Radio marketing as the name suggests is that marketing which is done over the radio by the company, in this technological age of internet and mobile when even television is losing its relevance the question is why companies will advertise their products and services on the radio. Well, the simple answer to this question is that there are lots of people who still love to listen to the radio rather than watching television or mobile and where there are people or consumers than the companies are bound to market their products and services. In order to understand more about radio advertising, one should look at the advantages and disadvantages of radio marketing –
Advantages of Radio Marketing
Economical
The biggest advantage of radio marketing is that it is very economical compared to other forms of marketing like television marketing or internet marketing. In simple words, if the company is tight on budget and cannot afford the expensive forms of marketing than radio marketing is one of the best bet available with the company.
Movable
People often hear to radio when they are in car or are traveling and hence this form of marketing has that unique characteristic which is not the case with television advertising where advertisers can reach people even when they are not available at their home or office and hence can be very effective form of marketing in those places where people travel a lot.
Targeted Audience
In case of television marketing everyone watches company’s advertisement even if they are not the target audience but in case of radio marketing this is not the case and company can make targeted advertisements so as to reach the target audience resulting in good sales for the company’s products and services. Hence, for example, a college can market their graduate or post-graduate course to students through this medium as many students living in a hostel during their free time listening to the radio.
Disadvantages of Radio Marketing
No Video
The biggest disadvantage of radio marketing is that there is no video and we all know that video has a more lasting impact as compared to audio and since in case of radio advertising people only listen to advertisements chances are they will be less attracted to company’s product as compared to television advertising where potential customers of the company watch as well as listen about company’s product and services which improves the chances of consumers purchasing company’s products and services.
Lack of Universal Appeal
Television advertisements can be used by company on another medium also like company can create YouTube channel where it can put all their television advertisements or use the television advertisement in multiplex before the starting of movie and so on but as far as radio advertisements are concerned they lack this universal appeal as radio advertisement can be used on radio only and not on other forms of advertising.
No Creativity
In case of television advertising there are dozens of ways in which company can use their creativity so as to lure the customers towards company’s products but in case of radio advertising company’s hand are tied because with audio the scope of creativity is less resulting in radio advertisements being less creative than other forms of advertisements.
As one can see from the above advantages and disadvantages of radio marketing that although the reach of this form of marketing is not wide still it can prove to be effective for some products and services and that is the reason why companies should not ignore this form of marketing completely.