Media Strategy by Narayanmoorthy as on 29/08/2013

"No survey is error free"






Before we begin, the all important 'Ground Rules:

•                No. Noise!

•                Don’t Prompt. “You’ll not open your mouths until you’ve my permission to do so”

•                Patience is a Virtue…

•                Punctuality is a value your generation doesn’t know much about. “None will enter my class after I’ve done so. Period.”

Concepts. 

Concepts are the very basics of this Industry, it is akin to a foundation of a building it has to be strong lest the building will fall, rest assured. 

Research 

Indian Readership Survey began in 1971, Dr. Bhouser the father of Operations Research Group (Baroda) covered only Urban India, 1981 a joint research by IMRB and Operations Research Group with both Urban and Rural Group 

1983 another joint research with IMRB was published. 

1989 another joint research with IMRB was published. 

The research were far and few and the surveys needed to

have shorter time gaps between them and there was very

little co-operation between Research and Advertising

Agencies. Roda Mehta the Legend, Iconic and the Goddess of Research knew the true objective of media research and knew well enough to know that it wasn't immersive enough. With much resistance, a joint industry commission in 1989 was formed.  

With the founding members of MURC being:

Mohini Bhullar Living Media (I) Ltd	Shekar Swamy R K Swamy/BBDO Advtg
Pheroza Billimoria Business India	Mukul Upadhyaya Bajaj Electricals Ltd
K Kurian Radeus Advertising	Brahm Vasudev Hawkins Cookers Ltd
O P Nijhara Cadbury India	Roda Mehta O&M / Hansa Vision

Media Research Users Council was formed in 1994. The one main trait that they did want to tackle at the earliest was that there be continuous research instead of being spaced out over such long intervals. It is an industry body that is non-profit.  

•                Research conducted at regular intervals

•                Capturing relevant information on growing media and product ownership & consumption based on industry needs

•                Well-validated data, ensuring high levels of accuracy, adequate sample size, good representation on sample spread

The key intents of MURC are:

•      1. To determine the needs and frequencies of research and/or surveys required for the assessment of various media for advertising. 2. To conduct surveys and/or research into the readership, viewership and/or listenership of various media for advertising such as newspapers and periodicals, television, radio, outdoor hoardings and all other media, which carry advertisements. 3. To maintain and propagate the highest possible standards of integrity, fairness and reliability in media research and to ensure that its output are not misused to convey a misleading impression by or to any party. 4. To disseminate the findings of such surveys and/or research as are mentioned in Point 2 above through any medium with or without charge. 5. To develop and disseminate software and other methods of handling media research and other data. 6. To provide a forum for the discussion and resolution of disputes and/or issues relating to media research. 7. To provide, maintain and uphold fair, sound, ethical and healthy principles and practices of media research. 8. To promote better understanding of the benefits of fair, sound and ethical media research amongst media, advertisers and advertising agencies. 9. To represent, protect, inform and guide the members of the Company on matters relating to media research.

IRS came out with their reports in 1995, 1997 respectively. This was mainly with respect to print media, since print readers don't change overnight, the 2 year gap was an accepted norm. 

Sample : A representative sample, There are two main kinds of a sample, one being Heterogeneous mix and the other Homogenous. A large sample needs to be present. 

The IRS questionnaire takes almost 4 hours to administer the questionnaire. 


A Rolling Sample : Divide the country into 2 main parts, South-West and North-East, first 6 months North-East and the next 6 months South-West, today IRS comes out once a quarter. 

IRS is the world's largest sample survey, wherein it's sample survey is about 3 lakhs and costs crores to bring about. 
IRS bases it's report on the following yardstick

• -> Consumers (Indian)
• 
-> Media
•  
-> Brand (only if there are enough subscribers)

But 'respondent fatigue' is a real danger whilst administering the questionnaire and this needs to be kept in mind.


Fundamental Object :


-->  Habit

 
--> Frequency 


"Have you read or looked at an issue of -- in the last - ?" this is the exact question of for both 'habit' and 'frequency'. 


India has over 40, 000 publications and thus invariably the questionnaire is area specific. 

The name of the publication is never spoken out for every publication has a DNA and this can influence the one who's answering the questionnaire. Thus the 'Masthead Recognition Method' is used where as the name suggests a publication's masthead is used to identify the said publication. 



Habit                                                         Frequency

Daily             Yesterday                             Last 7 Days

Weekly           Last 7 days                         Last 4 Weeks

Fortnight        Last 2 Weeks                      Last 3 Months

Monthly          Last Month                         Last 6 Months

Why do we need ese two questions? 

AIR or Regular Readerships is assured by Habit question whilst the Frequency gives

out the claimed readership. 

Principle of Audience Accumulation. 

Conditions for the same: 

-> Even f you look at something you're considered a reader

-> Which issue doesn't matter

-> Where you read the paper also doesn't matter 

All media metrics, reach and opportunity to see are essentially derived from this

question.It is also to establish some demographics. 

Schedule 1 and Schedule 2. 

Schedule 1 is an 'household schedule' under which you've the following fields:

Social Class, Ownership of consumer durables with the likes of TV, Refrigerator etc. 

Schedule 2 is an 'individual schedule where you've the following fields:

Age, Gender, Deos, Soap, etc.

Usually the survey is done in such a way as to randomise the sample that a voters list

is picked and then a right hand/left hand side rule is followed. 

The questions that establish demographic are 

·      Age

·      Gender

·      Occupation

·      Population of the Household

·      Education

·      Monthly Household Income

·      Socio Economic Class

With Monthly Household Income being the most unreliable part of IRS,

underclaim and overclaim is a serious problem and calculation of household

income is very difficult. 

In 1978, IIM-A was approached to device a new way of getting household

income and then they came up with SSC. 

Where the concept of Chief Wage Earner was instrumental in knowing one's SSC and

factors influencing that were two primarily:

Education 

Occupation. 

Someone with a plum job, meant that he was highly educated as well and thus his SSC-A and this was proportional, lesser degree of education meant lower the tier

of occupation and this entitled you to SSC-D. 

New SSC is based on ownership specific durables. 

Non-Standard-Demographic 

     (Family Structure)    

                 ||

Education of the Housewife

                 ||

Improving the way of living

A Discriminant Variable (needs to be identified)

Advertising is 30, 000 Crores industry. IRS does not take into account Psychograpgic

but only depends on Demographic 

What you think (Psychographic)|What you are (Demographic)|What you do (Lifestyle) 

Opinion is psychographic. 

IRS takes only two yardstick for lifestyle, them being 'foreign travel' and 'credit card' 

There is a dire need for psychographics. Target Group Index that covers both the

psychographic and demographic but the sample size of it is too small (30, 000)

though.  TGI's data is not vey rich but it is better than nothing. 

IRS takes its sample from any individual who's 12 years and above. TGI considers only

SSC C and above.