MEDIA PLANNING

Media planning is the series of decisions involved in delivering the promotional message to the
prospective consumers. It is the process of directing the advertising message to the target audience
by using the appropriate channel at the proper time and place. It ensures die optimum-utilisation
of resources spent on advertising. Media planning refers to an analytical method for making media
decisions, and describes the process of taking the message across to the target audience at the right
time and place, and using the right media vehicle. The series of decisions concerned in delivering
the promotional message to the prospective purchasers and/or users of the product or brand is
called as Media Planning. It is a process, of making a number of decisions each of which may be
altered or abandoned as the plan develops. The planning should concentrate on:
 Whom to reach, When and where to reach,
 The total target group,
 The frequency of exposure,
 The affordable cost involvement.
Wells Burnett defines “Media planning is a decision process regarding use of advertising time
and space to assist in the achievement of marketing objectives.”
S.W. Dunn “Media planning is the process of determining how to use time and space of media to
achieve advertising objectives.”
George EL Belch “Media-planning is the series of decisions involved in delivering promotional
message in the most effective manner to the largest number of potential customers at lowest cost.”
Media planning includes the answer to following 5 Ws:
1. Which – Which media is to be picked for communicating with our target audience?
2. When – When the ad is to be issued? i.e., deciding month, day, time of ad.
3. What – What type of message should be communicated? The message is informative in nature.
4. Whom: Whom does a marketer want to reach? Identifying target audience potential customers.
5. Where – Where are potential customers located? i.e., identifying geographical area.
Factors Affecting Media Planning
1. Nature of Product: Product to be advertised can be industrial or consumer product. Industrial
products can better be advertised in specific trade- journals/magazines. Consumer products can
be better advertised through mass media like television, newspaper, advertising etc. Similarly,
products for farmers like fertilizers, etc. can be advertised in T.V., radio, wall painting, etc.
2. Nature of Customers: An appropriate media plan must consider the type or number of
consumers. Different consumers differ in their age-group, sex, income, educational level,
attitude etc. On the basis of consumer traits, consumer groups can be- men, women, children,
young, old, professional, businessmen, high, middle, low income group, Literate, illiterate, etc.
3. Distribution of Product: If the product is to be distributed locally, then media with local
coverage & reach should be considered like local newspaper, cable etc. If product is distributed
on national level, then media with national coverage in newspaper, national-level T.V. channels
will be suitable. If the product is to be sold at international level, then media having reach
internet, magazines with circulation in foreign countries,
4. Advertising Objectives: The objective of advertising campaign is to get favourable response
from customer. If the objectives of advertising campaign are to get immediate result then fast
media like newspapers, banners, pamphlets will be considered. If the objective of advertising is
to build goodwill & brand-equity, then magazines, television, signboards will be considered.
5. Media Used by Competitors: While planning for media the advertiser must consider the
media used by competitors & leaders. If advertiser does not consider competitor’s move
regarding media, then it is possible that advertiser’s market share is taken by competition. If
industry-leader is using T.V. as media, then the advertiser too must consider the same media.
6. Media Frequency: Media frequency refers to average number of times, the audience is
exposed to media- vehicle in a specified period of time. Higher media-frequency is preferred.
Greater the frequency, more are the chances of advertisement message making deep impression
on the minds of consumers. In case of print media, frequency of newspaper is very less as the
receiver is not exposed to the same newspaper for a long period of time.
7. Media Image: Media- image enhances the communication value of advertisement. Good
reputation of editorial board and well established media enjoy better image among public, so
advertisements given in such media enhance the credibility & trust of advertisements. Media
image also affects the product image and advertiser’s image.
8. Media Discount: The advertisers consider these discount schemes while selecting media as it
reduces their media cost. Sometimes some advertisers use only one medium or one class of
media regularly so as to get media discount offered by media to their regular users.
9. Language: The advertiser selects that media which communicates in the language well known
to our target customers. Like if ad is given for less educated customers, then ad in English
newspaper will be of little use.
Importance of Media Planning
1. Optimum Utilisation of Resources: Advertising involves huge cost. Media planning, the
advertiser can use available resources in an optimum manner. In media planning, such
combination of media is selected and such time is selected, that helps the advertiser in
communicating the advertising message to largest number of target audience at lowest cost.
2. Achieving Advertising Objectives: Media planning is designed so as to achieve marketing
and advertising objectives of the organisation. Media planning includes all such decisions like
selecting appropriate media, appropriate media mix & deciding scheduling of advertisement.
All these decisions help the organization in achieving advertising objectives.
3. Selection of Appropriate Media: In media planning, different media are compared on the
basis of cost per reader, cost per viewer, media-image, media-coverage etc. While selecting
media the advertiser ensures that selected media matches with the features of target audience.
4. Selection of Optimum Media Mix: Media planning helps to select optimum media mix. Using
different media combination ensures wide & intensive coverage of target audience. A single
media may not ensure communication with all the target audience. A well planned media mix
ensures wide coverage of target audience at minimum cost.
5. Helps in Allocating Advertising Budget: Media planning helps to decide the amount to be
spent on different media. It helps the advertising manager in allocating the ad-budget among
different media types/vehicles. Media plan decides the optimum media mix; this helps the
advertising manager in allocating the total ad-budget on different media in a scientific manner.
6. Ensures Appropriate Timing of Advertising: Advertising can ensure best results only when
ads are shown at the right time. Media planning includes media scheduling i.e. it decides the
time and space of advertisement in media. It decides the month, day and time of advertisement.
It ensures that advertisement is shown more frequently in seasonal months and less frequently
in off-season months.
Steps involved in media planning,
1. Define your audience: The first step of media planning is defining your target audience. Your
target audience is the people to whom you want to sell your product. Your advertising
campaign will be ineffective if you don’t have a bright idea of the audience that you want to
reach. Therefore, it is crucial to define the age, gender, income, and preference of the media
platform of your audience. Depending on age and habits, you can determine the media
preference of your target audience.
2. Define your budget: Once you know your audience that you want to target, the next thing that
you must decide is your advertising budget. It is necessary to have a fixed budget. Having a
fixed budget will be helpful for you in eliminating media platforms with the least reach ability
to your target audience & your whole budget will be targeted through the right choice of media.
3. Define your goals: It is vital to define your goal before you invest in your media plan. Setting
your goal means what are you expecting from your media campaign. Whether you want to
create brand awareness or assuming a 5% conversion rate from the media to actual sales. A
well-defined goal might help the media planner to create your media mix as per your plan.
4. Do the required research: Don’t invest in advertising on any media platform without doing
proper research. Sometimes, it is effortless to select a platform where you can find your target
audience. Example, if you sell women fashion clothes, then the right choice for advertising is
social media platforms like Instagram & Facebook. You can target women aged between 16-40.
5. Use smart tools for media planning or take experts’ help: When you have defined your
audience and budget of advertising, the next step is to select the method to create your media
plan. For example, whether you want to hire an advertising agency or you want to create your
advertising campaign on your own with the help of some media planning tools.
6. Create the right media mix: The next step is to create the right media mix. The media mix is
the collection of different media platforms. Various online & offline media platforms can be
used to advertise your product. The online media are Internet websites, Facebook, Instagram,
YouTube, etc. The offline media are T.V, newspapers, magazines, pamphlets, hoardings, etc.
7. Execute your plan: Execute your plan once everything is decided. With the help of media
experts and tools, you can know the exact time when you want to run your ad or to send a
message to your target audience.
8. Evaluate your plan: The last step is to evaluate your planning. You can learn whether your
plan was successful or not and can learn lessons for future media campaigns only by assessing
the performance of your current media campaigns.
Media Strategy: Media strategy can be defined as the usage of an appropriate media mix in order
to achieve desired and optimum outcomes from the advertising campaign. It plays a key role in
advertising campaigns. The objective of Media Strategy is not just about procuring customers for
their product or services but also focuses on placing a right message towards the right people at
the right time and ensuring that the message is relevant and persuasive. Media Strategy is
designed to achieve the above mentioned target but the budget is always kept in mind.
There are three “W”s to be decided. They are:-
1. Where to advertise: The question is where the advertisement should be displayed to actual &
prospective customers. The options are - TV, radio, newspapers, hoardings, ads during breaks
etc. It can be done at international/national/state/city as per the requirement of the brand.
2. When to advertise: The timing of advertisement is very critical especially with respect to the
seasonal products. There is no point in airing advertisement for room heaters in summer season.
It should be aired right at the end of monsoon and beginning of winter season.
3. Which type of media to use: It is very important to use a correct media type for delivering the
message. There are two basic media approaches which can be adopted –
 Media Concentration approach – In this approach, firms concentrate their campaigns only
on a few media types (generally two or three) in order to reach their target consumers instead
of using a wide variety of media types.
 Media Dispersion Approach- In media dispersion approach a wide variety of different

media categories is employed to reach the target customers. It is employed when the entire
target market can’t be reached by a few media types.