Bottom up: Specific media services are purchased in advance and then the necessary budget is set up.

The starting point for advertising budgets should be the marketing objectives.
Good and reasonable marketing objectives are always related to market shares.
Starting from the relative number of market shares, it is possible to indirectly derive how many households, as potential buyers, need to be targeted and reached.
The number of possible household with buying potential indicates the necessary reach numbers.
The necessary contact frequency figures are then calculated based on the content of the communication plans.

1. the reach and
2. the contact frequency.

Based on the target group and the communication plan, the following
decisions can be made:
- selecting the suitable media categories and
- the characteristics of the advertisements (e.g. size and color combination of advertisements).

-To calculate the reach (Reichweite) for a specific medium,
-present data about the media users,
-collect data about the contact frequency
-analyze information about the consumption behaviour and the leisure time behaviour.

Media are used as advertising channels. They give access to potential consumers.

Media research analyses which advertising medium allows access to which target group.

Values enable the comparison between completely different advertising media.
Question: Did the person come into contact with the medium? The frequency of contact is irrelevant.
The contacts that took place can be counted and compared. Considering also the costs in this analysis, a first comparison of the
performance of media channels as advertising media can be traced.

Advertising medium:
Distribution channel for advertising messages in different forms and formats: newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, cinema, online, billboards etc.
Advertising message:
Content-related statement which needs to be distributed to the audience by media.
Advertisement:
The format of the advertising message: advertising spot, radio spot, TV spot, cinema spot, billboard etc.

The Net Reach: The percentage of the target group (e.g. 80%) that is reached by the message through the advertising medium at least one time.
Each person reached is counted only once.

Gross Reach / Gross rating points (Bruttoreichweite): Counts all the times that people came into contact with the advertising medium (multiple contacts per person also). The gross rating point is the sum of all these contacts.
Gross reach = net reach x contact frequency (OTC- opportunity to contact)

The reach figures only indicate if a person has had contact with the advertising medium, but not if the advertising message had any effect on the consumer.
The learning theory says: That the learning effect depends on the attributes of the learner and on the
frequency with which the person gets in contact with the learning material. Objective:
To find out how often it is necessary to come into contact with the advertising medium in order to reach a certain advertising effect.
Based on the target group information and the product attributes, it is possible to estimate how often it is necessary to come into contact with the advertising medium in order to reach the targeted objective.

- Refers to persons which are reached by the advertisement but do not belong to the specific target-group of the advertisement.
- It also refers to some people in the target group who will not come into contact with the advertising medium.
A high waste coverage leads to high media expenses and it must therefore be minimized.
Objective: To select the advertising media with the least waste coverage.

Cumulative audience:
The number of persons reached by multiple advertising placement.
Cumulative reach:
The audiences accumulate over time. Takes place when, by each extra person reached, other not yet reached persons come into contact with the advertising medium. (e.g. A (magazine) issue with few frequent readers and many occasional readers).
Cumulative contact:
By each advertising placement a big share of the persons, who have already had contact with the medium, are reached once again. The net reach increases only slightly.

1st cumulation rule:
A high increase in reach determines a low contact frequency.
2nd cumulation rule:
A high contact frequency determines a low increase in reach (share in the population).

- the average contact frequency and
- the gross reach / gross rating points (Bruttoreichweite).

When all contacts (contact times) are put in relation to all persons reached by the advertising medium, the result is the average contact frequency per reached person.
Average contact frequency (OTC)= Gross reach (Bruttoreichw.) divided by Net reach (Nettoreichweite)
The average contact frequency defines the opportunities to contact (OTP), which apply in average to the persons reached by the advertising medium in the frame of a media plan.

Indicates the actual number of contacts with the the advertisement and not the mere contact with
the advertising medium.

As an average value, the OTC (average contact frequency) does not say anything about the actual distribution of contacts among the reached persons.
Example: OTC = 16 contacts / 2 persons = 8 contacts OTC = 32 contacts / 4 persons = 8 contacts

The average contact frequency relates the gross reach to the net reach – it relates the two values to the number of people in the target group that have been reached by the media plan.
It does not give any information about how high the contact frequency is inside the target group.
A high average contact frequency may mislead the viewer to think that only a small share of the target group has been reached.

What are the costs for reaching 1000 people in the target group, irrespective of how often these persons come into contact with the advertising medium? This refers to the net reach (number of persons reached) and not to the number of actual contacts (how many times they came into contact with the medium).
CpTU = (placement costs / net reach) * 1000

The placement costs refer to the actual number of contacts with the advertising medium.
CpM = (placement costs / gross rating points) * 1000

-The CpM value is the most important reference value for a comparison in terms of cost-effectiveness and profitability between different advertising media.
-By calculating this value, media can evaluate their economic effectiveness/profitability and optimise their media plans accordingly.
-The CpM can be of help when selecting advertising media channels and when planning advertising campaigns and actions.
-The CpM value allows to rank costs when working with a media plan. The CpM makes it possible to conduct a crossmedia comparison for advertising placement.

Example: Based on the CpM media planners can estimate for which medium type it is necessary to increase or descrease the budget.

-It is a purely quantitative value. It does not provide any information about the way the advertising message reaches the recipient.
-The indicated number of contacts refers only to an opportunity of contact with the advertisement and not to the real contacts that actually took place.