MEDIA BUYING

Buying media is a specialized skill, which requires knowledge of your target clients, consumer behavior, the media, and the criteria used to measure the value of TV and radio programming. Broadcaster sales reps can be very persuasive in proposing advertising packages and will offer to serve as your media advisors. A broadcast station sales rep's advice can be very helpful, but never let a media sales rep talk you into buying a package. Instead of relying on the sales rep, you may wish to hire a professional media buyer at no cost to you since the station pays the media buyer's commission. Even if you hire a media buyer, you must learn enough about the key buying criteria to be in control and make the purchase decisions based on the proposals. While buying media for your company, it is feasible for you to learn enough about the key factors applicable to the tax industry to buy your own media. The following is a summary of the most important considerations: 1. Go for the numbers: National mass-market firms buy TV and radio on a "tonnage" basis. Determine you market and then attempt to reach as many people in that market as is possible. Your efficiency goal is to get the lowest cost-per-thousand ("CPM") for your target market while also satisfying your other media buying requirements. If you can determine the demographics of your most lucrative customers, you may wish to advertise to them first. Suggestion: Small ad agencies and freelance media buyers often agree to pool-back part of the 15% commission to you, or to provide free services if they receive the full commission. 2. Adequate Reach and Frequency: You want to reach the majority of viewers with adequate frequency to make an impression. Remember the AIDA model of consumer behavior: Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. A prospect may need to see your ad several times just to become aware of your company and the services you offer. Another couple of impressions may be necessary to create interest. Your commercial should, ideally, reach 100% of the audience with an average frequency of at least five times. This goal will not likely be accomplished by advertising only on one broadcast station. At least two of the four major TV stations should be included. If all network stations are competitive, you should buy time on all four. Your reach and frequency can be amplified through radio and other media. 3. TV Program Schedules: You can buy time in specific programs (higher price), and you can buy "Run of Station" (ROS) spots within pre-determined time periods (lower cost). Prime time (8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.) is very costly because of high demand. You should allocate no more than ten percent of your spots to prime time. At least 1/2 of your spots should be run during "Fringe Time", the hour immediately before (7:00 8:00 p.m.) and after (11:00 - 12:00 p.m.) prime time. About 20 percent of your spots might be run during morning news programs. Other departs with high adult audiences

and good cost efficiencies could be added such as daytime soaps and talk shows, and weekend movies and sports programs. Given your goal of reaching your audience at the lowest possible cost per thousand and knowing that he or she is competing for your business against the other stations, your sales rep should be able to identify the most efficient programs. You may want to reserve part of your budget to take advantage of specials caused by late cancellations of prime spots. 4. Rating Services: TV programs are rated by rating services (e.g.: Nielson) subscribed to by all stations. New ratings are published in February, May, and November. You should require that all stations quote from the most recent book, adjusted for February. If the TV coverage area extends beyond the metro area where your offices are located, you should ask all stations to provide figures on a metro area basis. 5. Negotiating the Best Price: An effective strategy is to ask for proposals from each of the four major TV stations for a schedule that would use about 1/2 of your total TV budget over a five-week period. Inform each station of your acceptable programming parameters and the maximum allowable ratio of 10 to 30 second spots (e.g. no more than 20% 10s). Ask that the proposed schedule be quoted on a weekly basis. For example, if your total budget is Rs2,00,000, request a proposal that uses Rs1,00,000 in five weeks, or Rs.20,000 per week. Compare all four proposals and ask the stations with the less competitive proposals to sharpen their pencils and resubmit. Unless you know the station with the best proposal has given you its best price, also ask it to resubmit. It's not unusual for a station to be asked to resubmit 3-4 times before it tells you that's the bottom line. Don't be shy; tough negotiating is part of the game! After you believe all proposals are final, you must decide how to allocate your budget. The station with the best rates gets the largest piece of the pie. The station with the worst rates usually gets nothing. (Next year they may be more competitive.) Usually you should buy three stations, but if one station is high-priced compared to the other two, you should buy only two more affordable stations. If you buy three stations, the allocation might be something like : station #1 Rs.1,00,000, station #2 Rs.60,000 and station #3 - Rs.40,000. Reductions can be achieved by reducing the #2 and #3 stations to 3 or 4 weeks and/or by cutting out less desirable spots. The cost of TV varies from market-to-market. Some cities are very inexpensive and some are high-priced TV markets. You may need to do some research to find out how your market compares. During the January/February flight (when inventory is the highest) we are usually able to buy adults 18+ at a CPM between Rs.80 to 100. These buys can be as low as 50% of the standard rate card price. Again, rates in your market may be higher or lower, but the basic buying principles outlined here should still apply. Radio is higher priced, up to twice as much as TV. However, radio is more targeted and it can compliment and reinforce TV. Besides increasing reach and frequency,

twice as much information can be provided by radio commercials. Since mass-market radio is passive, the best day parts are drive times when listeners in their cars are a captive audience. Sponsoring the local metro traffic report can get your name and a brief message aired on several radio stations during drive time with great frequency at a modest cost. Suggestion : Establish own "in-house advertising agency" to buy your media advertising. This will result in the standard agency commission being credited to the house agency, thereby reducing the cost of all commissionable advertising bought by 15%. Form a new "division" of the company operating under a different name . One should obtain a local business license and fictitious name certificate. To meet certain advertisers' requirements there may be a need to come up with a few clients (in addition to own firm) for which advertising services are provided.

media buy
The buying of advertising space from a company operating media properties. The cost of a media buy varies depending on the specific media property on which the buyer wants to advertise, the size of the advertising campaign, the specific times at which the advertisements are to be displayed, and other specific features of the advertising campaign.

MEDIA BUYING PROCESS

Step 1 - Identify your target market. Who are you trying to reach? Who is your target market? Create a profile that reflects the consumer you are trying to reach. Questions you may want to ask yourself: What is their age? Are they male or female? What's their average income? The answers to these questions will be helpful when trying to identify the best venue in which to place media. Step 2 - Research your target market. Once you've identified your target market, it's time to do some market research. You can do your own research, which is called primary research or you can depend on secondary research that's already been done. There are cost benefits to secondary research. In this step, you want to identify where you will find your target market, as well as other demographics that can assist you in selecting the right media buy. Will you find your target market online? Are they television watchers? What about magazines? What marketing vehicles will work best when it comes to placing advertisements? It's important to understand the consumer behavior of those that you are targeting. This will help in placing a media buy that is effective and performs by achieving your identified objectives. Research can help you in doing this. Research can also provide you with information on what your competitors are doing and where they are going to reach the audience you are trying to reach. Step 3 - Set your objectives. Don't miss this step. When you set the marketing objectives that you want to achieve with your target market, you can begin to create a plan. And, until these two things are defined, a plan is destined to fail. What do you want to do with your media buys? Are you looking to create awareness? Is your goal to achieve sign-up or sales? Identify what objectives are most important to you for each media buy so that you can measure whether or not those objectives are being achieved. You can also share these objectives with those you are buying media from and ask their option on whether their outlet will work for that objective or not. Remember, their job is to sell, so weigh their input, but don't consider it invaluable.

Step 4 - Define and plan out your strategy. You've identified your target market, you've done your research and you've set your objective. It's not time to define and create a strategy. Your plan should contain the following:

Where will you buy media? Are there specific outlets you are interested in? What is your budget and where can you allocate that budget, so that you can achieve the objectives you have identified? What components should your media plan contain?

Media Buying Strategy and Plan e.g. An outline of a media plan and strategy that tends to work :

Executive Summary (What is the summary of the strategy) Objectives and How Will You Achieve Them Identify your Overall objectives What publications or media outlets have you chosen based on the previous steps? What's your budget? How much will you spend with each outlet and why? What objective do you hope to achieve with each outlet?

Example: Media Outlet 1 (Beak out each media outlet ) Target served: Definition of qualified market reached by this outlet: Circulation Numbers: Key Classifications of circulation if applicable (This is extremely helpful if you break out by percentage.): Recommended Schedule: Costs - This section should include the following : Negotiated Rate: Rate Card Rate: Total Negotiated Savings per Advertisement: Total Negotiated (Monthly / Yearly) Savings: Total Costs: Ad Placement Guarantee: (Where will the ad appear and when? What pages and what dates?) Are their bonus placements for the media buy? Is there any added value to the placement? Perhaps a free report, company profile, listing in a directory or e-blast mention? Rationale behind the placement? Summarize the reasoning for placing this media buy. You can also use comparisons to other media outlets vs. this one

In order to succeed in media buying, you must be detailed. A great media buyer pays attention to detail, spends time researching and can negotiate like a pro.

Step 5 - Execute the plan. Once the plan is in hand. Your first step is to begin to contact the media outlets you have identified and start negotiating your media buy rates. Keep a calendar and a budget in front of you at all times. Make sure you negotiate rates and ask for bonuses or add-ons that they are willing to give you if you choose to go with them. Once again keep your eye on your budget, your calendar and, most importantly, keep track of important deadlines. As your media buys are executed, be sure to keep track of the results and evaluate how your plan and strategy is working for you. If you find that you are not meeting your objectives, don't hesitate to adjust your plan as necessary.

TV broadcast planning and buying

TV broadcast belongs to media and, as all media categories, it needs a thorough planning. Media buyers help to identify the pros and cons of various advertising media in every individual case; still it is highly advisable to learn the key planning and buying criteria to control the whole process, done by the professionals. TV broadcast is an ideal medium for a marketing shotgun approach, as it attracts large numbers of people and consequently helps to maximize the sales volume. Moreover, TV broadcast is effective for brand building and one more advantage of using this media type is that people can easily move from TV to online, as in the case with radio. If you are determined to use TV broadcast to advertise your product or service, then it is highly desirable to learn the key planning and buying criteria to control the whole process, done by professionals. TV broadcast, as all media categories, needs a thorough planning. Media planning is a process of selecting media space and time for the purposes of advertising in order to meet marketing objectives. Media planners describe this process through setting objectives, developing a strategy and tactics. Prime objectives are the target audience, then reach and frequency that are expressed in gross rating points. A strategy unites all the means, necessary for achieving the objectives. Tactics are the activities, aimed at selecting advertising vehicles so that the media strategies are successfully realized. All media plans are implemented by media buyers - professionals in this sphere. They will help you identify the pros and cons of the various advertising media specifically for the products or services you offer. A media buying cost is not the same for all broadcast media and depends on many factors. For instance, it is important to find out whether it is better to advertise through a cable network or the local television broadcasting stations, what the current market trends are, if there are any seasonal peculiarities of media marketing, etc. National firms buy television on a so-called tonnage basis. First, they assess the market and afterwards try to reach as much of it as possible. The goal is to get the lowest cost per thousand impressions, while meeting other media buying requirements. If you want to reach most of viewers with the proper frequency, you should learn that the model of consumer behavior is the following: first - awareness, second - an interest, next - a decision, and finally - an action. Thus, a would-be consumer needs to see one commercial several times until he acts. Therefore, ideally, a commercial is to reach hundred percent of the audience with the frequency of nearly five times. To reach this goal, you should advertise at least on two of the four major television broadcast stations. In addition, other media may be used to support the TV campaign.

It is worthwhile to place ten percent of all spots in a costly prime time (8:00 - 11:00 p.m.), a half of all commercials - at 7:00 - 8:00 p.m. and at 11:00 - 12:00 p.m. ("fringe time"). One fifth of spots are to be broadcasted during news programs in the morning. The remaining spots may be showed during the other programs that attract your target audience. The ratings of TV programs are available for all the stations. The best price for media buying is negotiable. A brilliant strategy is to ask TV stations to make their proposals, counting on nearly a half of your total television budget over five weeks. .) Usually, you buy three TV stations, but if one station is very expensive, it is recommended to buy only two affordable television stations.

International media planning and buying trends

For many advertisers even the local or national media planning and buying process may contain many different challenges. However, the international media planning and buying can be even more complicated. Although over the last two decades there have been certain changes made in the Global media market towards its further consolidation, some media giants have successfully entered this new for them market. Find out more from this article. With the further consolidation and development of the Global market an urgent need for the global media to support it comes. For many of the Global brand giants, such as Nestle, Nike, McDonald's, Coca-Cola or P&G for instance, presently operate the markets of a great number of countries around the world. Although those markets are situated in different regions of the world, consumers become more and more consolidated in their desire to learn reliable information on products or brands they purchase, and in order to fulfill this need, they resort to various media sources, especially to the Internet. Consequently, if a company is to be successful in its global product promotions and advertising, it has to do an accurate and adequate international media planning. Today, being a necessity, even the local or national media planning and buying can at times represent an area of many challenges. Far more, the international media planning can become a complicated task for advertisers to accomplish. In the case of the international media planning, there are not only local, but also global obstacles to deal with, such as language or culture differences. Moreover, in the case of the international media planning, a company has to work with a great number of different media agents or corporations. Nevertheless, over the last two decades certain changes have been made in the area of global communications. Since the year of 1980 some of the largest media companies from North American as well as from other parts of the world have entered the Global market. If before most of these companies operated the local or nationwide markets of their countries or even regions, now they have made some quite successful attempts to operate the Global market of media communications. Furthermore, as a rule, a large global media company would not only

operate one or a few different global media sources, such as the television or radio, but rather consolidate many informational and advertising vehicles, such as the movie production, TV, radio, printed editions, music records, web media, etc. Time Warner and Disney represent two of the largest Global media companies, which operate the international media market and, certainly, these or other media giants make the process of international media planning and buying a much easier one. Resorting to the services of such media giants or to international advertising and communicational agencies, such as the Omnicom Group, Global advertisers become able to accomplish a more complete and efficient international media planning and buying, and consequently, to carry out better quality international advertising campaigns. In this way, they can provide more complete and comprehensive information, quite reliable and relevant for the local consumers of their products in different regions and countries of the world. Such international media planning and buying can become one of the most significant core advantages for global entrepreneurs over their competitors.

MEDIA BUYING PROCESS

Planning and Buying are two parts of single operations : spending effectively the advertisers money. The two cannot in practiced be separate. The former is the strategy formulation while the later talks about the implementation of the plan. The two jobs are often done by different people, though planner-buyer is also found

MEDIA BUYER The media person negotiates for advertising time or space, trying to get the most favorable buys in terms of programming or environment and price. He or she is responsible for checking that the advertising runs as planned and bought. A skilled media buyer can save enormous sums by playing one media owner over the other. MEDIA BUYING: Media buying refers to buying time and space in the various selected media. STEPS IN MEDIA BUYING:

Selection of publication or programmes on Doordarshan, radio or satellite TV.

Getting approval from the client regarding the selection of publication / programmes. Inviting press-media representatives or other media representatives from the selected list of media.

Finalising package deals far as group publications are concerned. i.e. to obtain concessions in the media charges , if the ad is to run simultaneously in two or three publications of the same group such as Indian Express Group of Publications.

Negotiating charges for bleed ads. Normally, publications charge 10% more. Negotiations are in respect of waiving the extra charges.

Negotiations may also take place to obtain premium positioning of the ads such as back cover, spread, etc.

Non-accredited publications (those which are not recognized by INS) do provide more than 15% commission. Negotiations take place to get more commission from such publications. The benefits of extra commission is passed on by the agency to client (advertiser)

Media planning department also hold meetings with the producers of serials on DD, Satellite TV, etc. This enables the agency to get serial /programme sponsored by its client.

The media planning department may obtain a final approval from the client. Based on the final approved plan from the media planner, the media operators department books time and space in the media.

The media operations department makes all necessary arrangement to supply advertising material such as U-matic tapes, audio cassettes, art work and copy, etc.to various media well before the deadline.

The billing and checking department checks on monitors the publications/ broadcasting / telecasting of the ad.

DRAFTING MEDIA AND CREATIVE STRATEGY

After all the inputs from various meetings a strategic sketch is created which will flow draft media and creative strategies. These will be submitted to the client for his approval and it is usual for those who have been involved in their creation to be present to argue their case. ANALYSIS OF PLAN AND DATA Once these basic strategies have been approved, detailed work can commence. At this stage it is still necessary for media and creative personnel to plug closely together, since a vital factor for discussion will be size of the space, or length of time, which is required to carry the advertising message. The bulk of media planners task is now concerned with the accumulation and analysis of data. It is sufficient to say here that whether a model is used to assist in the production of a plan or not, similar procedures have to be gone through. The principal differences arise because the computer is able to consider may more variables at one time than a planner can without its assistance. For the use of a media model, all judgments have to be quantified. MEDIA SCHEDULE From a computer printout, or from his own calculations, the planner will now have a series of media vehicles , together with number of insertions in each of them. To turn this into a schedule, he needs to consider the spread of the campaign over time; he will then embody the whole of his thinking into a proposal, for submission to the agency plans board. PREPARING PROPOSAL When this hurdle has been cleared, the total package, usually in the form of a document containing the full campaign plan, marketing, media and creative, together with ancillary recommendations for perhaps research and merchandising, will be presented to the client. The agency presentation team will usually include agency management, together with all senior personnel who have been responsible for creating the plan. Once it is agreed, the schedule is returned to the media department for buying. Of course, if at any stage during the development of the plan there is a rejection, then the re-cycling process has to start and everyone has to try again. The advantage of obtaining client approval of strategies is that the problem is broken down into manageable portions. If the client sees nothing until he sees the final plan, he may well find himself in disagreement with the original marketing strategy, and much time will have been wasted.

The AIDA Model to convey communication objectives

AIDA model explains how personal selling works. It shows a set of stair-step stages which describe the process leading a potential customer to purchase. The stages, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action, form a linear hierarchy. It demonstrates that consumers must be aware of a product's existence, Be interested enough to pay attention to the product's features/benefits, and Have a desire to benefit from the product's offerings. Action, the fourth stage, would come as a natural result of movement through the first three stages. Although this idea was rudimentary, it led to the later emerging field of consumer behavior research

Reliance India Mobile campaign can be used to explain this model better.
Awareness- the elaborate advertisement where Mukesh Ambani spoke about the new project being introduced on his fathers 70th birthday. Interest- was generated as the company spokesperson featured in the ad, as a representative of the company image and also spoke about introducing a new technology CDMA. Desire- was created with various offers like free SMS, 40paise STD calls, easy payment schemes, and discount coupons worth Rs. 1 lakh. Action- Dhirubhai Ambani Pioneer offers induced people to go for the product. Also the model can be applied to marketing movies: Where in the initial stage awareness may be created with attention by airing the promos on television. Attention is created with the help of key features like starcaste, music, locations, etc.

Interest is then created with the release of the music and by introducing the theme and sales of audiocassettes and CDs indicate the same. Desire is created with hoardings of the movie and also with the help of several contests and free prizes and attractions like stars visiting the music shops. In the last stage people are moved to action in the form of buying tickets as a result of the ratings given to the movies in the dailies, etc

BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM

A - Promos had David Beckham and Football I - Introduced Music and Dialogues of film. Also the tag-line: Who wants to cook Aloo Gobi when you can bend a ball like Beckham. D - A fresh movie with a different theme. The film also talked about the success of film overseas A - Got 3 and 4star ratings and publicized that in promos.

TYPES OF ADVERTISEMENTS
Consumer Advertising These are basically nothing but product or service advertisements directed towards the consumer or the customer as such. Such advertisements can be in the form of national or local advertisements also. Such kind of advertisements uses emotional or rational appeal in their advertisement. Advertisements such as that of DeBeers, pizza hut etc use the emotional appeal to attract the consumers. On the other hand advertisements such as the Kawasaki bajaj caliber, Vim Bar etc. use the rational appeal to address its target audience. The advertisement of DeBeers uses an emotional appeal because the statement I have my feet firmly planted on the ground except when Im wearing the millennium diamond suggests that by wearing them u can fly high in the sky and feel like what the celebrity does in the advertisement Advertising to business or profession This type of advertising is aimed at resellers and professionals. The media used here is direct mail or professional magazines. These are ads which are not directed towards the final consumers. Corporate ads are also a part of these types of ads. The target groups of corporate advertising are most often customers, stockholders, employees, financial institutions, political leaders and government. The objectives of the corporate or the institutional ads may be to establish or boost corporate identity and image, counter negative attitudes towards a company, industry or to promote and relate the company to some worthwhile social public interest cause. The Aditya Birla group campaign would fit into this category Non- product advertising In this type of advertising advertisements depicting an idea, a social cause etc is included. Surrogate advertisements are also a part of such non- product advertisements.

HIERARCHY-OF-EFFECTS MODEL
Among advertising theories, the hierarchy-of-effects model is predominant. It shows clear steps of how advertising works. Hierarchy of effects Model can be explained with the help of a pyramid. First the lower level objectives such as awareness, knowledge or comprehension are accomplished. Subsequent objectives may focus on moving prospects to higher levels in the pyramid to elicit desired behavioral responses such as associating feelings with the brand, trial, or regular use etc. it is easier to accomplish ad objectives located at the base of the pyramid than the ones towards the top. The percentage of prospective customers will decline as they move up the pyramid towards more action oriented objectives, such as regular brand use.

Awareness:
If most of the target audience is unaware of the object, the communicators task is to build awareness, perhaps just name recognition, with simple messages repeating the product name. Consumers must become aware of the brand. This isnt as straightforward as it seems. Capturing someones attention doesnt mean they will notice the brand name. Thus, the brand name needs to be made focal to get consumers to become aware. Magazines are full of ads that will capture your attention, but youll have trouble easily seeing the brand name.

Knowledge:
The target audience might have product awareness but not know much more; hence this stage involves creating brand knowledge. This is where comprehension of the brand name and what it stands for become important. What are the brands specific appeals, its benefits? In what way is it different than competitors brands? Who is the target market? These are the types of questions that must be answered if consumers are to achieve the step of brand knowledge.

Liking:
If target members know the product, how do they feel about it? If the audience looks unfavourably towards the product to communicator has to find out why. If the unfavourable view is based on real problems, a communication campaigns alone cannot do the job. For product problem it is necessary to first fix the problem and only then can you communicate its renewed quality.

Preference:
The target audience might like the product but not prefer it to others. In this case, the communicator must try to build consumer preference by promoting quality, value, performance and other features. The communicator can check the campaigns success by measuring audience preference before and after the campaign.

Conviction:
A target audience might prefer a particular product but not develop a conviction about buying it. The communicators job is to build conviction among the target audience.

Purchase:
Finally, some members of the target audience might have conviction but not quite get around to making the purchase. They may wait for more information or plan to act later. The communicator must need these consumers to take the final step, perhaps by offering the product at a low price, offering a premium, or letting consumers tried out. This is where consumers make a move to actually search out information or purchase. Thus advertising is thought to work and follow a certain sequence whereby the prospect is moved through a series of stages in succession from unawareness to the purchase of the product. Advertising cannot induce immediate behavioural response, rather a series of mental effects must occur with the fulfilment at each stage before progress to the next stage is possible.

AGENCY STRUCTURE OF ADVERTISING AGENCY

Broadly there are 6 departments in any advertising agency

Account Servicing Account Planning Media Creative Production Finance and Accounting

Account service department The account service, or the account management department, is the link between the ad agency and its clients. Depending upon the size of the account and its advertising budget one or two account executives serve as liason to the client. The account executives job requires high degree of diplomacy and tact as misunderstanding may lead to loss of an account. The account executive is mainly responsible to gain knowledge about the clients business, profit goals, marketing problems and advertising objectives. The account executive is responsible for getting approved the media schedules, budgets and rough ads or story boards from the client. The next task is to make sure that the agency personnel produce the advertising to the clients satisfaction. The biggest role of the account executive is keeping the agency ahead of the client through follow-up and communications. Media department The responsibility of the agencys media department is to develop a media plan to reach the target audience effectively in a cost effective manner. The staff analyses, selects and contracts for media time or space that will be used to deliver the ad message. This is one of the most important decisions since a significantly large part of the clients money is spent on the media time and/or space. The media department has acquired increasing importance in an agencys business as large advertisers seem to be more inclined to consolidate media buying with one or few agencies thereby saving money and improving media efficiency. Creative department To a large extent, the success of an ad agency depends upon the creative department responsible for the creation and execution of the advertisements. The creative specialists are known as copywriters. They are the ones who conceive ideas for the ads and write the headlines, subheads and the body

copy. They are also involved in deciding the basic theme of the advertising campaign, and often they do prepare the rough layout of the print ad or the commercial story board. Creation of an ad is the responsibility of the copywriters and the art department decides how the ad should look. Production department After the completion and approval of the copy and the illustrations the ad is sent to the production department. Generally agencies do not actually produce the finished ads; instead they hire printers, photographers, engravers, typographers and others to complete the finished ad. For the production of the approved TV commercial, the production department may supervise the casting of actors to appear in the ad, the setting for scenes and selecting an independent production studio. The production department sometimes hires an outside director to transform the creative concept to a commercial. Finance and accounting department An advertising agency is in the business of providing services and must be managed that way. Thus, it has to perform various functions such as accounting, finance, human resources etc. it must also attempt to generate new business. Also this department is important since bulk of the agencys income approx. 65% goes as salary and benefits to the employees.