Research Paper on Radio Advertisements

Effectiveness of Radio Advertisements

Advertisements are a crucial aspect of marketing that primarily deals with communication of a company's information to a significant audience. According to Krishna (2014), the advent of the technological revolution significantly affected advertisement and the media platforms used. The two main types of ads are electronic and print media. The findings of the research further indicated that more people are inclined towards using electronic media compared to print media. A further breakdown of the advertisements includes the use of radios, direct mails, television, social media platforms, and newspapers among others. This research paper seeks to analyze radio advertisements, how they have been used in the contemporary society as well as their effectiveness.

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Radio Advertisements

Radio advertisements are a form of electronic media advertisements that are used by companies to commercialize their activities. Additionally, radio advertisements are a paid form of persuasive communication that targets the public and are conveyed through radio broadcasts. These commercials aired on radio stations on behalf of organizations are aimed at promoting the goods or services the company provides. The information conveyed on radio platforms are informative to existing and potential customers and aim at influencing their purchasing behaviors; as a result, affect the company's sales levels.

The Effectiveness of Radio Advertisements

The customers are the ultimate determiners of whether a form of advertisement is effective or non-effective. Therefore, companies should assess the attractiveness of an advertisement strategy on targeted customers to determine its effectiveness. Research on the most preferred type of advertisement among timber companies revealed that radio advertisements were the most effective marketing strategy in comparison to television advertisements (Oblak & Glavonjic, 2014). The study further acknowledged that close to 78% of advertisers prefer radio advertisements, despite the combined elements of sound and picture that televisions utilize to make commercials. The decline in the use of TV advertisements is attributed to the increased effectiveness of radio advertisements

The different factors that determine the effectiveness of radio advertisements include the form of advertisements used, the frequency and presentation of the ad, measurability, cost-effectiveness, and expediency among others. An assessment of the afore-mentioned factors ensures a company appropriately utilizes radio platforms to market their products or services; as a result, achieve high effectiveness. The different forms of radio advertisements give a company the liberty to choose the manner in which they would prefer to position the company's products and services to radio listeners. These radio forms include the radio mentions, produced spots, sponsored spots, humorous, and jingled commercials. The different forms of radio advertisements have their merits and limitations.

Radio mentions are commonly referred to as live reads and involve the announcement of commercials by the radio presenters (Perello-Oliver & Muela-Molina, 2017). The announcer is solely responsible for the advertisement outcome. Radio presenters who do a great advertisement job positively influence the company's sales; as a result, the effectiveness of the radio advertisement is achieved. Additionally, the live reads stand out compared to the pre-recorded advertisements whose repetition minimizes its influencing capabilities on existing and potential customers. On a similar note, advertisements made by the audience's favorite presenter are more likely listened to and have a significant influential index compared to an advert made by any other radio presenter.

By a different token, the sponsorship spot is a customized form of advertisement that demands a higher pay since it conveys information more directly. Most of the ads that are popular use these commercials to reach their audience. Sponsorship spots are an effective radio advertisement strategy since the advert mentions the company names; as a result, the company's position is reinforced. Similarly, straight reads take a direct approach in the advertisement of the company's products. The announcers present essential information such as the business name, address, and the commercials. This form of advertisement is different from the other types since the radio presenter refers to the advert copy issued by the company. The presenter is inhibited from adding any additional information into the advert. Lastly, the humorous and jingled commercials are also important strategies companies adopt in radio advertisements to increase the effectiveness of the adverts. Humor and jingles both have an element of memory which ensures the listener thinks of the advert as often as possible.

According to Hee & Yen (2018), broadcast advertisements positively affect consumer purchasing behavior. Therefore, companies that appropriately utilize radio advertisements stand a chance of realizing increased sales which can be achieved through audience targeting. Radio advertisements are an effective marketing strategy that quickly and directly conveys intended information to the targeted audience. This factor gives companies an upper hand on choosing the appropriate station to make their advertisements. As a result, the advertisement's effectiveness increases since the right information is passed to an appropriate audience. To exemplify, local radio stations primarily convey local information about news and events. Therefore, company's operating from the same locality mostly utilize the local radio station to market their local brands.

The effectiveness of local radio stations is attributed to its selectivity, and flexibility (Oblak & Glavonjic, 2014). The selectivity aspect allows advertisements on radio stations to be tailored to the targeted audience resulting in increased effectiveness. Audience targeting on the local radios is achieved through message localization aimed at meeting the needs of a specific market segment. The alterations of the adverts based on the targeted audience rely on factors such as demographics, economic status, and the programs on the radio station. Demographic factors primarily taken into consideration include gender and age. An assessment of these factors gives companies required information to make decisions on the most appropriate radio station to make their advertisements. Additionally, insights into the kind of programs aired by a specific radio station will play a critical role in ensuring an advert fits smoothly into the program breaks. Therefore, the effectiveness of radio advertisements depends on the company's ability to evaluate various factors; as a result, determine the most appropriate radio station to air their adverts.

The approach adopted in the presentation of an advertisement on the radio plays a critical role in determining the effectiveness of radio advertisements. The availability of varied strategies including the use of funny clips in making advert presentations increase the effectiveness of the advert. The creation of humorous adverts takes a lot of effort and is not readily achievable since different people have varied opinions of the definition of funny. However, the successful creation of a funny clip for a broader audience is a win-win situation for both the company and the radio station resulting in an effective radio advertisement. An additional strategy incorporated into adverts entails the use of music to make an ad. According to Martin-Santana, Reinares-Lara and Muela-Molina (2015), music arouses the interest of the audience resulting in advert effectiveness and credibility. Additionally, this strategy improves effectiveness through silence avoidance, and also the introduction of the consistency element.

Radio advertisements are highly effective due to their level of expediency. Adverts on radios can be aired within a short period after request, and the companies can make any adjustments within a short notice. Additionally, the production of a radio advert does not involve too many tasks and can be compiled within one week. The main elements required in the advert script include imagination, voice talent, and sound effects. These elements are crucial for the production of a quality advertisement. Poor quality can compromise the penetration speed of the radio advert to the targeted audience. Companies that focus on the production of quality advertisement scripts have their adverts capture the attention of the listeners from the start. Therefore, the effectiveness of the radio adverts increases with the quality of the advertisements. Moreover, the expediency of quality radio advertisements increases their effectiveness as a marketing tool.

The production and broadcasts of radio advertisements are affordable compared to TV advertisements that incorporate visuals (Prithvi, & Dash, 2013). As a result, most companies prefer to use radio adverts whose effectiveness is associated with increased revenues due to decreased costs and increased sales. Some radio stations offer free advert productions for advertisements made on radio.

Additionally, radio advertisements on local stations are more cost-effective in the advertisement of local brands. Similarly, radio advertisements yield measurable results which can be evaluated within a short period. Radio adverts have a fast turnaround time where companies devise measures to address advertisements aired with no results. As a result, high efficiency is attained since at no time does the organization spend its resources on advertisements that yield no returns. Moreover, a company should invest in high-frequency ads for the audience to grip the information passed through the adverts. The number of times a commercial is aired to the targeted audience increases its effectiveness as a form of a radio advertisement. The company should also be wary that the ads do not run for an exceeding number of times to avoid the nagging effect on the listeners.

Conclusion

Conclusively, the effectiveness of radio advertisement relies on various influencing factors such as the presentation strategy, the targeted audience, and the form of radio advertisement adopted. In this regard, companies that appropriately invest in radio advertisement significantly benefit from its effectiveness. Companies make radio advertisements to achieve the following goals. Firstly, the adverts focus on presenting attractive company products; as a result, influence the purchase decisions of hesitant buyers. Secondly, the advertisements could introduce new habits on product use as a marketing strategy.

The third goal is to provide informative information regarding new inventions on current products and the introduction of new products to the market. Fourthly, the advertisements focus on creating confidence among the customers as a measure of maintaining customer loyalty. Lastly, an achievement of the afore-mentioned goals results in increased sales and output growth. Taking into consideration the mentioned uses of advertisements, firms should fully exploit radio advertisements to gain a competitive advantage in the market they operate. Radio advertisements are more convenient and beneficial due to factors such as cost-effectiveness, expediency, measurability, and targeted audience among others.

References

Hee, O., & Yen, W. (2018). The influence of advertising media towards Consumer behaviour in the food and beverage industry in Malaysia. International Journal of Human Resource Studies 8(2), 148-163.

Krishna, I. (2014). Effectiveness of Print and Electronic media Advertisement: A Comparative Study. International Research Journal of Social Science, 3(7), 23-28.

Martin-Santana, J., Re...