TV Channels And Advertising: The Impact On Target Audience
The importance of targeting the right audience in advertising
The advertisers search for customers who can purchase products and services. It is important for advertisers to persuade and make them aware because if customers think that the product is suitable for them then only they make purchase decision. Commercial channels are mainly used for selling and purchasing of goods and services. Some television programs which are shown on commercial channels are used for selling products to viewers. The biggest challenge for any advertiser is to get right audience (Zigmond & Stipp, 2010). I strongly agree with the statement that advertisers get target audience through television program presented by commercial channels. In the given essay some examples are mentioned to provide strong support to the statement.
Advertisers select the marketing channel after considering different factors like attitude of customers, channel effectiveness, investment, channel reach and so on. Some people do not like commercial advertisement interruption while watching television. Some researchers have explored that in a normal channel during commercial advertisement duration people change the channel or involve themselves in some other activities because they do not find the advertisement beneficial for them. All the persons who watch television do not come in target segment (Thiyagarajan , Shanthi & Naresh, 2012). Commercial channel helps to identify the customer segment that should be targeted by advertisers. Industrial revolution introduced some changes in selling and distribution activities and opened new opportunities for advertisers. Now the advertisers can use different marketing mediums easily without much difficulty. Advertisers pay according to effectiveness of the medium. They want that marketing message should be transferred to right audience at right time which helps to bring sales and revenue. Commercial channels are effective mediums because they are mainly used for promotional activities. Through commercial channels advertisers get target audience easily without much effort. Commercial channels get money from advertisers and advertisers generate revenue by selling products and services. Advertisers get benefits because through commercial channels large numbers of customers receive the information at one time which saves cost and time of advertisers.
The commercial channels use broadcast method to distribute information which is more effective than other advertising mediums. Before introduction of commercial channels the advertisers were using traditional methods of advertising, where the probability to influence customers was very low. Commercial channels have more influencing power because there are less chances of distraction. The audiences watch the television program on commercial channel with complete attention and understand the features, functions and specifications of product properly. The television program on commercial channel covers maximum number of customers at one time. It reduces the efforts of advertisers as they need not to put personal efforts for advertising. Through television program the advertisers get large customers base and interested customers can easily contact to the marketers for additional inquiry (Chandra, 2009).
In current situation the advertisers are facing tough competition because there are many advertising mediums available and each advertiser wants to select the best medium. Till 2012 social media platforms were predicted as the best tool for advertising. Some popular social media platforms are Facebook, Google+, twitter, you tube, blogs and websites. Previously the advertisers were placing advertisement on these mediums. That time the advertisers were using social platforms to convey message to customers. But this medium did not give good response to advertisers because on social media channels people do not give proper attention on advertisement. The advertisers noticed that many social media users skip ads. By this the advertisers cannot know where and when the programs are viewed by audiences. That time the advertisers were facing huge disruption because they were not getting target audience through their efforts (Anderson, Foros & Kind, 2016). Then they searched for new methods to create connection with audience. After some years the advertisers noticed the changing behavior of customers. Some researches on customer’ behavior on advertisements have depicted that television gives impact on viewers’ behavior. It has been assumed by advertisers that if 1000 persons are watching a television program on commercial channel then more than 500 persons will give positive response (Kumar & Raju, 2013).
Why commercial channels are effective for advertisers
The advertisers mainly target on making effective strategy to connect audience. With the growing popularity of television now the advertisers and marketers have shifted their attention towards television’s advertisement. On television various channels are available and people see channels according to their interest (Adams et al., 2009). People who watch commercial channels have direct and indirect intension to know about products and services. Commercial channel provides platform to advertisers for marketing their services. The advertisers can make connectivity easily with audience through commercial channels. According to the recent research in United Kingdom the most viewed channels are ITV, BBC 1, BBC2, Channel 4 and Channel 5. Among all these channels ITV is a top commercial channel. The revenue of this channel is in billions. It was established 61 years ago and now it is giving competition to famous channel BBC. BBC channel does not include advertisements (Doyle & Paterson, 2008). According to the reports of 2016, ITV has gained 47.4% share in Television advertising market in UK. ITV delivers content to audience through television broadcasting and also on demand by ITV Hub. Other popular commercial channel in United Kingdom is Channel 4. Commercial channels mainly use marketing strategy and customer engagement strategy to attract audiences. The viewer engagement strategy of channel 4 was declared in 2011. The channel captures viewers’ data. This advantage of commercial channel helps the advertisers to target the audiences with the advertisements that customers want to watch. The major benefit of commercial channel is people can do online registration. Through registration details the advertisers can get idea about demographic characteristics of people like age group of people. Demographic characteristics are important for advertisers to plan advertising strategy (Tunstall, 2010). Channel 4 is the most interactive and innovative channel in United Kingdom which includes various features like mobile offline viewing, pause and play option and live view option. The innovative feature pause and play enable audiences to pause a program on one device and play again on another device. Through this features the audience can watch a particular television program on commercial channel according to their conveniences. Channel 4 also launched digital advertising product through which the advertisers can get gender, age and location details of logged on users (Potter, 2016).
The commercial channels provide support to advertisers and the advertisers need to focus on only planning content strategy and marketing strategy for audience engagement. In current situation the advertisers are choosing commercial channels as primary advertising platforms due to the known benefits of the channels. Through these mediums advertisers can easily contact to the target persons. Television programs are used to target audience demographic wise. The general targets on television programs are women, men or children (Giacomino et al., 2015). The television programs are sponsored by advertisers and they decide the scripts and content of program to attract audiences. On commercial channel a television program can be shown many times in a day and the advertisers pay for scheduling. The major aim of advertisers is to get more and more customers through advertisement. The audiences get influence by the Television advertisement which affects their thinking pattern. The audiences think positive about products and services after watching television program. Through a Television program an advertiser can show various products and services at a time. The TV programs are prepared to attract many customers. The script of a program is designed after analyzing viewers’ psychology (Chalaby, 2016). On commercial channel the television programs are prepared to generate positive outcome. It is a challenging task to influence the behavior of a person because there are various factors which contribute in shaping behavior of a person. Some common factors are age, lifestyle, income, occupation, personality and so on (De Mooij, 2010). If people do not pay attention to the advertisement then their behavior will not be affected by it. The advertisers formulate strategy on the bases of several theories like motivational need theory, psychoanalytic theory, pavlovian theory and social psychological model. The motivational need theory includes five major points like basic needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization needs (Kumar & Raju, 2013). On the television program one speaker is appointed who shows the specifications and advantages of products to viewers. The psychoanalytic theory focuses on emotional appeal which advertisers use to approach audience by stirring their emotions. Pavlovian theory is action versus reaction theory where a definite action of advertisers encourages customer’s reaction. One another famous theory which was given by Veblen is social-psychological theory. This theory stated that human beings are of social nature. The environment where people live gives impact on their behavior. Person’s behavior is affected by society. To encourage audience participation the advertisers also use interactive methods through which they can get direct response of customers (Dyer, 2008). Audiences are given good offers on instant purchases. Advertisers get benefit on impulse reaction of people. Some theories described above give attention on rational action of consumers but one well known theorist Hawkins Stern provided a theory for impulse buying. This theory works as opportunity for advertisers. The advertisers plan the strategy for encouraging impulse reaction of viewers (Karbasivar & Yarahmadi 2011).
Television advertising compared to other marketing platforms
From the above description it can be concluded that television program broadcasted by commercial channels mainly exist to deliver target customers to advertisers. On commercial channels the audiences can view television program on their demand. Commercial channel is the right place where audience can get all details about product and services. The channels capture the complete information of the viewers needed for advertising and advertisers and can plan strategy according to the known information of audience. Some popular commercial channel examples are also given in the essay. The commercial channel shows various television programs. The viewers can watch program according to their need. They can watch program at any time. This feature increases the chance to receive positive outcome of audience. Commercial channels are giving benefit to marketers to get exact information about viewers. The advertisers get viewers’ details like age, gender, occupation, etc. through commercial channels. By these details they can use multiple marketing strategies for different customer groups. The information helps advertisers to achieve the objective with fewer efforts. Commercial channels are using numerous methods for audience engagement (Wilbur, 2008). This platform is very beneficial for marketers because it is not possible for an advertiser to implement all the techniques which are being used by commercial channels. The commercial channels make connectivity between viewers and advertisers. Other advertising mediums like publicity and social media marketing are considered less trusted than commercial channel advertising (Moriarty, 2014). Commercial channel is measured as the most trusted medium and real customers can be generated through this platform. Some theories are also explained in this essay which commercial channels use as base structure to formulate strategies. Some well-known commercial channels which are generating good revenue are using effective strategies to attract people. The success of an advertisement depends upon the numbers the customers got attracted to the advertisement. If high numbers of customers purchase product after watching the advertisement then it means the advertisement is successful where as if low numbers of viewers got attracted through it that means it is unsuccessful. The main purpose of advertisers is to attract maximum number of viewers by the advertisement. Now days the advertisers are investing heavily to telecast the programs on commercial channels because they are getting target customers through this method.
References
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