Marketing communication: principles and practice

C O M M U N I C A T I O N I D E O L O G Y
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BOX 4.1DICHOTOMOUS BEHAVIOUR SYSTEMS
aggressive–submissive
dominant–deferent
attacking–defending
dissenting–obedient
superior–inferior
controlling–controlled
active–passive
proactive–reactive
selfish–selfless
authoritarian–permissive
conservative–radical

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Traditionally, only one party has been thought of, by managers, as the
‘communicator’. In the marketer-dominated communication system, the con-
sumer and buyer are seen as information receivers in a process initiated and
controlled by the provider. In the consumer/buyer-dominated communica-
tion system, the consumer or buyer is seen as an information seeker who
uses interpersonal sources, many of which are complementary rather than
competing, that are not under the control of the provider. The news and
entertainment media, for example, are influences among other contributory
agents. An alternative dialogic view has both provider and consumer/buyer
in communication together within a complex web of influence in which
knowledge transactions occur to meet the needs of both parties as marketers
(i.e. in seeking out satisfying transactions). 
The communication style adopted by managers is determined by their
assumptions about:
1.
what motivates other people to act – the problem to be solved is seen to be how
to cause them to behave in a manner advantageous to me
2.
the effects of communicative behaviours: how available communication activities
work – the problem to be solved is how to get desirable behaviour to come about
through communicating
Figure 4.2 summarizes several possible behaviours that we may have towards
other people in our work.
The list shown in Figure 4.2, from a highly influential analysis of
management roles, says little about learning and invention.
The prevailing style in (competitive) capitalist society is domination/
control. The transmission model of human communication is convenient
for this, since the ‘communicator’ is dominant. Yet, marketing communi-
cation as merely promotional action is but one part of a four-part process.
Promotional communication (i.e. communicating to promote) offers
products and their providers as need satisfiers. Clearly, marketing is
concerned with much more than this. Marketing is much more than selling