Advertisers must select media through which to send their messages. The major types of advertising media are: 1) print, 2) broadcast, 3) direct, 4) location. Furthermore, the advertiser also has to decide which particular vehicles within each medium to use. For example, if the selected medium is magazines, which vehicle(s) (Time, TV Guide, etc.) should be selected? These decisions must take advertising objectives, information to be communicated, and funds available for advertising into consideration.
The more alike members of a vehicle's audience are in one or more characteristics that are important to the advertiser, the greater the qualitative selectivity. Thus, a dress manufacturer that wants to advertise to larger-sized women should consider BBW (formerly Big Beautiful Women) magazine to be more qualitatively selective than Cosmopolitan. The greater the vehicle ability to reach people in selected areas, the greater its geographical selectivity. Southern Living offers more geographical selectivity than Better Homes and Gardens. But using highly selective vehicles can be dangerous if the marketer has not defined the target market clearly. The ads could miss (not reach) important market segments.
More frequently, advertisers want to use the knowledge of learning theory that shows that consumers can learn to discriminate between brands. Therefore, the promotional strategy may be based on positioning the brand so that consumers will differentiate it from the competition. In many instances, learning becomes so entrenched that a habit develops and the consumer buys the same brand without even being aware of the learning experience that originally led to the purchase. Under such circumstances, it is extremely difficult for advertising to get consumers to switch brands. To counter strongly entrenched buying habits, significant innovation and a heavy level of promotion are usually needed.
