Introduction to Media Advertising

Media Plan for Cabela’s

Lynsie Jackson

Fall 2009
1. Executive Summary
Introduction
As a senior media buyer at Nicholson Kovac, I have created a detailed media

plan for Cabela’s. The target audience that I have chosen to focus on is “Fishing

Frequently”. I have further narrowed my target down by limiting my efforts to three

geographic locations. These locations are Billings, MT, Boise, ID, and La Crosse, WI.

This project was assigned a budget of $500,000 to $2 million and my plan spends a

total of $1,403,206 across 25 media vehicles. I believe that this plan will allow

Cabela’s to take full advantage of their advertising dollars.

Client Overview
Cabela’s is the world’s largest online, mail-order and retail outdoor outfitter.

Cabela’s was started by Dick Cabela in 1961. Cabela’s has now opened 29 locations

in the United States and one in Canada. Cabela’s stores are different from most

other stores because they are “destination” retailers (cabelas.com). The stores are

both retailers and tourist attractions. They offer a full experience with large

aquariums and professional quality wild-life displays for families to enjoy. In 1998,

Cabela’s expanded its product line to the web (cabelas.com). Customers can now

buy products online, in-stores, and by mail making it convenient for everyone.

Cabela’s carries a vast array of supplies and gear for the outdoor enthusiast.

It offers merchandise for hunting, camping, boating, and more. Cabela’s statement

reads, “The World’s foremost outfitter, we passionately serve people who enjoy the

outdoor lifestyle by delivering innovation, quality and value in our products and

services”. The standards that drive Cabela’s are “superior customer service,

integrity and honesty, quality products and service, respect for individuals,

and excellence in performance” (cabelas.com).

Chosen Product Line
Cabela’s focuses on providing for the outdoorsman but the product line that I

would like to promote is fishing. Cabelas.com has sub-divided fishing into 24

categories with numerous products in each. It carries a large amount of fishing

supplies and gear. Ice fishing, hard baits, and rods are just a few examples of

fishing product categories. Cabela’s caters to almost every imaginable need that a

fisherman, man, woman or child, may have and eliminates the need to go anywhere

else for fishing supplies.

Cabela’s faces many competitors to its fishing line. These competitors include

Bass Pro Shops (www.basspro.com), Boater’s World (www.boatersworld.com), The

Outdoor Shack (outdoorshack.com), Big Tackle (www.bigtackle.com), Bobber Stop

(www.bobberstop.com), and many more according to www.identicards.com, a

fishing, hunting, and wildlife product retailer.

Chosen Target Audience

My target audience for Cabela’s fishing supplies is “Fishing Frequently”.

Based on the research that I have compiled, the average person that fits into this

category is a male between 45 to 64 years of age. The angler is predominately

white, married, and has at least one child (Paul 4). This category is profitable for

Cabela’s to target because in 2006, 30 million Americans fished and spent $18.8

billion on fishing equipment (U.S. 23, 17).

The most prominent characteristic of this category is the enjoyment of

fishing. These men would use Cabela’s products while fishing. According to

Standard Rate Data Services’ Lifestyle Narratives, this group also places

significance on the “Great Outdoors”. The angler enjoys “camping/hiking and

hunting/shooting” as well as fishing. This category, also, likes “home workshops”,

“dogs”, and watches “sports on TV” (Lifestyle 41). Fishermen enjoy

“boating/sailing” and “recreation vehicles” as well. I believe that Cabela’s fishing

product line aligns perfectly with “Fishing Frequently”. This group of males enjoys

fishing and, as previously mentioned, Cabela’s offers a very large line of fishing

merchandise. Cabela’s should strive to harness the anglers’ billions of dollars in

purchasing power. In addition to covering their fishing needs, Cabela’s is capable of

addressing other needs the angler’s may have. This group is categorized as being

outdoor people and Cabela’s carries a wide variety of outdoor equipment. It has the

camping, hunting, and dog supplies that the angler may need to fulfill his other

interests as suggested by Lifestyle Narratives.

To further narrow my target audience, I have chosen to concentrate on three

main locations. These locations are Billings, MT, Boise, ID, and La Crosse, WI. The

criteria that I based my decisions on was at least 50,000 households, under two

hours of travel time to the nearest Cabela’s location, and ranked in the top 20 for

fishing lifestyle. Billings, MT was ranked tenth for lifestyle and has a Cabela’s in the

city so the customer would have minimal travel time. It has 49,041 households

which was less than my target of 50,000 but I decided it was close enough (Profiles

795-797). The cities with better ranking did not meet the other requirements and,

therefore, must be dismissed.

Boise, ID has 103,124 households which is more than double my target and

has a Cabela’s in the city so again there would be minimal travel time for the

customers. It is ranked 22nd for lifestyle which is slightly outside my criteria of 20

but it was the best suited when all the criteria was taken into consideration. Many of

the top 20 cities had very small populations or were hours from a Cabela’s location

making Boise, ID a better choice even though it was above my criteria. La Crosse-

Eau Claire (SRDS combined the data for these cities) has 102,011 households and is
ranked 17th for lifestyle (Profiles 795-797). La Crosse-Eau Claire is located an hour

and 20 minutes from the closest Cabela’s location which meets my two hour

requirement.

I believe that this target audience is ideal for Cabela’s fishing line. These men

ages 45 to 64, living in Billings, MT, Boise, ID, and La Crosse WI, enjoy fishing and

have buying power. I strongly believe that this is the market that Cabela’s needs to

direct its advertising efforts towards.

2. Target Audience Profile for “Fishing Frequently”

Psychographic Summary
• frequently fishes
• enjoys the outdoors
• enjoys hunting/shooting
• enjoys boating/sailing
• enjoys camping/hiking
• enjoys recreational vehicles

Demographic Summary
• Gender: Male
• Marital Status: Married with a family
• Age Range: 45-64 years old
• HH Income: $50,000 to $74,999

Geographic Summary
• Metro area priority No. 1: Billings, MT
• Metro area priority No. 2: Boise, ID
• Metro area priority No. 3: La Crosse, WI

3. Media Plan
Media Plan Overview
 The media plan that I have assembled for Cabela’s fishing line spends a total

of $1,403,206 across 25 media vehicles. These media vehicles include television,

radio, magazines, newspapers, internet, and Google.com keywords. I believe that

the plan that I have created will provide Cabela’s with the ultimate impact of their

advertising message. The media vehicles that I have purchased will put Cabela’s

message in front of the target audience at the optimum times, places, and

circumstances. It has the best opportunity to reach the target audience and only the

target audience, therefore, not wasting valuable dollars on uninterested audiences.

The first example of this is television. I decided to advertise on three different

television shows, Hook More Fish, Inside Sportfishing, and Fishing with Roland

Martin, which cost a total of $18,516 with an average CPM of $8.26. The audiences

of these three shows are interested in fishing and are in a fishing frame of mind

while watching. These advertisements are scheduled to appear in front of the

audience at a perfect time for them to consider purchasing fishing products.

The second example is radio. I decided to advertise on the top rated FM

Country station in each of the targeted cities. These stations are KCTR-FM (Billings),

KIZN-FM (Boise), and WCoW-FM (La Crosse) (Arbitron). These advertisements will air

during the targeted audience’s morning commute which is when they are most

likely to be listening to the radio throughout the day. I spent a total of $274,968 at

an average CPM of $8.96.

The third example of maximizing Cabela’s advertising dollar is magazines. I

chose to advertise in five fishing oriented magazines which have a focused

audience and a long shelf life. These magazines are The Fisherman, Fly Fisherman,

North American Fisherman, Sport Fishing, and Bass Times. I spent a total of

$400,699 at an average CPM of $28.08.

 The fourth example and my media type priority is newspaper. I chose to

place a full page advertisement in the Thursday edition of the newspapers of my

targeted cities. These newspapers are Billings Gazette, The Idaho Statesman, and

La Crosse Tribune. The advertisements will only run on Thursdays because this

edition is about the outdoors which aligns perfectly with my audience. It hits the

exact audience that Cabela’s is looking for and, therefore, any other day would be a

waste of money. I spent a total of $462,421 with an average CPM of $105.92.

The fifth example is internet. I chose to place banner advertisements on ten

different fishing oriented websites. These websites include Fishing.com, Fishing.net,

In-Fisherman.com, ActiveAngler.com, FlyFisherman.com, FishReport.net,

FishingWorks.com, Fishing.org, BassResource.com, and LandBigFish.com. The

content of these websites revolves around fishing which means that the audience is

already thinking about fishing when they view the advertisements. I spent a total of

$210,000.

The sixth and final example of effective money management is Google

keywords. I purchased six fish related keywords which are fishing, fishing gear,

fishing tackle, fishing rod, fishing lures, and fishing tips. I chose these keywords

because the target audience may use these while researching potential fishing

related purchases or information. The user is actively stating that he is interested in

and thinking about fishing. This is the perfect time to advertise to the audience. I

spent a total of $26,502.

Overall, I feel that this combination of spending is the best choice for

Cabela’s. It will effectively reach the target audience through a variety of media

vehicles. The different vehicles will be able to reinforce the advertising message

and create a full campaign. Repetition will be achieved not only in each vehicle but
through the media as a whole which will increase the chances of the target

audience remembering and responding to the message. This is the media plan that

will maximize the effect of Cabela’s message on the target audience.

Media Type Priorities

I chose to emphasize newspapers because they are able to reach my target

audience better than any other media vehicle. Newspapers are localized and,

therefore, are better able to focus on my specific audience in Billings, MT, Boise, ID,

and La Crosse, WI. The newspapers that I chose, Billings Gazette, The Idaho

Statesman, and La Crosse Tribune, are the only newspapers in their respective

cities so I will not loose any readers to a competitor newspaper. I was able to

specifically narrow-in on fisherman by advertising on Thursdays. The Thursday

newspapers carry outdoor information which is directed towards my audience

(Newspapers). I emphasized newspapers over the other media vehicles by placing a

full page advertisement in the outdoor section every Thursday for four consecutive

months. In emphasizing newspapers, I spent more on them than the other media

vehicles. I felt that the money spent was easily justifiable because my audience is

explicitly being targeted. In addition, I decided to practice continuous scheduling in

newspapers instead of flighting as I did in the other media vehicles. I felt that

newspapers were too capable of reaching my target audience to miss the

opportunity to communicate directly with them.

Media Plan Spreadsheets

Magazine Placements:
I chose to advertise in The Fisherman because its content revolves around

fishing which would be appealing to my target audience of “Fishing Frequently”. It is

published weekly and the advertisements will appear in weeks one through three of
March, April, May, and June. I chose not to advertise in week 4 because I wanted to

use the strategy of flighting. The audience often does not notice when a week is

skipped. I chose week 4 over the other weeks because people are often paid on the

last Friday of every month. I think that this is the week that the consumer will have

the least amount of expendable money and, therefore, would be the least important

week to advertise. It has a CPM of $28.23. I chose to advertise in Fly Fisherman

because its content is all about fly fishing and Cabela’s carries fly fishing supplies.

It is published bi-monthly and has a long shelf life. It has a CPM of $24.88. I chose to

advertise in North American Fisherman because its content aligns perfectly with my

target audience. It is published seven times a year so the advertisements will be ran

three times. They will appear in the March, April, and May/June issues. It has a CPM

of $14.23. I chose to advertise in Sport Fishing because my target audience would

be interested in its contents. It is published nine times a year and the

advertisements will appear in the March, April, May, and June issues. It has a CPM of

$38.44. I chose to advertise in Bass Times because it is about bass fishing and the

target audience is interested in fishing. It is published monthly and has a CPM of

$40.82. The figures and magazine information for which this data is based on was

obtained through SRDS Magazines.

Newspapers:
Newspapers are localized and, therefore, are better able to focus on my

specific audience in Billings, MT, Boise, ID, and La Crosse, WI. The newspapers that I

chose, Billings Gazette, The Idaho Statesman, and La Crosse Tribune, are the only

newspapers in their respective cities so I did not have any options when choosing

which newspapers to advertise in. I chose to advertise on Thursdays because the

newspapers carry outdoor information which is directed towards my audience. I

chose the Outdoor section in each newspaper because my target audience would be
most interested in this section. The target audience of “Fishing Frequently” enjoys

many outdoor activities so even if fishing was not featured that particular week,

there would still be content to interest them. I chose full page advertisements

because these newspapers are able to specifically target my audience. I chose 16

insertions for each newspaper because I wanted the target audience to see the

advertisements every week for four months. I chose to practice continuous

scheduling as opposed to flighting because I feel that newspapers are very effective

at reaching my target audience. The size and frequency also reflect the fact that I

am emphasizing newspapers over other media vehicles. The information about

these particular newspapers was obtained through SRDS Newspapers.

Radio:
I chose to advertise on one station in each of my three cities. I chose KCTR-

FM, KIZN-FM, and WCoW-FM because each had the highest ratings in their

respective cities for my chosen format. KCTR-FM is in Billings, MT and has a rating

of 15.7. KIZN-FM is in Boise, ID and has a rating of 5.7. WCoW-FM is in La Crosse, WI

and has a rating of 12.1 (Arbitron). The format that I chose to advertise in is

Country. I made this decision by first obtaining a list of all the radio stations in each

city from Arbitron Ratings Data. I eliminated all the formats that could not be found

in each city because I wanted to stay consistent in my format.

I would like to target the morning commute listeners in my target audience

and upon researching listeners’ in-car behavior, I found that “almost all in-car

listening goes to preset radio stations” (Michaels 19). I also found that “preset

buttons are programmed to far more FM stations than AM” (Michaels 20). For this

reason, I eliminated all AM stations. I put the remaining stations that I felt might

interest my target audience in order of rating and found that Country, Classic Hits,

and Classic Rock were among the top three. I ultimately decided on Country
because its ratings were significantly higher in every city. For example, KCTR-FM in

Billings, MT was rated 15.7 while the second highest rated stations was 5.9

(Arbitron). Country was clearly the preferred format in these cities and I felt that it

aligned well with my target audience. There are many country songs about fishing

and other activities that would appeal to the lifestyle of my target audience of

“Fishing Frequently”.

I chose 570 insertions for each radio station for the months of March, April,

May, and June. I chose 570 because I would like to advertise every day except for

the last week of every month. I chose to do this in accordance with my flighting

strategy.

Television:
I chose Hook More Fish because its content aligns well with my target

audience of “Fishing Frequently”. The show is about “fishing and outdoor

adventure, hosted by Shaun Rickard” (Hook). After researching the show’s schedule

I found that it airs Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. I chose to have 36

insertions during the months of March, April, May, and June. The advertisements will

only be seen once per airing because it is a 30 minute program. I chose not to

advertise in the last week of each month in accordance with my flighting strategy. I

chose Inside Sportfishing because it offers “information and advice on tackle

equipment, fish species, and more” (Inside). After researching, I found that Inside

Sportfishing is a 30 minute program that airs on Sundays and Tuesdays. I chose to

have 24 insertions during the months of March, April, May, and June. The

advertisement will only be seen once per airing because it is only a thirty minute

program and I am not emphasizing television. I will not advertise in the last week of

the month for the reasons previously mentioned. I chose Fishing with Roland Martin

because it is about fishing and “includes tips, news, and more” (Fishing). It airs
seven days a week and is a 30 minute program. I chose 95 insertions for the

months of March, April, May, and June. The advertisement will air weeks one

through three, seven days of the week and will be seen once per program.

Internet:
I chose Fishing.com because it is a website dedicated to fishing. The target

audience will be thinking about fishing while visiting the site and, therefore, it would

be a good time to advertise to them. This is the reason that I chose all of my

websites which include Fishing.net, In-Fisherman.com, ActiveAngler.com,

FlyFisherman.com, FishReports.net, FishingWorks.com, Fishing.org, Bass

Resource.com, and LandBigFish.com. The target audience may be looking up tips,

locations, or even researching products while visiting these websites. This would be

the perfect time and circumstance to advertise to them because they are already in

the fishing frame of mind. I chose 125,000 impressions per month for each site

except Fishing.com. It seemed like all of the websites except Fishing.com were

equally relevant to my target audience so I bought the same number of impressions

for each website. I chose this particular number of impressions because it was the

lowest quoted number and I felt that it would meet my advertising needs. I bought

215,000 impressions per month for Fishing.com because it is ranked first in

Google’s search results. I thought for this reason it would have higher traffic and

would need more impressions per month. The impressions will appear on the

websites in weeks one through three of March, April, May, and June. I am excluding

week 4 for reasons previously mentioned.

Google Keywords:
I chose fishing, fishing gear, fishing tackle, fishing rod, fishing lures, and

fishing tips for my Google keywords. I chose these keywords based on their search

volume in Google AdWords. Fishing was easily the most searched with a volume of
20,400,000 in October alone (Traffic). I chose six keywords because I used Google

Adword’s Traffic Estimator tool for the top fishing related keywords in my cities and

it showed little traffic. The large majority of the keywords that had a high search

volume using the previous tool, had zero to one clicks per day in Billings, MT, Boise,

ID, and La Crosse, WI. For this reason, I thought that six keywords would meet my

advertising needs. It seems like a waste of money to buy many keywords if they are

not being searched. I chose 1,220 clicks per month for fishing gear, fishing tackle,

fishing rod, fishing lures, and fishing tips. These keywords had zero to one click per

day for my targeted cities so I did not want to buy an excessive amount of clicks for

them. I decided ten clicks per day should be the minimum that I bought for any

keyword so I bought the minimum for these keywords. I chose 3,050 clicks per

month for fishing because it had 13 to 16 clicks per day for my targeted cities

(Keyword). I purchased 25 clicks per day for this keyword to allow for fluctuation in

clicks. I decided to allow for fluctuation in clicks for all the keywords that I

purchased because the data was not representative for my targeted months and,

therefore, may not be entirely accurate.

Schedule Spreadsheets
I chose to emphasis Thursday in newspapers because Thursdays carry the

Outdoor section which aligns well with my target audience of “Fishing Frequently”. I

did not emphasis a particular day of the week in the other media vehicles. I chose

flighting for my scheduling approach. I chose flighting because “advertising can be

concentrated in periods of high sales potential. It can be timed precisely to reach

the best purchasing cycle periods with little waste when buying is slow” (Sissors,

Baron 220). I considered week 4 to be a time of slow buying and, therefore, chose

not to advertise then with the exception of newspapers. I believe week 4 is a slow

week because many people are paid on the last Friday of the month and will have
the least amount of expendable money leading up to their pay check. I decided to

practice continuous scheduling with newspapers because I believe that they are the

most capable of reaching the target audience. For this reason, I am emphasizing

them.

I chose to focus my advertising efforts on March, April, May, and June. I chose

these months because according to the American Sportfishing Association, “more

fishing licenses are sold during the second quarter than any other time of the year”

(ASA). The second quarter is April, May, and June. I felt that this fact made these

months a clear choice for advertising. I chose March because it proceeds these

months and I want Cabela’s to be on the target audience’s mind when preparing for

the heavy fishing months.

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