Advertisers Preferences of Media Channel Problems,Choice, and Reasons

ADVERTISERS PREFERENCES OF MEDIA CHANNEL PROBLEMS, CHOICE, AND REASONS (A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF DAILY SUN NEWSPAPER AND NEWSWATCH MAGAZINE)

Here the researcher takes a look at what different authors, researchers and some of the writers has done on this topic of study. This will enable the researcher to have a focus on her own study.

       2.2 Media Selection

Media selection can be seen as the process of choosing the most cost effective media for advertising to achieve the required coverage and number of exposures in a target audience.

According to Nwuba (2005:61), Media selection is concerned with the choice of the most appropriate medium or media that will deliver the advertising message to the target audience.

The media can be classified as follows:

• Electronic or Broadcast Media: Radio, Television, Cinema etc.
• Print Media: Newspaper, Magazines and Journals, Directories, Direct mail.
• Cut-of-home Advertising/Outdoor Advertising: Point of purchase, window sign, counter display, shelf display, permanent display racks, roadside sign, and transit advertising.

Electronic Media

Radio advertising is very prevalent. The great rise in the number of radio stations in Nigeria since independence in 1960 has contributed to the acceleration of radio advertising.  As an advertising medium, the radio has many advantages. Not only has it penetrated both the urban and rural areas but virtually every house has at least one radio set.

Advertising on radio is cheap in absolute terms, when compared to newspaper and television advertising. Listening to radio demands very little effort and concentrate unlike newspaper and journals. However, there are so many radio station stations and a lot of advertisements are broadcast many station and everyday that the average in radio listener bombarded with hundreds of advertisements. He scarcely pays enough attention, infact he is sometimes angered and confuse by the continual spate of advertisement, some of which he enjoys.

Television on the other hand has become the most elegant medium of advertising in Nigeria as in many other   countries. It enjoys the singular advantage of sight and sound. Almost every state in Nigeria today has at least a television station, twenty two of which were federal government owned and controlled. About 2.25 million Nigerians with a total income of N8.3billon naira a year own television sets, about three quarter of them in color about 31 million house have regular access television derived from its visual feature demonstrate its features and usage. Television has the disadvantage of lasting only a shot time and it is very expensive.

Print Media

There are dozen of newspapers, magazines and journals in Nigeria today. Some such as the vanguard, the sun and the guardian, have national coverage while most of the state owned newspaper have a largely localized readership.

Generally, newspapers have a wide geographical coverage. They penetrate the nooks and corners of Nigeria and quality too. One copy invariably gets read by many people. It is relatively permanent since is a given issue, is not destroyed, can be read many days, weeks and every years after. The fact that they are used as wrappers by petty traders helps in the circulation, of some of the contents. Considering the circulation, newspaper advertising is cheap. It has the advantage of being able to show the product. It also can carry advertisement with detailed information or product description.

Finally, it is a good medium for reading educated people particularly the working class there is also the problem of limited space considering the number of advertisement features and news stories competing for space.

Magazines and journal share many of the advert ages of the newspaper. However, they have the additional virtue of carrying color advertisements. The audience be a disadvantage with a common target audience as the magazine and journals. Professional journals are particularly appropriate for professional and industrial advertising.

Determinants of Media Choice

The averages advertiser is confronted with the multiplicity of media types discussed above since he cannot use all of them on any particular occasion because of the cost implications and the inappropriateness of some of them for his purpose, he has to make a choice in making such a choice he should take consideration of two sets of factors which are media and non- media factors.

The Major Ones Are:

1. The amount available for advertising such may prelude the use of certain media due to financial considerations.
2. The media being used by compactors since it may be necessary to each the same people being reached by them.
3. The nature of the message since some media is more appropriate for certain massage than other.
4. The acceptability of the available media wholesalers, middlemen and salesman whom the advertisement may be intended.
5. Medium available, for example, the television may not be available in certain rural areas where the advertisement is to be done.
6. The reach of the medium. This is the number of household or person exposed to the media at least one during a specified time.
7. Media frequency or the number of time an average person is exposed to a medium during a specified time period.
8. Media continuity or the regularity with which the average person is exposed to a given media.

Media coverage which refer to the extents of geographical coverage of each of the available for use. The choice of the medium is measured in terms of the number of people the can be reached per naira worth of advertisement in the medium.

Advertising

Igwenazor .O. Nchekwube (2012:125) wrote that advertising can be traced back to the very beginning of recorded history. It is the most conspicuous of all marketing activities. It serves as substitutes for a salesperson talking to an individual prospect.

Unlike, a salesperson, it is a one-way communication, that cannot receive direct feedback and immediately handles objections thus, advertising has bees defined as any paid form of non- personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor (AMA).

Agbonifoh et al, hold that ‘‘advertising is controlled, identifiable, information and persuasion by means of mass communication media.’’

Uses of Advertising

The major goal of advertising is to inform, to educate and to persuade. An advertisement may seek to inform buyers of where they can buy the product or the price at which it is sold. It may be aimed at educating buyers on how to use the product safely and economically finally, it primary concern may be to convince persuade the audience to think favorably about the company or to buy its products.

 Some of the specific used of advertising are as follows:

1. To inform potential customers about new products being introduced into the market.
2. To inform customers of the price of the product.
3. To tell customers where the product can be obtained.
4. To draw attention of customers to the benefits of the product, particularity its hidden qualities such as fluoride in a given brand of tooth past.
5. To cover the advertisement of competitors.
6. To correct wrong or negative impressions or rumors about the company or its product or simply to forest good will.
7. Support the efforts of salesmen by helping them to pre-inform prospect.

Advertising Media

Jefkins (19998: 187) defines advertising media, as that which supplies the vehicles for advertising messages, carrying than to the right reader, viewers, listeners or passers by it may also be referred to as the vehicles that propel the messages to where they are needed.

Selecting Advertising Media

The major steps in media selecting are deciding on reach, frequency and impact choosing among major media types deciding on media timing.

Deciding on Reach, Frequency and Impact

To select media, the advertiser must decide what reach and frequency are needed to achieve advertising objectives.

Reach is a measure of the percentages of people in the target market who are exposit to the advertising campaign during a given period of time. Frequency is a measure of how many times the average person in the target market is exposed to the messages. For example the advertiser might want an averages exposure frequency of five media impact involves the qualitative value.