Decision Making Variables for Selection of
Media Options
CHOOSING RIGHT MEDIA OPTION
Before choosing any media for advertisement, few things need to be analysed since there are so
many different variables that can affect the results of an advertising campaign.
Q1:Do u want an advertisement designed to have a lasting psychological effect or high impact on
consumers?
Q2: Which medium is best for making consumers aware of special discount or special sale?
Q3: Are u trying to create a picture of your product in consumers mind?
Q4: Do u want to advertise your product only in a small region?
Q5: Do u want to advertise for B2B(business to business) or B2C (business to customer).
Q6: Are u selling your product through retailer or do u want a consumer to make a direct
purchase from you?
RANKINGS OF DIFFERENT MEDIAS BASED ON CERTAIN PARAMETERS
PARAMETER 1:RELATIVE IMPACT OF DIFFERENT ADVERTSING MEDIA
RANK 1: DIRECT MAIL
It has the highest impact of any medium. The message reaches each recipient in a personalized
way and at the same moment they have chosen to consider message.
RANK 2: TELEVISION
It provides an opportunity to speak to a captive audience. In fact, television viewers are more
likely to view an advertisement.
RANK 3: ONLINE ADS
With the help of data mining, advertisers may get to know about the consumer interests.This
helps them to advertise certain product for particular consumer who may be interested in that
product.
RANK 4: RADIO
In this case,the listener is captive to the message unless they switch the radio off.
RANK 5: OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT ADVERTISEMENTS
They are really very hard to avoid viewing. Though it is highly visible, no one spends any
significant amount of time reading them. They are useful for simple messages.
RANK 6:MAGAZINES
They provide a slightly better opportunity to catch attention of the reader. Readers tend to focus
on magazines more carefully than newspapers and because of the fact that magazine ads are
placed fewer per page, the probability of viewing an ad by reader is higher.
RANK 7:NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers carry many ads due to which it may get lost in the visual clutter.
PARAMETER 2:PRICE ADVERTISING
Price advertising is used when a benefit is offered to potential customer which is based on price
points such as special sales, discount rates etc.
RANK 1:ONLINE ADS
This is one of the best and quickest way to inform prospective customers about special discounts
and other schemes.
RANK 2:NEWSPAPER
Newspapers is one of the best media if you are informing a mass audience about short-term sale
or special price offer for a product or service. Newspaper readers tend to look through the paper
for specials.
RANK 3:RADIO-Radio is also used for price advertising but its effectiveness is dependent on
the recognition of a particular good or service.
RANK 4:TELEVISION
Television is an expensive media for price advertising. This media can be considered in case
advertiser wants to advertise image advertising too.
RANK 5:DIRECT MAIL
If you have access to a highly responsive customers only then his media should be used.
RANK 6:MAGAZINES
Magazine doesn’t provide immediate access to the audience which may undermine the
legitimacy of a special pricing offer which may be valid for very limited period of time.
RANK 7:OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT DISPLAYS
Outdoor and transit displays are one of the worst medium for price advertising.
PARAMETER 3:IMAGE ADVERTISING
Image advertising is used when the primary advertising goal is to create company, brand, or
product awareness among a group of consumers which makes them to purchase that good or
service.
RANK 1:TELEVISION
Television is the best medium for image advertising. The visual action along with audio allow
viewers to feel involved with television.
RANK 2:MAGAZINES
Magazines are not as effective as television as a medium for an image advertising campaign but
they are a strong contender, though.The use of colour photography is especially effective in
magazine print advertising.
RANK 3:ONLINE ADS
They are also effective media in terms of image advertising but not as effective as above medias.
RANK 4:OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT DISLAYS:
Outdoor and transit displays are also dependent on powerful images to convey message. They
can be used for simple image advertising messages.
RANK 5:RADIO
Radio is significantly less effective than magazines and television when used for image
advertising.
RANK 6:NEWSPAPER
Newspapers are not always an effective medium for carrying an effective image ad because of
poor graphics.
RANK 7:DIRECT MAIL
Direct mail can be a very tricky medium to use for image advertising.
PARAMETER 4:LOCAL SERVICE ADVERTISING
Local service advertising is used when a service is offered to consumers in a specific local
regional area.
RANK 1:YELLOW PAGES
Yellow Pages are the most cost effective local service advertising medium for many areaspecific service businesses.
RANK 2:NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers offer a highly effective format for advertising locally available services. Localized
papers often run a directory of area trades people that readers automatically turn to in search of
services
RANK 3:DIRECT MAIL:
Direct mail is a highly effective medium for developing local service trade. The expense
involved in implementing a direct mail campaign involves high cost.
RANK 4:TELEVISION
Television certainly has impact, but this will be far outweighed by its expense. But thelocal cable
stations may be an avenue worth exploring if you are trying to zero in on a particular town where
you expect response to your advertising will be high.
RANK 5:RADIO
Radio is not that good for local service business advertising. It should be used as a last resort if
other mediums haven’t panned out for you.
RANK 6:OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT ADS
Outdoor and transit ads are best left to image ads.
RANK 7:ONLINE ADS
For local coverage,online ads are waste of money.
PARAMETER 5:B2B Advertising
While business-to-business marketing efforts should be centered on sales or telemarketing
programs, advertising can play an important role in a successful sales effort. It can help you
develop leads that you can follow up on with a phone call, and it can increase the chances that
your sales-people will have their phone calls accepted or returned.
RANK 1:DIRECT MAIL
Direct mail allows you to target an audience comprised of those businesses most likely to
respond favourably to your products or services.
RANK 2:ONLINE ADS
It is one of the widely used media for B2B advertising as these ads can be placed on the websites
commonly used by target businesses.
RANK 3:MAGAZINES
Magazine advertising in trade-specific publications that cater to your industry can be effective.
RANK 4:RADIO
Radio can be decent choice for business-to-business advertising. It can be effective, however, if
you find a business-only station with a heavy concentration of listeners who are business people.
RANK 4:YELLOW PAGES
Yellow Pages can be a wonderful venue, and even the best choice, for a few business-to-business
companies in the service sector, but is totally inappropriate for most others especially productbased businesses.
RANK 5:NEWSPAPERS
Newspapers aren't generally used as high-impact vehicles for business-to-business advertising.
One obvious place to advertise in newspapers is in the business sections of both local and
national general and business newspapers.
RANK 6:TELEVISION
Television may work fine for huge national business-to-business advertisers like airlines, but is
unlikely to work for smaller businesses.
RANK 7:OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT ADS
Outdoor and transit displays have scant applicability in business-to-business advertising.
PARAMETER 6:DIRECT RESPONSE ADVERTISING
Direct response advertising is used when you want to prompt an immediate response from
potential customers.
RANK 1:DIRECT MAIL
Direct mail is obviously a good first choice if you are trying to sell a product directly to
consumers that is not available through retail outlets.
RANK 2:ONLINE ADS
With the advent of e-commerce, some ads may catch the eye of prospective consumers. They
may take a decision to buy a product at that very moment.
RANK 3:TELEVISION
Television is also a good choice. Television is, of course, a high-impact medium, but it is very
expensive. It is no coincidence that most direct response ads you view on television run on
weaker networks or local access channels during nonpeak viewing hours.
RANK 4:MAGAZINES
Magazines work well if your industry has a specialty publication that allows you to target a
specific audience. It would be very tough to make a direct response ad work in a general
magazine.
RANK 5:NEWSPAPER
Newspapers aren’t particularly effective venues for direct response advertisers.
RANK 6:RADIO
Radio can be used, but isn’t recommended. Very few listeners are likely to copy down product or
ordering information.
RANK 7:OUTDOOR AND TRANSIT ADS
Least effective .
SUMMARY
PARAMET
ER
RELATIVE
IMPACT
RANK1
Direct
mail
RANK2
RANK3
Televisi
on
Online
advertis
ement
RANK4
RANK5
RANK6
RANK7
Radio
outdoor
and
transiet
display
Magazin
e
Newspap
er
Direct
mail
Magazin
e
outdoor
and
transiet
display
Radio
Newspap Direct
er
mail
Price
advertising
Online
advertis
ement
Newspa
per
Radio
Television
Image
advertising
Televisi
on
Magazin
e
Online
advertis
ement
outdoor
and transiet
display
Local
service
advertising
Yellow
pages
B2B
advertising
Direct
mail
Newspa
per
Online
advertis
ement
Direct
mail
Online
advertis
ement
Direct
response
advertising
Direct
mail
Television
Radio
outdoor
and
transiet
display
Magazin
e
Radio
Yellow
pages
Newspap Televisio
er
n
Televisi
on
Magazine
Newspape
r
Radio
Online
advertise
ment
outdoor
and
transiet
display
Some Examples of Media Options Choose Decision:
Radio Advertising:
Advantages and disadvantages of Radio Advertising:
Advantages:
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From radio we can choose whom to reach (like teenagers, families, men, etc)
and choose a format (news, talk, rock, etc) according to it. The vast options
of radio program formats offers us to target customers very efficiently.
An advertisement on radio is less expensive than an advertisement on TV
and much easier to produce.
Radio Advertisement can be produced very quickly.
We can select the station and time when our advertisement will run. Hence,
we can make the target market hear it. For example, an automobile industry
can run the advertisement during the morning and evening hours during
which most people are in the vehicles.
Radio advertisement generally uses sounds, voices and music to create an
attention getting message. They can be more effective.
Radio is an universal medium which is enjoyed by all sections of people
during various time in a day.
Disadvantages:
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Most people don’t listen to radio only at a time. They may be driving or
making a dish or doing something at the same time. So, message given by
radio might not be effective.
Generally, listeners need to hear multiple times to retain the message
delivered by Radio. So, the advertiser need to advertise the same thing
multiple times and do it for a longer period. Also, there may be background
noise.
Listeners can’t hear the message again when he/she wants to.
How to advertise at Radio:
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Advertisement in Radio need to make in such a way that we can give all the
key point in a short span of time and also finishes it with a phone number (so
that the listener can contact if needed). The pacing of the word spoken is
also important. It should be like that everyone could understand it.
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Sometimes, repetition of important information is also important since
people can be doing other things at the same time.
We need to make proper schedule for when to telecast a particular
advertisement.
Cost Incur for Radio Advertisement:
Two types of cost:
a) Cost for producing the advertisement like script writing, etc.
b) Cost for purchase the airtime to run the advertisement.
Industries which can be interested in Radio Advertisement:
Automobile industry (can advertise during morning and evening hours), Jewellery
industry (can target home makers), Start-ups & New Malls (to inform the listeners
of a particular place about it), etc.
Cinema Advertisement:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Cinema Advertisement:
Advantages:
 Mainly young population go to the theatres. So, those companies which
wants to target young audiences can effectively use this medium.
 The advertisement in cinema are retained in the minds of customers for a
longer period of time because of stereo sound, good experience, etc.
 Cinema advertisers can take more narrative approach.
 Audiences cant opt out of viewing the advertisements.
Disadvantages:
 The cost of advertisement at theatre are high.
 Sometimes, audiences can arrive late at theatres to avoid advertisement.
Reasons for Cinema advertising:
 Most people come to theatre earlier and they don’t have any other things to
do. Then, they watch all the advertisement.
 The people in cinemas are often relaxed. So, they can understand the
meaning of the advertisement.
 Big screen and stereo sound increases the retention of the audiences.
 Advertisements in cinemas are more clearer and beautiful.
Industries which can choose Cinema Advertisement:
Entertainment Industry, Launch of new product, Jewellery Industry, etc.
Transit Advertising:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Transit advertising:
Advantages:
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It is very much helpful in building brand awareness.
It reaches a very wide audience.
Audiences can’t turn it off like radio, TV.
Colour designs, bigger posters, eye catching stuffs can have high impact on
audiences.
 It costs less.
 There will be repetition so the audiences can remember it for a longer time.
 We choose the locations and also the timings.
Disadvantages:
 There is a limitation for usage of words.
 Generally, people on transit are not in receptive mood. They may ignore the
messages.
 Many cities and towns don’t have bus services, etc. So, we can’t do transit
advertising there.
 Vandalism can also occur. If it occur, then there will be losses.
 Bad weather can destroy the billboards, etc.
Industries which can use Transit Advertisement:
Political parties (for campaigns, promotions, etc), FMCG industry, Coaching
institutes, etc.