Strategic Media Planning

The Future Direction of Advertising Strategic Media Planning in Japan
"Strategic Media Planning"
Article No. 4 (by Hideaki Koizumi)

IV. Strategic Media Planning
I have explained the importance of media planning in my previous articles, and how advanced media research is essential to advertising communications. As a next step, I will now examine what advanced media planning (i.e., strategic media planning) should really be.

First, we need to think about what is simply media planning before considering strategic media planning. The AMA defines a media plan as, "...including a statement of objectives, target market definition, the types of ad media to be used, and the amount of resources to be allocated to each ('media mix'), and a specific time schedule for the use of each media vehicle." Not many books related to advertising media have been translated into Japanese. But one of them is Essentials to Media Planning: A Marketing Viewpoint, written by Barban & others. It defines a media plan as the, "Process for planning the use of ad time and ad space to contribute towards the achievement of the marketing objective." Gendai Koukokuron (contemporary advertising theory) written by Kishi & others defines media planning as, "Establishing a media objective, media strategy, budget allocation, selection of media vehicles with ad sizes, evaluation/plan of ad patterns & time schedules, and then the selection of the best plan." And while not using the exact words 'media planning', Kotler explains "selecting media" in his book, Shin-pan Marketing Theory (Principles of Marketing), as the following; "1) Planning reach, frequency and impact, 2) Selecting a main media, 3) Selecting specific media vehicles, and 4) Deciding the ad time schedules for each media."

By putting all of these definitions together, we can define 'media planning' simply as "scheduling ads for individual media based on strategies." But in actual business, people generally think of media planning as "making the media lay-down," which is a detailed media schedule for the year.

A media lay-down for TV spot details when and how much GRP is to be aired, and a media lay-down for magazine details when/how many times ad are going to appear in which magazines. This final media lay-down report is very important. But, unfortunately in Japan, often strategic thinking within the media plan is weak. And it is the media plan that is used as the guide for formulating this media lay-down. Here is a basic, but typical, media plan for a dog food brand for example:

- Target: Housewives over 30 years old who have at least one dog
- Media strategy: Conduct ad campaigns focused on efficient media to increase brand recognition of the target group
- Areas: Kanto, Kansai and Chukyo regions only
- Timing strategy: At the time of the launch of a new product', and in October when stores change their displays
- Main medium: TV
- Secondary media: Magazines, newspaper leaflets, Internet

In some cases, a 'reach index', which is simply the percentage of the target that should be exposed to the ads, and a 'frequency number', which is the number of times the target is to be exposed to the ads, will be included in the media plan. An example would be a reach of 80%, with a frequency of at least 3 times (or more simply, 80% Reach 3+). The problem with most media plans is that the media strategy often doesn't include a specific objective, such as to increase the recognition of a new product or to promote the understanding of a new product, etc. Also, currently, often the reach index and frequency number are calculated within the budget. But actually, these numbers should be derived as those that can achieve the objectives of the media strategy. We need to think of the media strategy as being all of the media activities required to meet the marketing objective. If the marketing objective is to overtake the top competitor in sales, then a media strategy has to be established that realistically can achieve this objective.

Under the severe market environment of today, many companies are setting their marketing objective to simply be increase sales or increase their market share. However, if the company is thinking more from a long-term viewpoint, the marketing objective might be to enhance its brand equity. This form of 'brand theory' has been receiving a lot of attention recently. But in either case, you need to think about what are the factors that most affect the marketing objective, and then formulate your media objective.

Please contact us with questions or for more detailed information.
spiindex@spi-consultants.net