Write short notes on Advertising through Magazines and Cost of advertising as a determinant of suitable medium.

Advertising through Magazines:

Other name given to the magazines is periodicals. They are published weekly, monthly, fortnightly and so on. There are different magazines for different people as per their age and interest. General magazines, those read by all, contain feature articles, news, stories etc, like India Today, Dharam Yug etc. Different magazines are children magazines that have stories of their interest like Tarzan, magazines for businessmen like Business India, sports magazines like Sports Week, women’s magazines like Famine, film magazines like Film fare, professional magazines like Indian Medical Journal etc. Cost involved in advertising a product in magazines is cheaper as compared to radio and TV.

They have longer life because they are read by people over a period of time. For example—office equipment, computers are advertised in business magazines. Medical books and instrument, drugs etc, are advertised in medical journals etc. It has got some limitations also. They are not published everyday but at periodical intervals as compared to newspapers. There is no flexibility in the choice of size and design of the advertisement. The design cannot be changed quickly as compared to newspaper.

Circulation is not certain i.e. magazines can be circulated to a limited number of customers or to the maximum number of customers. In other words, circulation of magazines does not always reveal or indicate the number of readers. Magazines are not widely read by customers as newspapers.

Cost of advertising as a determinant of suitable medium:

Cost factor should be considered while making the selection of a suitable medium. In order to analyses a medium, absolute cost and relative cost are involved. The actual charge for buying a certain amount of time and space in a medium is said to be the absolute cost.

For example—TV is more expensive than a newspaper. Relative cost is the absolute cost related to the size of the audience served by the medium chooser’. For example—two different magazines may charge the same amount for a page ad but circulation factor is more important in this case. If one magazine is circulated among a huge mass of people, businessmen would prefer to go for it rather than the one which is circulated among less individuals.