Theme 3 - Communications theory Flashcards
What is the linear model of communications?
Intended message - >
(Encoding)
Message as sent - >
(Transmission)
-> Message as received - >
(decoding)
-> Message as understood.
What are some examples of linear communications?
Mass media
eg: tv, radio advertising, direct marketing, promotions
What are some of the problems that occur in the linear communications model?
Encoding/decoding message
eg: Miller light beer in UK and USA
The source
eg Dress modelled in Vogue as more credible
Channel of transmission
eg: opinion leaders and formers
What are non linear models (Word of mouth) communications?
The communication process involves interaction amongst many parties in a network fashion.
eg: myNutella community
What is McCracken’s Meaning Transer Model 1986?
Shows how advertising is the process through which meanings from the culturally constituted world come to reside in goods.
What is McCracken’s culturally constituted world?
The values and symbols and broader cultural categories within a society.
eg: what is it like to be a student in a given society
eg: what is it like to be British
eg: what is it like to be of a particular gender
Describe an example using McCracken’s model to show how meanings residing in goods, come from the culturally constituted world?
Pampers ‘Make a Baby’s Life’
Cultural category: Motherhood
- Going the extra mile
- Exceptional care
- Baby at the centre of attention
- Anxiety surrounding family structure and work-life balance
- Mother personifies the brand
- Buying the brand means buying into being a good mother
- Helps actualise the project of being a mother
How do some people want to consume goods to break out of existing product categories within the culturally constituted world?
As society changes, there is a need to update what the product is made of.
eg: VW needed to change what the Beetle stood for after the 1970s flower power, community and hippies. Evolved to be used by Yuppies.
What are the four main processing responses (decoding)?
1) Attention to the communication itself
2) Learn something from the communication
3) Accepting or believing the communication
4) Emotion stimulated by community
In terms of the linear communications model, what is SOURCE?
Individual or organisation sending the message
In terms of the linear communications model, what is ENCODING?
Transferring the intended message into a symbolic style to be transmitted.
In terms of the linear communications model, what is SIGNAL?
Transmission of the message through a particular media
In terms of the linear communications model, what is DECODING?
Understanding the symbolic style of the message to understand the message.
In terms of the linear communications model, what is the RECEIVER?
The individual receiving the message
In terms of the linear communications model, what is FEEDBACK?
Receivers communications back to the source on receipt of the message.
- If a suitable feedback system is not in place the source will be unaware of the communications being unsuccessful and is liable to continual wasting of resources.
In terms of the linear communications model, what is NOISE?
Distortion of the communications process.
MALLEN, 1977
“The omission and distortion of information”, present in all communications.
Can be due to:
- Distraction
- Encoding inappropriate
- Realms of understanding and receiver not matched
What is the ATTENTION TO THE COMMUNICATION ITSELF response to communications?
Attention is necessary before any other processing can occur.
Many different medias compete for attention.
REFLEXIVE ATTENTION - Involuntary reaction
SELECTIVE ATTENTION - voluntary attention
BRAND AWARENESS - Utilise something different either visually or verbally within execution itself.
BRAND ATTITUDE - Target audiences likely to attend selectively only if message in ad relates to their current motivation in the category.
What is the LEARN SOMETHING FROM THE COMMUNICATION response to communications?
Rote Learning: passive repetition before new memories for the learned response are retained
- Occurs at the level of neurons
When brand awareness objective is recognition, advertising should feature the package as it will be seen at the point of purchase
For brand recall the learning process is more involved
- Low-involvement decisions, all that is required is simple rote learning of the benefit associated with the brand
- High-involvement decisions is acceptance
What is the ACCEPTING OR BELIEVING THE COMMUNICATION response to communications?
Consumers do not always need to accept advertising as true
Advertising may elicit emotional embodied emotions
- Declarative memory: facts and events
- Non-declarative memory: Inaccessible, reflexive.
What is bottom up or top down processing regarding consumers accepting or believing communications?
BOTTOM UP - What you see, visual is judged
TOP DOWN - What you know, information, memory
How should pictures be used to gain attention?
Big images
Colour
Pictures that hold for at least 2 seconds
Less than 20 cuts per 30 seconds
How should words be used to gain attention?
Use unusual letters
Headlines to 7 to 8 words
Vary emphasis or stress in various words
How should pictures be used to encourage learning?
- Consistent image
- Larger pictures
- Use colour unless only providing information
- Show product being used or with user
- High imagery, concrete pictures or illustrations
- Pictures used before words
How should words be used to encourage learning?
Use familiar words
Concrete, high imagery words
Avoid negatives
Careful with puns
Simple sentences, not passive
Suggest a personal interaction with the advertising
HOFFMAN AND NOVAK (1996)
Illustrates the move from linear communications to a network of multidirectional flows among many parties.
What are the benefits of non-linear models of communication?
- Enables information sharing
- Multidirectional flows
- Empowered consumers
- Monitor consumers
- Brand enhancement
- Create brand equity
- More authentic advertising
What are the drawbacks of non-linear communication models?
- Brand hijacking
- Community may want to stay exclusive
- Loss of control
- Madvocates devalue the brand
- New forms of competition
- Consumers are more honest about negatives
CHRISTIANSEN AND TAX, 2000
Encourage reviews quick as evaluation is far from stable over time and accuracy of recall is delayed.
Who are opinion leaders?
Receive information and forward it to influence others - appear to have expertise within a product category.
eg: celebrities, parents, vloggers, bloggers
Who are opinion formers?
Exert personal influence because of authority, education or status associated with the object of the communications process.
eg: selling textbook as a lecturer.
Who are opinion followers?
The vast majority of consumers, mass media communications are influenced by the opinions of opinion formers and leaders.
Who are brand advocates/madvocates?
May create a positive or negative brand community.
How can you develop brands through non-linear communications?
Voluntary WOM
Prompted WOM
Managed WOM
What is voluntary WOM?
Free from external influence, genuine opinion leaders.
What is prompted WOM?
Organisations convey specific information to specific opinion leaders with the intention of encouraging them to share information with opinion followers.
What is managed WOM?
Organisations target and incentivise opinion leaders for recommending their offerings to their network of followers, usually paid representatives.
Who are celebrity endorsers?
“An individual who enjoys public recognition on behalf of a consumer good by appearing with it in an advert”
MCCRACKEN, 1989
They work through the concept of the meaning transfer
How has the internet changed the ways in which consumers engage with organisations as well as with one another?
- Consumers express themselves/feel like they belong
- Share experiences
- Personification of the brand integrates it
- Consumers control when they are exposed to advertising in non-linear function
- Monitoring
- Brand hijacking
- Empowerment
What is interactive media?
Media differentiated from linear media (England and Finney, 2011)
What are the characteristics of interactive media?
Speed
Efficiency
Interactivity - signifies the abailble functionality and ability of participants to respond to messages in real time
Independence
Personalisation
Enhanced relationships
- Move toward digital based marketign could make marketing communications more conversational (Deighton and Grayson, 1995)
Why are mobile communications so popular?
Interactivity Smartphone technologies Ubiquity (portable) Cultural expectations to use mobiles Accountability
What is the aim of multichannel campaigns?
Stone and Shan, 2002.
Manage each channel profitable while optimising the attributes of each channel so that they deliver value for each type of customer
- Optimal number of channels is 3 (BINET AND FIELD, 2007) shown through diminishing returns after media reaches 3.
What is the difference between linear and interactive models?
Linear Interactive
• One-to-many • One to one and many to many
• Monologue format • Dialogic format
• ACTIVIE PROVISION • Passive provision
• Interruptive • Lifestyle compatible
• Mass marketing • Individualised marketing
• Branding • Information
• Segmentation • Communities
• Impersonal • Personal
• Infrequent • Frequent
