Marketing Basics: Competitor Analysis

Marketing Basics: Competitor Analysis
Written by: Eric Brantner

In part 2 of my Marketing Basics series, I want to talk about getting the most out of your competitor analysis (by the way, make sure you read part one of this series about defining your target audience.) When I’m getting ready to write copy for a new client, I always ask them about their competition. See, it’s important that you know your enemy better than they know themselves. It’s the only way you can properly position yourself in your industry.

Here are some questions you should answer when performing competitor analysis.

1. Who are my main competitors? This should be a fairly simple question to answer. All you have to do is figure out which companies are taking up the piece of market share that you want. If you only provide local services, identify the main competition in your area. Be realistic. Don’t think that some “small fry” isn’t really a competitor. Make sure you leave no stone unturned when identifying your competition.

2. What are their strengths and weaknesses? Again, be realistic when answering this question. Recognize what your competition does really well. Also, dig around and figure out where they come up short. Maybe they don’t provide the level of customer service you can provide. Perhaps they don’t have the capabilities to take on large clients. Remember, any weakness of the competition presents an opportunity for you to capitalize on it. I also recommend examining the online presence of your competition. Find weaknesses in their SEO, social media marketing, link building, and other areas, and do your best to take advantage of it.3. What do I offer that they don’t? This goes back to the question above; it’s called finding your competitive edge. It could be as simple as finding a service you offer that the competition doesn’t. Or it might be that you provide a price that they can’t match. The point is this: find something of value you can provide to your consumers that you your competition can’t. Once you identify your competitive edge, drive it home in your website copy, advertisements, taglines, and anywhere else your brand name comes up.

4. Are there potential customers that my competition is overlooking? When starting a new business, your first instinct might be just to pattern it after one of your competitors. This means going after the same customers as your competition. While that might end up being your only option, take some time to see if there are any customers your competition is missing out on. For example, look at Nintendo. Their video game system, the Wii, is aimed at the customers the Sony PS3 and Microsoft XBOX 360 are ignoring. By creating a video game system that focused on being user-friendly (meaning anyone—even my mom—can pick it up and play it) instead of designed to attract hardcore gamers, the Wii has consistently outsold the competition.

5. How does my pricing compare with others? Now, this isn’t to say that you should always focus on offering the cheapest products or services out there, but the fact is you can’t just ignore the pricing structure of your competition. There’s nothing wrong with being more expensive than your competitors, but just make sure you provide something of value that justifies the extra cost to your consumers. If your target audience can’t understand why they should pay more for your services, they’ll just buy from the competition instead.

When’s the last time you performed a competitor analysis for your business? Would you add any questions to this list?

Marketing Basics: Defining Your Target Audience

Marketing Basics: Defining Your Target Audience
Written by: Eric Brantner

Because I’m a copywriter, a lot of my posts have to do with general marketing techniques that apply to both online and offline communication. In light of this, I thought it would be a good idea to do a series on the basic principles of marketing. Over the next several posts, I’ll cover everything from defining your target audience to creating a unique selling point for your business. By the time this series is complete, I hope to have given you everything you need to create a working marketing strategy for your small business (or, at the very least, to get you aimed in the right direction).

For the first post in this series, I want to talk about defining your target audience. See, the term “target audience” or “target demographic” gets thrown around a lot in marketing conversations. But more times than not, a company’s target audience is just vague definition that gets filed away in the back of a business plan somewhere. In reality, your target audience should drive every decision you make in regards to your business.
So, let’s discuss how to go about defining exactly who your target audience is. Ask yourself these questions to help you better understand who your business is working for.

1. Who does your product appeal to, and what are their general characteristics? Let’s start out broad. General attributes to consider are your target audience’s age, sex, location, income level, and marital status.2. What is their motivation for buying your product or services? Is your product something they need or something they want? Does having your product elevate their social status somehow? Does it make them feel better about themselves? Or is it something that merely entertains them? In short, what is your customer’s pain? Why do they so badly need you? The point is your product adds some sort of value to their lives. Figure out what that value is.

3. How does your target audience shop? To best market to your ideal customer, you need to figure out their purchasing habits. Do they tend to make impulse purchases, or are they more rational, logical consumers? Where do they shop? Online or in person? Are they loyal to particular brands or are they always susceptible to jump ship?

4. Where does your target audience congregate? In order to communicate with your target audience, you need to first know where they are. If your target audience is the teenage group, figure out which social networks and other websites they frequent most. Which type of physical establishments do they hang out in? Which TV and radio stations do they tune into? Which magazines do they read? By knowing exactly where your target audience is, you can focus your marketing efforts into those areas so that you have a better chance of capturing their attention.

Once you’ve found the answers to these questions, you’ll have a better idea of who your target audience is. Your mission should always be to get to know your target audience better. That’s why I think social networking is such a great tool. While some people see Twitter as a waste of time due to a bunch of “meaningless” posts, I see it as an opportunity to get inside my audience’s mind. I can learn how they talk, what they think, what their likes and dislikes are, and what the best method is for getting a positive reaction out of them.

Who is your target audience? How do you go about connecting with them? Share your tips with us in the replies.

Marketing and Marketing Research in Advertising (part 2)

Above all, marketing must consider the proper timing of the launching of a new product or even the promotion of a particular product. One has to have a knowledge and understanding of the buying behavior of the customers. Where do they buy? When do they buy? There are both buying seasons and buying locations. A product or service will not sell because the marketing organization or the manufacturer thinks that it is good for the customers. This means identifying the motivations, even sentiments or emotions that might induce the purchase of a certain product. How does the mind of the consumer work in relation to purchases? Why do they buy a particular brand? This is possibly the most difficult area of marketing, because it cannot be defined in statistical terms. This is also an area in which advertising has the most to contribute. Marketing is not a one-time operation. It is a continuing process, whether you are dealing with a single product or introducing new ones or whatever. This is because the objective is not a one-time sale, but repeat sales and increasing sales or expansion of the market. It is thus that production can be maintained at the optimum level. This brings about the economy of size. You can buy the raw materials in larger quantities and hence, at a lower unit cost. With the cost of machinery and fixed assets having been incurred once, it can be spread over a larger quantity of goods. If quality is maintained, with a larger volume of production, the cost of production per unit is lowered and the price can be reduced if faced with competition, and yet profits maximized. Successful marketing is the most concrete expression of successful economic business management.

It should be obvious from what we have discussed so far, how complex marketing is and what a wide range and variety of activities it encompasses. All these components of marketing taken together constitute the marketing mix. Advertising or marketing communication is but one element of the marketing mix. Obviously such a complex process involves a great deal of advance and even long term planning. This requires a tremendous amount of information. Such information can only be available through research. Two types of research are involved: market research and marketing research. In a sense they are the two stages of research. There is a certain amount of overlapping between the two types or stages of research. How can you enter a market with a product of service unless you have a complete knowledge of the market? This would involve knowledge about every element of the marketing mix. Market research is the key component of decision-making in marketing a product or service. Market research could be aimed at identifying a new product that would satisfy a latent or unrealized demand. This would mean that market research would then be an input for research and development. This is how the television as an instrument for entertainment and information was developed. Similar has been the road to the development of a whole range of consumer durables such as washing machines, vacuum cleaners, air conditioners and so on. Various types of pesticides have come into the market to meet an expressed demand. So have hybrid seeds.

Market research would be required to secure information about the consumers. The consumers or the market would have to be segmented or stratified according to the occupation of the customers, their income levels, their interests, education, social background, age, sex, buying habits and so on, related to the product or service to be marketed. It should be obvious that research would also be necessary to find out the market conditions-competition and the marketing activities of the competitors covering every component of the marketing mix. Some general background information would also be necessary, which might be available through desk research or published data. There is a wealth of data available in government publications, reports of trade associations and other public financial institutions, census data, reports of various government committees and parliamentary committees, and so on.

Overall, if business has to diversify not only in terms of the market geographically, but also of products, market research has to be concerned with identifying cultural diversities in markets stretching across national boundaries and, in Nigeria, state boundarie, to be able to blend them together to identify a new product or service which would cut across the cultural diversities. It could also help give an acceptable identity to an existing product in a new market or even give a sense of a new benefit to the same product in an existing market. Such research takes into account local conditions and preferences or needs arising from them.

Where there is hard water, there would necessarily be greater demand for washing soap than in other areas. In West Bengal and the south, women generally prefer to wear their hair long. These regions would provide a bigger market for shampoos and hair oils. Eating habits determine the kind of edible oil that can be sold in a particular market, say south or north. Marketing of consumer products, consumer durables, and industrial products in rural markets would require different kinds of information. Hence, there would have to be' different types of research for different types of consumers.

Market research is a continuing process, not merely in the search for new products but also for the retention of existing consumers, particularly in a highly competitive market. For consumer goods, consumer panels are set up. These consist of housewives who submit regular reports about their purchases and test new products. Such panels are best handled by an independent agency, instead of the marketing organization or the advertising agency servicing it. Shop or store audit panels are set up to visit shops regularly to record stocks received, sold and unsold. This helps identify the pattern and quantum of sales of each and every brand in the shop. It also provides information about the share of a particular brand in the total sales of that product, or the market share. Periodic checks of the levels of consumer satisfaction have become essential. New organizations have come up for this purpose alone. It is engaged only in research into customer satisfaction with different products and services. Market and Research Group is also setting up such a department.

Industrial marketing demands not only knowledge of the existing requirements of particular industries, but also of the manufacturing process itself so that new products or improved products can be identified. The benefit that the industrialist is looking for is very different from what the non-industrial consumer wants. The industrial consumer would be looking for, may be, cutting down of electricity costs; an improvement in the design of a particular machine to speed up production; reduction in wastage through the improvement of components which are inputs for the final product; cutting down production time by reducing breakdowns and maintenance lay-offs; lowering maintenance costs, and so on. The supplier of equipment or components could also provide consultancy as an added service. After sales service is a vital component of marketing industrial products. Such a service would not only aim at improving the life cycle of the machinery but also help in its up gradation. In industrial marketing, personal selling has a greater role to play than advertising. Demonstrations may be necessary. Large sums of money are involved and purchasing decisions are taken by a different set of people.

Marketing and Marketing Research in Advertising (part 1)

Marketing and Marketing Research in Advertising

Marketing and market research have opened up new areas of job opportunities. They have become specific disciplines and professions and call for a particular bent of mind and training. We have already explained briefly what marketing is and its relation to advertising. We have also touched upon the importance of research in both marketing and advertising. A chapter on marketing and market research in a book on advertising as a profession is essential for two reasons. First, advertising is a component of the entire process of marketing or the marketing mix, the jargon used in advertising and marketing circles. Hence, one joining the advertising profession has to have some understanding of marketing and hence, market research and marketing research. Secondly, marketing and marketing research provide other specialized professional opportunities.

Without a market, obviously there can be no neither marketing nor marketing communication or advertising. A market has been in existence historically from the time one produced something that one could barter or sell to secure goods one did not produce. But when we talk of the modern market, particularly in the context of advertising, we have to think of many other components the existence of a product or service, consumers, a place or location, a price for the product or service or a particular time. These all seem to be very obvious. But as we go on elabora1ing we shall find that there is more to these factors or components of the market, which goes beyond the obvious. Research to secure information about the market as a whole, including packaging, distribution, retailing and sales promotion, adds further dimensions to marketing. Advertising is directly concerned with sales promotion. In fact, advertising adds another dimension to marketing that is common with human psychology-motivations, feelings or 'emotions'.

Those who are engaged in marketing communication have a stake in marketing and market research and marketing research. You might create great advertisements and select the perfect combination of media and the perfect timing for communication and so on, but the pricing of the product might not be acceptable to the consumers or it might not have been distributed properly. Hence the need for advertising agencies to work with clients as partners taking a holistic approach to advertising and marketing. This would mean that the advertising agency would have to be involved with all the marketing problems of the client. The account manager would have to acquire some knowledge of marketing strategy. One would not be able to evolve a good advertising strategy unless one was able to grasp and even contribute to the evolution of a marketing strategy. The juniors in the account service group would have to be able to analyze the market and marketing research data thoroughly to be able to develop advertising ideas and concepts. In. the emerging highly competitive market the challenges before the account service group are going to be very demanding. It would have to combine sharp analytical minds with computers and intuition, based on experience. The machine and human intelligence and sensitivity must interact creatively.

The Institute of Marketing of the UK defines marketing as "the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer requirements profitably." This involves identifying products or services, producing them, ensuring their proper distribution and selling them not once but repeatedly, and of course, at a profit. Marketing is concerned with every aspect of the product that is to be marketed. Its design, both in terms of looks and utility; brand name; packaging, size and shape; after-sales services where necessary; guarantee of the quality of the product and so on. The product would have to be so priced as to be acceptable to the consumer and yet ensure reasonable profits to the manufacturer or the marketing organization, even after providing suitable discounts to the wholesaler and retailer. Those concerned with marketing would also have to consider the financial relations of the marketing organization with the wholesalers and retailers, such as the-credit to be provided to them and the period by which they would have to make payments. All these would have to be taken into account when fixing the market price.

The marketing process includes the geographic allocation of the market, the channels of distribution and, the stock to be maintained at every stage of the distribution channel and the transport arrangement for the distribution of the goods. While these processes are being put in place, steps must be taken to ensure that the entire sales promotion set-up is geared for action. This would include not only personal selling to some extent and at some levels various other promotional activities, as we shall discuss later, but also advertising and publicity.

Learning to Speak Your Audience’s Language

Learning to Speak Your Audience’s Language
Written by: Eric Brantner

Whether it’s your website or a sales brochure, the success of your communication relies directly on how well your target audience understands what you’re saying. What’s the best way to get through to them? It’s simple: speak their language.

Learning to speak your target audience’s language really isn’t that difficult. It just comes down to doing a little research and paying attention to the small details in their language.

• Connect with them on social networks—A lot of old school marketers deride social networking as a waste of time because its results are difficult to measure. What they seem to overlook is that social networking is the most powerful tool for getting to know your target audience better. You’ll learn the lingo your target audience uses, their likes and dislikes, the trends they follow, and other important information. Simply put, social networking is a great way to learn to speak your audience’s language.• Perform keyword research—Another way to learn how your target audience speaks is to check out the phrases they enter into the search engines. Check out a free keyword tool like the Google AdWords keyword suggestion tool to identify commonly entered phrases. See, when someone enters a term into the search engines, it’s pretty much stream of consciousness flowing from their brain to the keyboard.

• Read their magazines and newspapers—Find out which magazines, newspapers, and blogs your target audience likes to read. Commit yourself to reading these publications regularly. The reason you should read these is because these publications are targeted directly to your audience, and obviously, if your audience likes reading these, then they must be speaking their language.

• Hang out where they hang out—What better way to learn how your target audience speaks than to actually listen to them talking to one another? When you were defining your target audience, you should have identified the types of places they like to hang out at. Frequent these places, and feel free to do a little eavesdropping. People can alter the way they talk when they have to sit back and craft a blog post or status update, but when you listen to them speaking in person, you hear their true language.

• Check out the ad copy of their favorite products—If your target audience buys certain products, that means the ad copy of those products did a good job of connecting with them. Take a look at the ads of your target audience’s favorite products, and identify the common themes that run between them. Find out what these companies all do so well in their copy, and implement it in your marketing materials.

• Don’t forget the human element—Most importantly, if you want to connect with your target audience, you can’t be a corporate robot. In all of your communications, make sure you include the human element and ditch the corporate speak.

Do you speak the language of your target audience? How did you learn it?

How Research Can Drive the Advertising Mediums You Use

How Research Can Drive the Advertising Mediums You Use

How many times have you run a newspaper ad, radio commercial or sent out a direct mail solicitation and wondered "Did this actually create a sale or change someone's attitude?" If you have, then you're not alone. Most business owners consistently question whether advertising works and if it does, how can they "fine tune" the advertising while decreasing costs.

Advertising in its purest sense is communicating a message from one group to another. There are many mediums to use to communicate this message: Television, radio, newspaper, magazine, outdoor billboards, direct mail, direct sales, brochures, the internet, etc. The biggest mistake businesses make when it comes to advertising is choosing the inappropriate medium to communicate to the customers that purchase their product. For instance, it would be inappropriate for a machine shop to use television advertising to communicate to its commercial customers since its customers are relatively few in number and the cost of television advertising is extremely high. However, it would be appropriate for the machine shop to use a direct sales force, technical brochures, and direct mail, as the customer target is small and these forms of advertising can effectively reach the audience.

In order to determine what advertising medium to use, a business needs to determine who their current customers are, who they want as customers. How is this done? Research.

Who Are Your Customers?.... What do my customers purchase? What is the average sale? Do they purchase the product/service daily, weekly, monthly? At what time of the year do they purchase the product/service? Where do my customers geographically live? What is the household income of the people who purchase my product/service? What kind of work do your customers do? Does the household have children? How many cars and what type of cars do they own? Do they own a home or do they rent? What is the age of the purchaser? What is the sex of the purchaser? Are they a repeat purchaser? How did they hear about the business?
All of these questions provide answers to help the business determine which advertising medium to use, the message to communicate and when to use the medium.

If you can learn all you can about your customers: age, sex, employment status, buying habits, etc., then you can advertise using the mediums that effectively reach your target. You can target your customer, save money and increase your sales.

What type of research can help? It doesn't need to be complicated; a simple customer survey often will be enough to steer you in the right direction. The key of course is to monitor the customer from time-to-time to determine any changes in buying behavior, household status, etc. What you're trying to achieve determines the scope of the questions and analysis.

The Role of Focus Groups in Advertising

The Role of Focus Groups in Advertising

As most of you are aware, a focus group is a method of research in which a group of people are recruited to discuss a particular topic. The participants usually are paid a fee for their time.

Although groups can be held in any room large enough to accommodate the participants, the usual setting is a specially designed room with a two-way mirror at one end which allows the sponsor of the groups to view the discussions.

Typically, at least four to six groups are held on any particular topic.

Focus groups can play an important role in determining advertising strategy. Groups can be used for idea generation, and to uncover possible "concepts" that appeal to the participants. Such concepts can be exposed to determine the groups' reactions. Well-received concepts can then be developed into actual advertisements.

To use groups in the next stage of research, the actual testing of an advertisement or series of advertisements, generally is not a good idea unless quantitative research also is employed.

It is better to test actual advertisements quantitatively, using a methodology which will, among other things quantify the impact of a particular ad on:

purchase intent,

product/service/corporate imagery,

believability,

recall of the actual ad

the message of the ad,

and the extent to which people can identify the product/service/corporation
being advertised.

If quantitative research indicates problems in any of these areas, it is appropriate, although possibly overkill (depending upon the advertising budget), to use groups to "fine-tune" an ad.

Understanding SOV (Share of Voice)

Understanding SOV (Share of Voice)

By Christopher Knight

DEFINITION:

SOV = Share of Voice. The total percentage that you possess of the particular niche, market, or audience you are targeting.

Example: There are 100,000 businesses in the same industry as your list or ezine services. You have 10,000 members on your list. It could be argued that your SOV is 10% of that industry if your list specifically serves that niche.

Another way of looking at Share of Voice: (according to ADVBL.com)
"Secondary market research is used to accumulate measured media expenditures and estimated costs for other communications activities. Information should be gathered for all competitors on a regular (quarterly and/or annual) basis. Each competitor's percentage of the aggregate total is its Share-of-Voice."

Why does knowing your SOV matter? Answer = Because with email newsletters and discussion lists, it is a strong selling point to advertisers when you can tell them that you are reaching a 40-90% share of a particular market niche that is of value to them (depending on what your SOV is). If reaching a high percentage of their target market is important, this will endear them to you and possibly increase their level of advertising with your list(s).
How do you find out what the total size of your niche is?

Almost every industry has a research report that you can buy from the big dogs, such as Forrestor, Yankee, etc. You might also find relevant stats on your niche from press releases or sales literature from organizations that already bought the reports and are publishing how big the niche is that they are looking to dominate.

This Ezine-Tip was submitted By Christopher Knight -- Email List Marketing Expert, author and entrepreneur. Get your weekly dose of Email newsletter publishing, marketing, promotion, management, email-etiquette, email usability and deliverability tips by joining the free Ezine-Tips newsletter: http://www.emailuniverse.com/subscribe/.


Press advertising means placement of organization's advertisements in press. The press usually includes newspapers (daily national), newspapers local, newspapers local free and magazines.


Advertisements are subdivided into display advertising, semi-display advertising, advertorials, loose inserts and classified advertising. The choice of media, type of advertisement, its position, size, frequency and etc., largely depends upon the objectives of the advertising campaign. Press advertising is often used in pull and profile strategies and is characterized by medium targeting, very low cost per contact, fast speed of response, low percentage of response and high response volume that makes it a perfect tool if a company needs to raise awareness, generate leads, boost store traffic or direct sales and support other promotional activities.

There are quite a number of indicators that help to measure press advertising activities, for example, CPT (cost per thousand), reach, frequency, awareness, SOV (share of voice) and others. However, they differ in relevance and application. As to application, the indicators may be subdivided into those required at planning stage, those required for control and those that can be used at the both stages.

Thus, with regard to planning there should be mentioned CPT (cost per thousand), SOV (share of voice), reach, frequency and OTS (opportunity to see). These indicators allow for budgeting, campaign planning and cross-comparison across different media types and media vehicles. They may be used independently, though complex approach yields better results. The data for their calculations is usually easily obtained. For example, most of the media make researches of their readership and provide the customers with their results. This information makes the calculation of reach and CPT an easy task. SOV, even for competitors, may be calculated in-house as well or it may be outsourced to the specialized agency. In either case the main decision-making factors are budget and degree of precision. The calculations are also relatively easy and do not require a lot of expertise. As to the relevance, the most relevant for press advertising campaign planning are reach and frequency that create the necessary OTS and define the budget. CPC and SOV may be regarded as additional indicators: CPC for media choice, SOV for budget decisions.
Among the indicators used at the stage of control there are Awareness Growth, Cost pr ad /Sv (cost of press advertising to sales volume ratio), Cost pr ad /Sn (cost of press advertising to sales number ratio), CPC/GI (Cost per contact to Growth in inquiries %) and all indicators with internal perspective that allow for control over activities of advertising and marketing departments. The control procedures over advertising campaign in press always present a certain issue, largely because sales and revenues are not directly related to advertising. The advertising in press directly influences awareness, knowledge, perception etc. that, as a rule, can be measured with a help of specialized research. However, the above-mentioned indicators reveal trends and therefore may be considered as additional means of control, especially when direct means are somehow unavailable. Most of the information can be obtained within the organization and the calculations are not difficult as well.

The indicators that could be used at both stages are those connected with awareness, SOV and other measures where input and output values are important for advertising campaign evaluation and market trends analysis.

Basic Media Terminology

BASIC MEDIA TERMINOLOGY

Above the Line (ATL): advertising through mass media (e.g. TV, press, radio, etc.)
Advertorial: it is a subtle form of communication, mainly used in print, by which the strengths of the advertisers’ brands are communicated in an editorial format. It should be in line with the editorial style of the publication.
Affinity Index: is an "efficiency indicator" in media planning. It shows the weight of a specific Target Audience compared to the total population in case of a specific programme/ medium. The affinity index = TRP/GRP. In case this figure is higher than 1 (100%), it means that the programme/medium is well targeted for our Target Audience. The higher this index the better the targeting is.
Audit of circulation: circulation analysis of a publication, run by a specialized, independent audit company. This information becomes public and is a useful working tool for the publications themselves, and for media agencies and advertisers.
Average Frequency: the average number of times the members of our Target Audience are exposed to the advertising message.
Barter: a station / publication exchanges its ad-time / ad-space for other service or product.
Below The Line: forms of advertising that do not involve mass media (e.g. direct mail).
Channel viewership share: a segment of our target audience who is watching TV/listening to radio at a given period of time. Channel viewership share is a percentage of this watching/listening segment (100%) selecting the given channel.
Circulation: number of copies of a given issue of a publication that is distributed, either paid or for free.

Clutter: there are 3 main types of advertising clutter:
1. the overall market clutter: the total number of ads
during a certain period of time,
2. the competitive clutter: the total number of ads for
competing brands,
3. the media clutter: the total number of ads appearing on
a certain medium during a certain time period.

Conversion: ratio, that shows the proportion for two different target audiences compared to each other that are represented in front of the TV sets on a given channel, in a given day-part, programme, ad block or even during a certain TV commercial.
Cost calculation:
· Gross Cost: refers to rate card advertising
expenditure, including all extra charges (without VAT)
· Net Cost: Gross Cost minus Volume Discount
· Net net Cost: Net Cost minus Media Commission
· Client Cost: Net Net Cost + Agency Fee
Cost per point (CPP): the cost of reaching 1% of a specific Target Audience (1 rating point) through a certain media vehicle.
Cost per thousand (CPT): the cost of reaching 1,000 people of a specific Target Audience through a certain media vehicle.
Coverage: the proportion (expressed as %) of a target audience that has any opportunity to see / hear the specific ad.Day-part segments: time bands that have associated levels of audience delivery. For the Hungarian market there are:
· Early Morning: 6.00-9.00
· Morning: 9.00-12.00
· Early Afternoon: 12.00-15.00
· Pre-prime Time: 15.00-18.30
· Prime Time: 18.30-22.00
· Late Night: 22.00-02.00

Double Page Spread: two full pages of immediately adjacent advertising.
Effective Frequency: in order to fulfill the goals of the campaign, it is necessary for our Target Audience to see our commercial several times. These frequency levels, at which the advertisements are most effective, are called Effective Frequency. (E.g. 3+, 4+)
Effective Reach: the percentage of the target audience that is exposed to the ad at the Effective Frequency level. (E.g. 3+ 50%, 4+ 50%.)
30 sec Equivalent: its main objective is to create common base for comparing advertising SOV when advertisers use commercials of different length.
Flight: period of continuous advertising activity.
GRP: Gross Rating Point. The sum of ratings achieved by a specific media in a campaign.
Horizontal Road Blocking: placing a TV or radio commercial at the same time on different channels.

Implementation planning: producing a detailed media plan that is to be bought, following the media strategy.
Infomercial: a long commercial designed to supply detailed information about a product or service rather than to present a specific sales message.
Linear pricing: if the cost of a 30 sec TV/radio commercial is 100, then any shorter or longer commercial costs are calculated proportionally less or more. (e.g.: 15 sec – 50, 30 sec- 100, 45 sec – 150).
Non-linear pricing: the cost of the TV/radio commercials shorter or longer than 30 sec are not calculated proportionally (e.g.: 5" –30, 10"- 50, 15" –55, 20"-80, 25" –90, 30"-100).
Net reach: is the percentage of the target audience that was reached by the message at least once during a period of time (e.g. a four-week campaign). Net reach = 1+ coverage.
OTS / OTH: the average number of opportunities to see / hear an advertisement by the members of our target audience during a period of time (e.g. a four-week campaign).

People meter: one of the most advanced monitoring tools that record the status of the TV sets (i.e. which channel is watched) within a panel household, by members of a family, on a continuous basis.
Phasing: strategy of alternating the weekly weight of a whole year activity in order to obtain greater media efficiency.
Positioning: refers to the preferential placement of ads in specific media. For print, positioning might mean the placement of an ad to face an editorial, on the right page, on the back cover or inside cover etc. For TV, this means the choice of the position within the ad-block – first / last etc.
Post-buy analysis: the evaluation of a schedule’s achievements after it’s running compared to the planned level. The analysis covers TRP and GRP performance, OTS, coverage and frequency, etc.
Print ad sizes:
· Type area: the area on the page of a publication that is surrounded by margins and can be filled with text or picture. The size of this area is indicated in mm.
· Trim size: the real, final size of a publication. An ad has this size if it runs up to the edge of the page. The safety size of this is bleed, which is a larger surface: there is about a 5-mm wide margin for safety at each side of the trim-sized ad.
Print run: the total number of copies of a publication, including the sold – through subscription or shops – and unsold (remittance) and free (promotional) copies as well.
Rate card: a medium’s price list. Rate cards are issued periodically and show the prices charged for various time-slots and programs.

Rating point: the percentage of audience reached by a particular program / issue of a publication. 1 rating point = 1% of a target group reached by that program.
Readers per copy: the average number of persons that read a copy of a publication, calculated by dividing average readership of an issue by circulation.
Share of Voice (SOV), Share of Spending (SOS): the brand’s or advertiser’s advertising weight expressed as a percentage of a defined total market or market segment in a given time period. The weight is usually defined in terms of expenditures (SOS) or ratings (SOV).
Strategic Media Planning: providing a communication solution to marketing plans, establishing communication goals, media choice and targets.
Target Audience: the nearest approximation of a Target Group that can be handled and reliably measured by media research.
Target Group: a group of people – set by marketing objectives –, which a campaign is designed to reach.TRP: is the percentage of audience reached by a particular program / issue of a publication against a particular target audience. 1 rating point = 1% of a specific target audience.
TVR: Television Rating Vertical Road Blocking: placing a TV or radio commercial on various timeslots on the same channel, on the same day.
Weekly Weight: the size of advertising burst or campaign as described by the weekly TRP delivery.