Business Management Consultants

Their Role in Media Planning Media planning and buying is an important marketing function. Companies need to use the right medium while targeting their audience. Business Management Consultants help organisations to use the right medium and measure the performance of the marketing activity. Media planning essentially answers these fundamental questions: Media planning helps in answering these basic questions: a. Where to advertise? Market research helps in identifying which market their competitors are using. Either using primary or secondary data, the target market segmentation is done. Which part of the country would it be more successful and the medium that part uses. b. Who to advertise for? The company’s potential buyer needs to be identified, the person earning the most in the family might buy the product, but it could be used by some other individual in the same household. Research again helps in targeting these products accurately. c. How much to advertise? The media budget is based on this, the more frequently the advertisement is shown or viewed or aired the costlier it is the purchase the medium for the given time and space. Specifying the time is a must when the ad campaign is on a television or a radio. Some companies prefer in-house planners, business management consultants usually have a team of individuals, who are selected based on the client. Business management consultants can make his/her group according to the project or client they have. Certain brands invest highly in media planning and at times some don’t, depending on this a team can be formed. What is media planning? Media planning is a highly specialised service; the planner needs to have a thorough understanding of consumer behaviour, purchasing habits of various brands and the medium of communication which is popular with their consumers. Based on these factors the consultant chooses the right medium or media, depending on how much the client is willing to spend. Media planning is a function that helps in determining the most effective manner of spending the advertiser’s money/ investment across media so as to generate the best Return of Investment (ROI) for the company. The consultant needs to understand that mediums of communication are now merging, previously each medium print, radio and television were being targeted separately. Now with the online medium the three traditional mediums have converted into one. Marketing is now a two way communication, consumers and brand interact using social media. The major steps involved in media planning are: • Clients Marketing Brief: This brief is provided by the client, it contains details about the product, its functions and the competitive advantage and the portfolio of products and services they offer. High and low selling products are highlighted, this help in the SWOT analysis. The media that they are currently using, the market segments that they are targeting and how much they are currently spending on media. The client specifies their marketing objectives in this brief. • Advertising Agency brief: This brief explains the creative execution of the campaign; this is usually done by a boutique or an agency that handles creative advertising designs. • Media Planning brief: The advertising agency comes up with the advertising brief the media planner or business management consultant helps to arrive at a media plan. The media brief contains media objectives; this helps in deciding which media to choose, how many times and at when. The brief includes definition of target segment and information about their competitors. Understanding how much their competitors are spending, the medium they are using and how many times in a day or month are they disseminating the advertisement. Media planning is an important management function and business management consultants help in creating the media planning brief. At times companies use to wrong medium to disseminate their marketing efforts, business management consultant help in choosing the right medium in the current market scenario.