10 communication principles that advertisers must know!

The essence of advertising is communication.

This also shows that the discipline of communication is the underlying logic of advertising.

As an advertiser, you may have this question: Why is my idea so good, but users don’t understand it?

This question actually involves a famous theory in communication: the encoding/decoding theory. (mentioned below)

Therefore, as an advertiser, including a marketer, in addition to understanding psychology, it is also important to understand communication. Here, the editorial department of Kuang Ren has summarized the 10 essential communication principles for advertisers and marketers .

01Encoding/Decoding Theory

Information content is expressed through certain codes (text, images, sounds, etc.).

The communicator encodes the information in a specific form, and the receiver interprets the received code. The communicator customizes the coding according to his or her own purpose, and the recipient will interpret the information in his or her own way due to his or her own circumstances, such as social status, cultural background, identity role, thoughts and emotions.

Advertising communication is a process of encoding and decoding. It is based on the core elements of communication and carries out targeted encoding according to consumer portraits, making it easy for consumers to decode.

Marketing landing:

Ideally, encoding and decoding should have a good correspondence, but in reality this ideal is often difficult to achieve. The main reason is that the advertising audience does not always understand the meaning of the advertising work according to the intention of the advertising creator, but understands the meaning of the advertising work in their own way, and this understanding varies greatly among different advertising audiences.

There are two main reasons

On the one hand: it is caused by the ambiguity of symbols;

On the other hand, in the process of understanding advertising works, in addition to understanding the meaning of the works according to the general symbolic meaning, the audience often adds some of their own subjective interpretations, which are influenced by many factors such as the audience's emotions, motivations, attitudes, and knowledge level, and are almost unavoidable.

Therefore, advertising creators should try to avoid using complex, ambiguous and multi-meaning symbols to create advertising works, and instead use simple, clear and single-meaning symbols to create works.

02 5W Mode

In 1948, American scholar H. Lasswell proposed for the first time the five basic elements that constitute the communication process in his paper "Structure and Function of Communication in Society", and arranged them in a certain structural order, forming a process model later called the "Five W Model" or "Lasswell Program". The five Ws are the first letters of the five interrogative pronouns in English, namely:

Who

Says What

In Which Channel

To Whom

With What Effect

The 5W model shows that the communication process is a purposeful behavioral process with the purpose of influencing the audience. Therefore, his communication process is a persuasion process, and the five links in it are the essence of communication activities.

Marketing landing:

For the 5W model, the most common scenario for advertisers is to review or disassemble an advertising and marketing case. Generally, if there is no method to disassemble or review, it is easy to miss the key points. If you master the 5W model, you will have an idea.

For an advertising and marketing case, the following ideas can be used to apply the 5W model:

Who: Who can launch the brand?

Says What: What is the brand's core message in this advertising campaign, what is the big idea, and how to break it down into poster copy, TVC copy, Weibo copy, etc., all can be summarized.

In Which Channel: Through what channels is communication conducted, what is the media communication strategy, and why is it done this way? What is the focus of each channel's communication? Is it to plant grass or just spread the word?

To Whom: Who is the target audience of this campaign and how do they perform on each platform?

With What Effect: What effect? The effect here not only refers to the effect of voice dissemination, but also can be the user's expression of brand favorability, sales performance, etc. Here, real feedback needs to be obtained through some data analysis methods and used in conjunction with dedicated data monitoring tools.

03Information Cocoon

Information cocoon refers to the phenomenon that people's attention to information areas is habitually guided by their own interests, thus confining their lives to a "cocoon" like a silkworm cocoon.

Because information technology provides more personal thinking space and a vast amount of knowledge in any field, some people may further escape from the various contradictions in society and become isolated from the world.

Marketing landing:

For advertisers, the phenomenon of information cocoons should be more vigilant, because when we design marketing activities, it is easy to fall into our own perspective and mistakenly believe that our creativity will definitely be accepted by users and that users will definitely like our creativity, which can easily lead to self-satisfaction.

Therefore, when designing a marketing communication plan, you must try your best to understand your brand’s audience and the environment they live in. Here, Hua & Hua’s approach is worth learning.

There is a method in H&H called "Three Presentism" - on-site, actual objects, and reality. All answers are on-site. All project team members must engage in sales internships in customer stores.

This method is a good solution to break the information cocoon.

As professional marketers, we often look at problems from a professional perspective, which easily leads to a "out-of-touch" phenomenon. Some companies just need to be down-to-earth, but you don't have this down-to-earth perspective and are still stuck in the conference room brainstorming solutions. This is an information cocoon.

Therefore, we must go to the front line, understand the products firsthand, and personally receive customers in order to break the information cocoon.

04Opinion Climate

Opinion climate is a concept in communication studies, which refers to the distribution of opinions in one’s environment, including existing opinions and opinions that may emerge in the future.

Mass communication influences and constrains public opinion by creating an "opinion climate", and agenda setting is one of the main means of creating an "opinion climate". Political scientist Bernard Cohen said in his book Newspapers and Foreign Policy, "The media is not very effective in making people think what they think, but it is very effective in making people think what they think."

The main sources of opinion climate: 1. Group opinion in the environment; 2. Mass communication

Marketing landing:

Based on the opinion climate, we can see that in marketing activities, a large number of KOL deployments, information flow advertising, commercial promotion by buying hot searches on Weibo, offline targeted media promotion, etc., are all aimed at creating an opinion climate.

In the context of such severe media fragmentation, how to create a product opinion climate in the media environment where users are located is a difficult problem facing all brands.

There was a particularly popular view some time ago.

It mainly talks about the three marketing axes of new consumer brands:

1. First, find 5,000 reviews of Koc on Xiaohongshu.

2. Post another 2,000 questions and answers on Zhihu;

3. Then get Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya to build channels through mid-level anchors on Douyin, and a new brand will basically take shape.

We will not judge whether this view is right or wrong or what the input-output ratio is, but the core of this media strategy is to create a consumer opinion climate. First, the products are promoted on a large scale on Xiaohongshu to create an opinion climate with a wide audience and good products. 2,000 answers are posted on Zhihu to solve your questions about the products. Finally, through the promotion of products by Li Jiaqi and Wei Ya, an opinion climate endorsed by top KOLs is created to increase brand potential.

05Spiral of Silence

When people express their own thoughts and opinions, if they see that the opinions they agree with are widely welcomed, they will actively participate, and such opinions will be expressed and spread more boldly;

If you find that no one or very few people pay attention to a certain point of view (sometimes they may even attack it), you will remain silent even if you agree with it.

The silence of one side of an opinion causes the other side's opinion to grow stronger. This cycle repeats itself, forming a spiral development process in which one side's voice becomes increasingly powerful, while the other side becomes increasingly silent.

Marketing landing:

In marketing communications, businesses may use KOLs to promote their products on social media (Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and Douyin), which may lead to a positive opinion climate. In this case, consumers should not believe the spiral of silence "trap" set by businesses, but conduct multiple investigations before making their own purchasing decisions.

In addition, for brands, there is another phenomenon that they need to pay attention to, which is the "silent majority". Because when consumers express their attitudes towards brands or products on social media, they are often those who are happy to express themselves. There is also a large number of users who do not express their opinions, but this does not mean that they have no opinions. Therefore, when we conduct market research, we must look at the research results rationally and go deep into the consumer groups to discover more voices, so that we can understand our users and consumers more thoroughly.

06Weak spread of public opinion

Here, we mainly introduce the four major laws related to public opinion and marketing, namely the weak theorem of public opinion, the emotional law of public opinion, the light rule of public opinion, and the sub-theory of public opinion. These four laws are collectively referred to as weak communication of public opinion.

Below, we explain the meaning of these laws and their application examples.

Public opinion: the expression and focus of any human group, individual or organization. In short: public opinion is the expression and focus of attention.

The Weak Theorem of Public Opinion: Public opinion is the weapon of the weak. The strong can deprive the weak of everything, but cannot deprive them of their evaluation. The most destructive form of public opinion is the likes and downvotes of the weak, which is referred to as public opinion.

Light rules of public opinion: Because we need to occupy the surface area of ​​communication, it cannot be heavy. For example, symbols, emoticons, gossip, etc. are easy to spread. The Nobel Prize in Economics has to be packaged as nightclub economics before it can enter the public eye.

Sub-theory of public opinion: The main theme is the most difficult to spread (such as respecting the elderly, etc.) because it is common sense, so there is no need to mention it; because it is common sense, there is no need to emphasize it; because it is a consensus, it is not easy to attract attention; basic recognition has been completed, so there is no need to fight for it on a large scale. Therefore, the most contagious state is actually the mainstream sub-theory.

The emotional law of public opinion: the real world emphasizes reason, while the public opinion world emphasizes emotion;

The strong like to reason because they have the power to destroy everything.

The weak can only appeal to their emotions. Therefore, the world of public opinion is irrational, and extreme emotions always prevail. And you always have to choose sides.

Marketing landing:

The essence of traffic is emotional stimulation.

When it comes to stimulating emotions, public opinion is one of the most effective ways.

However, for brands, public opinion is a double-edged sword. Countless cases have shown that countless brands have failed under public opinion, while countless brands have relied on public opinion to occupy the minds of consumers.

For example, during the recent rainstorm in Zhengzhou, Erke's donations ignited the patriotic sentiment of the people. This not only helped Erke expand its influence in terms of voice communication, but also increased its sales. Many stores were out of stock.

This is the emotional law of public opinion, because the world of public opinion values ​​feelings, and for consumers, the prices of products such as clothes are not very high, so users can easily make purchasing decisions.

Another point is the light rules of public opinion. If you want to occupy the surface area of ​​dissemination, it cannot be something too heavy.

For example, some time ago, Luckin Coffee and Liu Luxiu shot an advertisement called "Luckin YYDS". Here, Luckin Coffee used the Internet buzzword "YYDS" as a communication symbol and Liu Luxiu as the spokesperson. Because YYDS is a relatively popular Internet term, users have a low learning cost and are willing to accept it, so the advertising film had a very good communication effect according to subsequent data feedback.

07 Audience Commodity Theory

The news, ideas, images, entertainment, speech and information produced by the mass media are not its most important products. The mission of a media company is actually to aggregate and package audiences for sale. This reveals that the real commodity of commercial broadcast television is audience.

In the implicit triangular relationship of "audience, media and advertisers" revealed by the "audience commodity theory", advertisers provide funds for media operations, and the media provides audiences to advertisers in exchange, and these audiences "create surplus value for advertisers by using their time ('work' or labor) to consume advertising information and purchase other commodities."

Marketing landing:

This is easier to understand when applied to marketing communications. For KOLs, in terms of selling advertisements, the most important thing is not the specific content, but the KOL audience group formed by this content.

KOLs sell their audiences in packages to earn income. On this basis, KOLs will actively produce content for fans to watch.

08 Maletsky Mass Communication Field Model

Maletsky established his model based on the traditional basic elements, namely C communicator, M message, medium, R receiver, and effect, which embodies the five areas of communication research.

Maletsky's mass communication field model applies the research ideas of "field theory".

"Field" is a concept in modern physics. It refers to grasping the characteristics of objects and the properties of the environment from the relationship between the environment and the objects. Field theory was proposed by Lewin in his study of group dynamics and has developed into a research method in social sciences, emphasizing the influence of complex factors and variables within the environment. The mass communication field is the cluster and sum of various social relations in the process of mass communication. He believes that the behavior of both communicators and receivers is carried out in a certain "social magnetic field", and the nature and function of communication are revealed in the interaction with society.

Marketing landing:

In the process of advertising design, it is necessary to consider the relationship between the information conveyed and the publishing media, as well as their influence in the communication process.

Since influencing "communicators" can achieve better communication effects, it is necessary to consider handling media relations, that is, the relationship with mass communicators, in public relations activities. This model provides possible factors for analyzing and influencing mass communication practitioners.

Advertising practitioners should use this model to analyze which factors influence their communication activities, so as to remind themselves to avoid letting personal tastes and limitations overly influence activities such as advertising design and media selection.

When looking for a brand spokesperson, the star becomes a communicator to some extent. At this time, it is necessary to consider the star's image in the recipient's mind and to make the star's image consistent with the brand image as much as possible.

09Agenda Setting

Mass communication has the function of setting the "agenda" for the public. The media's news reporting and information dissemination activities influence people's judgment of the "big things" and their importance in the world around them by giving different degrees of salience to various "topics".

Marketing landing:

The mass media cannot determine people's specific views on a certain event, but they can influence people's attention to specific facts and opinions by setting relevant topics, that is, by focusing on reporting related events and agendas. For example, the Weibo hot search list, is it because the list is created because more people search, or is it because of the list that more people search? The seemingly inexplicable Rashomon is actually the lifeblood of business.

As the hot search channel of the platform, the hot search list shows users which information is currently the most searched and most concerned topic by users, thereby influencing the users' own agenda setting, that is, what information is currently important and should attract attention.

Alibaba's Double 11, which has been held for 11 years, is a classic example. On this day, young people across the country are excited, and the question they often ask and discuss is "What are you going to buy on Double 11 this year?"

The media and businesses promoted the product extensively, and consumers went on a shopping spree. If the Spring Festival is the biggest festival for Chinese people to get together, then Double 11 is the biggest pilgrimage ritual for young people to shop.

Agenda setting also has another level of extension. For example, the recent “PR withdrawal” incident of a certain large company is a reverse agenda setting, that is, by withdrawing the hot search list, it unilaterally believes that the event can be eliminated from the user’s agenda setting. The continuous commercialization of the media has caused the public agenda attributes that it should have been endowed with to gradually transform into commercial agenda setting. But at the same time, there is still the phenomenon of individuals influencing the public agenda, and both sides are in a relationship of mutual game.

10. Foreshadowing Effect

The foreshadowing effect, also known as the foreshadowing effect, guiding effect, manifestation effect, background effect, priming effect, etc., originally appeared in psychology research on the information processing process of memory. It refers to the positive or negative influence of a stimulus that is presented quickly (the priming stimulus) on the processing of the second stimulus (the target stimulus) that appears immediately afterwards. It was later introduced into communication studies and became an important theory in communication studies.

Marketing landing :

The foreshadowing effect describes the influence that previous context has on the interpretation of new information. The public has many criteria for evaluating a phenomenon, but they often choose only one or two criteria. Therefore, before the public makes an evaluation, as long as the communicator continues to reinforce a certain standard or attribute, it can divert the public's attention and set a starting point for the public to think about the problem, that is, to lay the groundwork for opinions before making judgments.

For example, if your colleague recommends a book to you, you may not pay attention to it at the time. But when you hear more friends or see others recommend it in articles, you are very likely to actually read the book. This is also the core essence of communication, repeat, repeat and repeat again.

For example, the brainwashing message of Melatonin, “I won’t accept any gifts this year, and if I do, accept Melatonin,” keeps repeating in your mind. Over time, Melatonin will pop up when you want to give a gift.

The above 10 communication theories are widely used in marketing and help us better understand the underlying logic of some communication phenomena.

However, I would like to emphasize again here that these communication theories only provide us with some reference bases and perspectives for looking at communication phenomena.

We must remember not to fall into the trap of theoretical rationalism, that is, we should not apply them. Marketers and advertisers should master these theories instead of letting the theories dominate our brains.

Author: Luuuuke

Source: Luuuuke