Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

14. Promotion −
    Introduction to Integrated
    Marketing
    Communications

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

400 Chapter 14

Promotion is wasted if it doesn’t achieve its objectives. And that happens when

it doesn’t communicate effectively. There are many reasons why a promotion mes-

sage can be misunderstood or not heard at all. To understand this, it’s useful to think

about a whole communication process—which means a source trying to reach a

receiver with a message. Exhibit 14-5 shows the elements of the communication

process. Here we see that a source—the sender of a message—is trying to deliver

a message to a receiver—a potential customer. Research shows that customers eval-

uate not only the message but also the source of the message in terms of

trustworthiness and credibility. For example, American Dental Association (ADA)

studies show that Listerine mouthwash helps reduce plaque buildup on teeth. Lis-

terine mentions the ADA endorsement in its promotion to help make the

promotion message credible.

A major advantage of personal selling is that the source—the seller—can get

immediate feedback from the receiver. It’s easier to judge how the message is being

received and to change it if necessary. Mass sellers usually must depend on market-

ing research or total sales figures for feedback—and that can take too long. As we’ll

discuss later in this chapter, this has prompted many marketers to include toll-free

telephone numbers and website addresses as ways of building direct-response feed-

back from consumers into their mass-selling efforts.

The noise—shown in Exhibit 14-5—is any distraction that reduces the effec-

tiveness of the communication process. Conversations and snack-getting during TV

ads are noise. The clutter of competing ads on the Internet is noise. Advertisers

planning messages must recognize that many possible distractions—noise—can

interfere with communications.

The basic difficulty in the communication process occurs during encoding and

decoding. Encodingis the source deciding what it wants to say and translating

it into words or symbols that will have the same meaning to the receiver.

Decodingis the receiver translating the message. This process can be very tricky.

The meanings of various words and symbols may differ depending on the atti-

tudes and experiences of the two groups. People need a common frame of

reference to communicate effectively. See Exhibit 14-6. Maidenform encoun-

tered this problem with its promotion aimed at working women. The company

ran a series of ads depicting women stockbrokers and doctors wearing Maiden-

form lingerie. The men in the ads were fully dressed. Maidenform was trying to

show women in positions of authority, but some women felt the ad presented

them as sex objects. In this case, the promotion people who encoded the mes-

sage didn’t understand the attitudes of the target market and how they would

decode the message.^5

Source Encoding Message channel Decoding Receiver

Feedback

Noise

Exhibit 14-5

The Traditional

Communication Process

Encoding and decoding

depend on a common

frame of reference

Exhibit 14-6

This Same Message May Be

Interpreted Differently

Common
frame of
reference

Decoder

Encoder

Promotion Requires Effective Communication

Communication can

break down