Communication Model with reference to Advertising

Advertising is an audio-visual form of marketing that engages an open, non-personal message to promote a product or a service. Advertisers are mostly businesses looking for the promotion of their goods. Advertisements are communicated through various mass media, such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, and the internet. The actual presentation of a particular message in some medium is called advertisement.

Advertising communication can be defined as a perception process of the source, a message, a communication channel, and a receiver. A receiver might sometimes become the source of information by communicating the message to family and friends. This kind of communication is called word-of-mouth communication, which involves social interactions between two or more people.

Advertising communication includes:

• Any material published using any medium or activity undertaken by or on behalf of the advertiser over which the advertiser has minimal control.
• Something that attracts the attention of the public in a way to promote directly or indirectly a product or a service.

It does not include:

• Labels or packaging on the products.
• Corporate reports including public affair messages in the press release and other media statements and annual reports.

ADVERTISING COMMUNICATION MODEL

The model explains the key factors in an effective advertising communication process. The sender must be aware of his target audience and the kind of responses he wants. They must be skilled enough to encode the messages and consider how the audience usually decodes the message. The communication process in advertising involves sending or passing on a message from the source or the sender to the receiver or the audience through a channel.

1. SOURCE

• Advertising communication process begins with the sender, who is also called the communicator or the source. A source is an origin or the point at which the message originates in an advertising communication system.
• The person who initiates the communication process is normally referred to as the source. The source or the sender develops ideas, encodes and transfers them to the receiver.
• The source must transmit the message through efficient media that reach the target audience.
• The sender must encode the message in a form that can be understood and then transmit it to the receiver.
• Senders must also develop channels for feedback.

2. MESSAGE

• Message refers to the content, idea, thought, feeling or the opinion that the sender wants to convey to the receiver.
• It is a key that triggers the recipient, to respond to the sender.
• The sender must ensure that the message conveyed must be clear and specific. The message can be conveyed to the receiver in some ways, like humour or fear.

3. MEDIA

• Media refers to the various channels or a medium that is used or to be used to convey your message.
• Medium is the means by which a message is transmitted to the receiver.
• The medium may include verbal channels like telephone or a word-of-mouth communication or a non-verbal communication such as e-mail or text messages.
• Each channel has its pros and cons.
• Written communication may be used to convey messages to a small group of people whereas oral or verbal communication means can be chosen to convey messages to a large group of people.
• The channels in the advertising communication system include television, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, e-mail, online advertising and so on. The impact and intensity of communication may differ from one media to another.

4. RECEIVER

• The receiver or the interpreter in an advertising communication system refers to the target audience or the person to whom the message is directed.
• The receiver can be defined in terms of audience segmentation variables like lifestyle, demographics, benefits sought and so on.
• The characteristics of the receiver, his demographics, psychological and social features furnish the foundation for understanding communication process.
• To understand the information from the sender, the receiver must first be able to receive the information and then decode or interpret it.

5. FEEDBACK

• Feedback is a significant element of the communication process, as it empowers the sender to measure the efficiency of the message.
• It enables the sender to analyse the exact interpretation of the message by a decoder.
• The communication process reaches its end goal when the message has been successfully transmitted, received and understood.
• Feedback may be direct, such as a written or oral feedback, or it may also take the form of an action in response.