Marketing communication: principles and practice

A C O M M U N I C A T I O N C O N C E P T
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with the pursuit of success. What is missing is a productive rather than a
reproductive conception of communication as the fundamental process by
which mutual understanding arises in regard to the subject matter rather than
in the sharing of opinions. Conversation is the ongoing process of creating
mutual understanding through the open formation of experience.
Most of us are still operating in outmoded instrumental-technical modes
in pursuit of control. Communication is seen as a conduit for the transmission
or transportation of expressions of self-interest (i.e. informational for
understanding), but these no longer suffice. Information conceptions of
communication only work in situations in which consensus on meaning,
identities, construction of knowledge, and basic values can be taken for
granted; this is no longer a realistic view of our world! If we control through
information systems, we are in danger of non-responsive self-referentiality.
Hayek (1990) called this the ‘fatal deceit’: we don’t ask questions because
we think we have the answers. Some crucial questions are never asked.
Imaginary worlds are misrecognized as real. Management practice distorts,
manufactures (artificial) consent, excludes, and suppresses differences –
asymmetrical power relations suppress natural conflicts. Social divisions are
assumed to be fixed and in need of promotion. Consensus over problems,
personal identities, knowledge claims, norms of interaction, and policies 
for directing joint action are assumed as the basis for interaction, when they
need to be negotiated through interaction for creativity and to meet diverse
stakeholder interests. When the ‘corporation’ = the management team, 
all other stakeholders are externalized as costs to be contained. Then,
stakeholders are managed for the managers’ benefit.
Most corporate communication systems are systems of corporate control,
when participation is required. A Corporate Communication Managing
System as a corporate participation system has been proposed (Varey, 1998).
The Corporate Communication Research Unit at the University of Salford
is one of a number of groups working in this field to bring the benefits (and
values) of contemporary communication thinking into management 
(and marketing) practice.
We must shift from our general belief in liberal quasi-‘democracy’ and its
adversarial expression of self-interest, opinion advocacy and persuasion, to a
constitutive real participatory democracy of negotiated co-determination
through interaction (‘It’s good to talk’ is a moral stance). We need to move
from controlling to stewardship and this requires a mindshift from self-interest
to service; from patriarchy to partnership; from consent to coordination; from
dependency to empowerment; from involvement to participation.
Conversations
‘Communications’ are best understood as interaction acts, not as objects 
and artefacts. We communicate when we interact. Communication is best
understood as constitutive – interests should be understood as social
products, often produced by decisions and opportunities. 
We must often speak when we do not know – not knowing is a reason