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Course / MARK1192: Introduction to Advertising / Course School/Level / B/UG
Coursework / Individual Assignment / Assessment Weight / 80.00%
Tutor / I Whitten / Submission Deadline / 13/11/2014
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Introduction to Marketing (MARK-1192)

Lecturer: Ian Whitten

University of Greenwich

Date: November 2014

Table of Contents

  1. Executive Summary Page 4
  2. Introduction Page 5

What is the Communications Process Model?

  1. Advert 1 –IKEA Page 6
  2. The Sender
  3. The Encoded Message
  4. Transmission Channel
  5. Decoding of the Message
  6. The Receiver
  1. Advert 2 – Volkswagen Polo Page 7
  2. The Sender
  3. The Encoded Message
  4. Transmission Channel
  5. Decoding of the Message
  6. The Receiver
  7. Noise
  1. Advert 3 – Panasonic (Van Gogh) Page 8
  2. The Sender
  3. The Encoded Message
  4. Transmission Channel
  5. Decoding of the Message
  6. The Receiver
  1. Advert 4 – The Royal British Legion Page 9
  2. The Sender
  3. The Encoded Message
  4. Transmission Channel
  5. Decoding of the Message
  6. The Receiver
  7. Conclusion - Recommendations Page 10-11
  8. References Page 12
  1. Executive Summary

In this report, the following is the research findings that helped with the Communication Process model theory and applying it to these four adverts.

  • IKEA’s advert is aimed at Women aged from 25 – 54 years old drowning in decortainment (Morch, 2014)
  • IKEA’s encoded message: “there’s a page for that in the new 2014 IKEA catalogue”(Morch, 2014) implying that IKEA has everything that can go into decorating a new home and the receiver does not have to go anywhere else
  • IKEA’s objective, “to reinvigorate the excitement for what’s inside the 2014 IKEA Catalogue by demonstrating how it can change your life at home” (Morch, 2014)
  • Volkswagen encoded message “Small but tough.Polo”
  • Encoded message could be decoded to be humorous ‘that an elephant had used a Polo model to ease its sexual frustration’ and the receiver could miss the real message
  • Panasonic encoded message "sound experience you wouldn't want to miss."Which is the reason why Van Gogh is gluing his ear back on
  • Humour appeal is used in three out of the four adverts (IKEA, Volkswagen and Panasonic) and an emotional appeal is used also (The Royal British Legion).
  1. Introduction

What is the Communications Process Model?

“The sharing of meaningful information between two or more people with the goal of the receiver understanding the sender’s intended message.” ( [accessed 6 November 2014])

The communications process model is a form of communication that companies (sender) use when sending a message to their target audience (receiver) with the intent of the receiver understanding the message and the stages that it goes to for the process to be complete.

  • The Sender –Is whothe message was created by
  • Encoding – Verbal and nonverbal cues in ads which helps convey the message
  • Transmission channel – Channels/media used to send the message to the audience
  • Decoding – Takes place when the message reaches one or more of the receiver’s senses.
  • Receivers – Customers understand the message as it was intended by the sender
  • Feedback – The receiver’s response to the sender after decoding the message, e.g. purchasing an item
  • Noise – Anything that disrupts the message being sent to the receiver

(Clow & Baack, 2014 p.18-19)

There are other advertising theories which are used when companies make adverts. These are the means end theory and the hierarchy of effects model. The hierarchy of effects model “helps to clarify the objectives of an advertising campaign” (Clow & Baack, 2014 p.163). The means end theory “suggests that an advertisement should contain a message, or means, that leads the consumer to a desired end state.” (Clow & Baack, 2014 p.164)

With the communication process model and other advertising theories, advertising agencies has to take these into consideration so they know that the message they send to the receiver is the one intended and can easily be decoded by the receiver and get positive feedback from the consumers.

This report will include an analysis of four adverts applying the communication process model and also listing recommendations on ways to improve the clarity of these campaigns.

  1. Advert 1 – IKEA

3.1 The Sender

IKEA is a well known business company selling home furniture. Their vision is “To create a better everyday life for the many people” and their business idea is “to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them”.( [accessed 9 November 2014])

3.2 The Encoded Message

The message that IKEA wanted to send to consumer was “there’s a page for that in the new 2014 IKEA catalogue”(Morch, 2014) meaning that IKEA has everything for decorating a home. From the text on the advert, it also seems family-oriented as it is mostly the women in the family who decorate their homes.

3.3 Transmission Channel

Intended messages from the sender have to go through some form of media to reach the target audience. For this particular campaign, Leo Burnett Toronto who had created the advert used print so it could be enlarged from a poster to put on billboards.

3.4 Decoding of the Message

From the image of the IKEA catalogue with the yellow post-it notes symbolising women, so it is already known that the target is women because most of the post it notes are yellow.

3.5 The Receiver

From the layout and the text on the advert, the message is aimed at “women aged 25-54, drowning in decortainment. She is inundated with inspiration from the likes of Pinterest and Houzz.com. In the era of digital, she can find inspiration everywhere... which sometimes leaves her feeling a bit overwhelmed and unsure she could actually pull it all together. We need to show her that IKEA is her trusted source for creating a home that fits her life’s demands” (Morch, 2014).

  1. Advert 2 – Volkswagen Polo

4.1 The Sender

“Passionate about cars”Volkswagen's relationship with the UK dates back to 1952, when the first two Beetles were sold. In 1953 Volkswagen Motors Ltd became the official UK importer, and the brand went from strength to strength.Today Volkswagen UK, as part of the Volkswagen Group, is one of the country's largest importers of vehicles, employing nearly 600 people nationwide, with the Volkswagen brand employing 180 in Blakelands alone. ( [accessed 11 November 2014])

4.2 The Encoded Message

The advert is of an elephant on top of Volkswagen polo with the tagline ‘Small but tough.Polo’. The dominant image on the advert is of the elephant, and by the advertising agency putting emphasis on this, the message intended is that ‘the Polo is indeed small and certainly appears to be tough.’( [accessed 11 November 2014])

4.3 Transmission Channel

By using print media, it is easier for the message to go around as it could be made into different sizes and shapes and reaches the audience quicker. An advantage of using this type of media is that it has a long lifespan, where it can be re-used, ‘which gives the product more exposure’ ( [accessed 11 November 2014])

4.4 Decoding the Message

For this advert, the humour appeal was used. “Humour has proven to be one of the best techniques for cutting through clutter, by getting attention and keeping it. Consumers, as a whole, enjoy advertisements that make them laugh.” (Clow & Baack, 2014 p.171) Consumers who may see this could think of this advert as funny and sexual ‘that an elephant had used a Polo model to ease its sexual frustration’ ( [accessed 12 November]) and miss the message of the car being strong enough to hold an elephant.

4.5 The Receiver

When an advertising agency comes up with a message to put out to the receiver, they have to make sure that it is the right audience and that they would understand what the intended message is without any confusion. ‘The purpose of segmenting the market is to ensure, as far as possible, that resources are directed at those individuals or organisations that are likely to yield the best returns’. (Blythe, 2014 p.199) This advert is best suited for people who can drive and also who has a high income, which could range from 20 – 50 years old

4.6 Feedback & Noise

Noise is “the distracting cacophony of many other messages being sent at the same time by other sources” (Arens, Weigold & Arens, 2008 p.9) which could confuse the message and disrupt how the message is decoded by the receiver. In this case, noise could be drawing on the poster so the receiver would not understand the message. This in turn affects the feedback, which “completes the cycle, verifying that the message was received” (Arens, Weigold & Arens, 2008 p.9). This could have positive feedback, with the consumer buying the product or it could get negative feedback, where the receiver believes ‘that an elephant had used a Polo model to ease its sexual frustration’ ( [accessed 12 November]) and only gets the humour but not the overall message.

  1. Advert 3 – Panasonic (Van Gogh)

5.1 The Sender

‘Panasonic is committed to creating a better life and a better world, continuously contributing to the evolution of society and to the happiness of people around the globe’ ( [accessed 12 November 2014]. The Panasonic brand name was created in 1955 and was first used as a brand for audio speakers. It is a combination of the words, "Pan", and "Sonic", sound and has a meaning of bringing sound our Company creates to the world.( 12 November 2014].

5.2 The Encoded Message

In the advert, Van Gogh is seen gluing his ear back onto his head, ‘since the ad for the Panasonic RF-HXD5W headphones claims that this is one "sound experience you wouldn't want to miss."’ ( [accessed 6 November 2014].

5.3 Transmission Channel

This advert also uses print media, which is an easy way to communicate with the consumers and is efficient in getting the message across, depending on what is included on the poster. In this Van Gogh advert that Panasonic used, it uses humour appeal, by Van Gogh gluing his ear back on so he can enjoy listening to music by using the product.

5.4 Decoding the message

This message may be hard to decode by the receiver because there is not a lot of focus on the product as the image is small, so the receiver may not get the message that has been put across by the advertising agency that created the product. Because the image of Van Gogh has no connection to the Panasonic headphones, it may not make sense to the receiver; therefore they could get the wrong message which could be that the Van Gogh painting is the product, and not the headphones

5.5 The Receiver

The receiver may not be interested in the product as there is little information about it on the advert, so this would cause the advert to have negative feedback as the audience would not know how to react to the advert

  1. Advert 4 – The Royal British Legion
  2. The Sender

“The legion is a big family – all supporting the Armed Forces community.” The Royal British Legion is a benevolent charity giving help to those most in need, amembershiporganisation providing support to 360,000 members;acampaigningorganisation challenging those in authority; afundraisingorganisation reliant ona huge network of volunteers; the nation's custodian ofRemembrance( [accessed 12 November 2014]).

6.2 The Encoded Message

The message of the advert is “commemorating the deaths of Private Harry Styles, Lance Corporal Alex Ferguson, Private Gordon Brown and Private Andy Murray during the First World War.” The appeal they use in the advert is an emotional appeal, this is where “emotional advertising can capture a viewer’s attention and create an attachment between the consumer and the brand” (Clow & Baack, 2014 p.180) and also “most creatives view emotional advertising as the key to brand loyalty.” (Clow & Baack, 2014 p.180)

6.3 Transmission Channel

By using print for this advert it worked to the disadvantage of both the advertising agency and also the organisation. By only using print, they are limiting themselves to visual image and text, and for this particular advert they did not use visual images. The advert can be re-used every year due to Remembrance Day, so money would not be wasted as they already have access to it.

6.4 Decoding of the message

The receiver would not be able to decode this correctly, because “Remember Harry Styles” is in capitals and a big size font, so the receiver would immediately be attracted to that. They would most likely get Private Harry Styles confused with Harry Styles from One Direction, so the intended message regarding commemorating those who died in World War 1 would not be received by the consumer. Also, the text giving information about the soldiers is in a small font, so the receiver would not be interested in reading it and would just focus on the Harry Styles.

6.5 The Receiver

From the advert, it was not certain if the message was decoded to understand the intended message, however, from the amount of donations received, it could be argued that the intended message was decoded correctly by the receiver.

  1. Conclusion

In conclusion, The Communication Process Model is very effective when advertising agencies make their adverts because they have to make sure that the intended message is decoded correctly, so they have positive feedback from the receiver, this is how an advertising agency knows they have completed their objective as they know that the receiver has understood the intended message. From the analysis, Advert 1 conveys the use of the Communication Process Model as the message is clear in the text used and because there is not a lot of images on the advert; the audience’s focus is on the text, rather than the catalogue next to it. However, Advert 4 does not do this. The message was not that easy to decode as Harry Styles was in bold and it could be confused with the member of One Direction, other than the person Private Harry Styles who the advert is actually referring to.

7.1 Recommendations

Advert 1:

  • Add more varieties of colour to the poster, linking it to decorating
  • Make the tagline font size a bit bigger
  • They should use radio advertising, so they could do a dialogue between husband and wife in relation to decorating their home and they could also add more humour

Advert 2:

  • The tagline font size should be bigger because the audience could decode the message as humour thinking the elephant is releasing its sexual frustration with the car
  • They could possibly use radio as another form of media to communicate the message as it allows the receiver to use their imagination on how the strong the car is and they would not be distracted with the image of humour

Advert 3:

  • Make the image of the headphones bigger as that is the product being sold to the consumer, not the image of Van Gogh
  • Use TV advertisement as a media communication so an actor can demonstrate how to use the adverts

Advert 4:

  • This advert is to inform the consumer, so the information on Private Harry Styles would have to be in bigger text, bold and the colour of the font would have to change so the consumer would know it is not Harry Styles from One Direction.
  • Make the font size of the information on Private Harry Styles bigger
  • Another recommendation could be to use TV as another medium and get a voice actor to explain who ‘Private Harry Styles’ is, which makes it easier for the receiver to decode the intended message

References

Arens, W., Weigold, M. & Arens, C. (2008) ‘Cotemporary Advertising’ 12th edition Mcgraw Hill/Irwin

Aucock, R. (2014)‘Elephant proves Volkswagen Polo is small but tough’ Available at: [accessed 10 November 2014]

Blythe, J (2014) ‘Principles & Practices of Marketing’ 3rd edition, Sage Publications

BusinessDictionary.com (2014)‘Communication process definition’ Available at: [accessed 8 November 2014]

Clow, K. & Baack, D. (2014)‘Integrated Advertising, Promotion, and Marketing Communications’ 6th edition. Pearson Education Limited

IKEA (2014)‘About the IKEA Group’ Available at: [accessed 6 November 2014]

Lee, J. (2014)‘Adam & Eve/DDB creates Polo ad for amorous elephant’ Available at: [accessed 6 November 2014]

McQuarrie, L. (2014) ‘Panasonic’s Funny ad for Headphones merges modern tech with fine art’ Available at:[accessed 5 November 2014]

Morch, L. (2014). Personal Email (31 October 2014)

Panasonic (2014) ‘Brand’ Available at: [accessed 12 November]

Panasonic (2014) ‘Brand History’ Available at: [accessed 12 November 2014]

Smith, E. (2014)‘What Are the Advertising Pros & Cons of Using Print Media?’ Available at: [accessed 11 November 2014]

Skipper, B. (2014) ‘RIP Harry Styles, Alex Ferguson and Andy Murray: WW1 Deaths commemorated in British Legion Ads’ Available at: [accessed 10 November 2014]

The Royal British Legion (2014) ‘Who we are’ Available at: [accessed 12 November 2014]

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