Abstract:

Today media planners are often faced with a wealth of information about consumers' media habits, use of products and services, demographics, and lifestyles. However, in marketing any particular product or service, it is often difficult to determine the most effective media mix to reach the consumer. In the past, the media planner has used demographics, geodemographics, psychographics, and other similar "...ics" to try and determine the particular characteristics of their target consumer. Once a marketer determines the characteristics of their target consumer, it is often a lengthy process to then determine which are the most likely media through which to address these people. For the past two years, we have been investigating whether or not it is possible to segment people by their media habits. If we can assign people to groups for whom we know their particular media habits, then cross-referencing these groups with users of any product or service will provide us with sufficient information to make an informed judgement about the most likely media source through which to market the product or service. Using a comprehensive media data base, we were able to identify 16 segments, each with different media habits.