Market Research:

Media Placement:

Media Placement is "The use of various types of media to establish and promote the products and services for business," according to Ezine Articles

 

What this means is that Media Placement is the use of different types of media (Television, Internet, Newspapers, Billboards etc.) to establish and promote products/services for a business. Media Placement is advertisement of products/services across different forms of media.

 

There are different types of media placement, relating to the different advertising options. Here is a list of them:

• Television

• Radio

• Print Publications

• Internet

• Out-of-home

• Mobile Devices

 

Media Placement - Pros - Cons

Television - Can reach large base of customers (general public)- Cannot be used for targeted media placement or targeted advertisements.

 

Radio - Can reach large base of customers (general public) - Cannot be used for targeted media placement or targeted advertisements. Can only use audio advertisements.

 

Print - Can be used for targeted media placement or targeted advertisements. - Limited to the amount of people who order/buy printed media.

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Internet - Can be used for all types of media placements, including targeted placements. - Can only be accessed by internet-connected people.

 

Out-of-Home - Can reach large base of customers (general public) - Requires billboards, large screens etc. to advertise, which can be costly to rent/build.

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Mobile - Can reach most mobile phone users through messaging/multimedia ads. Relatively inexpensive. - Can only be accessed by mobile phone users.

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Advertising Effects:

Advertising can have many effects on the consumer that views these adverts. These include:

• Emotional Changes

• Physiological Changes

• Brand Associations

• Consumer Targeting in Adverts

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Emotional Changes - Effective advertisements appeals to three basic emotions: love, fear and rage. Certain advertisements will appeal towards a certain basic emotions, such as a sports car ad appealing to a consumers love for driving. A commercial for a minivan may appeal towards fear for child safety in a parent. Effective advertisements appeal to these basic emotions and invoke these in the consumer.

 

Physiological Changes - Viewing images often invokes physical reactions in people, and advertising images have been shown to decrease a viewer’s heart rate and direct their focus in a certain direction e.g. a flashy sports car being advertised. Effective advertisements will invoke these physiological changes within the consumer.

 

Brand Associations - Advertisements can change the way that the consumer perceives the company/brand through what is shown in the advert. An advertisement such as a soft drink commercial will have famous pop music playing to make the consumer associate the brand and the music together. Whenever the music is then played at a later time, they will then remember the soft drink and the brand advertising it. Effective advertisements will have a level of brand association embedded in the advert.

 

Consumer Targeting - Some advertisements, such as medicine adverts, will be targeted at specific consumers that need that certain medication. These advertisements may also push away certain consumers, as their product isn’t designed for them and may not be good for them. Pushing away at-risk consumers may even benefit the company, as they may gain worse publicity from not pushing away these consumers. Effective advertisements will target the correct audience.
 

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Competitor Analysis:

 

Competitor Analysis - The assessment of strengths and weaknesses within the current and potential competitors. Competitor Analysis provides both offensive and defensive strategic context, which can be used to identify opportunities in marketing, as well as threats.

 

Competitor Profiling - Useful in gaining an understanding of competitors in the industry. Profiling can reveal strategic weaknesses in rivals that can be exploited, as well as being used to anticipate/predict responses from the opposing competitors to a planned strategy. Both offensive and defensive strategies can be implemented more quickly in order to gain a one-up on competitors. Competitor Profiling involves:

 

• Background

  • location of offices, plants, and online presences

  • history – key personalities, dates, events, and trends

  • ownership, corporate governance, and organizational structure

• Financials

  • P-E ratios, dividend policy, and profitability

  • various financial ratios, liquidity, and cash flow

  • profit growth profile; method of growth (organic or acquisitive)

• Products

  • products offered, depth and breadth of product line, and product portfolio balance

  • new products developed, new product success rate, and R&D strengths

  • brands, strength of brand portfolio, brand loyalty and brand awareness

  • patents and licenses

  • quality control conformance

  • reverse engineering or deformulation

• Marketing

  • segments served, market shares, customer base, growth rate, and customer loyalty

  • promotional mix, promotional budgets, advertising themes, ad agency used, sales force success rate, online promotional strategy

  • distribution channels used (direct & indirect), exclusivity agreements, alliances, and geographical coverage

  • pricing, discounts, and allowances

• Facilities

  • plant capacity, capacity utilization rate, age of plant, plant efficiency, capital investment

  • location, shipping logistics, and product mix by plant

• Personnel

  • number of employees, key employees, and skill sets

  • strength of management, and management style

  • compensation, benefits, and employee morale & retention rates

• Corporate and marketing strategies

  • objectives, mission statement, growth plans, acquisitions, and divestitures

  • marketing strategies

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Media Scanning - Involves scanning/analysing competitor’s advertisements to reveal much about what the competitor believes about marketing and their target market. Changes in competitor’s advertising message can reveal new product offerings, production processes, branding strategies etc. It can also indicate new pricing strategies, promotion strategies, distribution strategies and other aspects of advertisement strategies.

 

New Competitors - In addition to analysing current competitors, it is useful and necessary to estimate and analyse future competitive threats. Common sources of new competitors include:

 

• Companies competing in a related product/market

• Companies using related technologies

• Companies already targeting the target prime market segment but with unrelated products

• Companies from other geographical areas and with similar products

• New start-up companies organized by former employees and/or managers of existing companies

 

The entrance of new competitors is likely when:

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• There are high profit margins in the industry

• There is unmet demand (insufficient supply) in the industry

• There are no major barriers to entry

• There is future growth potential

• Competitive rivalry is not intense

• Gaining a competitive advantage over existing firms is feasible

• Dissatisfaction with the existing suppliers

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Online Advertising:

 

Online Advertising - Also known as Internet Advertising or Digital Advertising, Online Advertising the use of the internet to promote your product, through banner advertisements, video advertisements, interactive advertisements etc. on websites.

 

Advantages - Online Advertising is cheaper than any other form of major advertising media, such as:

 

• Print

 

• Television

 

• Radio

 

• Billboards

 

Online Advertising can be paid on how many people see or click on your online advert, meaning that you can pay only when the advert works.

 

Online Advertising can also be highly targeted, ensuring that it reaches your target demographic, not wasting money advertising to people who will not want to purchase your product.

 

Online Advertising can also be used to reach a widespread audience, as the internet is connected globally. This means that you can advertise your product to anyone in the world who is connected to the internet.

 

Analytics through Online Advertising companies can let you see who is responding to your advert, so you can better tweak future ads or learn more about the people interested in your product.

 

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Disadvantages - Online Adverts are inexpensive most of the time because they are easily ignored. People have grown accustomed to seeing a banner ad, and tune it out of their minds. 

 

People also do not tend to trust online advertisements, with the threat of a virus or malware from an advertisement too much of a threat for people to consider clicking on the advert.

 

Most consumers also tend to have ad-blockers installed on their device, meaning that the advert will not even be displayed to them, although you will not be paying for views when people use these types of software.

 

Also, targeted ads can sometimes work against you, as it is easy to overly target your advert, and miss out on a chance to advertise to people who could be customers if they knew of the product’s existence.

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