62 4  How Marketing Communication Works

and restful visual experience. The relaxing music is selected with precision and care
by the Starbucks content team to create the “sound of Starbucks.” The smell and
taste of the freshly grounded coffee, as well as the comfortable texture, solidity, and
shape of the armchairs, and you have the characteristics of the sensory experience
of the brand.
What this means from a global context relies on an understanding of how com-
munication works.

How Communication Works

A simplified model of how communication works was put forward by Harold

D. Laswell in 1948 and then extended and amplified by Wilbur Schramm in 1971,
as illustrated in Fig. 4.3.
Since these two models were developed, both senders and receivers encode
(translate thought into symbolic form) and decode (interpret—derive meaning from
marketing message) thoughts, or something one party wishes to communicate to
another party. Also, it is now clear that the receiver can transpose position and
become the sender, transmitting information or feedback back to the original sender
(now the receiver).
Market research and marketing information systems serve as mechanisms
enabling senders to develop and transmit decodable messages more accurately. In
the absence of extrasensory perception, exact transmission of thought is impossible.

Fig. 4.3  How marketing communication works. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
The Changing Role of Consumers 63

The best result that a sender can hope for is that some elements of the sender’s
thoughts are retained in the consumer’s long-term memory, where they can be
tapped during purchase decisions. Thus, if there is a key to communication from a
consumer perspective, then it lies in the domain of memory and the way in which
messages are decoded and meaning is allocated to appropriate stimuli by consum-
ers. Remember, the average consumer is exposed to about 3000 commercial mes-
sages a day, the majority of which are automatically screened out as irrelevant.
From all available messages, consumers select those few they wish to pay attention
to. A very basic model for the way consumers process messages is shown in Fig. 4.4.
All marketing communication can be measured against this model. First, market-
ing communication can have no effect unless it reaches the sense organs of those
who are to be influenced. However, exposure alone is insufficient to ensure com-
munication has taken place. Consumers must allocate processing capacity to the
incoming message or stimulus. Here the memory determines what is relevant or
irrelevant. For attention to be allocated, the message must find a unique way to
break through the clutter, because the more times the same message is transmitted
through the same media, the less communication effectiveness it has. At this stage,
the memory is operating in short-term mode, and the problem here is that the short-­
term memory (STM) has very limited processing capacity. Any message that is not
paid attention to will be lost within 30 seconds.
Assuming the message is attended to, it must be comprehensible; that is, it must
correspond or fit what the receiver already knows or has stored away in long-term
memory (LTM). Let’s suppose the message is unusual. Say a particular brand fails
to live up to expectations, or price rises markedly, or the company is enjoying

Fig. 4.4  Consumer information processing. (Source: Adapted from first edition)
64 4  How Marketing Communication Works

negative publicity. Each of these circumstances may create a new node or belief in
LTM, which may act in helping consumers behave differently, say, to purchase a
new brand. This is another reason for integrated approaches to marketing
communication.
Let’s assume that the message is understandable and meaningful (it fits in). It
must then be either accepted as part of a person’s cognitive structure, rejected, or
yielded to. Yielding is recognizably a function of persuasion, and persuasion is the
essence of marketing communication. The majority of consumers do not want to be
told. Marketing communication is never about creating the loudest marketing voice;
rather it is about meaning. Meaning is not in messages, nor is it in media vehicles.
Instead, consumers allocate meaning to messages. Senders transmit intended mean-
ing; receivers decode received meaning. When there is yielding or acceptance to a
communicator’s message (or positive meaning is received), the essence of the mes-
sage must undergo something analogous to an unconscious filing system in the LTM.
The nodes, beliefs, schemas, scripts, and memory organization packets into
which long-term memory is divided are simply ways of describing associated links
or connections among knowledge structures, beliefs, and information. Each of these
may be activated during information processing, and either is screened out or accel-
erates or retards meaning allocation. Marketers attempt to provide information that
will facilitate consumer learning either by strengthening linkages among memory
concepts or by developing entirely new linkages. One can see how important it is to
develop messages that will deliver intended meaning, then review to see if such
meanings have been decoded.
This cursory review has not done justice to three other models—the cognitive
processing model, the hedonic experiential, and the elaboration likelihood model
developed by Richard Petty and John Cacioppo. We recommend these models and
concomitant critiques be studied. They are useful but not discussed here as the focus
is to look at marketing communication from a global context (see also Andrews &
Shimp, 2018).
Of course, no understanding of how communication works is complete without
an understanding of why consumers may decode different meanings from the same
messages. The answer is that memory organization structure is different, because
each person’s field of experiences is unique. Figure 4.5 is a useful analogy. Fields of
experience are the sum total of all the experiences—knowledge, emotions, feelings,
signs, symbols, gestures, mathematical notations, and so on—a person has accumu-
lated during a lifetime. These fields underpin the memory organization packets.
Consider, for example, the European “Mermaids” ad for Levi’s 501 jeans
(QuayFromDatWay, 2006). Here a handsome young man wearing a pair of Levi’s
preshrunk 501s falls overboard during a storm. To the background music of
“Underwater Love,” we become aware that he is to be rescued by mermaids. First,
the mermaids kiss him, which enables him to breathe. Then their attention switches
from the young man to his 501s, which they try to remove. He escapes and swims
to the surface, to the disappointment of the mermaids. Based on the fields of experi-
ence concept, what is going on here? Do the mermaids want the young man, his
jeans, or what’s inside the jeans? From a decoding perspective, we realize the young
The Changing Role of Consumers 65

Fig. 4.5  Fields of experience. (Source: The authors)

man is attractive because he’s wearing the 501s. The young man is a means to an
end. The mermaids want to be part of the Levi 501 generation. Further decoding
reveals that in mythology, when mermaids love a human, they can leave the water
and have their fins replaced by a beautiful pair of legs. Such legs need, of course, to
be covered to get by in today’s world. All these underlying associations support
nodes and beliefs relating to Levi 501s as being a brand that is trendy, a bit daring,
and attractive to the opposite sex.
But what if this message is presented to an audience with no background culture
regarding mermaids or for that matter—501s? What if the message is presented to
an audience with a rather puritan outlook? The sensual elements of the message
would have to be replaced with something more conservative. Plainly, the extent to
which communication is effective depends on the extent of overlap between fields
of experience. Or, put in another way, effectively decoding messages is dependent
on the receiver’s fields of experience, which in turn may act as a proxy for memory
organization packets.
It is not enough simply to place a message within a field of experience. As we
argued earlier, meaning is in the mind of the receiver. Hence, the greater the overlap
between a sender’s field of experience and the receiver’s field of experience, the
greater the probability that messages encoded by the sender will be decoded appro-
priately. Likewise, the smaller the overlap between the sender’s and receiver’s fields
of experience (based on lack of understanding), the greater the probability of mes-
sages being seen as irrelevant, and hence not worthy of attention. Referring back to
the model of consumer information processing (Fig. 4.4), communication has either
misfired or not progressed into LTM.
Finally, a message moving through a communication channel is subject to noise,
which is extraneous and distracting stimuli that interfere with or interrupt reception
of the message. Such interference or distortion is called noise. Noise may occur at
any stage in the communication process. For example, at the point of message
encoding, the sender may be unclear about what the message is intended to accom-
plish. A likely result is a poorly focused and perhaps even contradicting message,
rather than a message that is clear-cut and integrated. A noise can also occur in the
message channel—a poor internet connection, a crowded magazine page on which
66 4  How Marketing Communication Works

an advertisement is surrounded by competitive clutter, and a personal sales interac-

tion that is interrupted repeatedly by texting and phone calls. Noise can also be
present at the receiver/decoding stage of the process, for example, the receiver sim-
ply may not possess the information base needed to understand fully the promo-
tional message.

The Drive for Integrated Approaches in a Global Context

The field of information processing provides a rich source of modeling and data to
assist marketers in developing effective communication. But the world of commu-
nication had and is changing, and understanding how and in what ways consumers
store, process, and retrieve information is crucial to effective marketing communi-
cation. Information comes from many sources, and every potential contact with
consumers needs to be planned and orchestrated to reinforce positive associations.
There are at least four additional reasons why marketing communication should be
integrated and standardized whenever and wherever possible.
First, we are led to believe that control of information is passing from senders to
receivers of messages. The old idea of consumers mesmerized by a flickering
cathode-­ray tube and consuming soap operas, sitcoms, and advertisements has
already been laid into the fossilized sedimentary strata of the mass marketing age.
Consumers in the twenty-first century will have access to a proliferation of online
and offline sources, over which they will exert considerable control. In this context,
unintegrated messages, or messages unattuned to consumer mind-sets, will have
little impact and may even rebound negatively on established market share.
Second, product, brand, and corporate communication will follow the well-­
blazed, unrhetorical trail of politics and politicians. Sound bites and bits of informa-
tion will become the norm. Telling consumers will be replaced by far more creative
forms of integrated communication hopefully more attuned to a sound understand-
ing of consumer needs, wants, and desires (note, at the time of writing this is more
of a hope for the future than a current reality) (Kitchen, 2018).
Third, the future will be about firms building “real” rather than quasi or fake
relationships. Successful marketing is always about relationships. One-to-one mar-
keting will become far more the norm, and retention of—and curricula with—exist-
ing customers will become the dominant paradigm in a product-, brand-, and
service-saturated planet.
The fourth reason is the globalization of markets. Consumers can be subdivided,
segmented, and targeted ad nauseam. But, they also wish to be served. Perception,
for consumers, is reality. It is not enough for a company to be global in scope or
scale or, for that matter, to develop integrated and standardized marketing commu-
nication campaigns. Instead, all forms of marketing communication must be focused
clearly on the dynamics of to-be-served markets, and the dynamics must be
understood.
Hence with this discussion of factors bringing about change in marketing com-
munication, together with the review of how communication works from a
References 67

consumer perspective, the next chapter will look at what we consider integrated
marketing communication to be from a global perspective.

Conclusions

• Homogeneous segments of demand exist within heterogeneous global markets.

The global consumer has finally emerged—initially in the triad countries only,
but latterly spanning half the planet.
• The database of consumer or market information will come to underpin most of
all marketing decisions you make.
• To breakthrough communication clutter, invest your brand with meaning, so
much so that your basic message does not require words to be communicated.
• Meaning is in the mind of the receiver; thus, you must understand the cultural
framework of the customer you are trying to reach. Not doing so is courting
failure.

Discussion Questions

1. Explore the relevance of each of the following for a corporation of your choice
and assess the extent to which they are built into the communication strategy?
a. Semiotics
b. Cognitive information processing and hedonic experientialism
c. Elaboration likelihood
2. Drawing upon online sources, assess what the chosen company did well (or oth-
erwise) with its communication strategy
3. How does this reflect on the communications process?

Note
An exabyte is a unit of information equal to one quintillion (10 18) bytes or one billion gigabytes.
1 

References
Andrews, C. J., & Shimp, T. A. (2018). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of integrated
marketing communications. Boston: Cengage Learning.
Coca-Cola Company. (2018). The discipline of growth—Exploring, challenging and leading with
brands to accelerate growth. Retrieved March 17, 2020, from https://www.coca-­colacompany.
com/news/leading-­with-­brands-­to-­accelerate-­growth
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Palgrave Macmillan.
Keegan, W. J., & Green, M. C. (2017 [1999]). Global marketing (9th ed.). Prentice-Hall.
Kitchen, P. (2018). Unpublished personal notes, in development.
Laswell, H. D. (1948). Power and personality (pp. 37–51). Norton.
Levitt, T. (1983, May–June). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review.
Levitt, T (1993, May–June). The globalization of markets. Harvard Business Review.