Place ads in segmented media to reach their target: Experts

Place ads in segmented media to reach their target: Experts

JAKARTA (JP): The president of the Indonesian chapter of the
International Advertising Association, Yanti Sugarda, advised
advertisers on Thursday to choose a medium which had a clear
market segment.

Speaking at a marketing and advertising seminar here, Yanti
named The Jakarta Post and Femina women's magazine as media with
the clearest market segments.

She said the Post was a very suitable medium to advertise
automotive, airline, tourist and banking products and services
while Femina was suitable for advertising fashion, cosmetics and
household appliances.

"Advertisers do not want to waste their money by discovering
their messages don't reach their targeted consumers," she told
the seminar organized by the Gramedia Group.

Yanti predicted that advertising expenditures by Indonesian
companies would drop by at least 50 percent this year as most
local companies here had reduced spending in advertising.

She predicted that advertising expenditure going to newspapers
would drop to Rp 1.41 trillion (US$128 million) this year from Rp
2.68 trillion last year.

Similarly, she said, ad spending in magazines was likely to
drop to Rp 775 billion from Rp 1.54 trillion, and in radio would
drop to Rp 126 billion from Rp 311 billion last year.

Yanti did not give a figure for ad spending going to
television, which normally takes the largest portion of all ad
expenditure.

She added that the advertising business in Indonesia would
continue to have a gloomy outlook next year due to uncertainty in
the country's economic and political climate.

Meanwhile, marketing and advertisement expert Rhenald Kasali
from the University of Indonesia echoed Yanti's suggestion and
said that advertisers had to know exactly what and who their
market segment was.

After identifying their market segment, their advertisements
should also be appropriate for the targeted segment.

Studying such market segmentation was necessary, Rhenald said,
because the prolonged economic crisis had brought about changes
in market segments due to changes in consumers' spending habits.

Rhenald said the crisis had brought down those in the middle
class to the lower segment primarily because they had lowered
their spending standards to cope with the worsening economic
situation.

"There is a down shifting in the market. People have changed
their habits from heavy users to light users. They also look to
cheaper brands because they have to adjust their spending to be
more in line with their economic situation," Rhenald said at the
seminar.

"Middle-class people, for example, are now shopping in
traditional markets instead of in malls, using traditional
medicines instead of modern medicines, and buying shampoo in
small plastic packs instead of in bottles," he said. (rid)