CONSUMER BEHAVIOR

Communication and Consumer Behavior

Chapter # 9

Tahsina Khan
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Components of Communication

Although there are many ways to define

communication, most marketers agree that
communication is the transmission of a message
from a sender to a receiver via a medium (or
channel) of transmission.
In addition to these four basic components
sender, receiver, medium and message the fifth
essential component of communication is
feedback, which alerts the sender as to whether
the intended message was in fact, received.

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Components of Communication: Basic
Communication Model
By watching the advertisement in the Television,
Billboard, etc. marketers use communication to the
customers to aware about the product, that the specific
product will satisfy their needs and wants.

Sender Channel Receiver

Message
(Source) (Medium) (Consumer)

Feedback

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Components of Communication
THE SENDER
The sender, as the initiator of the communication can
be a formal or an informal source.
A formal communication source is likely to represent
either a for-profit (commercial) or a not-for profit
organization.
An informal source is can be a parent or a friend who
gives product information or advice.
Consumers often rely on informal communications
sources in making purchase decisions.
Word of mouth communications tend to be highly
persuasive.

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Components of Communication
THE RECEIVER
The receiver of formal marketing communications is
likely to be a targeted prospect or a customer (e.g. a
member of the marketers target audience).
Intermediary or unintended audiences are also likely to
receive marketers communications.
Examples of Intermediary audience wholesalers,
distributors and retailers who receive trade
advertising from marketers designed to persuade
them to order and stock merchandise and relevant
professionals (such as doctors, architects, etc.)

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Components of Communication
THE RECEIVER
Examples of Unintended Audiences include everyone who
is exposed to the message who is not specifically
targeted by the sender.
Unintended receivers of marketing communication can
include publics such as shareholders, creditors,
suppliers, employees, bankers and the local community.

It is important to remember that the audience - no matter

how large or how diverse is composed of individual
receivers, each of whom interprets the message
according to his or her own personal perceptions and
experiences.

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Components of Communication
THE MEDIUM
The medium or the communication channel, can be
impersonal (e.g. a mass medium) or Interpersonal (a
formal conversation between a salesperson and a
customer or an informal conversation between two or
more people that takes place face to face, by
telephone, by email or online)

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Components of Communication
THE MESSAGE
The message can be verbal (spoken or written),
nonverbal (a photograph, an illustration (design) or a
symbol) or a combination of two.
A verbal message, whether it is spoken or written, can
usually contain more specific product (or service)
information than a nonverbal
A verbal message combined with a nonverbal message
often provides more information to the receiver than
either would alone.

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Components of Communication
FEEDBACK
Feedback is an essential component of both
interpersonal and impersonal communications.
Prompt feedback permits the sender to reinforce, to
change or to modify the message to ensure that is
understood in the intended way.

Generally it is easier to obtain feedback (both verbal

and nonverbal) from interpersonal communications
than impersonal communications.

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Important Features of Effective Communication

1. Credibility of Informal Source

2. Credibility of Formal Source
3. Credibility of Spokesperson and Endorsers
4. Message Credibility
5. Personal Characteristics of Audience
6. Involvement and Congruency of Audience
7. Mood of Audience

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Barriers to Communication
1. Selective Exposure to Messages
2. Psychological Noise

1. Selective Exposure to Messages

Consumers selectively perceive advertising messages and tend to
ignore advertisements that have no special interest or
relevance to them. Furthermore, technology provides
consumers with increasingly sophisticated means to control
their exposure to media. TV remote controls offers viewers the
ability to wander (roam) among program offerings with ease,
to zap commercials by muting the audio and to channel surf
switch channels to check out other program during the
commercial breaks.
Some marketers try to overcome channel surfing during
commercials by road-blocking (i.e. playing the same
commercial simultaneously on competing channels)

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Barriers to Communication
2. Psychological Noise
Psychological Noise competing advertising message
or distracting thoughts can create noise.

A viewer faced with the clutter (confusion) of multiple

successive commercial messages during a program
break may actually receive and retain almost
nothing of what he has seen.

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Important Features of Message Structure and
Presentation
1. Resonance Advertising
2. Message Framing
3. One-Sided Versus Two Sided Messages
4. Comparative Advertising
5. Order, Fear and Humor Effects
6. Repetition Effects

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END OF CHAPTER # 9

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