Can Theories of Management Apply to Media Manager and Organisations - Essay Example

28 January, 2007 Can Theories of Management Apply to Media manager, Organisations and, are Such Theoretical Applications Redundant Discuss in Relation to the Film and TV Industries The media have emerged in recent decades as one of the most powerful influences in social and cultural change the world has ever known. The film and media industry is currently undergoing changes with historic proportions, posing tremendous challenges and opportunities. The television industry is fuelled by the proliferation of new delivery channels to carry a multitude of channels to consumers, new capabilities of these channels to carry a multitude of data in addition to the conventional video and audio programmes and the need to fill these channels with content. The main objective o media industries are successful customer acquisition and retention start with a focus on creating a positive return on investment to grow businesses through measurable marketing solutions that leverage the convergence of media and the newest technologies. Then why is it that anytime any news about the advertising or video game industry, both of which are massive profitable and pretty much icons of society and culture, they always claim to be struggling Are industries based upon rapid fire information inherently less stable than ones based on selling material goods How to turn creative ideas into a successful business How to adapt conventional business and management skills to the unpredictable market for culture Management theories are applicable in to cut across different industries that includes Film production and distribution Broadcasting, music industry, Publishing, Crafts and design, Computer software, games, animation consultancy and a survival kit for the small creative firms. The media manager in film and media enterprises focuses on the special relationship between creative imagination and strategic management. Efficient management skills cater for profit creative sector at the national and international level, including funding officers, project managers and policy makers. (Sharan & Surar, 15) In Media and TV industries, media manager's collaboration, togetherness, change in thinking cannot happen through annual conferences and conference room presentations. It needs to be a discipline and has to start from the top. There should be a set of management theories, which all media managers adhere to for better performance. The top manager will have to consciously become selfless, understand management theories practiced management skills can genuinely spread this culture in the workplace for this process to be successful. This will also eliminate mutiny in the ranks and help ideas to flourish! Management theories are applicable to all business organisations. Introduction to organisations and management includes: (1) PLANNING: Decision-making, the essence of a manager's job, foundations of planning, strategic management, planning tools and techniques .Media managers must develop own approaches to organisation, strategic planning and marketing develop critical faculties and research skills. Indeed there is a need to look into all aspects of branding and marketing from strategy and tactic development to budget allocations and metric tracking and integrating a variety of traditional and digital tactics. (2) ORGANISING: Organisational structure and design also includes Human resource management, managing change and innovation techniques. Media managers must acquire a critical overview of the commercial, legal and cultural frameworks within which creative and media enterprises operate. (3) LEADING: Leading the industry and the people, understanding groups and teams motivating employees, Leadership, managerial communication and interpersonal skills. Media managers must explore the business opportunities and make decisions in the environment of a rapidly changing media industry. The challenge for media corporations today is to keep pace with new technology and to continuously learn and create knowledge in this fast changing environment. (4) CONTROLLING: Foundations of control, Operations and value chain management. Acquire strategies which can be applied across the management of different enterprises and media in the commercial creative sector. As TV and media firms have begun to rely more heavily on the supply chain and the capabilities of their suppliers, both managers and researchers are coming to realize the true impact of supply-side disruptions. Business failures, disruptions or shutdowns among a firm's suppliers or in its inbound logistics channels can easily create a ripple effect of business interruptions throughout the supply chain. They can also seriously and strategically impact overall performance in the media industry. Media managers must formalized system that identifies such risks, quantifies the associated risks and then provides procedures, strategies and tactics aimed at either minimizing or eliminating such risks. (Malhotra, 19) Film and TV distribution agencies and the distribution of video product are being very significantly changed by digital technologies. However, there are many barriers to change inherent in the structure of many industries, and video product distribution is no exception. Media Management provide knowledge and understanding of the multidisciplinary field of media management, encompassing media technology and its basic components as well as market studies, business development, organization and economics. Media managers should acquire the knowledge and skills to manage and develop enterprises in the media industry or enterprises using media communication in their business activities. Efforts are necessary to produce markets, even more so if media managers work according to some standard that is considered acceptable for society at large. Media managers must investigate the effects of digital distribution, personal video recorders, small form factor video displays, and video on demand, on the film and TV industry, from the perspective of film studios. As media and TV firms operate in increasingly dynamic and turbulent environments, the acquisition of (1) appropriate and (2) timely information & knowledge has come to be seen as critical. It has become a kind of information competition; firms increasingly realize that they compete in their abilities to access, acquire, appraise and use information. (Malhotra, 12) Media managers must have various perspective on the evolution of media business, must relevant management changes facing by TV and film industries and points for a possible response mechanism. Consumer Behavior Good consumers managing skills offers knowledge about how people work and how to make sure that marketing actions will have maximum effect. Management research and theories on marketing and psychology are used to gain knowledge of how consumers think and act all the way through the buyer decision process. Media manages must look back at traditional research mechanisms .The ultimate aim of most advertising is to sell brands Different consumers receive different messages communicated by different channels at varying speeds. They process the information according to their needs and certainly differently according to the category involvement. Consumers with limited time may not necessarily follow the traditional approach of hierarchical effects. Why must then consumers fit their thinking into a preconceived structure practiced over the years As advertising is aimed at reinforcing the brand's equity in the consumer's mind, manager's management research and patterns provide evidence of source and quality of exposure in order to identify consumer clusters and tailor make communication plans. Client and agency must have achievable, common goals. The lack of knowledge at agencies proved a nightmare for some advertisers having to deal with various service providers, since the advertisers needed other options. It is extremely essential, more than ever before, for media and TV agencies to acquire in-depth understanding of the various touch points guide the advertiser with credible information and enhance the quality of the communication investment. The Media Plan The terms media plan and media strategy are used to convey the techniques of effective communication delivery to consumers. The recipients of communication are different, they may have different characteristics, and consequently the media needed to reach them will be different. The Integrated Marketing Communication has realized this and uses multiple channels of media like advertising, public relations, events, direct response media etc. The success of this integrated method in entertainment-education (edutainment) as pro-social messages embedded into drama, skits, street plays and road shows coupled with other traditional modes of communication have yielded excellent results in family planning, literacy, nutrition and conservation. Media selection Selection of media is no easy task. The selection of media is often under severe constraints often due to inadequate budgetary provision. Hence, it is difficult to decide which medium will reach the desired targets and produce the highest return on profit. Some times the media will have to be multiple types and should decide what percentage of allocation should be given to each type. Therefore, before establishing specific media objectives it is also essential to focus on how the media affect your advertising goals. Although your ultimate marketing goal for most goods is to sell more product (or services or image), unless your audience finds out about the product through the media that you use, that goal is unlikely to be reached (Katz 36). In this context, it is interesting that the new media is overshadowing the traditional media. Technology has brought about greater access to the new media. The possibility of doing without hardcopies has brought down overheads in the production of various types of magazines now available in the e-format. There is a flood of e-zines and blogs in the net today. Because of the possibility of personal participation from anywhere, these are becoming very popular and studies show that the advertisements in these new media are very effective and their reach is increasing day by day with limited cost. Measurement Approaches Reach and frequency are the important indicators of performance. However, the reliability of their data is often very doubtful. However, in the absence of any other foolproof yardsticks to measure advertisement effectiveness we still have to depend on them while we are trying to enhance their reliability. The problem is all the more serious when there is a media mix. It is a challenge to the media planner to be able to consider telephony and PR along with broadcast medium, print media and the blogs and e-zines as he does not have a toolkit to gauge the degree of effectiveness between these media. Therefore, the first task is to develop a proper tool that will measure the media effectiveness of types separately and when they are used in combination. The plethora of media available for our selection has put the business of communication with a mine of opportunities. The approach to media based only on number and reach may not be suitable in integrated marketing communication. The insistence on researched data for choosing the media might stifle creativity because the integrated marketing communication has a strong element of creativity in it. The creative choice process involves weighing the comparative strengths of scientific and mystical approaches as to which will be more effective in swaying a given audience (a target universe, as mass communicators often label it)(Orlik 56). The power of message that hits through all the channels develops so much of synergy and the extent of the synergy may not be measured. The synesthetic synergy, however, explains how simultaneous media usage may reinforce messages to create a response larger than the source of the messages themselves (Pilotta et al). Whether communication is an art or science is still debatable. Even if we accept communication as a science, we will have to concede that it has characteristics of art. Methods of Dissemination in Communication Perhaps the most effective method of communication is the face-to-face or the interpersonal. It is very human in content and experience and often is recalled as a cherished or terrible experience. Perhaps this was the only tool available to the primitive man. Technology progressively replaced the human factor in communication. However, the audiovisual media has the many features of the primitive with the availability of sight sound and movement and the added advantage of enabling communication to masses and from distances. Studies have underlined the effectiveness of this media in sending persuasive messages. When the visual element is absent the media is called audio media (loud speakers and radio) and the audio element is absent it is called visual media (cartoons pictures, statistical data). Print media made up of newspapers, magazines, handouts etc are other well-known tools for marketing communication. The media can support one another. Print media can highlight what is in the broadcast media and similarly radio can give coverage about what is in the press. Criteria for Selection of Media One of the conditions for the selection of a particular media is its acceptability to the targeted audience. However there can be constraints of availabity of that media and the capability of harnessing that media in a milieu; the media may not available to the target group. Another factor to be considered in media selection is the timeliness of the production. The adage the early bird catches the worm is nowhere more true than in marketing communication. An immediate opportunity has to be communicated as fast a possible and lag due to production time constraints and dissemination problems might make the message improperly timed. Quantity is important, as certain volume of one medium has to be sufficiently supported by another medium of a certain volume to achieve optimum result. Finally, there is the suitability criterion of language, vocabulary graphics etc used in the communication. A newspaper advertisement will be an exercise in futility for an illiterate target group. Media planning in the competitive business environment is no frivolous task and media managers can leave nothing to chance in this field. Conclusion Management principles and theories gave managers, the freedom to develop a more 'rounded' perspective of cultural practice and moreover, evolve own opinions, on a fragmenting media landscape. Firstly, with management practitioners in the creative and media industries, improved know-how in marketing and organisation management, but also it enlightened knowledge of imagination, creativity and the significance of intellectual property rights. Significantly, these management tools and knowledge are the fundamental elements in achieving sustainable and original success in the industry. Secondly, as the nature of creative and media enterprises relies much on networking between and among individuals and organizations, the management styles helped media manages to develop a personal network with people from diverse backgrounds. Media managers must relate the changing scope and direction of marketing in the context of structural changes in the creative media industries, effectively practice marketing techniques and strategies of the structural dynamics of markets and supply chains and must concerned with emerging business models and marketing strategies which respond to the needs of contemporary creative and media enterprises. (Malhotra, 20) Woks Cited Blankenship A B, and Doyle J B. Marketing Research Management. The American Management Association, 2001. 11-12 Katz Helen. The Media Handbook: A Complete Guide to Advertising Media Selection, Planning, Research, and Buying. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ. 2003.P. 36. Kao Henry S R, Sinha Durganand, and Wilpert Bernhad. Management and Cultural Values. Sage Publication. London. 139-140 Malhotra A M. Management and Media. Careers, Delhi.2005.11-21 Orlik Peter B.: Electronic Media Criticism: Applied Perspectives. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Mahwah, NJ. 2000. P.56. Pilotta Joseph J.and Schultz Don.Simultaneous Media Experience and Synesthesia. - Journal of Advertising Research. Volume: 45. Issue: 1. 2005. Page Number: 19+. Sharan M B, and Surar Damodar. Management Through Interpersonal Relationships. Jaico Publishing House.Mumbai:2003.15-17 Read More