Communication

Chapter 1 Homework

a. In the marketing communication process, what are the various dimensions of the source, the message, and the receiver?

Various dimensions

The sponsor is legally responsible for the communication and has a message to communicate to actual consumers. But path from the sponsor to actual consumer can be long. The sponsor or does not usually produce the message but it’s the work of sponsor’s ad agency.

The author of the communication is actually a copywriter, an art director or often a creative group of the ad agency (exist in the real world but totally invisible to the reader/viewer).

A persona is some real or imaginary spokesperson within the text of the ad who lends some voice, or tone to the ad or commercial. To the consumer this persona is the source but its role is designed by the author. It’s in the virtual world and not in the real world.

Message dimensions

Advertising messages typically use one or a blend of three literary forms. In autobiographical messages ‘I tell a story about myself to you’ you is the imaginary audience listening to ‘my’ personal experiences. While In narrative messages a third person persona tells a story about others to an imaginary audience. In the drama message, the characters act out events directly in front of an imagined empathetic audience. Thus an important decision to make is what type of message to be used.

Receiver dimensions

The receivers of advertising are also multidimensional. Within the text of every ad or commercial presumes some audience is there. These implied consumers who are addressed by the ad’s persona are not real but imagined by the ad’s creator to be ideal consumers in whatever belief the text requires.

Moving outside the text, the first audience is in fact a group of decision makers at the sponsors company or organization. These sponsorial consumers are the gate keepers who approve or disapprove the ads. The ad must first persuade these executives.

While the actual consumer’s...