Media Requirements: Defining The Target Audience, Product Market Factors, Creative Essay, Merchandising & Budgets. (70 Characters)

Identify target audience characteristics from advertising brief and prepare a detailed consumer profile which uses the same terms as those used to describe media audiences

Analyse product market factors to determine reach and frequency requirements of advertising media selected

Analyse creative requirements of advertising message and determine media implications

Identify media merchandising requirements from the advertising brief

Confirm media budget and identify legal and voluntary constraints

1.1 Identify target audience characteristics from advertising brief and prepare a detailed consumer profile which uses the same terms as those used to describe media audiences

1.2 Analyse product market factors to determine reach and frequency requirements of advertising media selected

1.3 Analyse creative requirements of advertising message and determine media implications

1.4 Identify media merchandising requirements from the advertising brief

1.5 Confirm media budget and identify legal and voluntary constraints

Weigh up relative merits of identified media vehicle alternatives, taking past media performance into account

2.2 Evaluate and test new or alternative media vehicles with other advertisers and against proven vehicles

2.3 Select media vehicles that target the required audience, meet media requirements and fulfil merchandising requirements within budget

2.4 Select media vehicles that meet creative, reach and frequency requirements of the advertising message to be achieved within budget

2.5 Ensure selected media vehicles meet legal and ethical requirement

3.1 Ensure duration and timing of media schedule meet requirements of the advertising brief

3.2 Determine distribution of messages over duration of schedule to meet requirements of the advertising brief

3.3 Create a media schedule to satisfy advertiser

3.4 Develop alternative media schedules for advertiser within budget

3.5 Determine testing schedule for the media plan and continually modify media plan in accordance with results obtained

Create media plan which defines media requirements of the advertising brief and provides evidence supporting each requirement

4.2 Specify recommended media and vehicle/s, and rationale for their selection in the media plan

4.3 Ensure media plan contains a budget allocation per medium per advertising period

4.4 Identify anticipated impact of advertising and measures to assess its effectiveness in the media plan

Identifying Characteristics of Target Audience

In order to determine the target market of an organisation, it is important for managers to formulate a plan that can extract the tastes and preferences of the individuals. The use of media planning is important in this regard. Target audiences can be determined based on the characteristic of the product as well as the people of the society. In this regard, an example can be obtained based on identifying target audience from advertising brief. An organisation such as Power Energy manufactures drinks for sports people. Hence, the advertising brief for such a company can be as:

Client name: Rhian Stewart, Marketing Manager, Power Energy

Project name: Energy drinks launch

Prepared by: John Allen, Media Planner, Power Energy

Campaign objectives: The energy drinks can help in maintaining fitness and remain energised throughout the day. The advertising brief is to promote the importance of the energy drinks for the people.

Target audience: The target audience for this product is the sportsperson. Apart from this, Power Energy also collaborates with fitness centres of the region.

Media strategies: The promotion is made in sports channels that available in the respective television networks. Apart from this advertisement and hoarding boards will be placed in the city to attract audiences within the 9^th of next month.

Estimated costs: $4 million

Reach refers to the number of times an individual is exposed to the advertisement campaign after a certain period of time. On the other hand, a frequency is the number of times an individual is exposed to the advertisement. The reach and frequency objective of Power Energy is to promote the energy drinks on television at an interval of 15 minutes. In the case of Power Energy, the market factors that determine the reach and frequency of the product include the advertisement message characteristics that prevail in the media along with the product life cycle. The product lifecycle helps to determine the longevity of a particular product.

Creative element	Requirement	Example
Message	Written in print mode in order to deliver a clear understanding of the product	The importance of remaining fit
Action	The features of the products are shown along with ingredients used for manufacturing	Power Energy can show the way by which people can be energised
Use of media	Use of television as well as print media in order to promote the product

The merchandising requirements of media include the manner in which products that are available for sales are displayed in a manner that attracts customers to purchase. This is an important promotional method as the attractive nature of a product in terms of colour combinations used and the features make it easier for customers to purchase the products. In the case of Power Energy drinks, the merchandising of the products need to be done in the fitness centres for people to gain a better understanding of the type of product. The requirement for such merchandising includes the involvement of skills sellers that can convince customers in purchasing a product.

Analyzing Product Market Factors

The media budget methods that are normally used include the affordable method as well as the objective and task methods. The affordable method is a top-down method that is decided by the senior executive e department along with the Chief Financial Officer. On the other hand, objective and task method determines the budget keeping the objectives of an organisation. In this case, the objectives are defined along with specific tasks. In this regard, the legal and voluntary requirements that are required to be kept in mind include legal regulations of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). This ensures that a healthy market is established within the market by practising fair trade. The voluntary constraints that need to be followed are the Australian Advertising Standard Bureau that defines the code of ethics. This includes ensuring certain rules and regulations that need to be maintained while creating the advertisement such as refraining from ethical or racial comments.

Every media vehicle has certain advantages and disadvantages that pose a question in the minds of the media planner. These doubts are answered based on the manner in which media vehicles used for promotion are compared to other media vehicles. In the case of Power Energy, the media groups used for promoting energy drinks include the print media and broadcast media. The media vehicles include advertisement via hoarding and newspaper along with television broadcast. The merits of these media vehicles include:

Media vehicle	Merits
Newspapers	It provides a longer lifespan for the advertisement of a product and it can be passed from one person to another. This is best used providing intensive information about a product.
Television	The advantage is that it covers a large span of people. It is a combination of sight, sound and action that attracts people.

There exist three steps to choose the correct or an alternative media vehicle for the promotion of products. These include creating the advertisement, distributing the advertisement and promoting the advertisement. Every media vehicle has unique characteristics that differentiate one from the other. For example, the use of internet as a source of media vehicle provides an intrusive message to the people. This media vehicle includes the entire characteristic that is required for attracting target audience. These characteristics include creative message, colour of the product, action level and images. The media vehicles used by Power Energy include advertisement via newspapers and television. While promoting via television can be as effective as internet promotion, promotion via newspaper may miss out on certain characteristics. These include inability to use sound and action level required for promotion. Hence, internet promotion can be used by Power Energy.

The alternative media vehicle that can be used is the internet. In this regard, the target market of Power Energy can be approached by using social media sites. In the modern day, this promotional media vehicle is important in order to reach a wide number of people. The users can be made attentive and interactive involvement with the target customers can be done. However, there is an unsegmented profiling of the customers as accessibility to internet is not found in every region. The requirements of the media are met by the internet use as it covers all the characteristics that are require for effective promotional plan. The merchandising requirements can also be fulfilled keeping in mind the budget of the company. Internet advertising requires spending of $100 as compared to $180K used for television promotion.

Analyzing Creative Requirements of Advertising Message

The use of internet can also meet the requirements based on the reach and frequency of the business. This is because the number of people that use in the internet amounts to over 20 hours per day. This increases the chances of viewing an advertisement at least three times per day. In this regard, the product life cycle also increases bringing about an opportunity for people to understand the product in an effective manner. The images, actions, sounds and colour used in the internet meets the creativity requirement needed for a successful promotion of products. In this regard, the objective of Power Energy can also be kept in mind while budgeting for the media coverage required for promoting energy drinks.

The legal requirements that the managers of Power Energy need to keep in mind is the fact that racial or ethical contents are not used while promoting the energy drinks. Internet can be a source by which animations regarding creativity can be created and applied. However, the animations or the normal promotional plan of the company need to be such that it respects the legal requirements of Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. However, following the code of ethics as mentioned in the Australian Advertising Standard Bureau needs to be compiled. Use of abusive languages, provocative colour that denotes any political party cannot be used for promotional techniques.

The requirements of advertising brief include completing the promotional campaign within a month keeping in mind the budget of the company. Hence, the scheduling of the promotional campaign needs to be done at a time that provides proper exposure to the people. The media planner of Power Energy needs to indulge in continuous advertising of the product. Continuous advertisement includes sustained and repetitive media campaign that the people can view at a constant rate. This helps in getting the advertisement of the product to the people in an effective manner. Hence, continuous advertising can also help in improving the revenue of the company. This is useful to remind people continuously about a particular product.   

The distribution of messages needs to be done based on the manner on the scheduling of the promotional campaign. The continuous advertisement of products of Power Energy is done at every interval that is taken between sports. This can be done in television as well as in the giant screen of the stadiums. The distribution of the messages needs to be such that it reaches all the segments of people in an appropriate manner. In this regard, the media cycles used by Power Energy can help in maintaining the uniformity of the messages. Newspapers and televisions are some of the useful media cycles that help in reaching the people of all regions. In this regard, the manner in which internet as a media cycle cannot be used for continuous distribution of messages to the people.  

Identifying Media Merchandising Requirements

Creating media schedule is one of the most important areas for a media planner. Without proper media schedule it can be difficult for any organisation to develop a proper promotional plan for its products. In this regard, Power Energy uses continuous advertising method in order to reach the target audience.

Advertisement place: Sports channels on respective television network

People promoting the product: Famous sportsperson involved in different sports of the country

Budget: $4 million

Number of advertisement: Interval of 15 minutes

Size of advertisement: In the case of promoting the product via print media, a half page of a newspaper is required. Whereas in the case of television the broadcast of the advertisement needs to be 30 seconds long

Placement of advertisement: The advertisement needs to be placed between every short interval that is given in various sports. For example, during half-time in a football game

Length of the campaign: The length of the advertisement needs to be 30 seconds

The schedule developed earlier may cost over the budget of $4 million. Hence, it is necessary to create an alternative media schedule that can be contained within the allocated budget. At times the media schedule needs to be such that it costs lesser than the actual budget cut. In this regard, some of the traits that need to be maintained include

 Number of advertisement: The interval can be increased by 5 more minutes

Size of advertisement: Newspaper print can be given in a small location within the paper in the advertisement column instead of a separate page.

Placement of advertisement: Can be done only during halftime break rather than in every interval

Length of the campaign: The length can be reduced to 15 seconds

The testing schedule of the media plan includes evaluating the responses given by the people. This includes analysing the time people have viewed the product launch. The testing schedule also includes selecting an alternative media plan such as seasonal advertising and pre-launch advertising. These methods can be compared with the scheduling technique used by Power Energy. Successful campaigning of the products can help in increasing the sales of energy drinks. Hence, continuous improvement of media plans is done in order to ensure that the Power Energy drinks are promoted in an effective manner.

Power Energy is an energy efficient drinks company that aims at promoting energy drinks in the market for sportspeople. The promotional campaign used is the advertising of the products through print media and television.

Confirming Media Budget and Identifying Legal and Voluntary Constraints

The target audience of the company are sportspeople with an allocated budget of $4 million. The tactics used for promoting the energy drinks is a continuous advertisement.

The element of marketing mix used is a promotion of energy drinks. The marketing objective is for increasing the sales of the products by targeting customers that are involved in sports.

People residing in various parts of Australia can use the drinks in order stay fit. Not only sportsperson but people aiming to lead a healthy life and are involved with fitness centres can also use this product. The product usage level of these is prescribed in the bottle of the product.

The benefits of the products include maintaining the fitness level among individuals. The selling proposition includes new ways to maintain the profitability of the organisation.

The pricing strategy for Power Energy includes pocket-friendly prices of the energy drinks. This is mainly because the fitness centres mostly do not have excess amounts to pay for high-quality products.

Competition in the market arises from the legislation of the country. Power Energy needs to comply with the legislation of Australia in order to maintain a successful business in the market.  

The media vehicles that need to be used by Power Energy can include the use of the internet. The company use television as well as print media in order to promote the energy drinks in the market. Use of the internet can help the company to reach people effectively in a creative manner.

The production requirements for the promotion of the products include proper television channels along with dates that are useful for the effective promotional campaign. The availability and allocation of broadcasts need to be done based on the type of sports in which it is being broadcasted.

The media plan that is required for the promotion of the products includes television and newspaper. The budget for television cost about $1 million. On the other hand, promotion using newspaper and hoardings include $3 million.

The product awareness goals include knowing about the product and its effectiveness on the health of an individual. Power Energy needs to provide such information on the products.

The target audience includes the sportspeople aware of the brand along with fitness centres in the regions.

The advertisement goals can create results that are measurable by increasing the sales of the company. The evaluation measures include analysing the performance of the previous year with this year. However, in case of failure of media schedule, contingency plans include pre-launch advertising and seasonal advertising.

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