Selecciones - Webs

Belch: Advertising and
Promotion, Sixth Edition
III. Analyzing the
Communication Process
5. The Communication
Process
message or other form of marketing communication lies not in the message but with
the people who see and interpret it. Moreover, consumers behave on the basis of
meanings they ascribe to marketplace stimuli. Thus, marketers must consider the
meanings consumers attach to the various signs and symbols. Semiotics may be helpful
in analyzing how various aspects of the marketing program—such as advertising
messages, packaging, brand names, and even the nonverbal communications of salespeople
(gestures, mode of dress)—are interpreted by receivers. 6
Channel
The channel is the method by which the communication travels from the source or
sender to the receiver. At the broadest level, channels of communication are of two
types, personal and nonpersonal. Personal channels of communication are direct
interpersonal (face-to-face) contact with target individuals or groups. Salespeople
serve as personal channels of communication when they deliver their sales message to
a buyer or potential customer. Social channels of communication such as friends,
neighbors, associates, co-workers, or family members are also personal channels.
They often represent word-of-mouth communication, a powerful source of information
for consumers. 7
Nonpersonal channels of communication are those that carry a message without
interpersonal contact between sender and receiver. Nonpersonal channels are generally
referred to as the mass media or mass communications, since the message is sent
to many individuals at one time. For example, a TV commercial broadcast on a primetime
show may be seen by 20 million households in a given evening. Nonpersonal
channels of communication consist of two major types, print and broadcast. Print
media include newspapers, magazines, direct mail, and billboards; broadcast media
include radio and television.
Receiver/Decoding
The receiver is the person(s) with whom the sender shares thoughts or information.
Generally, receivers are the consumers in the target market or audience who read, hear,
and/or see the marketer’s message and decode it. Decoding is the process of transforming
the sender’s message back into thought. This process is heavily influenced by the
receiver’s frame of reference or field of experience, which refers to the experiences,
perceptions, attitudes, and values he or she brings to the communication situation.
For effective communication to occur, the message decoding process of the
receiver must match the encoding of the sender. Simply put, this means the receiver
understands and correctly interprets what the source is trying to communicate. As Figure
5-1 showed, the source and the receiver each have a frame of reference (the circle
around each) that they bring to the communication situation. Effective communication
is more likely when there is some common ground between the two parties. (This is
represented by the overlapping of the two circles.) The more knowledge the sender has
about the receivers, the better the sender can understand their needs, empathize with
them, and communicate effectively.
While this notion of common ground between sender and receiver may sound
basic, it often causes great difficulty in the advertising communications process. Marketing
and advertising people often have very different fields of experience from the
consumers who constitute the mass markets with whom they must communicate. Most
advertising and marketing people are college-educated and work and/or reside in large
urban areas such as New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles. Yet they are attempting to
develop commercials that will effectively communicate with millions of consumers
who have never attended college, work in blue-collar occupations, and live in rural
areas or small towns. The executive creative director of a large advertising agency
described how advertising executives become isolated from the cultural mainstream:
“We pull them in and work them to death. And then they begin moving in sushi circles
and lose touch with Velveeta and the people who eat it.” 8
Another factor that can lead to problems in establishing common ground between
senders and receivers is age. IMC Perspective 5-2 discusses the youth bias in advertising
and some interesting findings from a study that considered problems younger
advertising professionals have in developing ads for older consumers.
© The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2003
143
Chapter Five The Communication Process