10 biases to avoid in making media plans!!

When I was coached in the process of market research a lot of literature talked of the biases in respondent response to the questionnaire and how one could plan to avoid such biases. As, I entered the field of media planing, I often heard people joking about the 'CEO bias' which is said to exist in the manner of selection of hoardings for a campaign.. such that the key hoardings on the route that the CEO often takes were ensured to be part of the campaign.

I realize that the field of outdoor media has evolved much more since then and is as professionally managed now as the regular mass media agencies. However, we must realize that there are some biases that may still creep in if we are not too careful in following the structured process of media planning. Here, I will talk of the possible biases in making mass media plans:

(The biases mentioned below are not in any order of importance)

1. Prestige Bias: A man is known by the media properties he buys and more so in the small community of brand and media professionals. Though, well-meaning the media buyers often stray towards this bias pushed by sheer peer pressure.
2. Lifestyle Bias: In the process of evaluating media in terms of what is suitable for the target consumers, often the media professionals overlay their media experiences (or of their close family and friends) even though  their lifestyle may not be representative of the lifestyle of the supposed target consumer. These experiences and the derived leanings are at best anecdotal and do not have any statistical significance.
3. Offer Bias: At times, a media vehicle or property becomes a part of a media plan just because of the deal or the offer that is available on the buy. The attractiveness of the buy is just too strong and overrides any other logic that may indicate against buying the media vehicle or property.
4. Influencer Bias: This is very akin to the CEO bias that was talked of for hoarding buys earlier. As a result of this, one often ends up skewing buys to media vehicles that are more likely to be viewed by the influencers. The influencers often are the executives at the client side and the bias may often be just due to 'percieved expectations' and hence often unnecessary.
5. Visibility Bias: A majority of the plans are made only for visibility as the primary deliverable and hence most syndicated media research available is also structured to provide a measure of just visibility. However, often when a plan deliverable is not just visibility even then the planners include media vehicles in the plan from the perspective of visibility thus resulting in a visibility bias.
6. Format Bias: Just as in cricket a batsman sometimes commits himself to a stroke very early and plays that stroke irrespective of the nature of the delivery - the same happens in media if the planning team commits themselves to a specific exposure format too early without adequate investigation of the format options available across media. 
7. Competitor Bias: In an attempt to do outdo the advertising of its competitor a team may stray towards this bias and indulge in media interventions that are purely reactive and are not aligned to the media priorities otherwise defined for the brand or campaign.
8. Role Bias: Traditionally, there were some roles that were defined for each media which have been used as thumb rules for media mix decisions over the years. However, the nature of media have changed so much now that most of the classical theories of the role of each media can be challenged. Blindly following the traditional rules of media selection therefore may cause this Role Bias.
9. Success Bias: Some campaigns perform wonderfully and the success rightly or wrongly get attributed to some specific elements of the campaign. Teams may have the tendency to then replicate the same elements of the campaign for subsequent campaigns hoping for the same magic again ignoring looking at the facts relevant to the current campaign.
10. Novelty Bias: In an effort to be in with the latest happenings in media brands often align with anything that is new or is a novelty. Such investments may not always be the most optimal means of brand association though there may be other benefits of being such an adventurous brand.

The simplest way to avoid these biases is to just look afresh at every campaign and follow the structured process of media analysis and plan development. Do share with me if you feel there are any other biases or how you ensure that you avoid any of the above biases.

Happy planning,