INTEGRATED MARKETING INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONSCOMMUNICATIONS

Lecture week 2: Lecture week 2:

Marketing Communications Theory Marketing Communications Theory – the basic process– the basic process

  

Aims of this lectureAims of this lectureThe lecture seeks to explore and explain the The lecture seeks to explore and explain the

theoretical underpinnings of communication theoretical underpinnings of communication and to underscore the usefulness and and to underscore the usefulness and limitations of theory to practice. limitations of theory to practice.

At the end of this input the participant will At the end of this input the participant will be able to:be able to:

• Discuss communications in terms of the Discuss communications in terms of the needs of practitionersneeds of practitioners

• Explain the basic model of communication Explain the basic model of communication within an historical contextwithin an historical context

THEORY AND PRACTICETHEORY AND PRACTICE

““Theory without practice may be Theory without practice may be barren and vacuous, but practice barren and vacuous, but practice without theory risks being without theory risks being gratuitous and promiscuous”gratuitous and promiscuous”

Buttle (1995)Buttle (1995)

BASIC MODEL OF THE BASIC MODEL OF THE COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNICATIONS PROCESSPROCESSsourcesource (communicator) (communicator)

encodesencodes (creative) (creative)

signalsignal (message) (message)

decodes decodes (perceive) (perceive)

destinationdestination (receiver)(receiver)

Model of mass Model of mass communicationscommunications

• Later developments of the basic Later developments of the basic model saw additional model saw additional stages/processes added in, namely:stages/processes added in, namely:– FeedbackFeedback– NoiseNoise– Fields of Experience/perceptual Fields of Experience/perceptual

fields/realms of understandingfields/realms of understanding

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Sender/source

• A person, group of people, company or some other organization may wish to transmit/relay an idea, set of ideas, a proposition in order to share something with another party

• Source credibility is a major issue that can influence the communications/persuasion process

 

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Encoding

• If the problem is perceived incorrectly by the source then the wrong concept might be developed and encoded making the communication faulty

•The encoding process usually involves the development of creative strategy

•The marketer and agencies are usually involved

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The message 

• The message is the symbolic representation of the sender/source's thoughts/ideas. If the source does not say what he means, even if the problem is understood, then the message strategy will be faulty

• Equally, if the message does not relate to existing consumer knowledge there may be problems later on in the decoding process.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The medium

• As the conduit/channel for the message, the medium (or particular vehicle) and its nature and characteristics are of crucial importance to marketing communicators whether this be a newspaper, a trade show or a sales person

• Media characteristics and credibility also greatly influence the communications process.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Decoding

• This involves the deriving of meaning from the received message that is a composite of the actual message sent and any influences the medium may have had upon it

• This is where Information Processing comes in

• New information is comprehended in relation to existing knowledge and attitudes

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

Recipient/receiver

• The receiver is normally the person or people, organization (hence the reason why some writers prefer to use the catchall DMU, decision making unit) that the sender wishes to share thoughts, ideas and so on

• So, it could be an individual, a family unit, or a DMU

• Equally it could be a ‘tribe’, or sub-cultural group

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSFeedback

• This loop of the process provides the sender/source with a channel of evaluation of the message encoded and sent.

• This can be viewed in several ways. – Firstly in terms of how accurately the message has hit the target. – Secondly in terms of the degree of correctness of interpretation

on the part of the recipient/receiver from that which was intended– Were the original objectives of the communication achieved?

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSPRACTICAL IMPLICATIONSNoise

• The notion of noise can be misconstrued. It is not a question of making enough noise in order to be heard, like a shelf screamer in a supermarket that is designed to attract attention.

• The term noise was used originally to denote interference or impedance, for example of a radio signal. These are terms often used interchangeably to describe the blocking or distortion of the message at any stage in the marketing communications process

CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL PROCESSPROCESS

1. Focus on the individual• Family/household - ‘what we do during the commercial

break’ or some other social context of advertising reception• Institutional effects involve the message production and

delivery systems involving companies, agencies and so on• Cultural effects are both cognitive and critical. Cognitive

involves for example cultural values, mores and so on whereas critical involves Marxist and feminist views, dealing with institutional structures and the way society is organised

CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL PROCESSPROCESS

2. Focus on individual messages  This is clearly a problem if estimates such as the

one that suggests that 3000 marketing-controlled messages bombard individuals each day. Cumulative impact should be taken into account. Added to the effect of marketing communication stimuli, other stimuli exist outside of the marketing communications area have impact

CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL PROCESSPROCESS

3. Focus on source intent  Where cumulative impact, shared meaning,

derived symbolic meaning and not least meaning derived from non-promotional marketing and other variables are bound to have some sort of effect

CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL CRITIQUE OF THE ORIGINAL PROCESSPROCESS

4. Focus on co-orientation  Whereby to avoid problems with fidelity the

communicator can opt for a closed text to avoid misreading, misunderstanding and so on. This, of course, ignores the social and other contexts people necessarily operate in and that might produce multiple meanings because messages get ‘contextualized’

FIELD OF EXPERIENCE/REALM FIELD OF EXPERIENCE/REALM OF UNDERSTANDINGOF UNDERSTANDING

rou/foesender/source

(encoding)

noise signal/message rou/foe

(decoding)

feedback destination/ receiver

Any QuestionsAny Questions