440 The Marketing Book
scope for expert outsiders to argue successfully
for alternative modes of execution, which may
not necessarily achieve any improvement in
communication. The second benefit is the lack of
scope for modulationof the message. Although
the two parties are not quite face-to-face and the
mail is strictly speaking an intervening vehicle,
this system of communication is so much a part
of everyday life that perceptions of the transmis-
sion medium will have virtually no effect upon
interpretation of the message. There may be
resistance to the very fact that the initiative is
unsolicited, but that is a broader issue. Though
this option thus offers a very low level of risk,
control of the outcome depends crucially on the
originator’s own communication expertise.
Arrows 2 and 8together depict a situation in
which the promotional message is transmitted
to the target audience via some kind of inter-
vening vehicle of communication; for example,
when a news release successfully generates
editorial comment. Only if the writer of the
release is very practised in the craft will the text
survive the process more or less intact. If editors
do not ignore it altogether, they will treat it as the
raw material for their own news item or story, to
be given a spin that matches the style of their
publication and the interests of their readers,
and decide when the outcome should appear.
The originator thereby loses controlover the
outcome, to a largely unpredictable extent.
Thereafter, the modified message becomes sus-
ceptible to modulation, as readers interpret it
according to their perception of the publication
in question. There is thus a significantly higher
risk of ineffective communication than in the
situation summed up by arrow 1.
Arrow 3symbolizes the decision to subcon-
tract the job of converting strategies into tactics.
The quid pro quo of any such delegation is that
the originator must allow the intermediary to
argue for its own expert view of the most
effective means to the end: the client provides
the brief and the agency produces the solution.
A degree of control is thereby sacrificed as
expertise is acquired. Arrow 4 represents the
situation in which the intermediary subse-
quently transmits the message directly to the
audience, for example by running a direct
marketing campaign. Arrow 5applies when a
vehicle of communication enters into the trans-
mission, and the loop is closed by arrow 8.
That is how about four in every five
advertising campaigns are managed in practice.Figure 17.4 The four parties to the advertising transaction