Chapter 5

The communication process

 Chapter outline
• To understand the basic elements of the communication process and the role of
communications in IMC.
• To examine various models of the communication process.
• To understand the important role of word-of-mouth influence and viral marketing.
• To analyze the response processes of receivers of marketing communications, including
alternative response hierarchies and their implications for promotional planning and
strategy.
• To understand how the consumer decision process is influenced by social media.
• To examine the nature of consumers’ cognitive processing of marketing communications.
 The nature of communications
• Communication has been variously defined:
• As the passing of information
• The exchange of ideas
• Process of establishing a commonness or oneness of thought between a sender and receiver
• Communications occurs between at least two person, passed from one to another
• Success of the communication is depends on such factors as the nature of message,
the audience interpretation of it, and the environment in which it is received
• Language is the major barriers to effective communication
 A basic model
of
communication
Figure 5-1: basic model of communication process
 Source encoding
• The sender, or source of a communication is the person or organization that
has information to share with another person or group of people.
• Many companies use a spokesperson to appear in their ads and to deliver their
advertising messages
• The communications process begins when the source selects words, symbols,
pictures and the like to represent the message that will be delivered to the
receiver(s) also known as encoding
• Encoding involves putting thoughts, ideas, or information into symbolic form
 Message
• Encoding process leads to development of a message that contains the information or
meaning the source hopes to convey
• Message may be verbal or non verbal, oral or written, or symbolic
• Message must be put into a transmittable form that is appropriate for the channel of
communication being used
• It is not the actual words of the message that determine its communication effectiveness
but rather the impression or image the ad creates
• Marketers must make decision regarding the content of the messages they send to
consumers as well as the structure and design of these messages
 Channel
• Channel is the method by which the communication travels from the source or sender to the receiver
• Channel of communication consists of two type:
• Nonpersonal channel
• Personal channel
• Nonpersonal channels are those that carry a message without direct, interpersonal contact between the sender and
receiver
• Nonpersonal channels are generally referred to as the mas media or mass communications, since the message they
contain is directed to more than one person and is often sent to many individuals at one time
• Nonpersonal consists of two major types:
• Print
• Broadcast
 Channel
(cont.)
• Personal channel involve direct communication between two or more persons and can occur
through interpersonal contact or via other methods such as e-mail or through social media
• Personal channel represent word-of-mouth(WOM) influence that involve informal
communication among consumers about products and services and is a very powerful source
of information
• Buzz marketing are known as word-of-mouth communication while term such as consumer-
generated marketing and viral marketing are also used to describe the process
• Buzz marketing is differ from traditional word-of-mouth communication is that it includes
systematic and organized efforts to encourage people to speak favorably about a company,
brand, organization or issue and often to recommend it to others in their social network
 Channel:
viral marketing
• Viral marketing refers to the act of propagating marketing relevant messages through the help
and cooperation of individual consumers
• Researchers have identified three major factors that affect the success of a viral marketing
program, including message characteristics, individual sender or receiver characteristics and
social network characteristics
• Characteristic of the individual consumer also play an important role in the viral marketing
process
• Another important aspect of viral marketing is what is often referred to as sending, which
involve identifying and choosing the initial group of consumers who will be used to start the
diffusion or spreading of a message
 Channel:
integrating word-of-mouth with IMC
• Their research also shows that nearly half the word-of-mouth conversation included references to the
various IMC tools used for a brand, including print and televisions ads, websites and other marketing
tools such as point-of-sales displays and promotions
• Advertising influenced by word-of-mouth conversations is significantly more likely to involve
recommendations to buy or try a brand when compared to other WOM-induced discussions about brands
• Marketers must be careful about assumptions they make when using buzz marketing techniques
• Experts note that buzz marketing techniques are very resistant to manipulation and marketers must be
careful about how they use them
• The effective of buzz marketing requires that marketers take a strategic approach in the development and
implementation of campaigns that are designed to have strong WOM and viral components.
 Receiver/decoding
• Receiver is with whom the sender shares thoughts or information
• Decoding is the process of transforming the sender’s message back into thought
• This process influenced by the receiver’s frame of reference or field of experience
• For effective communication to occur, the message decoding process of the receiver must match the
encoding of the sender.
• Effective communication is most likely when there is some common ground between two parties
• factor can lead to problem in establishing common ground:
• Marketing and advertising people often have very different field of experience from the consumers who constitute the
mass market with whom they must communicate
• Another problem is age.
 Noise
• Throughout the communication process, the message is subject to extraneous
factors that can distort or interfere with its reception
• This distortion or interference is known as noise
• Errors or problems that occur in the encoding of the message, distortion in a
radio or television signal, and distractions at the point of reception are
examples of noise
• Noise may also occur because the fields of experience of the sender and
receiver don’t overlap
 Response/feedback
• The receiver’s set of reactions after seeing, hearing, or reading the message is known as a response.
• Receiver’s responses can range from nonobservable actions such as storing information in memory
to immediate action such as dialing a toll-free number to order a product advertised on television
• Feedback which may take a variety of forms, close the loop in the communications flow and lets
the sender monitor how the intended message is being decoded and received
• Successful communication is accomplished when the marketer selects an appropriate source,
develops and effective message or appeal that is encoded properly, and then selects the channels or
media that will best reach the target audience so that the message can be effectively decoded and
delivered.
Analyzing the
receiver
 Identifying the target audience
• The marketing communication process really begins with identifying the audience that will focus of the
firm’s advertising and promotional efforts
• Target market consist of individuals who have specific needs and for whom the communication must be
specifically tailored
• A second level of audience aggregation is represented by the group
• Marketers often must communicate with a group of people who make or influence the purchase decision
• Marketers look for customers who have similar needs and wants and thus represent some type of market
segment that can be reached with the same basic communication strategy
• Small group of customers are often referred to as market niches
• The next level of audience aggregation is market segments
Mass markets and audience

Market segments
Ind
ivi
Nichedua
markets
l
and Figure 5-2: Levels of audience aggregation

gro
up
aud
ien
 Level of audience aggregation
• individuals & groups  person who have specific needs and for whom the
communication must be specifically tailored.
• Market niches  Customers who have similar needs and wants and thus represent
some type of market segment that can be reached with the same basic communication
strategy
• Market segments  broader classes of buyers who have similar needs and can be
reached with similar messages
• Mass communication  one-way flow of information from the marketers to the
consumer
The response process
 Traditional response hierarchy models
• AIDA - model was developed to represent the stages a salesperson must take a customer
through in the personal-selling process.
• Hierarchy of effects model - shown the process by which advertising works; it assumes a
consumer passes through a series of steps in sequential order from initial awareness of a
product or service to actual purchase
• Innovation adoption model - evolved from work on the diffusion of innovations. This
model represents the stages a consumer passes through in adopting a new product or service
• Information processing model – this model assumes the receiver in a persuasive
communication situation like advertising is an information processor or problem solver
 Models
Stages AIDA model Hierarchy of Innovation Information
effects model adoption model processing
model
Cognitive stage Attention Awareness Awareness Presentation

Attention

Knowledge Comprehensio
n
Affective stage Interest Liking Interest Yielding

Preference

Desire Conviction Evaluation Retention

Behavioral Trial
stage
Action Purchase Adoption Behavior

Figure 5-3: models of the response

 Steps in persuasion process Effectiveness tests
Viewer/listener
Exposure/presentation audience size web page
views
Listener, reader, viewer
Attention
recognition
Figure 5-4: methods of obtaining
feedback in the response hierarchy Comprehension Recall, checklist

Message Brand attitudes,

acceptance/yielding Purchase intent

Retention Recall over time

Inventory, point-of-purchase
Purchase behavior consumer panel scanner data
 Implications of the traditional hierarchy
models
• The hierarchy models of communication response are useful to promotional planners
from several perspectives
• First, they delineate the series of steps potential purchasers must be taken through to
move them from unawareness of a product or service to readiness to purchase it
• Second, potential buyers may be at different stages in the hierarchy, so the advertiser will
face different sets of communication problems
• The hierarchy models can also be useful as intermediate measures of communication
effectiveness
• Communication task involves increasing the awareness level for the brand
 Evaluating traditional response hierarchy
models
• Four models presented all view the response process as consisting of movement
through a sequence of three basic stages:
• The cognitive stages – represents what the receiver knows or perceives about the particular
product or brand
• The affective stages – refers to the receiver’s feelings or affect level (like or dislike) for the
particular brand
• The conative or behavioral stages – refers to the consumer’s action toward the brand:
trial, purchase, adoption, or rejection
• four models assume a similar ordering of these three stages
 Topical involvement

High Low
High (learning model) (Low-involvement model)
cognitive Cognitive

Affective
Perceived
product conative
differentiatio Low Conative Figure 5-5: alternative response
(dissonance/attribution
n model) hierarchies - the three-orders model
Conative of information processing

Affective

cognitive Affective
 Alternative response hierarchies
• Model of information processing has three alternative orderings based on
perceived product differentiation and product involvement
• The standard learning hierarchy
• The dissonance/attribution hierarchy
• Low-involvement model cognitive
 Alternative response hierarchy
The standard learning hierarchy
• Consumer will go through the response process in the sequence depicted by the
traditional communications models
• This model consists of:
• Learn  feel  do sequence
• Consumer is viewed as an active participant in the communication process who
gathers information through active learning
• Standard learning hierarchy is likely when the consumer is highly involved in
the purchase process and there is much differentiation among competing brands
 Alternative response hierarchy
The dissonance/attribution hierarchy
• Involve situation where consumers first behave, the develop attitudes or feelings as a result of that
behavior, and then learn or process information that supports the behavior
• This model consists
• Do  feel  learn
• Consumers must choose between two alternatives that are similar in quality but are complex and may
have hidden or unknown attributes
• According to this model, marketers need to recognize that in some situations, attitudes, develop after
purchase, as does learning from the mass media
• As with the standard learning model, this response hierarchy is likely to occur when the consumer is
involved in the purchase situation; it is particularly relevant for post purchase situations
 Alternative response hierarchy
the low-involvement hierarchy
• Receiver is viewed as passing from cognition to behavior to attitude change
• Learn  do feel sequence
• Low consumer involvement in the purchase process
• This hierarchy tend to occurs when involvement in the purchase decision is low.
• The consumer engage is passive learning and random information catching rather
than active information seeking.
• Appeals prevail in much of the advertising we see frequently purchased consumer
products
 Implications of the alternative response
models
• Advertising is just one source of information consumers use in learning about products,
forming attitudes, and/or making purchase decisions.
• Consumers make a purchase decision on the basis general awareness resulting from
repetitive exposure to advertising, and attitude development occurs after purchase
• It is important that marketers examine the communication situation for their product or
service and determine which type of response process is most likely to occur
• These model can be value to marketers as they develop IMC strategies as they recognize
that advertising and other promotional tools work differently depending on the type of
product involved and the decision process sequence that consumers are likely to follow
 The social consumer decision journey
• The decision journey has four (4) basic stages which is:
• Consider
• Evaluate
• Buy
• Enjoy-advocate-bond
• Consumers decisions making process as a winding journey with multiple feedback
loops rather than linear, single uniform path to purchase based on active shopping and
influenced by marketers dominated and controlled touch points such as media
advertising
The social consumer decision journey
 Cognitive processing of communications:
the cognitive response approach
• These though are generally measured by having consumers write down or
verbally report their reactions to a message
• These though reflect the recipient’s cognitive processes or reactions and
help shape ultimate acceptance or rejection of the message
• Its focus has been determine the types of response evoked by an
advertising message and how these response relate to attitudes toward the
ad, brand attitudes, and purchase intentions
 Cognitive responses Attitudes Purchase intent

Product/message
thoughts
Brand attitudes

Exposure to Source-oriented Purchase

advertisement thoughts intention

Attitude toward
the
advertisement
Ad execution
thoughts
A model of cognitive response
 Product/ message thoughts
• Product or message thoughts are divided into two particular types of
responses:
• Counterarguments  thoughts the recipient has that are opposed to the position
taken in the message
• Support arguments  thoughts that affirm the claims made in the message
 Source-oriented thoughts
• A second category of cognitive responses is directed at the source of
communication
• Important type of responses is
• Source derogations  negative thoughts about the spokesperson or organization
making the claims
• Source bolsters  receiver who react favorably to the source generate favorable
thoughts
 Ad execution thoughts
• Third category of cognitive response consists of the individual’s thought
about ad itself
• Ad execution-related thoughts  its include reactions to a execution
factors such as creativity of
the ad, the quality of the visual effects,
colors and voices tones
• Attitude toward the ad  represents the receivers’ feelings of
favorability or unfavorability toward the ad
 The elaboration likelihood model
• Explain the process by which persuasive communications lead to persuasion by influencing
attitudes
• According to this model, the attitude formation or change process depends on the amount and
nature of elaboration
• ELM shows that elaboration likelihood is a function of two elements which is motivation and
ability
• Motivation  to process the message depends on such factors as involvement, personal
relevance, and individuals’ needs and arousal levels
• Ability  depends on the individual’s knowledge, intellectual capacity, and opportunity to
process the message
 Persuasive
Temporary
communication attitude shift

Motivated to process:
• Issue involvement
• no yes
Relevance commitment
• Dissonance arousal
• need for cognition etc. Persuasion cue present?
• Self presentation motives
yes
Ability to process: • Demand characteristics
• Distraction • Evaluation apprehension
• Message • Source characteristics, etc.
comprehensibility
• Issue familiarity no
• Appropriate schema
• Fear arousal
yes
no The elaboration likelihood
Nature of cognitive processing
model of persuasion
(initial attitude, argument quality, etc.,)
• Favorable • Unfavorable • Neither or Retain or
though thoughts neutral regain initial
predominate predominate predominate attitude

Cognitive structure change:

• Are new cognitions
adopted and stored in
memory? Are different no
responses made more
salient than previously?
Yes
Yes
(unfavorable)
(favorable) Enduring
Enduring positive
negative attitude
attitude change
change
(persuasion)
(boomerang)
 Tutorial c5
• Please draw and explain the level of aggregations
• What is encoding?
• Explain the concept of viral marketing and how it relates to word-of-
mouth communication. Find an example of a company that used viral
marketing successfully and one that encountered problems when using
this technique.
 REFERENCES
• Hackley, C. (2010). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing
communications approach. Sage.