Describe the adjustments that an advertiser of high-end laptops has to make to the cost-per-thousand measure

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Student answers will vary. The advertiser needs to apply several adjustments to the cost-per-thousand measure. First, they should adjust for audience quality. The product being high-end laptops, it is better advertised in a magazine read by 1 million college-going kids rather than 2 million housewives, in which case it would have an exposure value of almost zero. Second, the exposure value for the audience-attention probability must be accounted for. Readers of Chip or Digit may pay more attention to gadget ads than do readers of Newsweek. Third, the medium's editorial quality (prestige and believability) should be considered. People are more likely to believe a TV or radio ad and to become more positively disposed toward the brand when the ad is placed within a program they like. To this effect, the ads can be placed within a program like The Big Bang Theory. The fourth adjustment should be made in relation to ad placement policies and extra services (such as regional or occupational editions and lead-time requirements for magazines). Laptop ads would be better received and responded to in magazines that have greater circulation in urban areas with an office-going population or university towns with sizable student populations.