Media Fragmentation Analysis

Broadcasting Advertisement Assignment

Commercials are interval part of American society, and it is becoming the dominant form of medium today for advertising and building brands. Commercials, by definition, the way in which commerce is marketed for sales. In chapter 11 in Arens’ “Advertising” book, he lays out some of the grounds rules and the fundamentals radio and television broadcast commercials.

Arens - Television (TV)

TV is still considered a large mass medium for producing commercials for advertisement. TV builds awareness of something in a fairly quickly. TV production is costly, but it can give exposure at a high rate. There are two forms of stations for TV – broadcast and cable. Broadcast TV because it encompasses news and entertainment;

Cable has specialized programs for specific types of people, with specific types of interest. This way advertisers can easily market to their potential customers. In some cases the cost for advertisement on Cable TV could be as reasonable as a radio broadcasting segment. On the other hand, advertising on cable TV, especially local cable, the quality of the commercial can be poor in regard to production. Another disadvantage is if fragmentation. Cable has a surplus of channels that viewers can watch, and because of this and commercial needs to circulate of various channels. This must be done to reach a maximum

People tend to listen to the radio unaccompanied. In comparison to TV broadcasting, radio broadcasting has its pros and cons as well. The average person listens to the radio more than three hours per day. A person only reasonable option in car is listening, and a person typically listens to the radio. This gives advertising on radio an advantage because it builds a large audience rather quickly. This means advertisers can reach, with a regular advertising schedule, can have a greater impact of its audience.

In contrast, radio broadcasting has its disadvantages as well. Radio commercials do not have any visuals to accompany it. This is a crucial limitation of radio. If a product must be seen to have the best impact, then radio may not be the best avenue for advertising. Despite, radio having intimacy and a type of one on oneness with its listeners, no visuals is a major drawback. Another drawback of radio broadcasting is segmented audience. This basically is when multiple radio stations are competing for the same audience. Therefore, advertisers will need to purchase slots on multiple radio stations, and this can be quite costly. Lastly, radio advertisements are often short-lived and half-heard. This is mainly because radio competes with other activities for attention, and unfortunately, it does not always