RADIO ADVERTISING / RADIO BUYING

 Radio Advertising:

Commercial radio in the Indian context has certain inherent characteristics. Its strengths lie in:

1. Offering local coverage on its medium wave channels

2. Permeating all economic and social strata, thereby reaching the masses

3. Its daily frequency offers scope for continued messages

4. Broadcasting throughout the day so that message may be repeatedly broadcast

5. Reaching un-educated village folk who do not read print publications

6. When the message is to be carried to a large number of people who speak different languages, radio is a most suitable medium which admirably does the job at the least cost.

7. In a country like India, where literacy rates are low, and so newspapers have limited significance, radio is a popular both with advertisers and audiences.

In radio, the news service is continuous, thus to the advertisers, news breaks on radio are the peak listening points when it pays to advertise.

8. Radio commercials can be produced quickly and is not so costly. It can be repeated over a period of time. Radio thus is afforded by even small firms.

9. Radio Creativity and Flexibility

Unlike other out-of-home messages, radio commercials are not static but can be changed almost immediately to reflect different market conditions or new competition. The personal nature of radio, combined with its flexibility and creativity, makes it a powerful medium for all types of advertisers and product categories.

One of radio’s greatest strengths is its flexibility. Copy changes can be made very quickly. When marketing conditions suddenly change, you can react instantly with radio.

The short lead time in production and copy changes is an enormous benefit to advertisers who may need last-minute adjustments to their sales messages.

10. The ability to anticipate or react to changing conditions cannot be underestimated.

11. The simplicity of radio can be a major advantage in making tactical marketing decisions. Radio’s sense of immediately and flexibility, all at a cost within the budget of even the smallest advertiser, has made it an important part of the strategy of many advertisers.

 

Commercial radio, however, suffers from the following weaknesses:

1. It is an audio medium only; hence it affects certain essential elements of communication

2. Certain operational limitation are imposed; for example, the minimum period of a fortnight reduces the medium’s flexibility

3. Limited commercial time available. Only 10 percent of time availability restrict the frequency of message exposure

4. Limited availability of commercial radio. There are only 28 radio stations offering commercial broadcasting against 300 in a country.

5. There are possibilities of distortion in communication. Precision of script- writing is a very challenging task. In TV, vision accompanies the words and so there is no misunderstanding.

6. We know what is ‘Khurram Khurram’ Papad on TV commercial but the concept is transmitted poorly on radio. Word pictures are necessary on radio.

7. There is an overselling in place of precise explanation. It is a real hazard. Much is at stake on the announcer’s presentation who has to do hard-selling job. An insistent voice really irritates. TV does this job effortlessly.

8. Repetitions are monotonous. Radio is also a transient medium with no durability of message. Audience research of radio is really grey area. In India, before advertisers can think of radio as a serious medium, this research data should be easily available.

 

BUYING RADIO

Before radio salespeople can convince clients to buy the medium, they must put themselves in the place of individual clients to determine how radio will accomplish their marketing and advertising goals. The successful salesperson must approach the sale from the client’s point of view. At one time, radio held a unique role in the media schedule of most advertisers. Generally, radio accomplished one of three functions for an advertiser:

It supplemented other media to add weight to a schedule. It is particularly valuable for special sales or to react to unanticipated marketing conditions.

Radio was valuable as a niche medium. As we have seen, radio often reaches market segments that are not heavy users of other media. For example, for many teenagers radio is the primary medium, while print is very ineffective.

For a few retailers, especially smaller stores or those with narrowly segmented clientele, it was their only medium.

Today, advertisers continue to use radio for each of these marketing and advertising objectives. However, the radio salesperson finds that the medium landscape is full of new competitors, each claiming to accomplish many of the same tasks as radio. The localized strategy adopted by many national advertisers, led media such as television to see the advantages of competing for local dollars as well as selling added local weight to national advertisers.

At one time, radio competed only with newspapers for local dollars. Today, radio finds Yellow Pages, local cable outlets, broadcast stations, outdoor, direct mail, free shoppers and specialty books for real estate, automobiles, etc. – all trying to get a share of the local advertising dollar. All of these competitors have a visual element that radio lacks. It has never been more important for radio to develop creative strategies to overcome this major disadvantage.

The radio salesperson must become a marketing consultant, a partner with a client in showing how radio can solve the problems. A central element in successful radio sales “is an understanding of other media-not merely to identify and take advantage of a competitor’s weak spots, but to be able to speak from an informed, objective point of view about the strengths and weakness of all the media, and to work with the client in developing the most productive marketing plan.”

It is clear that clients buy radio as a part of overall media strategy. Radio, or for the matter any medium, is rarely purchased on an individual basis. The client and the media salesperson must view the media plan as a synergistic one in which each medium complements with others. Unless radio can create a value to the other media, it is unlikely it will be a part of media schedule. Fortunately, radio offers unique characteristics that will allow it to be considered for at least a secondary role in the advertising plans of virtually all advertisers.

 

USING RADIO RATINGS

Radio also uses ratings and shares and calculates them in the same way as of the TV ratings. However, the audiences and programming of radio mandate that ratings be used in a way much different from the way ratings are used in television. In this section, we will discuss some uses of ratings that are unique to radio.

Among the primary differences between the use of ratings in television and radio are the following:

Radio advertisers are interested in broad formats rather than programs or more narrowly defined television scatter plans.

Radio ratings tend to measure audience accumulation over relatively long periods of time or several dayparts. Most TV ratings are for individual programs.

The audiences for individual radio stations are much smaller than television, making radio ratings less reliable.

Since most radio stations reach only a small segment of a market at a given time, there is a need for much higher levels of advertising frequency compared to other media.

 

FM Broadcasting

India ushered in a new era of FM broadcasting on August 15, 1993 with the introduction of private participation in the channel. Let us be acquainted with a few facts about FM: Frequency Modulation. Radio is a way of combining sound waves with an electromagnetic wave. It was introduced by Reginald Aubrey Ferguson, an engineer from Canada.

 

 Ref: Dr. Hanif Lakdawala's Media Planning & Buying Notes.