Media neutral planning — A strategic perspective · Media neutral planning — A strategic...

‘MNP de-silos the communications process,enabling previously competing departments towork together and stops departments fulfillingtheir own objectives without knowing theoverall objectives of the company and of theparticular campaign. ‘‘That’s a change for manypeople in marketing. Most have been broughtup with advertising, direct marketing, runningevents, and so forth. We have to realise that xis a medium we need to include — andmaybe y is the one we need to concentrate onfirst because it has the most impact’’’ March2004).2

Other players in MNP includecommunications consultants Naked andNylon which says

‘Naked does media planning. It advises clientson the best media approach to take in orderto achieve brand objectives. But unlike mostmedia planners, they offer an unbiasedapproach to media. ‘‘We don’t have a largecreative factory that needs feeding, so we areable to be neutral in the advice we offer. . .We

MEDIA NEUTRAL PLANNING: WHYTHE EXCITEMENT?One thing that hits home listening to salespitches by marketing consultants and gurusis the way in which, so often, the wheel isre-invented or old wine is presented innew skins. ‘Media neutral planning’(MNP) is perhaps one of the most extremeexamples of this in recent times. If thesense of the phrase is taken at face valuethen surely nothing could be moreobvious. If the logic is reversed for asecond, however, the alternative is ‘biasedto my favourite media planning’. So whyhas the Chartered Institute of Marketing(CIM) decided that: ‘The CIM is focusingone of its major Canons of Knowledge onmedia neutral planning: almost certainlythe most important new idea for changeacross the marketing communicationsindustry at the moment?’1

Clarification dawns when one takes alook at what the players in the MNParena have to say. Here’s IBM.

� Henry Stewart Publications 1741–2447 (2005) Vol. 12, 2, 133–141 Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management 133

Media neutral planning —A strategic perspectiveReceived: 28th April, 2004

Alan Tappis Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Bristol Business School. Alan has published over 35 articles in leading journals andinternational conferences as well as a best-selling textbook. Much of his research has been sponsored by organisations, forexample IBM, Christian Dior and The Chartered Institute of Marketing. He is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of DatabaseMarketing & Customer Strategy Management. He has undertaken research, consultancy and training for organisations asdiverse as the NSPCC, The Institute of Direct Marketing, National Centre for Educational Technology, Business Strategies Ltd,The Royal Mail (now Consignia), The CIM, IBM and Coventry City Football Club. He is the author of ‘Principles of Direct andDatabase Marketing’, now in its second edition.

Abstract The last year or two has seen media neutral planning emerge as the ‘hottestnew thing’. There has been little published, however, that explains to practitioners howto assess direct marketing media objectively. This paper introduces a simple-to-useframework, AIMRITE, that takes managers methodically through a series of steps thatthey need to take in order to create a short list of direct response media to test. Anexample is created to illustrate how this might work in practice.

Alan TappSenior Lecturer, BristolBusiness School, Universityof the West of England,Frenchay Campus,Coldharbour Lane, Bristol,BS16 1QY, UK.

Tel: �44(0) 117 344 3439e-mail:[email protected]

community are confused. If so, much ofthis confusion arguably stems from a lackof appreciation of where media sitsvis-a-vis communications mix techniquesand routes to market in the strategicplanning process. Media decisions areseen as sitting alongside segmentation orpositioning decisions. This makes nosense. In fact, the media decision shouldbe one of the last planning decisions wetake. It’s very important — that’s not inquestion — because it involves spendingmoney, and lots of it. But which mediato choose is best done once one knowswhat the firm is good at, what theproposition to the customer is, whatmarket one wishes to go for, how tosegment that market and how to positionthe company against the competition. Adecent batting order might be thatdescribed in Figure 1.

Once a firm has identified itscompetitive position, and has created orenhanced its brand, it then has to decideits best route to market. With its abilityto physically move goods, direct

don’t make anything, so we’re not tied to oneapproach. If you go to an advertising agency,they will tell you why you need advertising.We are free of that obligation, which is whatappeals to clients. We might suggestadvertising, but equally we might suggest someTV content or viral marketing’.3

Meanwhile the Interactive AdvertisingBoard says: ‘It’s simply about getting thebalance right. That’s the theory in themedia-neutral planning world and themassive rise in internet audiencescontinues to challenge existing mediabalances’.4

Depending whom you believe, MNPis about de-siloing marketing functions, itis about neutrality in communicationsplanning, or it is about advertisersresponding to the internet. There’s abattle for ideas here that is eerily familiarto those schooled in CRM: consultantsjostle with each other to re-define thecurrent ‘fad’ so that it centres on theirintellectual product.

Perhaps some in the marketing

134 Database Marketing & Customer Strategy Management Vol. 12, 2, 133–141 � Henry Stewart Publications 1741–2447 (2005)

Tapp

Figure 1: Media neutral planning

Identify core competences Which market?

Develop customer proposition

Segment and target

Compare to competition then develop differential advantage –the strategic position

Brand image is derived from strategic position

Deliver through general marketing – retail/sales force

Deliver through direct marketing –customer management

Creative idea

Choose media

Channel neutral

planning

Advertising Sales promotions

PR DM communicationsCommunications mix neutral planning

in direct marketing no one mediumdominates (as yet). If one did, everyonewould be using it and there would beno need to have this debate.

AIMRITE —A WAY OF CHOOSING MEDIAThe rest of this paper introduces aframework, AIMRITE, designed toanswer the key question: ‘for a particularsituation, how can we judge whichmedia we should put into test?’

Each of AIMRITE’s components isexplained in more detail in Figure 2 (Toillustrate each point, and to show howthe whole model works together,imagine that a new cinema is beingopened in, say, Bristol — a city of some500,000 people in the South West ofEngland. This theatre will show‘alternative’, independent films awayfrom the Hollywood mainstream. Thelaunch will include a special offer for thefirst few shows that will encourageresponses that can be used to build aprospects database.)

AudienceThe first, and usually most important,variable is audience. Media choices areheavily influenced by the way the targetaudience is defined. Lifestyle groupingsmay lend themselves well to magazineadverts, or maybe direct mail via‘lifestyle’ lists while geographic targetinglends itself to door drops. Targetaudiences can be tightly or looselydefined, and can be defined according todifferent descriptors. Target audiencesthat are tightly defined can be addressedby more precise media. The most wellknown audience is usually a firm’sexisting customers, while at the otherend of the scale, there are suspects — abroad category of people fitting thetarget description, but with no known

marketing is a channel option. The nextplanning level is communications mix: ofwhich advertising, PR, sales promotionand direct marketing are a major part.These are often, wrongly, described asmedia. In fact they are communicationstechniques. Only once thecommunications mix is decided is thecompany properly ready to decide onmedia.

NEUTRALITYThe central point of neutrality is thateach medium is considered as a potentialplayer, depending on the particularcircumstances of the firm, in a particularmarket, at a particular time: hence mediadecisions vary depending on the contextthe company is in. In reality, differentsectors often tend to slip into ‘mediaconventions’. In fundraising, for instance,direct mail is often considered best forrecruiting long-time givers. Brandbuilders often automatically assumetelevision is best for building massappeal. These conventions are important:if MNP means anything, it means ‘hangon, are we becoming creatures of habithere, making lazy decisions, and hencemissing out on opportunities to choosebetter media for our situation?’

So, what is needed is a way of judgingeach medium in terms of what thecompany faces at the time. Directmarketers are in a better position thanadvertisers to assess media. In directmarketing, one can compare media witheach other while keeping other variablesconstant. Most importantly, one canconfidently link spend (cost per thousandaudience) with income (gross margin) toget to the final arbiter of medium:choose the medium with the lowest costper sale or cost per customer. Individualclients can do this, but the industry as awhole can build up collective wisdomthat can be shared. One ‘wisdom’ is that


Media neutral planning — A strategic perspective

outbound telemarketing has led to wellover 3 million people signing up to thetelephone privacy service (TPS) run bythe Direct Marketing Association(DMA)).

One final ‘audience’ factor to consideris the inbuilt ‘media responsiveness’ ofthe target market. Media responsivenessis the natural predisposition of somepeople to prefer to do business throughone particular medium. One charity withan aged donor audience never uses thetelephone to communicate: its donorsprefer a letter. The internet will clearlybe a strong medium for thosecomfortable with it, while others willnever use it.

ImpactThere are two dimensions to mediaimpact. The first is the extent to whichthe media can cut through the ‘noise’ ofa crowded commercial world. E-mail,

prior contact with the company. Thesewould be approached through verydifferent media.

In Figure 3 the principle — broadscalemedia for broad audiences, precise mediafor precise audiences — is wellunderstood, but new technology threatensthe old order. Key new technology mediainclude e-mail and SMS; both are capableof precise targeting (though both are stillvery immature industries). Conventionalmedia have tended to the rule that, themore precise they are, the more they costper thousand contacts. Both e-mail andSMS are capable of high volume, low costper thousand deployment, but also withhigh precision. Both these mediatherefore bring mass customisedone-to-one communication one stepcloser — in theory. In practice, ‘cowboy’users and poor practice are significantthreats to both these media. (This is alsotrue of the fixed line telephone in theUK. Recent poor practice using fixed line


Tapp

Figure 2: AIMRITE — A framework for judging media

Audience

Impact

Message

Convenient Response

Internal Management

The End result

Does the medium have impact; that is does it ensure the message has a chance of getting through the clutter?

Does the medium reach the desired target audience efficiently?

Does the medium help ensure the message is clearly communicated?

Does the medium make responding easy?

Can the client and its suppliers capably manage the medium?

Do the estimated costs per response justify testing this medium?

The second impact dimension issummed up by Marshall McCluhan’sphrase: ‘The medium is the message.’ Formotorcyclists in the UK, the magazineRide has a strong brand identity. Here,the medium, in a sense, creates a haloeffect around the adverts it carries. Justthe fact that a company has advertised inRide carries a message to the reader: ‘weare a serious, biker-focused advertiser.

SMS, mail and land line telephones allreach the audience directly. Thetelephone, in particular, has huge impact,which, sadly, is so poorly deployed inpractice. Direct mail is also losing itspower through overuse: Direct MailInformation Service (DMIS) reports thatthe proportion of mail opened hasdropped from over 80 per cent to justover 60 per cent in the last ten years.



Figure 3: Media choice according to target audience definition

Illustrative example — launching a new ‘independent’ cinema in Bristol

The target audience definition is broad and vague — in many ways a typicalbroadscale media definition. The future customers will live mostly in Bristol, onehour’s drive from the cinema, be aged 18–55 but biased to 18–35; social class ABbias; but attitudinally less mainstream, more bohemian.

This immediately suggests media that economically are best suited to coveringBristol as a mass audience. It also hints at more precise media that could beaimed at lists of ‘bohemian’ profiles in Bristol. At this stage one could pencil inlocal press, inserts, radio, local leisure magazines and door–door marketing. Directmail, telephone/mobile and e-mail look less credible thanks to the imprecision ofaudience definition. Geodemographic identification of bohemian areas within thegeographic boundary could make door–door an early favourite with perhaps thebest audience fit.

Fixed telephone line

SMS

E-mail, direct mail

Door–door

Specialist magazines

Local press, radio

Inserts

Regional TV

National press

National TV

Audience known precisely

Broad, vague definition

Increasing precision of media

to get across the necessary information ina persuasive manner. Television is acompelling medium for inspiring anemotional response, because of its soundand vision qualities. Direct mail, on theother hand, is good for imparting largevolumes of information about complexproducts like, say, financial services.Thus, to get the best match of mediumand message, both the volume and typeof the information we want to impartshould be considered. This is illustratedin Figure 4.

Direct marketers have traditionallybeen masters of the rational message,

McCluhan’s principle works forindividual titles — The Financial Timesversus The Sun — and for the mediathemselves. To advertise on televisionconfers legitimacy on the brand — it isan announcement that the company isbig, public. Television also creates wordof mouth more powerfully than anyother medium, (though mostly for brandbuild rather than direct response adverts).

MessageOnce the prospect’s attention has beenobtained, the media must then help you


Tapp

Bristol cinema — impact

Media impact is important to the new cinema. Competition for leisure time isintense and media ‘noise’ competing for the leisure pound is deafening. For allthat, impact should not take primacy over audience fit, which is the primaryeconomic driver of media choice. Television would have huge impact for amessage about a new cinema, but the audience fit isn’t close enough.

Local magazines with Time Out style listings would have obvious mediasynergy and lift the impact of any marketing spend. Local radio also has impact— broadcast media advertisements often have an element of pizzazz and energycreated. Meanwhile, direct mail/door–door has a different sort of impact, in thatthese media have a higher chance of being noticed.

Figure 4: Choosing medium according to type and length

Type of message

Rational Emotional

Short message

Long message

Length of message

TV

Radio

Telephone

SMS

E-mail

Telephone

Door–door

Press

Direct mail

Direct mail

Press

Specialist magazines

response’. The ideal response medium isone, then, which makes the act oftelephoning, text responding, e-mailingor responding to a web site, as easy andquick as possible. People are more likelyto respond from the comfort of theirown home, at a time when there isnothing else going on to distract them,and when very little effort is required.The telephone and e-mail are top of thedirect marketing media league forconvenience, while coupon usage hasdropped dramatically.

selling product unique selling points,making offers, promising benefits. Morerecently, with the expansion of directmarketing as a delivery strategy withinsectors such as motoring, tourism andand sport, more emotional messages —with brand symbolism at the forefront —are being communicated by directmarketing. With the expansion of this‘brand response’, emotionally strongmedia such as television arguably shouldsee significant growth from directmarketing budgets. However, theemotional power of great copy shouldnot be forgotten — this author canremember press adverts for AmnestyInternational that had a sensationalimpact on the reader.

Response convenienceThis has nothing to do with the size ofthe response. This factor is concernedwith how much effort is required torespond to different media. This is veryimportant in impulse purchase markets,where response will drop once the‘moment’ is lost. Certain media aremuch easier to respond to than others:outdoor media such as posters are moredifficult for consumers to respond tothan, say, e-mail. A well known sayingamong practitioners is ‘time kills



Bristol cinema — message

‘Our new independent cinema provides you with a great alternative night out’.There are some factual aspects to this message, but lots of emotional benefits thatmust be communicated. There are some brand building, symbolic messages theretoo. So, a medium that can best bring these out is needed. Television is ideal inmany ways, but once again audience considerations take precedence. Two ormore media could be considered here to do the rational/emotional messages intwo parts. Creative radio could convey emotion, with the local Time Out (calledVenue), supporting this but adding factual stuff about the location and first filmshown. Door drops also fit well here: plenty of space for all kinds of messagesand creative scope for film photography and so on.

Bristol cinema — responseconvenience

Not such a vital factor as audience,impact or message. That said, cinemais sometimes an impulse purchase, sosome consideration of this variable isneeded. The mostresponse-convenient media, thetelephone/mobile and e-mail, have,for the time being been ruled out bythe imprecise audience definition. Ofthose media still in play, radio andVenue magazine are less easy torespond to than door drops, whichcan include a phone number andeasily be posted to a notice board.

example, although telephone responsesare potentially the highest of any media,the costs per thousand contacts are alsothe highest. As a result a cost/responsemodel can be generated which offers arough guide to marketers.

Sometimes, in a particular sector,extensive testing reveals a medium whichoutperforms other media for allcompetitors in that area. Traditionaldirect marketers will know that chinacollectibles tend to sell best using Sundaysupplement press advertising, whilecharities often use direct mail to recruitpossible donors ‘cold’. However, whentotaling up all marketing activity, theaverage cost of getting one response isroughly similar across all media.

So what is the ‘average cost’ of gettingone response? Here one enters a verydangerous area, because response willalways depend on the specific businesssituation; a well thought out offer, goodtiming, incentives and so on. There is,therefore, a huge variation around themean response rate for a medium, evenwithin one industry sector. A majorplayer in the loans sector of financialservices reckons on different campaignsdelivering costs per response varyingfrom £12 to over £600, with anaverage campaign costing £250 togenerate one response. These figuresillustrate the dangers of generalisation byjust quoting the average. Nevertheless,some practical ‘rules of thumb’ could bedeveloped, because these can be usefulfor media planning in the absence ofmore specific data. ‘Official’ figures arehard to come by for many media, butthere is a source of data for direct mail.The DMIS surveys of companies usingmail for acquisition has found averageresponse rates of about 1 per cent. If theaverage cost per thousand is typicallyabout £500 per thousand mailers, then 1per cent per response gives a cost perresponse of £50. Using the collective

Internal managementImagine a newcomer to direct marketingwho decides to place direct responseadverts in the local press and a localmagazine. This newcomer would nodoubt be rather surprised to find thatwhile the press ad could slot in later thatweek, the magazine had a lead time offour months. This story highlights theneed to carefully understand thosemanagement issues. For instance, the bestmedium for testing different creativeapproaches may be direct mail. Press adsmay have the shortest lead time if one isin a hurry. Door-drops may be relativelyeasier to manage than direct mail in theabsence of experience and the need torun the campaign oneself without outsidehelp.

The end resultAll of the issues to consider beforemaking that final choice in favour of ashort list of media to test, have nowbeen pulled together. These initialconsiderations are an attempt to whittledown the media to those which will getthe best end result. At this final stage,the focus is on those media which it isbelieved will give the highest possibleresponse at lowest cost.

There is a general rule that thosemedia which elicit a higher response alsotend to be the most expensive. For


Tapp

Bristol cinema — Internalmanagement

The management team at the cinemahas a fairly modest budget and littleexperience. It will be looking forhelp from outside agencies, but maywant to consider media that are easierto manage. Local press is relativelystraightforward, while direct mailoffers rather more complications.

Bristol cinema — The end result

The AIMRITE model provides ashort list of media to test. Thecinema could test the following:

• Venue magazine � local radio• Venue magazine � door drops• Local radio � door drops

media objectively. Too often firms arecontent to be creatures of habit, missingout on chances to differentiatethemselves through a consistent,objective reassessment of media choices.

Direct marketers can take a lead rolein professional MNP. The ability ofdirect marketers to precisely link costswith incomes and to scientificallycompare these figures in media testingimplies a logical, left brain approach tomedia decision making.

This paper introduces the AIMRITEmodel as a vehicle that can help to takesome essential qualitative decisions prior tocrunching the numbers. There is plenty ofroom for effective, emotional factors tobe taken into account. AIMRITEprovides a marketer with a clear pathwayto become aware of all the factorsimpacting on the media decision, and tothen weigh them up accordingly. It ishoped that this paper helps in a smallway to clarify the MNP debate.

References1 CIM (2004) available at

http://www.cim.co.uk/cim/ser/html/cover.cfm.2 Available at http://www.shapetheagenda.com.3 Cree, R. (2002) ‘A breed apart’, Director, Vol. 55,

No. 11, pp. 68–71.4 Available at www.iabuk.net. Accessed March

2004.

experience of direct marketers over manymedia, and over many years, one can saythat it typically costs about £30–70 toobtain one response in an acquisitionprogramme.

Table 1 compares costs per thousandaudience reach and typical averageresponses. Note the potential of e-mailand SMS to re-write the economics ofmedia — but will these media reallydeliver the 2� per cent that somebelieve? Perhaps they are better suited asretention media.

CONCLUSION‘Media neutral planning’ is a phrase thathas been much bandied about in the lastyear or two, but there’s little evidence ofwidespread good practice in choosing



Table 1: Comparison of media costs and typical relative response rates

MediumApprox. cost perthousand (£)

Example responses to acquistionprogrammes

Direct mailSMSE-mailPressMagazinesInsertsHousehold delivery (door–door)?Direct response: TVDirect response: radioTelemarketing outbound

500305–204–2010–5040–7040–2507–1526,000

1%between low and 2%between low and 2%0.01–0.1%0.02–0.5%0.1–1.0%0.1–2.0%0.01–0.08%0.005%10% (NB to existing customers)

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