A finished MKT-462 Topic 4 channel economics comparison example, setting a coffee roaster's paid, owned and earned media side by side as cost curves over twelve months. Searches like "mkt 462 topic 4 assignment example", "mkt462 topic 4 sample" and "mkt-462 topic 4 example" land here.
What a finished MKT-462 Topic 4 channel economics comparison looks like
Twelve months of illustrative figures carry the finished comparison, one column per kind of media. Paid search and social cost the roaster roughly the same per order in January as in December, about $14, and orders fall away within days whenever spending pauses, which the comparison shows from a two-week pause in August. Owned media behaves differently: the email list and blog cost about $30,000 to build in the first half of the year and little to run afterward, so cost per order falls month by month as the list grows, net of unsubscribes. Earned media, a magazine mention and a run of reviews after a podcast host praised one blend, arrives in lumps nobody scheduled. A final table asks what a further $10,000 would buy in each column, and for earned media it answers that nobody can say.
How an MKT-462 Topic 4 example is structured
Three columns and one question shape the comparison: what happens to results when the money stops or grows? An opening section describes the roaster, its sales channels and twelve months of spending by category. Paid media comes first, with cost per order tracked by month and the August pause used as a natural check on how closely paid results depend on paid spending. Owned media follows, costed as an investment with a build phase and a running phase, and the list's decay rate is stated beside its growth. Earned media is treated third, with each mention traced to its effect on site traffic and orders. A classification section settles hard cases, including a sponsored creator video that looks like editorial coverage. The comparison ends with a marginal-dollar table and a proposed split of the next year's budget.
Paid results that stop with spending
A two-week pause in August cut paid orders almost immediately, which the comparison uses as direct evidence that paid media rents attention rather than accumulating it.
An email list costed as an asset
Building the list and blog cost heavily in the first six months and little afterward, so owned media appears with a build phase and a running phase.
Decay counted beside growth
Unsubscribes and dormant addresses shrink the list every month, and the comparison nets them out so the compounding claim is not overstated.
Coverage the roaster did not schedule
A magazine mention and a podcast host's unprompted praise each lifted orders for a few weeks, and neither could have been bought on demand.
A creator video placed in the paid column
A coffee creator was paid for a sponsored video and disclosed it, so the comparison classifies it as paid media despite its editorial look.
The next ten thousand dollars
The closing table estimates what an added $10,000 would buy in paid and owned media and states plainly that earned attention carries no such price.
Where marks go in MKT-462 Topic 4
Sorting channels into three boxes and stopping there loses the most credit, since labeling search ads as paid and a blog as owned explains nothing about either. The economics are the point: how cost behaves as volume rises, what remains when spending ends and which results can be scheduled. Drafts regularly compare channels on cost per order in a single month, which flatters paid media early in the year and owned media late. Owned media described as free omits both the build cost and the steady decay of any list. Sponsored creator posts are often filed under earned because they look editorial, a classification markers in many sections correct. Weaker papers close by shifting heavily toward earned media, a plan nobody can carry out on a calendar, since coverage and reviews arrive when others decide.
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Send the MKT-462 Topic 4 instructions and the rubric your classroom posts, with the brand or spending data your section assigned. We write a custom example to those criteria, with paid, owned and earned media compared as cost structures over time, hard cases classified and the marginal dollar priced in each, in 24 to 48 hours. The first one is free.
MKT-462 Topic 4 questions, answered
How do paid, owned and earned media differ?
Paid media is exposure a company buys, such as search ads, social ads or a sponsored post. Owned media is a channel the company controls, such as its website, email list, app or blog. Earned media is attention others give freely, such as press coverage, reviews and unprompted recommendations. The categories matter because each behaves differently when money is added or withdrawn, which is what the example measures.
Is a sponsored influencer post earned media?
No. If a creator is paid or given something of value to post, the post is paid media whatever it looks like, and in the United States the Federal Trade Commission's endorsement guidance expects that relationship to be disclosed. The example files the roaster's sponsored video under paid for that reason. A creator who mentions the brand unprompted, with no payment or free product, produces earned media. None of this is legal advice.
Why does owned media compound?
Because its main cost is building the asset, and each later use costs little. A subscriber added in March can receive every email for the rest of the year at almost no added expense, and a useful blog post keeps drawing search visitors long after it is written. The compounding is real and partial: lists lose addresses and posts go stale, so the example nets decay against growth before claiming any saving.