Transfer

How does communication affect consumer behavior?

Consistent exposure creates awareness, even if it’s not conscious. Business owners should be aware of
the effect name recognition and consistent, repetitious communication can have on consumers and how
to make the most of communication opportunities.

 Knowing Your Audience. As a business owner, an important first step to communicating to your
consumers and eliciting the desired effect is to understand them. If your business caters
primarily to women, think about designing your communication messages to appeal on an
emotional level, rather than on a logical one. On the other hand, appealing to practicality rather
than values may be more effective for male customers. Audience research is an important
component of communication; the more your audience perceives you and your business to be
like them, the more effective your communication will be.
 Credibility. Credibility is one of the foundations of persuasion. In business communication, it is
one of the reasons why public relations, such as newspaper stories, is perceived to be more
effective than advertising: consumers tend to construe unpaid publicity as more objective and
thus more credible than paid publicity. The more credible you are perceived to be, the more
likely your communication will have the desired effect on consumers. Representing your
products accurately and building a good reputation is one way to impact credibility. Another is
to get endorsements for your products from other consumers or high-profile individuals.
 Meeting a Need. Tailoring your communication to a consumer’s needs is a strategy to realizing
the desired effect. For example, by engaging in a conversation with someone who walks into
your business, you can determine if your product or service can fulfill a need they have, or if you
can sell them an additional product. You can also design your business communications such as
advertising based on solving a problem – for example, a pest control company can visually and
verbally demonstrate how termites can lead to thousands of dollars of damage, as well as
compromise the structural safety of a home or business.
 Digital Communication. Digital communication has taken on a new importance in consumers’
lives. As a business owner, you need to realize there are other ways to have a digital presence
and communicate with consumers other than advertising. Developing content for your website
and online publications can increase your search engine visibility so that your business or
products appear frequently in online searches. Research has shown that repeated exposure of
brands on the Internet can increase name recognition and awareness, as well as top purchase
considerations.

LO1

Define communication by enumerating the 5 elements

  Communication is the logical process of conveying information through the conversation of
thoughts, messages or information, as by speech, visual, signals, writing or behavior. The sender
is the initiator of the communication and can be a formal or informal source. The sender sends a
message (can be verbal mesage, spoken or written, and usually can contain more specific
information than a nonverbal message) to the receiver. The message goes through a medium or
communication channel (way the message is communicated). The receiver decodes the message
he receives on the basis of his personal experience and personal characteristic. The feedback
refers to the response from the receiver which gives the sender an idea how the message is
being received and whether it needs to be modified.

LA1-1

1. a

2. c

3. b

4. e

5. d

6. FALSE

7. TRUE

8. FALSE

9. TRUE

10. FALSE

LA 1-2: LETS TRY

 How does communication process work?

The communication process is the steps we take in order to achieve a successful
communication. A sender is the party that sends a message. The message is the information to
be conveyed. The sender will also need to encode his message, which is transforming his
thoughts of the information to be conveyed into a form that can be sent, such as words. A
channel of communication must also be selected, which is the manner in which the message is
sent. Channels of communication include speaking, writing, video transmission, audio
transmission, electronic transmission through emails, text messages and faxes and even
nonverbal communication, such as body language. The sender also needs to know the target of
 his communication. This party is called the receiver. The receiver must be able to decode the
message, which means mentally processing the message into understanding. If you can't
decode, the message fails. For example, sending a message in a foreign language that is not
understood by the receiver probably will result in decoding failure. The receiver will give the
sender feedback, which is a message sent by the receiver back to the sender. It is basically the
response of the receiver to the sender.
 When do you think is the best time to communicate
The following questions are to be considered on when is the best time to communicate:

How complex is the information you are conveying? Anything that requires more than a few words to
explain or that contains multiple layers of information should be sent as an email or should be said
personally. Simpler requests or notes might be better suited to the casual conversations over instant
message.

How quickly do you need a response — or how invasive are you willing to be? Messenger, texting or
other instant messaging tools are made for quick-fire, rapid-response situations. Email is more likely to
sit in an inbox for a few hours. Of course, these days, an unscheduled phone call signals its own kind of
urgency. Evaluate whether you need to grab someone’s attention right away and potentially interrupt
them in the midst of a task or meeting or if it can wait for a more opportune time.

How sensitive is the subject? If you need to communicate something that will impact someone’s day-to-
day or might be met with resistance, consider doing it face to face or at least over the phone. This also
shows respect for your audience.

How important is tone? Nuances are often lost with the written word. Emoticons can ease some of this
loss of effect but aren’t always appropriate for an office. If you have any doubt that you can convey the
right tone in writing, do it over the phone or in person.

When are you communicating? Is it business hours, early morning or evening or over the weekend? This
is where setting expectations is the key.

When and how we communicate sends its own message: how quickly we need a response, how
sensitive the topic might be, how much we’ve thought about our audience and their reception of the
material. By putting a few extra seconds into considering the tool and the timing, we can increase our
odds of communicating successfully.

LO2

Elaborate the bases of credibility for a communication source

The credibility of the source affects the decoding of the message. Credibility is built on several factors,
the most important being the perceived intentions of the source.

 Credibility of informal sources