The Emergence of New Marketing Communication Tools
As communication and marketing are both considered to be processes involving human interaction, the
understanding of communication within marketing is known as the marketing communication process.
Turnbull (1974) offers a simplified version of such a marketing communication process for industrial
markets. Within this process, the communicator is an industrial seller; the message can vary depending
on the communication objective of the seller; the channels include the various marketing
communication tools that can be utilized by the seller to communicate with buyers; and the audience
can include past, present, and potential buyers. The effect refers to the results of the communication
effort (i.e. awareness, interest, etc.). More recently, Fill (1995), presents another linear model of
communication (based on the work of Schramm, 1955 and Shannon & Weaver, 1962), which he refers to
as, "what is now accepted as the basic model of mass communications"(p.24).
Fill (1995) recognizes that it can be an organization or an individual sending the message, we view such
models not only applicable to mass communication efforts, but useable for the communication on a
personal (one-to-one) basis as well. Encoding means that the individual sending the message must turn
it into a symbolic style that can be transmitted. The signal represents the sending of a particular
message using certain sets of media or other forms of communication. Decoding means the receiver
must understand this symbolic style used by the sender in order to understand the message. The
receiver is the individual or organization receiving the message, and feedback is the opportunity for the
receiver to communicate back to the source. Noise means any "distortion" of the communication
process making it difficult for the receiver to interpret the message as it was intended by the source.
Realms of understanding recognize that successful communications are more likely to take place if the
source and the receiver understand one another. Such an understanding concerns the attitudes,
perceptions, behaviors and experience of both the source and the receiver.
As Fill (1995) states, the more organizations understand their receivers, the more confident they
become in creating and transmitting messages to them. However, the above models are extensive in
nature and provide the researcher with an abundance of variables that can be investigated further. No
one study should attempt to take into account all of the steps of the process, as well as factors such as
noise and the realms of understanding, that lie outside and influence it. As Harper (1979) writes, such
models of human communication specify the areas from which research and theory construction can
take place.
As we begin to enter a new millennium, several changes are taking place with regards to the way in
which human beings communicate in a variety of settings. Whether in consumer or industrial markets,
or on a more personal level, humans are being exposed to and are utilizing more and different ways of
providing and obtaining information. The emergence of other communication tools such as the Internet
during the 1990s has brought forth the need for more research in the usage and effectiveness of such
tools. According to Gates (1995), we are all beginning to go through a communication revolution as we
enter the next millennium:
"We are all beginning another great journey. We aren't sure where this one
will lead us either, but again I am certain this revolution will touch even
more lives and take us all further. The major changes coming will be in the
way people communicate with each other. The benefits and problems
arising from this upcoming communications revolution will be much greater
than those brought about by the PC revolution"(p. xi).
Berthon, Pitt and Watson (1996) add that, while most advertising academics and practitioners might be
starting to think about and even acknowledge the importance of a Web site as a marketing
communication tool, to date, little systematic research has been conducted into the nature and
effectiveness of the medium. They explain that most of the studies done so far have been of a
descriptive nature — i.e. "what the medium is" (e.g. Ellsworth & Ellsworth, 1995, Verity & Hof, 1994).
They feel that, while these academic endeavors might add to a general understanding of a Web site as a
marketing communication tool, the research does not address specific issues such as: • "Communication
objectives that advertisers (sellers) might have and how they expect Web sites to achieve these
objectives. • The effectiveness of this new medium from the perspectives of the recipient of the
message (the buyers, to use the broadcast marketing term)" (p.44).
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