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UNIT 1 MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS
Structure
1.0 Introduction
1.1 Unit Objectives
1.2 Source, Message and Medium Factors
1.3 Consumer Behaviour Perspective and Advertising Response Process
1.3.1 Behaviour Foundations of Marketing Communication
1.3.2 Information Processing: Attention, Comprehensions and Recall
1.3.3 Behavioural Foundation of Marketing Communication
1.4 Summary
1.5 Key Terms
1.6 Answers to Check Your Progress
1.7 Questions and Exercises
1.8 Further Reading
1.0 INTRODUCTION
Communication is the process of establishing a commonness or oneness of thought between
the sender and the receiver. Commonness of thought implies that a sharing relationship
must exist between the sender (advertiser) and receiver (consumer). Sound waves may be
bouncing against the listeners eardrums, who may not be actively receiving and thinking
about what the sales person is saying. An analogy can be drawn between a human receiver
and a TV set. A TV is continuously bombarded by electromagnetic waves from different
stations, yet it will only receive the station to which the channel selector is tuned. Human
receivers are also bombarded with stimuli from many sources and like a TV set, people are
selective in what information they choose to process.
Both sender and receiver must be active participants in the same communicative relationship
in order for thought to be shared. Communication is something one does with another
person, not something one does to another person. The right question is not What does
advertising do to people? but rather What do people do with advertising?
1.1 UNIT OBJECTIVES
After going through this unit, you will be able to:
Explain the eight elements involved in communication activities
Discuss behaviour foundations of marketing communication
Analyse consumer behaviour perspective
Expound advertising response process
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1.2 SOURCE, MESSAGE AND MEDIUM FACTORS
All communication activities involve eight elements: A source, encoding, a message, a channel
(medium), a receiver, decoding, possibility of noise, and feedback potential.
The source or sender is a person or group of people (business firm) who has thoughts,
(ideas, and sales points) to share with some other person or group of people. The source
encodes a message to accomplish the communication objective. Encoding is the process of
translating thoughts into symbolic form. The source selects specific signs from an infinite
variety of words, sentence structures, symbols, and non-verbal elements to encode a
message that will communicate effectively with the target audience. The message is a
symbolic expression of senders thoughts. In marketing communication, the message takes
the form of an advertisement, sales presentation, package design, point of purchase cues
and so on. The message channel is the path through which the message moves from a
source to the receiver. Companies use broadcast (radio and television) and print (newspaper,
magazines) media to advertise messages to current and potential customers. Messages are
also transmitted to customers directly via sales people, by telephone, direct mail, brochures
and point of purchase displays.
Figure 1.1: The Communication Process
The receiver is the person or group of people with whom the sender attempts to share
ideas. In marketing communication, receivers are prospective and present customers of an
organizations product or service.
Decoding involves activities undertaken by receivers to interpret or derive meaning from
marketing messages.
A message moving through a channel is subject to the influence of extraneous and distracting
stimuli. These stimuli interfere with reception of the message in its pure and original form.
Such interference and distortion is called noise. Noise may occur at any stage in the
communication process. At the point of message encoding, the sender may be unclear
about what the message is intended to accomplish. A likely result is a poorly focused and
perhaps even contradictory message rather than a marketing message that is clear cut and
integrated. Noise also occurs in the message channel a fuzzy TV signal, a crowded
magazine page in which an advertisement is surrounded by competitive clutter, and a personal
sales interaction that is interrupted repeatedly by telephone calls. Noise can also be present
at the receiver/decoding stage of the process. An infant might cry during a TV commercial
and block out critical points in the sales message, passengers in an automobile might talk
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and not listen to a radio commercial, or the receiver simply may not possess the knowledge
base needed to fully understand the promotional message.
The feedback affords source of monitoring how accurately the intended message is being
received. Feedback allows the source to determine whether the original message hit the
target accurately or whether it needs to be altered to evoke a clearer picture in receivers
mind. The feedback mechanism offers the source some measure of control. Advertisers
frequently discover that their target market does not interpret campaign themes exactly as
intended. Using research-based feedback from their markets, management can re-examine
and correct ineffective or misdirected advertising messages.
1.3 CONSUMER BEHAVIOUR PERSPECTIVE AND
ADVERTISING RESPONSE PROCESS
Fundamental understanding of consumer behaviour is essential to fully appreciate the
intricacies of marketing communication. It is important to understand how consumers
respond to marketing communication stimuli and make choices among brands.
Advertisers are looking for greater accountability from their communication campaigns.
The advertising budget can be one of the biggest expenditures for an organization. So,
managers want to see how their budgets are translating into results. Also, markets for all
products are becoming increasingly fragmented. Competition is also intensifying in several
product categories. These powerful forces leave little margin of error for marketers.
Advertisers must know the best audiences for any product, where these audiences obtain
information about products, how they respond to different styles of advertising, where
they shop, how they select products, etc. Therefore, it is absolutely imperative to understand
the behaviour of the target audience.
1.3.1 Behaviour Foundations of Marketing Communication
Marketing communicators direct their efforts toward influencing consumers brand-related
beliefs, attitudes and choices. Ultimately, the objective is to encourage consumers to purchase
the marketers brand rather than that of competitors. To accomplish this goal, marketing
communication designs appropriate advertising messages, brand names, sales presentations
and other communications activities.
There are two models that describe how consumers browse information and go about
choosing from among the many alternatives available:
(i) The consumer processing model (CPM), where behaviour is seen as rational, highly
cognitive, systematic, and reasoned.
(ii) The hedonic experiential model (HEM), which views consumer behaviour as driven
by emotions in pursuit of fun, and feelings.
But it must be recognized that consumer behaviour is much too complex and diverse to be
captured perfectly by two extreme models. These models are bipolar perspectives that
anchor a continuum of possible consumer behaviour. At one end of the continuum is consumer
behaviour that is based on pure reason - cold, logical, rational (CPM) and at the other end
is consumer behaviour that is based on pure passion - hot, spontaneous and perhaps even
irrational (HEM). In between these extremes rests the bulk of consumer behaviour, most of
which is not based on pure reason or pure passion. Often both perspectives are applicable
to understanding how and why consumers behave as they do.
1.3.2 Information Processing: Attention, Comprehension and Recall
The consumer is constantly being bombarded with information, which is potentially relevant
for making choices. The consumers reaction to that information, how that information is
interpreted, and how it is combined or integrated with other information have crucial impacts
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on purchase choice. Hence, marketing communicators decision on what information to
provide to consumers, how much to provide and how to provide that information require
knowledge of how consumers process, interpret and integrate that information in marketing
choices.
Consumer information processing can be understood in terms of eight iterated stages:
(i) Exposure to information
The marketing communication task is to deliver messages to consumers who, it is expected,
will process the messages and be persuaded to undertake the course of action advocated
by the marketer. Exposure simply means that consumers come in contact with the marketers
message (see a magazine advertisement, hear a radio commercial). But mere fact of exposing
consumers to the marketing communicators message does not ensure that the message
will have any impact. Gaining exposure is necessary but an insufficient condition for
communication success.
(ii) Selective Attention
Attention means to focus on and consider a message to which one has been exposed.
Consumers attend to only a small fraction of marketing communication stimuli because
demands placed on their attention are great. Attention is highly selective. Selectivity is
necessary because information processing capacity is limited and effective utilization of
this capacity requires consumers to allocate mental energy (processing capacity) to only
limited messages that are relevant and of interest to current goals. For instance, once their
limited curiosity is satisfied, most non-smokers, when reading a magazine, will pay little
attention to advertisement for cigarettes, because the product is less relevant to them than
to smokers.
There are three kinds of attention: involuntary, non-voluntary and voluntary. Involuntary
attention requires little or no effort on the part of the receiver. A stimulus intrudes upon a
resisting persons consciousness. Attention is gained on the basis of intensity of the stimulus
(loud sound, bright light). Non-voluntary attention or spontaneous attention occurs when a
person is attracted to a stimulus and continues to pay attention because it holds her/his
interests. A person in this situation neither resists nor willfully attends to the stimulus initially,
but she continues to pay attention because the stimulus has some benefit or relevance.
Advertises create messages to gain non-voluntary attention of an audience since consumers
do not willfully search out advertising messages. Advertisements must attract and maintain
attention by being interesting and often entertaining. Voluntary attention occurs when a
person will fully notice a stimulus. A consumer who is considering to purchase a car will
direct his attention to car advertisements. Also, people who have recently made important
purchase decisions will voluntarily attend to messages to reassure themselves that their
decisions were correct.
Attention is highly selective. Attention selectivity is determined both by properties of marketing
stimulus and by factors that rest in the consumers background and psychological make-
up.
Appeals to cognitive and hedonic needs
Cognitive needs: Consumers are congruent with their informational goals. A student who
wants to move out of a dormitory and into an apartment will be on the lookout for information
pertaining to apartments. Classified advertisements and overhead conversations about
apartments will be attended to even when the apartment seeker is not actively looking for
information. Advertisements for food products are likely to be noticed when people are
hungry. Many restaurants advertise on radio during the after-work rush hour.
Hedonic needs: Such needs are satisfied when consumers attend to messages that make
them feel good. People are likely to attend to those stimuli that have become associated
with rewards and which relate to those aspects of life that they value highly. For instance,
Check Your Progress
1. Name the eight elements of
communication activities.
2. What is noise?
3. Name the models that
describe how consumers
browse information and
make choices.
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sexually-oriented messages, the use of babies, appetizing food items, and gala events are
commonly used stimuli in advertisements. These appeals are inherently pleasurable to most
people because they are firmly associated in our memories with past good items, enjoyment
and those things which we value in life.
Use of moving stimuli
Marketing communicators use unusual, distinctive, or unpredictable devices. Such stimuli
tend to produce greater attention than those that are familiar and routine. This is due to
human adaptation. People adapt to the conditions around them. As stimuli become more
familiar, people become desensitized to it. If you drive past a billboard each day, you notice
it less on each occasion. If the billboard were removed, you would notice it was no longer
there. We notice by exception.
Use of intense stimuli
Intense stimuli, i.e., those that are louder, more colourful, bigger, brighter, etc. are more
likely to attract attention. This is because it is difficult to avoid intense stimuli, thus leading
to involuntary or non-voluntary attention in shopping malls and department stores. Various
packages, displays, signs, sounds and smells are used to attract customers attention.
Attention involves allocating limited processing capacity in a selective fashion. Effective
marketing communication is designed to activate consumer interests by appealing to those
needs that are most relevant to a market segment. This is not easy as marketing
communication environments (stores, advertising media, and noisy offices during sales
presentation) are inherently cluttered with competitive stimuli and messages that vie for
customers attention. Clutter in TV advertising reduces effectiveness of individual
commercials. Commercials appearing in a stream of multiple commercials and those involving
low involvement products succumb to the clutter effect.
(iii) Comprehension
To comprehend is to understand and create meaning out of stimuli and symbols.
Communication is effective when the meaning a marketing communication intends to convey
matches what is extracted by consumers from the message. People respond to their
perceptions of the world and not to the world as it actually is.
The perceptual process of interpreting stimuli is called perception encoding. It has two
stages:
Feature analyses, the initial stage where a receiver examines the basic features of a
stimulus (size, colour, shape) and from this makes a preliminary classification. A consumer
is able to distinguish a motorcycle from a bicycle by examining such features as size,
presence of engine. A lemon is distinguished from an orange by its colour and shape.
The second stage is active synthesis. The context or situation in which information is
received plays a role in determining what is perceived and interpreted, i.e., what meaning
it acquires. Interpretation results from combining stimulus features with expectations
of what should be present in the context in which a stimulus is perceived. A synthetic
fur coat placed in window of a discount clothing store (the context) is likely to be
perceived as a cheap imitation. However the same coat when attractively put in an
expensive boutique (a different context) might now be considered a high quality, stylish
garment.
Consumers perception/comprehension of marketing stimuli is determined by stimulus
features and by the characteristics of the consumers themselves. Expectations, needs,
personality traits, past experience and attitudes towards the stimulus objects play an important
role in determining consumer perceptions. Due to subjective nature of the factors that
influence our perception, comprehension is synergetic or peculiar to each individual (each
individuals personal characteristics and background influences how he perceives someone
else).
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An individuals mood also influences her/his perception of stimulus objects. Research shows
that when people are in good mood they are likely to retrieve positive rather than negative
material from their memories, are more likely to perceive positive side of things and are
more likely to respond positively to a variety of stimuli. Advertisements and personal selling
are capable of placing consumers in positive moods and may enhance consumer perception
and attitudes towards marketers offerings.
People occasionally misinterpret or miscomprehend messages so as to make them consistent
with their existing beliefs, expectations or other cognitive elements. This is done without
conscious awareness.
But advertisements are not miscomprehended any more than the other communication
forms such as programmes (serials) and public service announcements.
(iv) Agreement with what is comprehended
Comprehension by itself does not ensure that the message will change consumers attitudes
or influence their behaviour. Agreement depends on whether the message is credible and
whether it contains information and appeals that are compatible with the values that are
important to consumers. For instance, a consumer who is more interested in the social-
value implications of consuming a product rather than in acquiring a functional value product
is more likely to be persuaded by a message that associates the brand with a desirable group
than one that talks about product features.
(v) Retention and search/retrieval (recall) of stored information
Retention and information search and retrieval involve memory factors related to consumer
choice. Memory involves the related issues of what consumers remember (recognize and
recall) about marketing stimuli and how they access and retrieve information when making
consumption choices. Memory is inseparable from the process of learning.
Elements of memory
Memory consists of long-term memory (LTM), short-term memory (STM) and a set of
sensory stores (SS). Information is received by one or more sensory receptors (signs,
smell, touch and so on) and passed on to an appropriate SS where it is rapidly lost (within
fraction of a second) unless attention is allocated to the stimulus. Attended information is
then transferred to STM, which serves as the centre for current processing activity by
integrating information from sense organs and from LTM. STM has limited processing
capacity, i.e., individuals can browse only a limited amount of information at any one time.
An excessive amount of information will result in reduced recognition and recall.
Furthermore, information in STM that is not thought about or rehearsed will be lost from
STM in 30 seconds. Information is then transferred from STM to LTM, which is a virtual
storehouse of unlimited information. Information in LTM is organized into coherent and
associated cognitive units. There are associative links between/among related information
knowledge and beliefs.
The marketers job is to provide positively valued information that consumers will store in
LTM, which will increase the chance of choosing the marketers offerings over competitive
options. The marketing communicators task is to facilitate consumer learning. Learning
represents changes in the content or organization of information in consumers LTM.
Marketing communication attempts to alter consumers long-term memories by facilitating
learning of information that is compatible with marketers interests (HP tries to facilitate
business consumers learning that HP Scan jet scanners are simple to set up and use).
Types of learning
One type of learning is the strengthening of linkages among specific memory concepts.
Ford promotes the theme quality is job. The purpose is to affix in consumers memories
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a strong linkage between Ford cars and quality. Linkages are strengthened by repeating
claims, presenting them in more concrete fashion and being creative in conveying products
failures.
A second form of learning is by establishing entirely new linkages. Researchers reported
that aspirin reduces likelihood of heart attacks. Advertisers began actively promoting their
brands as heart attack fighters. Aspirin advertisers wanted consumers to establish an
entirely new linkagethat this product has benefits other than simply relieving headaches.
(vi) Search and retrieval of information
Information that is learned and stored in memory only impacts consumer choice behaviour
when it is searched and retrieved. Retrieval is when a new piece of information is linked or
associated with another concept that is itself well-known and easily accessed.
Use of concretizing and imagery
Concretization is based on the idea that it is easier for people to search and retrieve tangible
rather than abstract information. Product claims become more concrete when they are
made tangible and vivid. For instance, the makers of Anacin tablets needed a concrete way
to present the brand as strong pain relief for splitting headaches. The idea of splitting
headache was concretized by showing hard-boiled eggs splitting with accompanying sound
effects.
Imagery is the representation of sensory experience in short-term memoryincluding visual,
auditory and other sensory experiences. You do not have an image for satisfaction. Mental
imagery plays an important role in comprehension, recall, retrieval, attitude formation and
choice. Pictures and visuals are best able to elicit imagery, because pictures are represented
in memory in verbal as well as visual form whereas words are less likely to have visual
representations. Visual imagery plays an important role in advertising, and point-of-purchase
stimuli. Information about product attributes is better recalled when the information is
accompanied with pictures than when presented only as prose. People remember greater
number of company names when the names are paired with meaningful pictures. Effective
visual imagery in advertising can affect an audience member in a number of imagined or
fantasy like situations that are conducive to sale of marketers product. The advertisement
may play the consumer behind the wheel of a powerful sports car cruising down a country
lane.
Much of what we feel and visualize internally is based on what we see. Seventy to 80 per
cent of what we learn is visual. Imagery is also elicited by appeals to other senses
auditory, olfactory (smell and tactile). A TV commercial would not be good if it contained
just conversations without background music. Marketing communications appeal to our
senses and evoke images that activate our emotions, influence our cognition and enhance
the marketing messages.
The special case of olfactory stimuli is when store environments are filled with pleasant
and purchase-enhancing odours. Packages and magazine advertisements are encapsulated
with scents that are emitted when scratch and sniff patches are rubbed. Smells can evoke
strong images of products, product usage and consumption situations. Olfactory stimuli
are able to attract attention, motivate information processing influence memories, affect
product-performance evaluation and activate behaviour.
(vii) Deciding among alternatives
Till now consumers have received, encoded and stored information that is pertinent to
making consumption choices. Stored in consumers memories are numerous information
packets for different consumption alternatives. This belief is in the form of bits and pieces
of knowledge (Nike is a brand of tennis shoes), specific beliefs (Chevrolet Optra is an
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more important than price when buying sophisticated electronic equipments).
The issue is, when contemplating a purchase from a particular product category, how does
a consumer decide which brand to purchase? He will buy the best brand, but it is not
always clear what the best brand is as the consumer has stored in long-term memory a
wide variety of information (facts, beliefs, etc) about each brand. Some of the information
is negative and some of it is positive; information may be contradictory or incomplete.
Consumers often resort to simplifying strategies or heuristics to arrive at decisions that are
at least satisfactory if not perfect.
Simplest decision heuristics is affect-driven, as the individual simply calls from memory
his attitude or affect towards relevant alternatives and picks that alternative for which the
affect is most positive. This process works for frequently purchased items where risk is
the least. (Low involvement purchase).
Compensatory heuristic: Rarely is a particular alternative completely superior or dominant
over other consumption alternatives. Although a brand may be preferable with respect to
one, two or several benefits, it is unlikely that it is superior to its alternatives in terms of all
benefits or attributes that consumers are seeking. Under these non-dominant circumstances,
consumers must give up something in order to get something else. In high involvement
decision-making, trade-offs must be made. If you want more of a particular benefit, you
have to pay higher price, if you want to pay less, you give something less in terms of
performance.
The chosen alternative is not the best in terms of all criteria. Superiority on some criteria
affects or compensates for its lesser performance on some other criteria. The consumer
cannot have it all unless he is willing to pay a super premium price.
In conjunctive heuristics the consumer establishes cut offs or minimal performance on all
pertinent choice criteria. An alternative is retained for further considerations only if it meets
or exceeds all minima.
In high involvement decisions a combination of heuristics are used in sequence. A conjunctive
strategy may be used to eliminate options and then compensatory heuristics is applied to
arrive at a choice from the remaining options that do satisfy all the minima.
(viii) Purchase
Acting on the basis of the decision, consumer choice behaviour does not operate in a
simple, lockstep fashion. People do not always behave in a manner consistent with their
preference. A major reason is the presence of events, or situational factors that disrupt,
inhibit or prevent consumers from following through on his intentions. Situational factors
are especially prevalent in the case of low involvement consumer behaviour. Stock outs,
price offs, in-store promotions lead to purchase of brands that are not necessarily the most
preferred and which would not be the predicted choice based on some heuristic. All aspects
of marketing must be coordinated and integrated in order to get consumers to act favourably
towards marketers offering.
1.3.3 Behavioural Foundation of Marketing Communication
Consumer feedback or response is one of the most important things a marketer needs to
analyse, as it helps in gauging the effectiveness of the communication. According to experts,
consumers often respond to messages in a hierarchical order of behaviour. These responses
are demonstrated through various models of consumer response stages as depicted in the
following figure:
Check Your Progress
4. What are the two stages of
perception encoding?
5. What does memory consist
of?
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Stages AIDA
model
Hierarchy of
Effects model
Innovation
Adoption
model
Information
Processing
model
Cognitive
stage
Attention Awareness
Knowledge
Awareness Presentation
Attention
Comprehension
Affective
stage
Interest Desire Liking
Preference
Conviction
Interest
Evaluation
Yielding
Retention
Behavioural
stage
Action Purchase Trial
Adoption
Behaviour
Figure 1.2: Traditional Consumer Response Hierarchy Models
According to the traditional response models, a consumer goes through various stages of
responses. It starts with a consumers becoming aware of a product and it ends with the
purchasing of the product. These responses can be divided into the following:
Cognitive responses
Affective responses
Behavioural responses
For each stage of consumer response, communicators should perform specific actions.
For example, the communicator might need to imprint something into the consumers
mind, like:
1. Cognitive response; change an attitude
2. Affective response or get the consumer to act
3. Behavioural response
Various models outline these response stages in a stage-wise manner.
One of the most popular models is the Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) model

of
consumer response hierarchy. The model states that a consumer passes successively through
the four stages of response. They are as follows:
Awareness: This is the initial stage. In this, most of the consumers are unaware of the
product or brand. Therefore, the communicators key objective is to build awareness.
It could be just name recognition with simple messages repeating the brand name, or to
give basic and important information about the product or brand. This stage is considered
the most important in case of a relatively new product category. For example, when the
newspaper Divya Bhaskar launched its Gujarati edition, there were a lot of ads proclaimed
nothing more than the product name. Another example is Hutch. When Vodafone took
over Hutch, the key objective of Vodafone was to inform the audiences about the
change of Hutch to Vodafone and takeover through quick reach and repetition. Thus,
several 5 to 10 second spots were designed to ensure that the ads did not result in any
monotony.
Interest: Onceconsumers become aware of a product, marketers next step should be
to create interest in the advertised product. Therefore, marketers should find out how
consumers feel about the product. They need to find out whether the consumers like
the product or not and are interested enough. Marketers should focus on highlighting
unique features of the product and how it could be beneficial to the consumers.
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Figure 1.3: Types Made More Interesting through
the Use of Celebrities in Communication
Desire: Creating an interest in a particular product is not enough. Once an advertisement
succeeds in creating interest, the next target should be to get the target audience positively
inclined towards buying the product, i.e., create in them a desire and preference for the
advertised product. Desire can be created by convincing the consumers how the product
addresses their specific needs and by creatively promoting the product. Its quality,
value and other significant features should be highlighted. For example, Rexona and
Aquaguard arouse desires by giving rational benefits of using the product.
Action: Advertisings ultimate objective is to spur the target audience into action. In
most cases, the desired action is to lead consumers to purchase. However, in some
cases it can also be to generate curiosity, promote participation in a promotion, etc.
Brand- or image-building advertising does not immediately lead to purchased action, but
it will help create a desire that will ultimately lead to purchase of the advertised product.
This is a long-term strategy. Marketers can adopt short-term strategy as well.
Promotional- or direct-advertising uses incentives to lure target audience. Consumers
purchase the product as they get various offers when they immediately buy the product.
For instance, Whisper Ultra sanitary napkins urged women to make an instant run for
the product in an ad that read, Come on everybody, run, run, run. J oin the revolution.
Now, the price of freedom is just `65. From `80 to just `65. Come, join the Whisper
Ultra Revolution. Likewise, in the following Figure, Surf Excel encourages purchase
through a special offer.
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Figure 1.4: Surf Excel Encourages Purchase through a Promotional Offer
1. The Advertising Hierarchy of Effects Model
The hierarchy of effects model

was created by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner. The
model states that advertising must move people up step by step from cognitive processing
to attitude change to purchase behaviour. It is unlikely that consumers immediately switch
from being unaware or disinterested individuals to convinced purchasers in one step. Before
they buy a product, they need to go through a series of steps. The various steps are as
follows:
Awareness
Knowledge
Liking
Preference
Conviction
Purchase
A fundamental assumption of the model is that advertising effects do not occur immediately.
Therefore, advertising must move consumers through these five psychological stages before
the consumers actually purchase the product. The advertising hierarchy of effects model is
often proved to be useful in objective setting. It is also useful in the measurement of
advertising effectiveness.
2. Innovation Adoption Model
The innovation adoption model is based on the diffusion of innovations theory. The model
classifies the consumers into various categories, such as innovators, early adopters, early
majority, late majority and laggards, based on how soon they adopt and innovation, i.e.,
purchase a product. Innovators are the first whereas laggards are the last to purchase. The
model is based on the concept that some consumers are more open to adoption than others.
It states that trying to convince the consumers of a new and unconventional idea in no time
is pointless. It is always better to approach and convince the innovators and early adopters
first. Others should be allowed to take time and gradually go through the decision-making
process (awareness, interest, evaluation, trial and adoption). That occurs when consumers
consider adopting a new product. Demonstration or sampling programmes can act as a
catalyst in the adoption process as it increases consumer confidence in the new product.
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3. Information-Processing Model
William J . McGuires information-processing model

explains consumer behaviour in
response to a persuasive message such as advertising. The model views the receiver of a
message as an information processor and problem solver, who goes through the following
six stages:
(i) The persuasive message must be communicated to the receiver
(ii) He must attend to the message
(iii) He must comprehend the message
(iv) He must be convinced by the arguments and yield to the message
(v) He must retain the information
(vi) Finally, he must carry out the desired behaviour
As per the model, any advertising will fail if it fails to convince the consumers at any of
these stage. For example, a hi-decibel campaign that grabs everyones attention is bound to
fail if the message is unclear. Even though a campaign is able to gain attention and can be
easily understood, it may still fail if the arguments are not convincing enough to induce
yielding. In other words, a campaign cannot be stronger than its weakest link. Therefore,
it is important to measure each stage through consumer surveys or other mechanisms to
provide feedback regarding advertising effectiveness.
1.4 SUMMARY
In this unit, you have learnt that:
All communication activities involve eight elements: A source, encoding, a message, a
channel (medium), a receiver, decoding, possibility of noise, and feedback potential.
The source or sender is a person or group of people (business firm) who has thoughts,
(ideas, and sales points) to share with some other person or group of people. The
source encodes a message to accomplish the communication objective.
Encoding is the process of translating thoughts into symbolic form. The source selects
specific signs from an infinite variety of words, sentence structures, symbols, and
non-verbal elements to encode a message that will communicate effectively with the
target audience.
A message is a symbolic expression of senders thoughts. In marketing communication,
the message takes the form of an advertisement, sales presentation, package design,
point of purchase cues and so on.
The receiver is the person or group of people with whom the sender attempts to share
ideas. In marketing communication, receivers are prospective and present customers
of an organizations product or service.
Decoding involves activities undertaken by receivers to interpret or derive meaning
from marketing messages.
Fundamental understanding of consumer behaviour is essential to fully appreciate the
intricacies of marketing communication. It is important to understand how consumers
respond to marketing communication stimuli and make choices among brands.
Marketing communicators direct their efforts towards influencing consumers brand-
related beliefs, attitudes and choices. Ultimately, the objective is to encourage consumers
to purchase the marketers brand rather than that of competitors.
Consumers are constantly being bombarded with information, which is potentially relevant
for making choices. The consumers reaction to that information, how that information
Check Your Progress
6. List the various stages of
response a consumer passes
through, as per AIDA
model.
7. Name the advertising and
marketing experts who
created the advertising
hierarchy of effects model.
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is interpreted, and how it is combined or integrated with other information have crucial
impacts on purchase choice.
The marketing communication task is to deliver messages to consumers who, it is
expected, will process the messages and be persuaded to undertake the course of action
advocated by the marketer.
Attention means to focus on and consider a message to which one has been exposed.
Consumers attend to only a small fraction of marketing communication stimuli because
demands placed on their attention are great.
Attention is highly selective. Attention selectivity is determined both by properties of
marketing stimulus and by factors that rest in the consumers background and
psychological make-up.
To comprehend is to understand and create meaning out of stimuli and symbols.
Communication is effective when the meaning a marketing communication intends to
convey matches what is extracted by consumers from the message.
Comprehension by itself does not ensure that the message will change consumers attitudes
or influence their behaviour. Agreement depends on whether the message is credible
and whether it contains information and appeals that are compatible with the values that
are important to consumers.
Retention and information search and retrieval involve memory factors related to
consumer choice. Memory involves the related issues of what consumers remember
(recognize and recall) about marketing stimuli and how they access and retrieve
information when making consumption choices.
Information that is learned and stored in memory only impacts consumer choice behaviour
when it is searched and retrieved. Retrieval is when a new piece of information is linked
or associated with another concept that is itself well-known and easily accessed.
Numerous information packets for different consumption alternatives are stored in
consumers memories. This belief is in the form of bits and pieces of knowledge,
specific beliefs and evaluations of purchase consequences.
Consumer feedback or response is one of the most important things a marketer needs
to analyse, as it helps in gauging the effectiveness of the communication. According to
experts, consumers often respond to messages in a hierarchical order of behaviour.
According to the traditional response models, a consumer goes through various stages
of responses. It starts with a consumers becoming aware of a product and it ends with
the purchasing of the product. These responses can be divided into: cognitive responses,
affective responses and behavioural responses.
The hierarchy of effects model was created by Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner. The
model states that advertising must move people up step by step from cognitive processing
to attitude change to purchase behaviour.
The innovation adoption model is based on the diffusion of innovations theory. The
model classifies the consumers into various categories, such as innovators, early adopters,
early majority, late majority and laggards, based on how soon they adopt and innovation,
i.e., purchase a product.
William J . McGuires information-processing model explains consumer behaviour in
response to a persuasive message such as advertising.
1.5 KEY TERMS
Consumer behaviour: It is the study of individuals, organizations or groups, and the
processes they use.
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Perception encoding: The perceptual process of interpreting stimuli is called perception
encoding.
1.6 ANSWERS TO CHECK YOUR PROGRESS
1. All communication activities involve eight elements: A source, encoding, a message, a
channel (medium), a receiver, decoding, possibility of noise, and feedback potential.
2. A message moving through a channel is subject to the influence of extraneous and
distracting stimuli. These stimuli interfere with reception of the message in its pure and
original form. Such interference and distortion is called noise.
3. There are two models that describe how consumers browse information and go about
choosing from among the many alternatives available. These are, the consumer processing
model (CPM), and the hedonic experiential model (HEM).
4. The two stages of perception encoding are feature analyses and active synthesis.
5. Memory consists of long-term memory (LTM), short-term memory (STM) and a set
of sensory stores (SS).
6. AIDA model states that a consumer passes through four stages of response. They are
as follows:
(i) Awareness
(ii) Interest
(iii) Desire
(iv) Action
7. Robert Lavidge and Gary Steiner created the advertising hierarchy of effects model.
1.7 QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
1. What is communication?
2. Explain the process of communication, highlighting the roles of the source, medium
and message.
3. How do consumers process advertising information?
4. How can companies enhance the attention, comprehension and recall ability of consumers
towards advertisements?
5. Discuss the role of memory in consumer response to advertising.
6. Discuss the process of attention and retrieval of information of advertising information
by consumers.
7. Elaborate the Awareness-Interest-Desire-Action (AIDA) model with the help of any
leading campaign.
1.8 FURTHER READING
Dawra, Sudhir. Advertising and Sales Management. Mohit Publications, 2004.
Halve, Anand Bhaskar. Planning for Power Advertising: A Users Manual for Students and
Practitioners. Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., 2005.
Chunawalla S A, Setia K C. Foundations of AdvertisingTheory & Practice. Himalaya
Publishing House, 1997.
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Vilanilam Varghese A K. Advertising Basics! A Resource J V, Guide for Beginners. Sage
Publications India Pvt. Ltd., 2004.
Moriarty, Sandra Ernst, William Wells, Nancy Mitchell. Advertising: Principles and Practices.
Prentice Hall Higher Education, 2008.
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