Managing Media Exposure

Many communication researchers use the term "media fragmentation" when talking about the media development in recent years. The so-called "media fragmentation" has at least three levels of significance: first, the proliferation of the number of media and the supply of information, and the diversification of media forms; second, the unprecedented increase in the freedom and individualization of the audience's choice and use of media, which exacerbates the situation of segmentation; and third, which is still related to the behavior of the audience, that is, the decreasing loyalty and the attention span of the audience to a certain media, and the increasing trend of the audience's attention span. Thirdly, this point is also related to audience behavior, that is, the audience's loyalty to a certain media is declining, and the duration of their attention span is shortening. Growing supply on one side and increasingly difficult to grasp demand on the other require advertisers to not only say the right thing (the message), but also find the right battleground (the media touchpoint). This may seem obvious to everyone, but if you look at the sloppy advertising strategies that many advertisers still use today, you can see that it's not always easy to know what to do and what to do not to do.

If we implement the concept of fine management of media placement under data management, we must solve the problem of quality and quantity of media utilization. Different brand equity stocks, different product life cycles, different advertising purposes, different budget programs all affect the amount of media use. That is, the question of how much or how little advertising is done. Different product categories and different target audiences determine what to do and what not to do, which is the quality of media utilization. Both quality and quantity are indispensable, but at the root of the matter, we must first determine who to use and who not to use. It is impossible to find the ideal ROI on the wrong battlefield.

After deciding what media to do and what vehicle to use, we must also take care of the echo and function transfer between media touch points. The AIDMA marketing model (Attention, Attention; Interest, Interest; Desire, Desire; Memory, Memory; Action, Action), which was born at the end of the 19th century, is getting more and more constrained in the web 2.0 era, as it cannot adapt to the multi-directional communication applications in the network era. Therefore, Dentsu proposed the AISAS (Attention, Interest, Interest, Search, Search, Action, Action, Share) model with web qualities, which not only points out the importance of Search and Share in the Internet era, but also allows for a better management of media Contacts. Each step in the AISAS process is supported by a corresponding media touchpoint, and the fragmented media touchpoints are integrated under the AISAS strategy.

Rigorous and scientific market research is a prerequisite for the development and utilization of a media touchpoint strategy. In order to optimize the selection of contact points that are efficient and effective in terms of investment in response to the AISAS contact point management system, Dentsu conducted a study called VALCON (Value Contact Point Tracer) in Japan in 2004, which analyzes all the most important contact points for consumers as much as possible for specific product categories and brands. Since July 2005, the study has been implemented in China.

VALCON covers more contact points than any other software. It can evaluate all touch points related to consumers, including the value and role of mass media, storefront, internet, word of mouth, etc.; it can also measure the Share Of Voice (SOV) of each effective touch point, especially the SOV of word of mouth and storefront activities that cannot be measured in terms of the amount of investment, which can be measured by VALCON. To form an AISAS communication strategy, VALOCN will identify effective media touchpoints for different communication objectives, refine the touchpoints to the consumer's buying process (awareness, favorability, comprehension, retrieval, purchase intention, word of mouth, etc.), and analyze the convergence of the advertising message and the distribution medium.

In the fall of 2009, Dentsu Beijing conducted a VALCON survey in three cities, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, targeting consumers in several categories, including automobiles, digital cameras, 3G communications, thin TVs, cosmetics and skin care products, with a combined sample size of more than 3,000. The results of the survey show that consumers in different categories have very different media touch points in the AISAS segment.

The key touchpoints in the AISAS segment also vary by age, geography, product ownership or pre-order. As a result, the media exposure of each category of consumers studied can be very detailed, and the media communication strategies developed based on such data can be maximized for accuracy.

We can illustrate this through a case study. If a digital camera manufacturer is very confident in its products, it hopes that through a publicity campaign, target consumers will have a desire to buy them by comparing them with other similar products. Then, the best promotional channel can be identified simply by sorting the media touchpoints using the different buying processes of AISAS corresponding to VALCON. As shown in the table below, professional photography websites and product softwares in photography magazines are the touchpoints that can realize product comparisons and stimulate purchase desires.

So, by analyzing the data and identifying the touchpoints that are effective for both of these goals, we can recommend that the client adopt a media communication strategy that combines professional websites and soft copy in professional magazines.

In addition, VALCON not only researches consumers' touchpoints in the AISAS process, but also conducts an in-depth understanding of the effective media channels for product or brand messages. Taking digital cameras as an example, a manufacturer launches a new digital camera and wants to publicize the product's highlights, i.e., "high pixel count and high resolution" in first-tier cities. This can be easily solved by using VALCON to rank the media contact points in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou according to the product information, and VALCON's analysis shows that among the media contact points with the highest contribution to consumers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, word-of-mouth communication has an outstanding effect in conveying this product feature, and publicity campaigns at the sales terminals also have a certain contribution rate. The three cities have similarities in terms of the contribution of word-of-mouth. These are similarities across the three cities. The difference is that "product placement in movies and TV dramas" is slightly more effective in Shanghai than in the other two cities, while "corporate websites" in Beijing and "portals" in Guangzhou are slightly more effective in online media. This kind of online media is slightly more advantageous than the other two markets.

It can be seen that if digital camera manufacturers want to highlight the "high pixel, high resolution" product features, in addition to increasing the promotion efforts in the sales terminal, without having to take into account regional differences, and to use the mass media, we need to develop different strategies according to the differences between regions, and the VALOCN indicates that the development of different strategies. VALOCN indicates the direction of the strategy.

In this way, using VALCON, we can analyze media contact points and the needs of each brand from a variety of perspectives, refine the contact points to the various stages of the AISAS, and change the focus from the previous purely on the "reach" to the "effect", so that the media communication can be more effective.

The company's media communication strategy is more effective by focusing on "reach" to "effect" instead of just "reach".