The complexity of media planning today

Abstract

Today, because of media fragmentation and diverse viewing habits across consumer groups, marketing has become increasingly complex. Firms have developed new strategies to deal with this changing environment. The first is the sophisticated use of information to allocate marketing spending. It has become increasingly common for experts to provide assistance in media buying. Unless firms understand the value that these experts provide and how best to make use of it, media fragmentation will significantly reduce the effectiveness of marketing. Secondly, major improvements in the quality and quantity of consumer information (due to information technology) and the growth of targeted media vehicles (due to media fragmentation and new communication channels) imply that firms now have the know-how and the means to target advertising precisely to segments of consumers within a market. This has critical implications for firms. How much should a firm pay to target advertising messages precisely? Will better targeting lead to higher or lower advertising expenditures? Are there ethical issues that need to be considered given the increased effectiveness of marketing communication? This paper considers these questions and suggests approaches that can be employed so that marketers realise high performance from money spent on communication.