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    Advantages of Newspapers as an Advertising Medium

    1. Prestige. The prestige and respectability of the newspaper is transferred to the advertised product/service.

    2. Segmentation. Editorial content of the newspaper influences the type of its readers and thus offers segmentation of the market. For example, “the Independent” claims that its readers are young decision-makers, highly educated and professional, while the Times of India has greater appeal among the middle and older age groups. The characteristics of selectivity and variety explained above increase the newspaper’s advantage in market segmentation.

    3. Flexibility. The newspapers offer tremendous flexibility to advertisers. When it is raining in Bombay, it may be hot in Delhi. While the Mumbai newspapers can be used to advertise raincoats and umbrellas, the Delhi edition of the same newspaper can be used to advertise air coolers. The most important is the time flexibility that is the contents of the advertisement can be changed upto a few hours before the paper goes to press. MRF Tyres use the press medium just before the monsoons in Mumbai by predicting the date of the first rainfall and thereby communicating to the consumers the urgency of changing to MRF Tyers before the monsoons.

    4. Split Run Facilities. Many newspapers offer split run facilities. The split run test is a service used for testing print advertisements in which the media cooperate with an advertiser in allowing the same space for two or more copy variations to appear in systematic rotation through the entire circulation. This permits simultaneous circulation of two or more advertisements in identical editorial surroundings with comparable audiences.

    5. Keying the advertisement. It is possible to key the advertisement and attach a mail order coupon in order to measure its effectiveness.

    6. Measuring Reach. The Audit Bureau of circulation (ABC) gives the readership and circulation figures and therefore it is possible to measure the reach of different newspapers.

    7. Mobility. Newspaper can be carried and read anywhere, while travelling, at the place of work, in library, inn doctor’s waiting room and so on.

    Limitation of Newspapers as an Advertising Medium
    Despite the above advantages newspapers have the following limitations:
    1. Limited coverage. In India with the literacy, level being low newspapers cannot be used to penetrate the lower income segments of the market.

    2. Short Life. It is often said “as stale as yesterday’s newspaper.” A newspaper has a very limited life and therefore advertising will have little impact beyond the day of publication.

    3. Hasty reading. Studies indicate that people spend about 30 minutes on the paper. This means that the ad must make its impression quickly or it will fade.

    4. Cost. It is an expensive medium that is unsuitable for small advertisers especially the morning English newspapers such as the Times of India.

    5. Poor Reproduction. Most of the pages are in black and white and the colour advertisements are not as well reproduced as those in magazines. Therefore we rarely find food and fashion ads in newspapers.

    6. Demonstration and Display. It is not possible to demonstrate product usage as in television commercials.



    Advantage of Magazine Advertising
    The newspapers and magazines have different advantages though both belong to the print media.

    The peculiar advantages of magazines are:
    1. Demographic selectivity: Every magazine has a different audience whose demographic and psychographic characteristics are different. Thus Femina is a magazine for young women, whereas Savvy is a magazines for mature women. Manohar Kahaniyan/Meri Saheli has a typical audience of north Indian middle class. Each magazine thus helps us to target at a particular age group, gender group and income group. Special interest magazines provide a specific audience.

    2. Geographic Selectivity: Some magazines have all-India circulation like India Today. Some magazines are confined to a region like Malayalam Manorama. So magazines help us target a geographic market we require without considerable waste.

    3. Creative Flexibility: High fidelity reproduction is a speciality of magazines on account of their superior quality of paper and printing. They also provide opportunities for innovative adds like pop-up ads, sample-bearing ads, scented ads, outside inserts as booklets.

    1. Durability of Message: Magazines are kept for a longer time, and are read again and again. More time is devoted to reading a magazine. It means that the chances of the ad message being seen are more in magazines. As the magazines is preserved for a longer time, the message has a durability of longer duration.

    Disadvantages of Magazines Advertising
    In spite of several advantages, magazines have many drawbacks as advertising media.
    1. Early a/w submission: The ad material will have to be submitted much in advance because a magazine requires elaborate production plan. The lead time is sometimes 90 days before the release of an issue. It is difficult to change the message on account of changed circumstances and contingencies. These days magazines are trying to shorten the lead time as much as they can.

    2. Limited Reach and Frequency: Magazines have limited reach as far as the total number of households are concerned. To reach a larger audience, it is necessary to buy a lot of magazine space. As their periodicity is either a month or a fortnight or a week, it is difficult to have higher frequency. To overcome this drawback, a media planner uses several magazines or adds other media to supplement magazine ads.

    3. No Sound and Motion: Magazines rely upon the printed copy and visuals to convey the message, and lack the sound of radio or motion of TV which makes these audio-visual ads greatly effective.


    Merits and Demerits of TV Advertising
    Special Merits of TV:

    1. TV has immense impact:
    No other medium can ever complete TV as far as effective presentation is concerned. It attracts attention immediately. Special effect has made it still more effective. It arouses interest in the product. In print ads, these two steps require deliberation. Here it comes spontaneously. TV commercials and sponsored programmes are impactive; even when the viewer is temporarily not before the set.


    2. Excellent Quality of Production: TV’s sponsored programmes and DD programmes have been improving in terms of quality content wise as well as product wise consistently over a period of time.
    The agency exercises overall supervision. We have cadre of TV producers now. Sometimes the movie moghuls themselves produce a TV serial (e.g. Sagar produced Ramayana and B. R. Copra the Mahabharat). So skilled hands this medium.

    Some sponsored programmes are lavishly made. They do a lot of outdoor shooting. But most of the programmes are indoor shot programmes.


    3. Retailers also watch TV: Both consumers and distributors are TV viewers. The retailers might miss out the ads in print media. But they are exposed to TV ads. Thus they fell inclined to stock these products. Nand Kishore Khanna & Sons, a local firm making Homacol liquid soap has definitely improved its distribution after TV advertising. The single medium does a double job.

    4. It is a Comprehensive Technique: In TV, there is a unique blend of sight, colour, movement, sound, timing, repetition and presentation in the home. Put together it has more attributes than any other medium. It, therefore, produces quick results. Only the product should be a nationally marketed consumer product.

    5. Evocation of Experience: It stimulates the experience of using and owning the product.

    6. Demonstration: Product benefits can be shown most effectively by TV. Benefits may accrue over a period of time. But by using the technique of time compression, product benefits can be shown in a 10 second spot.

    7. Animation: It is possible to vest the product/logo with human qualities. Animated characters do not alienate us (Eg. Air India Logo).

    8. Image Building: TV succeeds in building a powerful image of the company and its products. It can also project an image of the users rendering it excellent for life-style advertising.

    9. Emotional Content: TV triggers off nostalgia, tenderness, generosity kindness and such other emotions. The special effects enhance the impact. ‘You have to be extremely genuine on TV.


    Special Demerits of TV Ads
    1. It takes time to produce commercials and sponsored programmes: This medium requires planning and deliberation. The consent for sponsorship is hard to come by. It lacks the flexibility of press and radio. If not rightly produced, the ads look very crude. But once produced as per our requirements, these ads can be repeated over a period of time (Nirma ad).

    2. It is a transient medium: Here the commercial flickers for a few seconds and goes off the air. We work hard with insistent jingles and repeated sales message. Sometimes, the commercial is repeated frequently. TV ads alone may not be sufficient. They need supportive ads in other media. More than one or two spots are necessary to be as noticeable as one insertion in print.


    3. Time gap to purchasing: If TV advertisement sinks into the mind, it is okay. But otherwise, a mind that is well prepared for buying a certain product cannot do so immediately because there is a night to go by and only next morning the action can be taken. By that time, we might not have kept the product in mind. The ‘buy now’ pressure exerted on the TV viewers is totally wasted because the stimulus is often lost by the following morning. This is one of the reasons why TV needs a very high frequency to sustain the impact.

    4. An immobile medium: Radio can be listened to either in car or while walking. Newspapers are read in locals, in offices and at many other locations. Right now, TV is watched only at home. It requires a captive audience. It penetrates the home. This is an advantage as well as a disadvantage.

    5. Difficult to gain enquiries: TV restricts itself to typical purchases. Detailed enquiries cannot come. It is difficult to note either the telephone number or the address. Another major problem is that too much is compressed in a TV commercial lasting for a few seconds. It is a digest, and is easily assimilated and absorbed. At first viewing, there is novelty. But on absorption, this wears off. On repeated viewing, it becomes monotonous. Everything is anticipated. This problem can be overcome if we can serialize a commercial. It is better to produce several less ambitious films than to produce one super production. Slight changes make all the difference in results.

    6. Time Constraint: In a few seconds, we can put forward only one selling proposition.

    7. Production Costs: Cost of producing a commercial is high as compared to costs of the print production. The paying capacity of the client, the prevailing rates in the market, the nature of the product, and the commercial values of the programme that accompanies the commercial determine the final production cost.

    8. Hardware Capability: The T.V. set of the viewer and its technical capability determine the overall impact of the commercial. Cinema can afford the luxury of long shots, but not a T.V commercial. All commercials should be tested in real life situations, mostly on portable B & W sets. The colour reproduction is controlled in the print media, but on colour T.V. set the capability of the set itself determines the colour reproduction.

    9. Statutory Controls: T.V. commercials have to conform to a broadcast code strictly.

    10. Fragmentation of Audiences: All channels have a diversity of programmes to attract viewers. They intend to penetrate the viewers of other channels by a diverse programme mix. This channels penetration at the same time gives programme options. This naturally leads to fragmentation of audiences and lower regularities of viewer ship. Its difficult to convey a message in such a situation. It can prove a blessing in disguise for the print media. The relationship with T.V. is extremely flirtatious.

    11. Effect of Clutter: the viewer ship of commercials is less than the viewer ship of the programme which accompanies them. The lengthier the chain of commercials, the less is the viewer ship. Several studies in India have shown that the total audience for commercial for an average T.V. programme is substantially lower than that of the programme, sometimes below over 50 per cent. The figure is further eroded due to large passive audiences of the total commercial audience. The duration of a commercial does not seem to play a significant role in brand name recall. Top rate programmes on any channels have high clutter leading to poor and recall.


    Radio Advertising:
    Commercial radio in the Indian context has certain inherent characteristics.
    Its strengths lie in:
    1. Offering local, regional, all India coverage on its medium wave channels

    2. Permeating all economic and social strata, thereby reaching the masses

    3. Its daily frequency, offering scope for continued messages

    4. Broadcasting throughout the day so that message may be repeatedly broadcast.

    5. Reaching un-educate village audiences who do not read print publication

    6. When the message is to be carried to a large number of people who speak different languages, radio is a most suitable medium which admirably does the job at the least cost.

    7. In a country like India, where literacy rates are low, and so newspapers have limited significance, radio is a popular both with advertisers and audiences.
    In radio, the news service is continuous; unlike TV where we receive news in the morning transmission, and again in the network programme in the evening, which is wide spacing. To the advertisers, news breaks on radio are the peak listening points when it pays to advertise.

    8. Radio commercial can be produced quickly and is not so costly also. It can be repeated over a period of time. Radio thus is afforded by even small firms.

    9. Radio Creativity and Flexibility
    Unlike other out-of-home messages, radio commercials are not static but can be changed almost immediately to reflect different market conditions or new competition. The personal nature of radio, combined with its flexibility and creativity, makes it a powerful medium for all types of advertisers and product categories.
    One of radio’s greatest strengths is its flexibility. Copy changes can be made very quickly. When marketing conditions suddenly change, you can react instantly with radio.
    The short lead time in production and copy changes is an enormous benefit to advertisers who may need last-minute adjustments to their sales messages.

    10. The ability to anticipate or react to changing conditions cannot be underestimated.

    11. The simplicity of radio can be a major advantage in making tactical marketing decisions. Radio’s sense of immediacy and flexibility, all at a cost within the budget of even the smallest advertiser, has made it an important part of the strategy of many advertisers.



    Commercial radio, however, suffers from the following weaknesses;
    1. It is an audio medium only; hence it affects certain essential elements of communication

    2. Certain operational limitation are imposed; for example, the minimum period of a fortnight reduces the medium’s flexibility

    3. Limited commercial time available. Only 10 percent of time availability restrict the frequency of message exposure

    4. Limited availability of commercial radio. There are only 28 radio stations offering commercial broadcasting against 300 in a country.

    5. There are possibilities of distortion in communication. Precision of script- writing is a very challenging task. In TV, vision accompanies the words and so there is no misunderstanding.

    6. We know what is ‘Khurram Khurram’ Papad on TV commercial but the concept is transmitted poorly on radio. Word pictures are necessary on radio.

    7. There is a overselling in place of precise explanation. It is a real hazard. Much is at stake on the announcer’s presentation who has to do hard-selling job. An insistent voice really irritates. TV does this job effortlessly.

    8. Repetitions are monotonous. Radio is also a transient medium with no durability of message. Audience research of radio is really grey area. In India, before advertisers can think of radio as a serious medium, this research data should be easily available.
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