Marketing Communications

SELECTING MEDIA 267

Technical criteria refer to the production costs of the message, often expressed as CPM

or CPM-TM, the convenience or problems related to media buying (is it difficult to book

media time or space; how long in advance do you have to book media time in order to be

sure that you can distribute your message; can this media time or space be cancelled and,

if so, how long in advance, etc.?). Another criterion is media availability or what the

penetration rate of the medium is among the population. If people do not own a TV or

a radio, or never buy a newspaper, it is no use spending a lot of money advertising in

these media.

Every vehicle has its own audience which form a market. The seller tries to sell the

vehicle by claiming that the vehicle audience (e.g. people who read the Financial Times)

consist of a relatively high number of people with buying power, although the seller also

has the responsibility of giving the buyer an accurate overview of what the audience look

like. The buyer’s task is to find out whether or not the vehicle audience match the target

group or whether or not the target group is sufficiently represented in the vehicle audi-

ence. Every vehicle is also related to its medium and inherits the characteristics associated

with that medium. Therefore, the starting point for discussing the medium can be the

advantages and disadvantages of each medium (see below). However, buyer and seller must

go further than that and try to form a clear picture of the medium’s social role and expression

capacity.

Knowing that the target group reads magazines every week is not sufficient; it is necess-

ary to know what magazines they read. If the target audience like to watch TV, which

channels do they watch, at what time of the day do they watch, which programmes do they

select, etc.? The different vehicles should be compared with each other within the same

medium, between the different media and in relation to the target audience. The price must

be understood in terms of value and not in terms of cost. Therefore comparisons are made

to direct (other vehicles within the same medium) and indirect (vehicles within other media)

competitors.

Media vehicle Population size

young adults

(12–30) (000s)

% young adults

(12–30) of total

TV population

Reach for young

adults (12–30)

(%)

% of young

adults in total

reach

Selectivity index

(fifth column/

third column)

TV2 1240 23.0 32.2 22.6 98.3

Zulu 1240 23.0 3.8 45.2 196.5

Source: Based on IP Peaktime (2004), Television 2004. European Key Factors. Neuilly-sur-Seine, Cedex, Brussels: IP.

Consider the Danish TV channels TV2 and Zulu. How selective are they for a target group consisting of young

adults aged between 12 and 30?

TV2 reaches 32.2% of the youngsters and Zulu only 3.8%. However, Zulu appears to be very selective for the

target group of youngsters while TV2 is not. The latter can be explained as follows: TV2 has a large audience and,

although almost one in three youngsters watch this channel, other age groups are better represented. Zulu, on the

other hand, has a very limited audience and, although it reaches only 3.8% of the youngsters, they are the age group

that is most represented in Zulu’s audience.

business insight

Calculating medium selectivity

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