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“Begin
somewhere; you can not build a reputation on what you intend to
do.” Liz Smith
Why
should I use an advertising firm?
What is the best form of advertising?
What are the strengths and weaknesses
of other advertising mediums?
Q: Why should I use an advertising firm?
A: There are a number of reasons to retain an advertising
firm. First, if you have come to the realization that marketing
and advertising your business has become a full-time job you need
to outsource this responsibility. Then, you will be able to focus
more fully on your customers and other aspects of your business.
Second, dedicated advertising firms are there to be your agent and
advocate. They represent you. Utilizing an advertising firm will
assist you in filtering out the media representatives that approach
you, sometimes even on a daily basis, for your advertising dollars.
Instead of interrupting your busy day, they’ll contact your
advertising firm to present their packages and proposals. Third,
using the expertise of a good advertising firm will be cost effective.
They should advise on the best advertising packages and solutions
for your business as well as produce high-quality, memorable messages
that will be positioned within the right media and demographic for
your product or service.
Q: What is the best form of advertising?
A: Of the traditional or major media, television’s
reach is unmatched by any other. Whether you are trying to reach
men, women, or children, city, urban or suburban neighborhoods,
the same television reaches them all. A single commercial exposure
reaches into 98% of all homes. Household’s use of television
is nearly 8 hours per day. Television’s sight, sound, motion
and emotion provides advertisers the components necessary to express
their message most effectively. When politicians are facing a political
race they turn to television to get their message out. Why? Television
is the most pervasive of all media in reaching adults in every demographic
category. Whether television is measured by reach and frequency
criteria, delivery of target audiences or its ability to enhance
a message through the strength of its communication value, television
offers the greatest opportunity for producing assured sales results
and return on investment.
This is not to say that other mediums do not have their merits.
They do. When television is utilized in synergy with other mediums,
its message can carry long lasting impact and strong top-of-mind
awareness for your product or service. Also when utilizing television
advertising, or any media for that matter, you must dominate it
and do it right. Make sure your message is effective: keep it simple,
have one basic idea, make your point clear, make it unique, get
viewer attention, involve the viewer, consider production values,
prove the benefit and identify yourself well.
Take a look at Bruskin/Audits & Surveys Worldwide 2000 Media
Comparison Study:
- Television’s reach among adults far exceeds all
other major media
TV = 93% Radio = 76% Newspapers = 63% Magazines = 42% Internet =
35%
Television is the most pervasive of all media in reaching adults
in every demographic category. Consumer media habits confirm that
television is the best medium to reach customers with the greatest
buying power.
- Television dominates in time spent by adults with major media
(In minutes)
TV = 253 Radio = 130 Internet = 45 Newspapers = 30 Magazines = 19
The time spent by adults with television alone exceeds the combined
time spent with radio, newspapers, magazines and the internet by
more than a half-hour per day.
- Television possesses qualities that enhance an advertiser’s
message
Most Authoritative
TV = 49% Newspapers = 24% Radio = 11% Magazines = 10% Internet 6%
Most Exciting
TV = 74% Internet = 9% Radio = 6% Magazines = 6% Newspapers = 5%
Most Influential
TV = 78% Internet = 8% Newspapers = 7% Radio = 4% Magazines = 3%
Most Persuasive
TV = 66% Newspapers = 13% Radio = 8% Magazines = 8% Internet = 5%
The image attributes of a television commercial are considered more
powerful than those associated with ads appearing in any other medium.
Those qualities of most authoritative, most exciting, most influential
and most persuasive give an advertiser’s message even greater
communication clout.
- Adults learn the most about products seen on television
TV = 52% Magazines = 17% Newspapers = 15% Internet = 10% Radio =
6%
Men and women alike learn more about products or brands they might
like to buy when seen on television that in the other 4 major media
combined. Among adults with household incomes of $50,000-$75,000,
43% of respondents mentioned television commercials as their #1
source for learning about a product.
Q: What are the strengths and
weaknesses of other advertising mediums?
A: Besides the above indicated advertising mediums,
there are a number of other mediums to consider in the maze of advertising
offerings. Not only is there, television, radio, newspaper, magazine
and the internet; there is outdoor, cable, direct mail, yellow pages,
and a myriad of other smaller or mini-media. However, let’s
look at the strengths and weaknesses of the overall top 2 traditional
or major media which Bruskin/Audits & Surveys Worldwide 2000
surveyed: radio and newspaper.
Radio stations are perceived as personal,
one-on-one by listeners for two main reasons: Stations are formatted
to one type of programming, and listeners tune to favorite radio
stations based on personal programming preference. Radio is a sound-only
medium and appeals to the individual’s imagination---a “theater
of the mind” so to speak.
Among other strengths radio includes station loyalty, market coverage,
time spent, flexibility, selectivity and low cost. Radio’s
weaknesses include audience fractionalization, impact (while radio
gets the impact of sound, it cannot appeal to visual aspect), control
and expensive reach.
Radio’s Strengths
Station Loyalty. Because of format preferences,
listeners tend to tune to the same one or two stations the majority
of the time.
Market Coverage. Radio signals, especially by larger
stations, are able to travel hundreds of miles and encompass a large
segment of their market. Advertisers are able to benefit from this
because they can pull potential customers from the full local marketing
area a station serves.
Time Spent/Tuning Time. Whether it is in their
cars or other locations, listeners spend a lot of time tuned to
their favorite stations.
Flexibility. A strong advertiser advantage of radio
is that copy can rely on the listener’s mood or imagination
as well as be changed at the last-minute to reflect different messages
by the advertiser.
Selectivity/Targetability. Radio allows advertisers
to employ time-of-day or day-of-week scheduling to exploit timing
factors. Advertisers can also use radio to reach the same listeners
repeatedly, and those station audiences match specific target demographics.
Low Cost. Radio can be relatively inexpensive to
buy, if few stations are used.
Radio’s Weaknesses
Audience/Listener Fractionalization or Fragmentation.
The number of radio stations in the United States continues to increase
every year with several markets flooded by dozens of local stations.
Considering each station promotes its ability to deliver to its
own loyal audience, means the market itself is broken into tiny
demographic segments. For the advertiser trying to reach a substantial
audience of different people, it makes for a difficult and expensive
media buy. In addition, audience surveys are limited in scope and
do not provide socioeconomic data.
Impact or Influence. While radio provides the impact
of sound, it cannot appeal to people visually as other media do.
It has no impact on the strongest human sense—the visual.
As a result, it does not get the full attention of its listeners.
Control. Radio’s largest audiences are delivered
during drive time—a morning audience. To reach substantial
audiences at other times of the day is difficult. Advertisers don’t
always benefit importantly from reach and frequency across the day
that could be of value to the retail advertiser who must repeatedly
build an audience for next-day sales.
Expensive Reach. Several radio stations have to
be bought by an advertiser to extend their reach beyond a very narrow
audience focus, making radio an expensive media for reaching a variety
of people.
Newspaper is an “older” advertising
medium compared to broadcast or electronic media and still maintains
an entrenched position with many local advertisers. Newspapers strengths
include attention to detail, flexibility, upscale readership, the
tangibility factor, exposure/coverage, experience/expectation, cost
and convenience. Their weaknesses include crumbling circulation,
diminishing reach and readership, climbing costs, clutter, an inability
to reach new prospects, limited coverage, quality control, low emotional
involvement and passivity (non-intrusive).
Newspapers Strengths
Attention to detail. Newspapers can convey a detailed advertising
message to a select audience. Advertisers have the ability to select
their newspaper ad size, typeface and other details that make their
ad different. They can also customize their ad with numerous facts
about specific items, merchandise sizes and colors, etc.
Flexibility. Newspapers’ daily circulation
schedule gives advertisers the flexibility to change their ad to
match the goal for any given day, week, or month.
Upscale Readership/Clientele. Advertisers can reach a select
group of customers through newspaper advertising. Typically, these
customers are interested in current events and tend to be better
educated and come from higher-income households. Also, advertisers
can target their message in the specific sections within a newspaper.
Tangible/Physical. A newspaper ad is a material
object that can be clipped, saved, referenced to, and used in shopping
trips as a reminder to purchase or used for price comparisons. Newspapers
are a valuable source for consumers who clip coupons for redemption
purposes at their local retailers.
Exposure/Coverage. As one of the few remaining mass media
formats, some newspapers offer their advertisers total market coverage
(TMC). This extends their reach beyond circulation because the newspaper
may be delivered at no cost to non-subscribers usually for a period
of a week.
Experience/Expectation. Local retailers feel comfortable
advertising in newspapers because they have done so for decades.
Advertisers believe their customers expect that they will advertise
in the local paper.
Cost/Affordability. Small ads can be placed in
newspapers at a low cost. To save money, advertisers can run a larger-size
ad based on a less frequent newspaper schedule or a smaller ad on
a more frequent schedule.
Convenience. Newspapers can be purchased and read
by customers on their way to shopping. This convenience factor provides
advertisers with the opportunity to put their retail name and specials
in front of consumers at a key time—when they are shopping.
Newspaper Weaknesses
Crumbling Circulation. In most cities and towns
throughout the country, the circulation of the local newspaper has
been dropping every year. After reaching their peak in the mid-1970’s,
the number of daily newspapers in the United States has declined
every year since 1977, hitting a modern-day low of 1,468 in 2001.
Paradoxically, while the number and circulation of newspapers has
been decreasing (dropping by more than 5,000 over the past 10 years)
the number of households has steadily increased, rising from 94.7
million in 1993 to an estimated 108.6 in 2003. This translates into
fewer newspapers per household and, of course, fewer readers.
Diminishing Reach and Readership. There has been
significant erosion in the number of people reached by newspapers
and the time people spend reading them. Of greatest concern to advertisers
is the trend for newspaper readership that was reported by the Newspaper
Association of America. Research revealed that daily newspaper readership
declined from 62.1% in 1991 to 54.3% in 2001.
Climbing Costs. According to Editor & Publisher’s
International Yearbook, a newspaper’s cost per 1,000 circulation
(CPM) more than doubled over the past decade. This makes newspapers
one of the more expensive advertising media.
Clutter. According to LNA, Leading National Advertisers,
64% of a newspaper’s content is advertising, 36% “other”
than advertising. With this profusion of advertising content, it
is very difficult for any one advertiser to dominate.
An Inability to Reach New Prospects. All retail
businesses need to reach new prospects and customers in order to
succeed. Newspapers, however, tend to be read by the same people
issue after issue. This means that only current customers are reading
a retailer’s message, making it difficult, if not impossible
for that retailer to expand their customer base.
Limited Coverage. The circulation for a metropolitan
newspaper falls mainly in its inner city and its immediate trading
zone. Its ability to attract concentrated suburban readership is
minimal. To reach suburban markets with newspapers, an advertiser
has to buy several local weekly newspapers—which makes for
a very expensive media buy.
Quality Control. Black and white has been the staple
of newspaper printing for decades. That may be why advertisers have
a difficult time when it comes to creative ads using color and pictures.
Low quality reproduction and a lack of quality color are major deficiencies
of newspapers.
Low Emotional Involvement. The most compelling
advertising is one that grabs the emotions of its audience. Newspapers
lack the emotional involvement of the electronic media. One-dimensional
newspaper advertising simply can’t grab and hold a reader’s
attention.
Passive Papers/Non-Intrusive. Newspapers lack the
characteristics of sound, motion and emotion. As a result, newspaper
advertising doesn’t have the intrusive selling power of advertising
as in electronic media.
Sources: The Newspaper Association of America; Market Statistics,
Inc.; Bruskin/Audits & Surveys Media Comparisons Study, 2000;
The Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC); Leading National Advertisers
(LNA); Editor & Publisher’s 2002 International Yearbook.
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