Heres an example of using the Objective and Task Method.

Suppose Cloud 9 energy drink wants to introduce a new natural energy drink, called Sunburst, for the casual athlete. Its objectives might be as follows: The company estimates 50 million potential users and sets a target of attracting 8 percent of the marketthat is, 4 million users. The advertiser hopes to reach 80 percent (40 million prospects) with its advertising message. The advertiser would be pleased if 25 percent of aware prospects (10 million) tried Sunburst. It estimates that 40 percent of all triers, or 4 million people, will become loyal users. The advertiser estimates that 40 advertising impressions (exposures) for every 1 percent of the population will bring about a 25 percent trial rate. A gross rating point (GRP) is one exposure to 1 percent of the target population. Because the company wants to achieve 40 exposures to 80 percent of the population, it will want to buy 3,200 gross rating points. To expose 1 percent of the target population (1 GRP) to one impression costs an average of Rs. 10,000. Therefore, 3,200 gross rating points will cost Rs. 32 million (= Rs. 10,000 3,200) in the introductory year.

Suppose the rate of product trial increases at a diminishing rate with the level of audience awareness, as shown in Figure 17.2 (a). If the advertiser seeks a product trial rate of T *, it will be necessary to achieve a brand awareness level of A*. The next task is to find out how many exposures, E *, will produce a level of audience awareness of A*. The effect of exposures on audience awareness depends on the exposures reach, frequency, and impact: Figure 17.2 (b) shows the relationship between audience awareness and reach. Audience awareness will be greater, the higher the exposures reach, frequency, and impact. There are important trade-offs here. Suppose the planner has an advertising budget of Rs. 1,000,000 and the cost per thousand exposures of average quality is Rs. 5. This means 200,000,000 exposures (Rs. 1,000,000 [Rs. 5/1,000]). If the advertiser seeks an average exposure frequency of 10, it can reach 20,000,000 people (200,000,000 10) with the given budget. But if the advertiser wants higher-quality media costing Rs. 10 per thousand exposures, it will be able to reach only 10,000,000 people unless it is willing to lower the desired exposure frequency. Total number of exposures (E) is the reach times the average frequency; that is, E = R F, also called the gross rating points (GRP). If a given media schedule reaches 80 percent of homes with an average exposure frequency of 3, the media schedule has a GRP of 240 (80 3). If another media schedule has a GRP of 300, it has more weight, but we cannot tell how this weight breaks down into reach and frequency. Weighted number of exposures (WE) is the reach times average frequency times average impact, that is WE = R F I.