Mark 432 – Marketing Communications
Lesson 4.1
Communication
Lecture Notes
After this lesson you should be able to:
1. define communication.
2. illustrate and describe the five stages of the communication process.
3. describe how one knows if they have effectively communicated.
4. state what a traditional communication hierarchy is and how marketers use hierarchies
for planning promotional activities.
5. illustrate and describe how the Integrated Information Response Model works.
6. explain why advertising that uses a classical conditioning learning model fails to
develop higher-order beliefs and attitudes.
Lesson Notes
1. Communication: The passing of information, exchange of ideas, or process of
establishing shared meaning between a sender and a receiver.
- Fact: 20% of all print ads are misinterpreted.
o Ex. Benetton Advertisements: What is being communicated? Company
states they are trying to communicate awareness on social causes.
Effective communication?
- How effectively you communicate determines whether you will develop an
awareness, beliefs, and attitudes.
- NOTE: You do not need to read pp. 74 – 81 (Alternative Response Hierarchies)
2. The marketing communication “planning process” begins with identifying
characteristics of the receiver (target audience).
- Must understand the receiver!
- What is their field of experience? Ex. What do certain words mean to them, how
old are they, how do they perceive, what do certain symbols mean, etc.
- What channels/mediums is the receiver exposed to? Markets with high levels of
education are exposed to very different mediums than those with lower levels of
education (the lower the education, the less you read).
- What is the level of literacy?
- What are the perceptions towards the message source?
-
When creating a cover letter, develop beliefs and attitudes. But about what?
o Beliefs and attitudes about yourself and how you can meet the employers
needs: resumes, cover letters, references, etc.
3. Source Factors: The source can be an individual (e.g. sales person or hired
spokesperson) or a nonpersonal entity such as the corporation.
- Using Non-Expert Sources
o Non-expert sources frequently make effective spokespeople.
4. Encoding: Encoding is the process of putting together thoughts, ideas and information
in symbolic form to communicate a message.
- The sender’s goal is to encode the message in such a manner so as to ensure that it will
be understood by the receiver.
5. Channel/Medium: The Channel is the method or medium by which the
communication travels from source or sender to receiver.
6. Decoding: Decoding is the process of transforming and interpreting the sender’s
message back into thought. Decoding is heavily influenced by the receiver’s frame of
reference or field of experience.
- How we decode is related to how we organize information.
- Related to positioning map and audience’s perception.
- How we organize information is relative to our field of experience.
7. How do we know if we have successfully communicated?
- When the sender has achieved “shared understanding” with all the receivers in our
target market.
8. How consumers respond to an advertising message? (feedback response link)
Once we have communicated the receiver will respond by:
1. Thinking something (belief)
2. Feeling something (attitude)
3. doing something (behavior)
9. Traditional Response Hierarchy Models
Response hierarchies present a series of steps or stages potential purchasers often take
when they move from a state of no or little awareness to the point where they are ready to
purchase.
10. Integrated Information Response Model (IIRM)
The IIRM states that product beliefs and attitudes are influenced from both advertising
and personal experience with the product.
•
Link what is happening in the Integrated Information Response Model to cognitive
learning, classical conditioning, and operate learning.
When the purchase is high involvement consumers need to decrease the perception of
risk.
•
Thus, “high elaboration” or high amounts of information is needed to reduce risk.
This involves a cognitive learning model because you cannot develop deep
knowledge through classical conditioning.
The Integrated Information Response Model – Low-Involvement Purchases
With low-involvement purchases advertising creates general product awareness.
However it also creates:
• low information acceptances.
• lower-order beliefs (weakly held beliefs).
• low order affect.
With repetitive advertising (and need) consumers become more likely to make a trial
purchase to gather information. The direct experience from a trial leads to:
• High information acceptance.
• Higher order beliefs and affect (strongly held beliefs).
• Commitment or brand loyalty.
The Integrated Information Response Model – High -Involvement Purchases
With high involvement purchases, direct experience and in some cases (when a central
route to persuasion is used) advertising is accepted at higher levels. Thus higher order
beliefs and attitudes develop.
Implications for Promotion
Marketing communications should focus on achieving product demonstration rather than
direct urge to purchase.
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