3/11/2015

Choice of Media for Brand Promotion | Gregory Gosnell

College at Brockport Analyzing Brand Promotions through Multiple Mediums

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Analyzing Brand Promotion through Multiple Mediums

It’s an old saying in marketing that “I’m wasting half of my marketing budget, but I don’t

know which half.” In terms of Marketing, the promotion of the product is the most crucial part to

a firm’s success. Without the proper use of brand promotion, sales cannot increase, awareness

cannot be enhanced, and the product offering cannot be properly communicated to the targeted

consumer. In the early days of marketing, the platforms of communication were limited to word

of mouth and the possible use of written communication (newspapers, flyers, etc.). Today, there

are a different number of unique avenues that a marketer can explore to communicate the

product offering with an imperfect knowledge of how the message was communicated. The three

biggest ways to promote your brand is through: radio commercials, television advertisements,

and social media campaigns. Which avenue causes the best rate of retention? Which has the best

cost structure, relative to retention rates?

Television:

In television, ratings are determined by the Nielson rating company and awareness

campaigns are collected through independent studies, usually at the collegiate level. Determining

the appropriate time for television ads also heavily relates to the viewers’ attention level and how

likely they are to remember the advertisements being presented to them. According to the article

“Optimal Time of Day and the Magnitude of Age Differences in Memory”, the audience viewing

the commercial at a certain time will, almost entirely, shift the encoded message within the

advertisement (May, Hasher, and Stolzfus, 1993). Most of the participants in the study were

broken down entirely by age, those that were considered young (18-24) were considered to be

evening viewers of advertisements (46.5%), while those 50 and above viewed their

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advertisements almost entirely (73.6%) in the morning (May, Hasher, and Stolzfus, 1993). The

intended audience changes the landscape of the advertisement and its encoded messages for

brand awareness.

Another way to judge the effectiveness of advertisements is the program around the

advertisements themselves. According to the article “Feeling and Liking Responses to Television

Programs: An Examination of Two Explanations for Media-Context Effects”, programs could

offer a mood congruency that causes consumers to view their current emotions with a past

product purchase (Murry, Singh, Lastovicka, 1994). So in theory, advertising a commercial that

features disease and heartbreak during a comedic show like Tosh.0 would cause the viewer to

change the channel or distract themselves (checking their phone, eating, etc.) while a comedic

beer commercial would retain the viewers’ attention and increase the likely hood that the

message is retained after the commercial ends. Advertisements that contained messages with an

emotional profile of sadness saw a 15.5% better retention rate during negative emotional

programs than positive programs. The same went for joy which had a 10.4% better retention rate

during a positive emotional program compared to a negative emotional program (Murry, Singh,

Lastovicka, 1994).

While these factors may seem obvious, the most important aspect for marketers will be

the cost structure of running the ads during a more high profile program. The cost of producing

and running an advertisement during a popular show is usually large and creates barriers to entry

for smaller firms on the rise. According to recent reports, commercials produced for a national

audience usually averages about $342,000 for a 30-second ad (Wagner, 2012). That price

includes the writers, song licensing, actors, producers, etc. and can be run for several weeks

during the firm’s campaign. On top of the steep cost of producing the advertisement, the price for

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a national popular program, like American Idol in 2012, would cost around $475,000 for a 30-

second spot in prime time, with some programs exceeding $100,000 outside of primetime

(Wagner, 2012).

Print Media:

Another popular method of advertising is through print articles, whether it be in a

magazine or through a newspaper. Today, the amount of marketing invested into newspapers and

print media represents 31% of all advertising in the year 2011 (Israel, 2013). Advertisements are

measured on the basis of how well the viewer can remember the ad, their perception of the brand

images, and their emotional involvement with the ad (Consterdine, 2000). Determining the

appropriate audience for print advertisements depends largely on the message being addressed in

the advertisements. According to Helene H. Fung, age differences largely determine how the

audience will approach an advertisement based on the goals the individual has at their current

age (Fung and Carstensen, 2003). For example, older audiences (over 65 years old) will look for

more meaningful messages in the advertisements that bring sentiment into the picture, the more

meaningful and sincere the message is, the more likely the observer will be to purchase the

product. While those that are between the ages of 18-24 related more closely with advertisements

that were directed with more of a knowledge based component and less use of emotions (Fung

and Carstensen, 2003).

“You can buy attention (advertising). You can beg for attention from the media (PR).

You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales). Or you can earn attention by creating

something interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for free (New Business, 2015)”.

David Meerman Scott was referring to the amount of time and money a company can spend to

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garner the attention of their adversaries, but at the end of the day, it’s still the 21st century and all

of the old practices that led to companies paying out millions of dollars of revenue can all be

prevented from doing something original online. The underlying message of the quote above is

also to identify the lack of attention given to print media right now. There isn’t a lot of readers

that still buy (print) magazines and more and more of those that do are getting older and on a

more fixed income.

Print advertisements with the intention of promoting their product rather than stressing

the importance of how their product prevents the consumer’s problems show a greater retention

rate and can promote a better brand attitude. According to the article “The Role of Regulatory

Focus in Preference Construction” when a high involvement advertisement is used to promote

the product attributes to the consumer, the consumer has a 13.2% better chance of remembering

it (over a similar ad stressing the importance of prevention) (Wang and Lee, 2006). Another

interesting point made from the study showed that consumers are also 17.8% more likely to

remember a low involvement advertisement that used promotion over prevention (Wang and

Lee, 2006).

The price of advertising, similar to that of television, requires extensive work to identify

the segmented target, design the ad itself, and then run the ad in the print media source. The

average setup cost of creating the ad can range anywhere from $1,500 to $20,000, depending on

whether or not the ad will contain original photos or designs, and then an additional $25,000 to

run the ad (full page) in a month’s magazine (Beckett, 2013). The cost of advertising in the

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s Tuesday issue will, obviously, be substantially less than the

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition making it extremely important to know the target audience

and how the brand promotion will best be received. The benefits of running the ad in the form of

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print magazines is that it’s easier to get exposure, but there is no sure fire way of measuring the

retention rate or preventing unqualified customers from reading it (customers looking at an ad for

an 17 karat gold iPhone watch that may not have the means to afford one). The lack of

measurement could make print advertising too expensive and possibly unworthy of the

marketing manager’s attention.

Social Media:

Edgerank Checker once said “Social media marketing is about identifying the essence of

engagement” (Cook, 2013). Finding the best fit between a company and their potential customers

depends on the commitment a company has to their social media team and how well they can

connect and establish bonds between the general public to create lifelong consumers. One of the

most important forms of communication between Generation Y and Millennials is the use of

social media. Ranging from Facebook to Twitter, and Tinder to Tumblr, there are ample ways to

communicate and promote brands to this growing market segment. Most of the Millennials love

to communicate with the brands themselves, whether it’s offering suggestions for new products

or getting information for what went wrong. While it’s possible that some of the older

generations have embraced social media, most of those that are over the age of 40 are heavily

involved in Facebook and less involved in other social media platforms. The average age of

someone on LinkedIn is 44 and the average age of a Facebook user is 38, but as you start to go

into the less “intimate” social media sites, like Bebo, the age of the average user begins to dip

below 30 (Lee, 2014).

The social impact of social media websites range drastically based on the website of

choice. Facebook has the ability to restart relationships that have gone by the way side and there

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is always the ability to rekindle past loves, this helps to create bonds for people with their

phones. Creating power users is something that social media sites do best; the opportunity for

businesses to harness this ability is all too appealing. 39% of all the men surveyed said they have

downloaded at least one social media app to their smartphone and check it regularly

(Pewinternet, 2014). 67% of those in the same study were below the age of 30, meaning that as

time progresses as technology becomes easier to use, and the newer generations are “born into it”

the ability for companies to promote their brands will become easier and their campaigns will be

more effective (Pewinternet, 2014).

The average cost for running a social media campaign varies based on the company and

the analytics behind the campaign produces feedback unrivaled by other forms of

communication. Websites like SimplyMeasured and Google Analytics can track the users that

visit a website, their time zones, their interests, and their most talked about topics for free. While

some firms still hire managers to create unique content for the user experience, their costs are

much less than television and the people that “like” their sites willingly objectify themselves to

the advertisements created by the company both in their newsfeed and on the side of the website,

should the company elect to pay for space on the site. The costs for each larger firm operating on

social media are, usually, an intern running the social media websites ($0), the graphic designers

already with the company that make ads to display on the sites ($6,000 to $12,000), and finally

the salaried Marketing manager that oversees the entire operation (costs vary) (Pewinternet,

2014). Firms like Walmart, Target, and HP are some of the companies that communicate the

most with their followers, which allows for more brand promotion (Fiegerman, 2012).

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Summary:

The method of choice depends largely on the use of the campaign. Social media has the

best and easiest demographics to reach the consumers, the consumers should be directed to the

younger generations that want to openly connect with the company itself. Promoting items on

sale may be best fit for social media where the items can be specified of their sale dates and their

qualifications. Television allows the rare opportunity to show how the product works and be able

to offer the product without the pain of in-store displays or incompetent employees misusing the

product. The television ads should be directed to the elderly during the day and utilize

sentimental messages to allow for an easier sale, while ads airing later in the day should be a

little bit more risqué while still adding a more dramatic, and interactive, portion to the script.

New products may be best fit for television where they can be fully displayed and their proper

use can be demonstrated for their intended audience. Print ads should be directed towards

individuals that are already reading the publication. Selling ads for business to business products

should be printed in trade journals, and car advertisements should be in the car magazines. Print

ads should be reminders of products and their existence, maybe intended solely for an older

audience. These methods should all be dissected by the marketing manager and their teams

before being introduced to the markets, however, to ensure their effectiveness with the market.

Depending on the intended use of the ads, the desired audience, or the intended message to be

sent in the ads should all come down to the goals of the company, and its vision for the future of

the firm.

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References

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Appendix:

Feeling and Liking Responses to Television Programs: An Examination of Two Explanations for Media-Context Effects, Table 1

COMPETITION ISSUES IN TELEVISION AND BROADCASTING, Chart 1

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Optimal Time of Day and the Magnitude of Age Differences in Memory, Table 1

Pewinternet.org, 2014

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The Role of Regulatory Focus in Preference Construction, Figure 1