436 The Marketing Book
Examples of media planning in practice can
be found in the relevant passages of the winning
submissions for the biennial IPA Advertising
Effectiveness Awards (Institute of Practitioners
in Advertising, 2000). If esoteric vocabulary acts
as a barrier to understanding the finer points of a
particular media strategy, definitions of key
terms can be found in Baker (1998). The vital
sources of media research are described in detail
in Chapter 9 of Brierley (1995).
The medium and the message
Independent observers encountering the twin
disciplines of developing and delivering the
promotional message inevitably begin to won-
der which comes first. In principle, neither
should; in practice, it will depend on circum-
stances. After the client briefhas been brought to
the agency by the account manager, the creative
and media teams will at first plan independently
but in parallel. Once they reach the stages,
respectively, of defining key communication
concepts and deciding a broad media strategy,
each must cross-check the developing plan with
the other and, via the account manager, with the
client. There is no point in devising a creative
strategy which cannot be executed in the media
vehicles capable of reaching the target audience,
or buying a media vehicle which delivers the
right audience at a favourable cost if it cannot
offer the required creative scope. Furthermore,
we have already seen, in ‘Deploying the promo-
tional mix’, that the audience’s reading of a
message can be modulated by their perception
of the channel or vehicle which delivers it. This
‘vehicle effect’ or ‘rub-off value’ can apply to the
team chosen for a sports sponsorship linkage,
the regional accents of telemarketing operators,
the ambience in which packages are displayed
or, most obviously, the media in which publicity
and advertising appear.
Nevertheless, popular accounts of the
advertising do generally stress the creative
aspect. That bias prompted a prominent
speaker at an industry seminar to ‘explode the
myth that media is an add-on service which lies
dormant whilst the brand team are developing
creative work, and is then called upon to write
a plan which delivers the messages to the target
audience’. On the contrary, ‘a good media brief
is as important as a good creative brief. It
should excite the planning team into exploring
new opportunities to deliver the brand message
with impact... to be surprised’. In short, the
only intellectually proper response to the
chicken-and-egg question is neither, however
equivocal that may sound.A mix within a mix: synergy or counter-synergy?
The fact that one of the four Ps, promotion, is
explicitly associated with communication con-
ceals another of crucial strategic significance:
that the other three also have the potential to
convey a message.
The case of the highly successful BMW
brand provides a very clear case in point. It was
reported in the fourth edition of The Marketing
Book, and has since been presented elsewhere as
a full-length case history (Crosier, 1998a). This
analyses the brand’s strengths and weaknesses
with respect to each of the four Ps of the
marketing mix, in turn.
Where product is concerned, non-expert
observers are likely to speak rather vaguely of
‘German engineering’ and ‘build quality’. Yet
the various models in fact sit near the middle of
the relevant league tables published by Which?
magazine. It is a fact, too, that Renault, Honda
and Peugeot have recently done just as well on
the proving grounds of the Grand Prix racing
track and the international rally circuit. Toyota
is the brand consistently found to be most
reliable in use, and Japanese manufacturers in
general dominate those tables. Meanwhile,
German brands generally offer equipment that
is standard in Japanese models as added-cost
extras at considerable cost.