The Marketing Book 5th Edition

400 The Marketing Book

messages. It holds the greatest, most exciting

promise for the future.

George Schweitzer, Senior Vice President,

Marketing and Communications,

CBE’s Broadcast Group

The impact of external factors on marketing communications

External and environmental factors have forced
marketers to undertake a fundamental rethink
both of marketing strategies and the position-
ing of products, and this, in turn, must impact
on the process of marketing communications.

Information overload

The consumer is continuously bombarded with
vast quantities of information. According to
Dan O’Donoghue (1997), whereas the average
consumer was subjected to about 300 commer-
cial messages a day in 1995, today that figure
has risen to around 3000. Whether the informa-
tion is orchestrated by the marketer or the
media in general is less relevant than the fact
that there is simply too much information for
the average consumer to process effectively.
The inevitable consequence is that much of the
material is simply screened out and discarded.
The result is that the consumer may make
purchasing decisions based on limited knowl-
edge, or even a misunderstanding of the real
facts. The individual is far less concerned with
the average advertising message, which makes
the task of ensuring appropriate communica-
tions with the target audience an even more
daunting prospect.
An important dimension of the screening
process is what I have described elsewhere as
the ‘submarine mentality’. In essence, since
none of us can absorb all of the information
around us, we establish personal defence mech-
anisms to screen out unwanted or irrelevant
information. The analogy would be that of a
submarine which goes underwater and, hence,

avoids the surface bombardment. At periodic

intervals, the submarine lifts its periscope to

examine particular aspects of the world around

it. And when it has finished gathering the new

information, it descends again – oblivious to

any changes which might be taking place.

As consumers, our awareness of specific

advertising messages is treated in a similar

way. Some form of trigger mechanism is

usually required to encourage us to pay atten-

tion to the variety of marketing communica-

tions messages. Usually, this is an internal

recognition of an unfulfilled need which

heightens the levels of awareness of pertinent

advertising and other information. The prin-

ciple can be commonly observed. If, for exam-

ple, you have recently purchased a new car,

your awareness of the marque will be enhanced

and you will immediately become aware of

similar vehicles all around you.

However, in the process of attempting

to find better and more effective ways of

communicating, we have also gained a greater

appreciation of the nature of marketing com-

munications itself. Much work has been done

in the area of model construction and theoret-

ical examination which has helped us to

enhance areas of implementation.

The discerning consumer

Recent decades have seen the progressive

improvement in levels of education which, in

turn, has made consumers both more demand-

ing concerning the information they receive

and more discerning in their acceptance of it.

Marketing communications propositions devel-

oped in the 1950s and 1960s would be treated

with disdain by today’s more aware con-

sumers. Specious technical claims and pseudo-

scientific jargon, which were at the heart of

many product claims, are no longer given quite

the same credence.

This change is reflected in the comment of

Judy Lannon (1994): ‘Consumers have changed

from being deferential and generalized to per-

sonal and selective’. She argues that we need to