Absolute Costs

Marketing a product or a service successfully should include deciding what media or direct-to-consumer advertising outlets will work best based absolute costs that factor in location and current demographics. This includes projecting absolute costs and comparing ROI for each.

Newspapers: These are usually very effective for local markets. This applies to internet editions that customize user’s views based on locality. The downsides to this advertising medium are short time span for potential audience; poor reproduction quality; small pass-along audience.

Television: Good mass market coverage for national or global brands; Negatives are: High absolute costs; high clutter; fleeting exposure; and less audience selectivity.

Direct mail: Relatively high cost per exposure; “junk mail” image; and no way to track ROI.

Radio: Good local exposure; highly geographic and demographic selectivity; and fragmented audiences.

Magazines: Often considered credible; high-quality reproduction; long lead time for ad purchase; high cost; and no guarantee of position or ROI.

Outdoor: Flexibility; high repeat exposure; low message competition; fair positional selectivity;  and sometimes limiting creative design options.

Website: High selectivity; low cost; immediacy; interactive capabilities; relatively low environmental impact; and user control.

Email Marketing Newsletters: highly customizable; engaging personalization; low cost per impressions; flexible delivery schedules; trusted for opt- and double-opt-in subscriber signups; excellent pass-along record; easy conversion from email to social networking; and consistent communications medium.