430 The Marketing Book
posters in urban locations (what common
usage calls ‘billboards’).
‘Outdoor’ media of this kind are seen by
anybody and everybody: pedestrians, motor-
ists, users of public transport. The proposed
campaign therefore could reach the required
targetaudience of 18- to 35-year-old couples,
but with a great deal of wastage in the process
unless particular sites could be identified on the
basis of audience profiles provided by an
industry-wide programme of continuous
research, and bought individually.
Themessagea poster can deliver is self-
evidently limited to what can be encapsulated
in a short statement in large letters, or conveyed
non-verbally. In this case, that is not a dis-
advantage, for the fact that a brand new,
purpose-built, conveniently located multiplex
has opened will be enough to encourage trial
among potential visitors.
Poster campaigns are normally bought as
package deals, at priceswhich are middling in
advertising terms but high by comparison
with most other ingredients of the promo-
tional mix. For instance, a campaign running
on 700 large poster sites around the UK would
cost up to £400 000 per month. Buying local
sites individually, which this advertiser needs
to do, is significantly more expensive than the
pro rata fraction: perhaps more than half a
million for the same coverage of the target
audience. The costof producing such a large
item of high-quality full-colour print work, in
sufficient quantity to allow for periodic
renewal at each site as the weather took its
toll, would also be high.
Thereceptivityof typical audiences is much
less of a problem than critics of advertising
would have us believe. For example, a series of
surveys of public attitudes in the UK has
consistently found that fewer than one in ten of
large and representative samples of the general
population ‘disliked’ or ‘did not really like’ the
posters they encountered in their daily lives
(Advertising Association, 2000). Because pos-
ters are seen as a rather brash medium, audi-
ences may add subjective interpretations to the
objective content of the message. This modula-
tionis not as strong as that due to the ‘tone of
voice’ of most newspapers, for example, and
could in any case suit the brand image of a
cinema complex.
Measurabilityis a complicated matter. The
industry-wide research mentioned earlier can
produce likelihood-to-see values for 73 000
poster sites around the country, but that is only
a start. There is no easy way to find out how
many members of a target audience did see a
given site, notice the poster on it, take in the
message, or act accordingly. The choice of this
option would thus be something of an act of
faith. Other promotional options are signifi-
cantly more measurable, but the assessment of
effectiveness is a general problem, and is
something that will be taken up later in this
chapter.
On balance, poster advertising seems an
expensive but potentially effective option forTable 17.3 A promotional mix checklist
Target: Can this option reach the right audience?
Message: Can it deliver this kind of message?
Price: What will we be charged to use it?
Cost: What will it cost us produce the material?
Receptivity: Will the audience accept the message?
Modulation: Will the vehicle affect their ‘reading’ of it?
Measurability: Can we reliably assess effectiveness?