MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS
Week 3 Communication theory

1. Bad Television commercials

Q1. Why do you think these advertisements are poor?
2. Camillas household
3. Advertisements with a big idea
Q2. What is the big idea?
2

11-Sep-14

PRESENTATION TITLE AND AUTHOR

Learning objectives
Understand why communication is important to companies
Appreciate the application of various communication
models
1. Mass communication
2. Involving opinion leaders
3. Diffusion of innovation
4. Web communication model
5. Response hierarchy

PRESENTATION TITLE AND AUTHOR

Communications: Importance

Good communication = good business

helps an organization to thrive
focused and cost effective

Poor communications = bad business

can cost market share, jobs and survival
can damage reputation and image

Communication: Definition

Giving or exchange of information by

using text (talk, writing)

(Grice, 2013)

The science of transmitting information

(Feldman and Audretsch, 1999)

The process by which thoughts are

conveyed and meaning is shared

(Grunig, 1993

Communication: Features

Communication only occurs when a receiver

actually receives the message that the
sender intended to send.

Message rejection, misinterpretation and

misunderstanding are the opposite of
effective communication

Communication: Features

Words
Non verbal
communications
body language, space, time

Linear Model: Single-step

Source

Message

Receiver

Mass Communications

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PRESENTATION TITLE AND AUTHOR

The communications process

MEDIUM

SENDER

ENCODE

MESSAGE

DECODE

RECEIVER

NOISE

FEEDBACK

RESPONSE

Based on
Schramm (1955)

Opinion Leadership & 2 Step Flow Model

Information and
influence

Information

Mass
Media

Opinion
Leader

Opinion
Seekers

Adapted from Fill (2011)

Opinion leader

An active media user who influences the

decisions of others

A person is likely to be an opinion leader

when people view the person to have
great knowledge of a category

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Opinion leaders might be experts in one

area but not in others

Multistep flow model

Mass
Media

Opinion
Leader

Opinion
Seekers

Gatekeepers

Adapted from Fill (2011)

Communicating with opinion leaders

Provide incentives for customers to recommend the
product/service to friends

Celebrity endorsements that create a buzz about

new products

Events

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Opinion leader
Activity:
Think of a -medium or high-involvement
product purchase you are currently
researching
Have you spoken to an opinion leader in
researching the product?
Who is the opinion leader?

16

Web communications models

word of mouth works more quickly on

the web
customers can talk to each other (C2C)
customers can talk back to company
(C2B)
flow of communications becomes a web

Advanced web
Communication Model

Fill

Diffusion of Innovation (Rogers 1962)

% Adopters

Early
Majority
Early Adopters

Innovators

13.5%
2.5%
Introduction
Growth
Life Cycle

Late Majority

34%

34%
Maturity

16%

Laggards
Decline

Response Hierarchy Models

(Adoption Models)
(Strong, 1925)

(Strong, 1925)

Response Hierarchy Models

(Adoption Models)

(Rogers, 1962)

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