Marketing communication: principles and practice

INVESTING IN WORD-OF-MOUTH PROMOTION
The one-step flow model of the role of opinion leaders, opinion formers,
and opinion influencers (Figure 7.8) is, of course, an oversimplification and
views consumers as passive receivers of information. It is, however, useful in
highlighting the mediating role of media and the way in which communication
between the provider and the consumer/buyer is often indirect and again
mediated by third parties. This helps to explain the value of publicity and
public relations, as we have seen in chapter five in looking at the marketing
environment as a web of stakeholders. We will revisit this issue of the
interdependence of marketing and public relations (both communication
management disciplines) in chapter ten.
S O C I A L C O M M U N I C A T O R
140
Advertising
Personal selling
Publicity
Direct mail
Telemarketing
Internet
Sales promotion
Provider
and their
offer
Distribution
channels
Selected customers
and consumers/buyers
Figure 7.7
Interaction of exchange parties is a dialogue
‘Information’
source
c
o
m
m
u
n
i
c
a
t
i
o
n
m
e
d
i
a
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
Consumers
Figure 7.8
The one-step flow model of interpersonal communication

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The two-step flow model is an elaboration that tries to explain better what
happens when people talk to each other about products and providers (Figure
7.9). Person 
C
is an opinion leader. Persons 
A
and 
B
have been exposed to
a promotional message and look to 
C
for further information in the form of
opinion and advice. Person 
C
reinforces the impact of the information
received directly from the provider. For persons 
D
and 
E
, however, person
C
is the original source (they did not see the advertisement or meet the sales
representative). 
Of course, this is still an oversimplification. The ‘flow’ of information
(which is really the co-construction of meanings, identities and knowledge)
or pattern of interaction may arise through several stages. Williams (1981)
suggested the need for a multi-stage model.
People in society are at once individuals and in transaction with their
environment (just like corporations). Thus marketers, and other managers
of communication, must avoid seeing an ‘audience’ as simply a ‘lump of
humanity’, and focus attention on individual mental states (attitudes, beliefs,
past experiences, self-concept), typical responses (activity levels, sense of
humour, learned modes of adjustment, locus of control), and role-related
behaviour.
We must also consider those circumstances of marketing-dominated
communication (advertising) and those that are consumer-dominated (face-
to-face conversation). In planning persuasive communication (remember,
by this we mean taking-into-account as well as being taken-into-account),
it is apparent that personal influence can be a major factor in determining
the outcome of interactions.