How to do effective media planning for BFSI Industry?

BFSI

Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) is an industry term of art for companies that provide a range of such products/services. Banking may include core banking, retail, private, corporate, investment, cards and the like. Financial Services may include stock-broking, payment gateways, mutual funds etc. This term of art is commonly used by IT/ITES/BPO companies and technical/professional services firms that manage data processing, application testing and software development activities in this domain.

Media planning

The two basic tasks of marketing communications are message creation and message dissemination. Media planning supports message dissemination. Media planning helps you determine which media to use--be it television programs, newspapers, bus-stop posters, in-store displays, banner ads on the Web, or a flyer on Facebook. It also tells you when and where to use media in order to reach your desired audience. Simply put, media planning refers to the process of selecting media time and space to disseminate advertising messages in order to accomplish marketing objectives.

The role of media planners has expanded as media planners have moved beyond planned messages to take advantage of unplanned messages as well. Whereas planned messages are what advertisers initiate -- like an ad, press release or sales promotion -- unplanned messages are often initiated by people and organizations other than advertisers themselves. Word of mouth, both online and offline, is one form of unplanned message. Although advertisers have little direct control over the flow of unplanned messages, they can facilitate such a flow.

Media Objectives

Media objectives usually consist of two key components: target audience and communication goals.

The target audience component of the media objectives defines who the intended target of the campaign is. The communications goals component of the media objectives defines how many of the audience the campaign intends to reach and how many times it will reach them.

Target Audience

The first objective of a media plan is to select the target audience: the people whom the media plan attempts to influence through various forms of brand contact. Because media objectives are subordinate to marketing and advertising objectives, it is essential to understand how the target audience is defined in the marketing and advertising objectives. The definition may or may not be exactly the same, depending on the marketing and advertising objectives and strategies. A common marketing objective is to increase sales by a specific amount. But this marketing objective does not specify a target audience, which is why the media objective is needed.

Communication goals

Media planners can set communication goals based on the level of reach. hat is, how many of the target audience should be reached with the media plan, say 50%, 75% or 95%? Theoretically, a reach of 100 is possible, but it is rarely a communication goal because some audience members may not use any of the media, making them unreachable. Media experts suggest high reach is appropriate when something new is associated with the brand, such as new features, new sales incentives, new packaging or new service opportunities. The newness requires a high level of awareness among the target audience. A high reach is also often necessary in three other situations: a) advertising in support of sales promotion activities, b) for reminder advertising for a mass market product, and c) when the brand faces severe competition.

Media Strategies

Media planners make three crucial decisions: where to advertise (geography), when to advertise (timing), and what media categories to use (media mix).

Designing Media tactics

Establishing media objectives and developing media strategies are the primary tasks of media planners. Designing media tactics is largely carried out by media buyers. Media buyers select media vehicles to implement established media strategies. Among the major factors that affect media vehicle selection are reach and frequency considerations.

Evaluating Media Plan Effectiveness

Accountability is increasingly important in media planning, as more advertisers expect to see returns on their investments in advertising. Because media spending usually accounts for 80 percent or more of the budget for typical advertising campaigns, the effectiveness of media plans is of particular importance. As a result, media planners often make measures of the effectiveness of a media plan an integral part of the media plan. Although sales results are the ultimate measure of the effectiveness of an advertising campaign, the sales result is affected by many factors, such as price, distribution and competition, which are often out of the scope of the advertising campaign. It is important, therefore, to identify what measures are most relevant to the effectiveness of media planning and buying.