Evaluation of the effectiveness of communications. Quantitative parameters

The causal relationship between the effectiveness of the ICS and the results of the organization's activities is confirmed by studies conducted among employees of Western companies, 28% of which showed that the information they need reaches them too late, and more than half (58% of employees) believe that the disseminated in the company, information is not related to professional activities. As a result, 60% of the employees surveyed want to change jobs. At the same time, to change the composition of personnel, serious financial investments will be required both for the selection and determination of the level of professional competence of personnel, and for the adaptation period. It will take three to nine months for new employees to reach the level of “self-sufficiency” (when the economic result of the new employee's activity exceeds the investments invested in him). Lewis Richard D. Business cultures in international business. From collision to mutual understanding. -M.: Delo, 2001. Pp. 216.

The main criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the internal communications system are:

number of communication channels;

the quality of joint work that requires the efforts of different departments of the company at the same time;

the number of intermediate links in the transmission of information;

timeliness of dissemination of information;

the adequacy of the use of information channels in the field of activity of the enterprise;

the presence of a balance between vertical and horizontal communications within the company, between documented (formal) information and verbal means;

the state of the socio-psychological climate in the team;

the number of disseminated informal communications (rumors). Ibid, str. 219.

To create a positive image of the company in the market, it is necessary to bring the necessary information to employees in a timely manner, which, as a result, will make it possible to increase the overall manageability of the company, increase work efficiency, staff motivation and operational activities in the market, as well as improve the socio-psychological climate in the team.

Creating an effective internal communications system consists of seven main steps. First of all, it is necessary to diagnose the existing communication system. For example, find out if company meetings are held, is there a corporate Internet portal, bulletin board or honor board, where photos of employees and a list of their achievements are located, understand through whom and how quickly rumors spread, whether opinion polls, questionnaires are conducted in the company, in-house training. The next stage is the creation of a single information space, the development of a company policy and standards in the field of VC, then the implementation of these standards, strengthening the loyalty of personnel, then monitoring the performance of the VC system, assessing its effectiveness and taking measures to improve it, setting new tasks in the field of internal communications management.

Creation of an effective system of internal communications

Tools for building and improving the efficiency of the internal communications system are divided into four main types (table): informational, analytical, communicative and organizational.

It is important to note that most companies use no more than two groups of tools at the same time, while it is recommended to use the tools of each group to build an effective system. The most rarely used internal communications management tools by companies are “mailboxes” for collecting offers, electronic media, letters to the employer, business games, presentations for employees, digital libraries, and themed photo stands. Most often, companies use internal meetings, mailing lists, booths with information and internal sites. There are also a number of problems that organizations face when working with internal communications. First of all, this is the absence of an employee responsible for working with the internal communications system on an ongoing basis. As a rule, the company does not allocate a budget for the maintenance and regular work with internal communications. Because of this, information is brought to the attention of employees irregularly, without the necessary emotional charge, sometimes without taking into account the business and the size of the company. Burnet J., Moriarty S. Marketing communications: an integrated approach. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2001. P. 137.

At present, it is extremely important to properly build the work on managing the internal communications system in the organization. It is necessary to create a single information field, eliminate communication gaps, constantly receive feedback from the staff in order to involve employees in the organization's management processes, increase motivation to achieve the company's goals, and improve the quality of management decision-making procedures. For example, the introduction of the "Corporate Rules" in the company will contribute to the creation of a single information space and facilitate the process of adaptation of new employees. The "Corporate Rules" should reflect all the information necessary for employees to work in terms of organizational and psycho-physiological adaptation: in a simple and accessible form, the standards of business correspondence and telephone conversations, security, requirements for appearance, social guarantees for employees, structure company, rules for using the company's library, eating, organizing business trips, using the company's vehicles and courier services, the procedure for calculating and paying wages. The introduction of the "Corporate Rules" will, firstly, reduce the period of adaptation of new employees, and secondly, save the time of mentors, since all the questions that newcomers have in the first month of work are answered in the "Corporate Rules". Lewis Richard D. Business cultures in international business. From collision to mutual understanding. -M.: Delo, 2001. Pp. 224. At the same time, it is advisable to use an internal website for managing communications, where regulations and work standards, design of presentation materials, information about new employees with brief information about their professional experience and key competencies can be posted. You can also inform employees about emerging vacancies, upcoming events, and create a page with private announcements and a page "Test of the pen." Part of the information, such as interesting articles or publications about the company, interviews with our employees, information about birthdays, can be placed on information stands next to the canteen and in the office corridors. Also in the work it is necessary to actively use corporate events, photo reports, corporate magazines. As a result, employees of the company will always be aware of events and get to know each other better. Undoubtedly, all of the above activities will contribute to the interaction and increase the overall manageability of the company.

The internal communications system is a set of measures. It will fully work if you use a number of tools (see table), since it is a set of measures that makes it possible to make the communication system transparent, open, and regular. Of course, a competent division of functions between the subjects of the VC is also extremely important. For example, work to support an internal website, a corporate magazine and corporate events can be carried out by the PR department and partly by the IT department, work to adapt new employees, maintain the corporate culture and internal communications system as a whole, maintain a climate in the team - the personnel service (HR service ) with the active participation of top management. Voroshilov VV Modern press service. St. Petersburg: V. A. Mikhailov Publishing House, 2005. Pp. 173.

The introduction of the ICS is ultimately intended to synthesize the theory of management, the theory of organization, the psychology of management and interpersonal communication, and the theory of communication itself. "Gaps", incompetence in one of these areas entails the replication of errors and ineffective actions in all other areas. This applies not only to the work of managers, leaders of all levels, but also to any specialist and the so-called "ordinary" employees, that is, employees involved in the process of communicating with other people.

Thus, in the conclusion of the first chapter, we can draw the following conclusions - as the American authors V. Hovell and P. Dipboy rightly point out, sooner or later every person faces a choice: “in the old fashioned way” to adhere to bureaucratic, soulless principles of work or to make “human factor” as the main axis of its activity. The second path requires from a person complete dedication, intellectual tension, readiness for risk, for making non-standard decisions and the ability to be responsible for other people's destinies. But the game is worth the candle: the results of such work can exceed the wildest expectations.

This article aims to theoretically substantiate the need to study the means and methods of the communicative effectiveness of advertising, which are used in scientific research and the real practice of communication companies (Yakovleva: 11). Let us dwell on some fundamental points of the article. Let's define concepts. There are numerous definitions of the understanding of advertising and promotional activities, but its main essence, according to the author, is contained in the interpretation of advertising given in the Federal Law "On Advertising". 2006 “Advertising is information disseminated in any way, in any form and using any means, addressed to an indefinite circle of people and aimed at drawing attention to the object of advertising, generating or maintaining interest in it and promoting it on the market” (FZ “ About advertising” 2006: 1). All the necessary elements of the implementation and control of the advertising process are indicated here: information - distribution - means of distribution - advertising audience (circle of persons) - advertising product (object of advertising) - attracting attention - generating and maintaining interest - promotion in the market. Understanding the content and meaning of these elements allows us to understand the focus of the search for the effectiveness of the advertising process.

The distribution of advertising is carried out by an advertising distributor (media placement agency, advertising medium) - a legal entity or individual that carries out the placement and (or) distribution of advertising information by providing and (or) using property, incl. technical means of radio broadcasting, television broadcasting, as well as communication channels, airtime and other means. (FZ "On Advertising" 2006: 1) The means of distribution of advertising are traditional channels for the transmission of advertising information, among them the main ones are: mass media - media (ATL (Shevchenko 2012: 13), non-media (BTL) (Shevchenko 2012: 14) and auxiliary means of advertising distribution: PR (Shevchenko 2012: 15), direct marketing, packaging, etc. The most universal and virtual channel for the transmission of advertising information is the Internet, which is considered as a competing platform for traditional advertising channels.This point is important for further study of approaches to the effectiveness of the communicative impact of advertising (ATL) and marketing communications (BTL).

In this article, advertising is considered as part of the overall communication process. What does the overall communication process mean? The fact is that in the modern information space, communications are an unlimited set of information and “persuasion”, having inner freedom and power of influence. In the modern communication process, advertising is a powerful form of information, but not the only one and therefore not decisive. Advertising - information sent to an indefinite circle of people about goods and services (traditionally understood as mass media, new media on the Internet) is one of the sources of information from where consumers receive and draw information about goods and services. In the communication process, from where consumers learn about the existence of goods and services, in addition to the targeted information process, which is advertising, there are also specially organized (for specific segments of the target audience - potential consumers) and unorganized ways and technologies of informing and "forcing" to buy. The so-called BTL communications and other forms of direct informational (communicative) impact (Internet communications), up to “tet –a – tet”, which is personal selling and other ways of bringing information to buyers, which we considered earlier.

The advertising audience (Shevchenko 2012: 16) is considered by advertising specialists as the target audience. Understanding the target audience (CA) in marketing and advertising is key. A more general understanding is a group of people who are targeted by an advertising campaign, these are those who are most likely to use a service or buy a product. The target audience is a specific group of people who need to be attracted through advertising and other communications. Considering that advertising is no longer the only communication that achieves its own goal, it is the only obligatory result of exposure and “forcing” consumers to buy information about goods and services, it is necessary to distinguish between the target audience of advertising and an advertising campaign. In the case of an advertising campaign, we already mean a set of marketing communications: ATL, BTL, PR, LP, DM, packaging, exhibition, event marketing, publicity and other managed and unmanaged ways of conveying information and persuading to purchase a specific product or service, a specific company ( brand).

Therefore, in advertising communication, it is necessary to distinguish between all consumers of advertising from the target audience of an advertising campaign. Any person who has noticed or heard a message about a product can become a consumer of promotional products. This is the result of the advertising appeal in the media (ATL). Here, the target audience is a group of people who are targeted by an advertising message (Bove, Ahrens 1995: 3). The target audience of an advertising campaign is already potential buyers, who are specifically targeted by advertising information about a particular product and marketing efforts to promote it (events) (BTL; LP, etc.). At the moment when we consider the target audience of advertising, we mean a group of people who have received an advertising message, information. But, if we consider the target audience of an advertising campaign, then we already mean potential consumers of advertising. For marketing, the target audience is its target market segments. A market segment is a large, well-defined group of buyers within a market with similar needs and characteristics that are distinct from other target market groups. It is also a segment of the market represented by companies that compete to a certain extent. The target market is a set of market segments to which the company's marketing activities are oriented. For example, the residential real estate sector in the real estate market.
Target audience can be defined based on age, gender, special interests, or social level. To search for it, data from geodemographic and lifestyle studies can be used. (Jefkins 2008: 7)

The target audience is exactly those people who are most likely to purchase the advertised products. A qualitative definition of the target audience will allow you to choose exactly those types of advertising communications that can most effectively influence the direct consumers of the advertised products. For a deeper understanding of the specifics of the effectiveness of the “work” of media advertising, a media planner (Shevchenko 2012: 17) should divide the target audience into two segments. The first segment is explicit consumers (with stated needs): users who have decided to purchase a product or service, they themselves are actively looking for information using search engines and / or thematic authoritative (from the point of view of users) sites.

The second segment: potential consumers (hidden needs): users with a specific intention, but with uncertain preferences, as well as users without specific intentions and preferences. Display advertising is just aimed at the second segment - the audience, which needs to achieve loyalty and encourage it to make a decision to purchase a product or service. Thus, the target audience in display advertising is users who are interested in the advertised product or service. It is on them that the advertising impact is aimed, actualizing the need for acquisition. So, we distinguish between the communicative effectiveness of media advertising (ATL - mass media) and the communicative effectiveness of non-media advertising BTL and other forms of marketing communications that have feedback from consumers of communications.

Let us turn to the description of known methods and technologies for improving the communicative effectiveness of advertising.
Communicative effectiveness of advertising- a measure of achieving the goals set by the advertiser to change the perceptions, attitudes or behavior of the target audience by conveying advertising information about goods and services through the use of various means of delivering advertising information. The field of methods for assessing the communicative effectiveness of advertising forms a wide range of problems. The most relevant today is not so much the understanding of the essence and specifics of the methods, but the problem of their effective use and application experience. There is an opinion that it is better to rely on the professional experience of the advertiser and the instinct of the advertiser than to base advertising activity on the results of the methods that are offered today for advertising evaluation. There are not enough universal methods, the area of ​​practical application is not filled as far as it is done in terms of theory. It is also important to understand that learning the practical foundations, application specifics, and practical experience with existing methods presents an opportunity to gain unique knowledge. The first level of study is an analysis of the most theoretically developed methods, attention to which is paid by almost all authors who study the field of advertising research. The second level is an analysis of the experience of using methods by leading Russian research companies. This will give an idea of ​​the approach of those who directly carry out the assessment to the problem of the multiplicity and lack of systematization of methods.

Let us dwell on quantitative and qualitative methods of researching the effectiveness of advertising.

Quantitative methods make it possible to obtain information in numerical terms, that is, to assess the quantitative dynamics of a particular indicator. The methods are an adaptation of sociological tools (surveys, hall tests) and statistical and mathematical methods of data processing (comparative, cluster, correlation and correspondence analysis tools). “Correct sampling is the key point of research,” notes researcher A.A. Belogorodsky (Belogorodsky 2006: 2). To this we can add the observation that the correct design of the sample is a critical condition for the correct conduct of a quantitative study. We also note that quantitative studies can be carried out at a time to measure a number of indicators in statics for a certain moment in the implementation of an advertising campaign, or continuously for a certain period in order to track the effect in dynamics. The second type of research is tracking or monitoring. (http://lib.ru: 22) As a rule, quantitative studies, regardless of the nature of their conduct, measure the following indicators:

• Brand/product knowledge (spontaneous and prompted)
• brand loyalty
• Knowledge of brand advertising (spontaneous and prompted)
• Knowledge of advertising details
• Knowledge of media where the brand was advertised
• General impression of advertising
• Unusual advertising
• Communication of the advertising message with the brand
• The memorability of the key phrase of the advertising message
• Brand image (Belogorodsky 2006: 2)

Interview is a method of statistical observation ( businessvoc.ru: 23), the collection of primary information, carried out by asking questions to the target audience. There are many types of surveys. First of all, surveys can be classified depending on the method of collecting information: survey at the place of residence, survey with a central location (in-hall), including testing of certain product qualities - hall test, street (including store), telephone survey, online survey, questionnaires for self-completion (including postal survey). A key feature of survey methods of assessment is the speed of obtaining data, which is why this tool is used in many areas and solves a wide range of problems. To quantify the effect of advertising communication, the following indicators can be used: spontaneous (i.e. without prompting) brand awareness, spontaneous awareness of brand advertising, prompted awareness of brands, prompted knowledge of brand advertisements, brand purchases for a certain time period, positive attitude towards the brand , negative attitude towards the brand, etc. Survey methods allow determining the proportion of consumers who met an advertising message, the effectiveness of various media channels, assessing the memorability of various advertising elements, the understandability and accessibility of an advertising message, and the relationship between an advertising message and an advertised brand. Also, with the least degree of objectivity, a survey can help assess the level of influence of advertising on sales. The survey method is used at the post-test stage, when the target audience has already become familiar with advertising materials, or at the pre-test stage, when the respondent is provided with advertising material for review, and then questions are asked aimed at obtaining more specific and private information than knowledge of brands and brand advertising. For example, a choice between several variants of advertising materials can be made by measuring a number of indicators, such as the understandability and memorability of an advertising message. It can be assumed that the vast majority of research companies use this method, and most employees of advertising agencies have come across the practice of using surveys to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising. (Metelev, Utenkov 2010: 9)

Specialized methods for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising are procedures that provide a solution to such special tasks as the evaluation of advertising, taking into account the specifics of the media carrier or stage of research. Unlike general methods, they are often designed to address more specific goals. For example, a survey can be used to evaluate ads of any medium at any stage of campaign development, while specialized methods are optimized for specific needs. As an example, we can cite the solution of such tasks as tracking the effect of plan-by-plan for dynamic materials, identifying the effect of individual advertising elements for both static and dynamic media media, identifying the compatibility of advertising material with other information located in the same media at the post stage. - test and so on. Consider two of the most proven specialized methods.

BAAR method– “an experimental study of the per-plan perception of video materials, carried out during their direct viewing” (www.baar.ru: 32). The method allows evaluating advertising materials not only as a whole advertising product, but also identifying the communication effect arising from any element of the video material: tracking a number of indicators per second, on the basis of which a detailed analysis of communication can be made. The scope of the BAAR method is wide, and the array of tasks solved by the method covers the main issues of efficiency. According to the author of this work, the method in particular has an advantage over other methods due to the fact that it can provide detailed information not only about the basic indicators that arise during communication, but also find the cause of efficiency or inefficiency, which, in turn, is the basis for further prediction and diagnosis. The method is applicable for solving such problems as evaluation of dynamic advertising materials on a scheduled basis, second-by-second control of the effect produced by advertising communication, as well as evaluation of the effect of individual elements of advertising material - the visual, musical range and text content of the video. In addition, the method is optimal for determining the strong and weak storyline, evaluating the characters and heroes of advertising materials, optimizing the advertising message for visual and auditory perception of the material.

Method for constructing perception maps based on the technique of direct assessment by respondents of the presence or absence of significant consumer characteristics of the product whose advertising is being studied. Respondents evaluate the product after reading the stimulus material - product advertising. The assessment is carried out according to the characteristics that are preliminarily formed at the preliminary stage of the study and formulated in the lexical form that consumers use. The data obtained during the survey of respondents is statistically processed and forms an overall assessment of the product according to the choice factors that are significant for the consumer. A number of factors include several initial characteristics, which can be either clearly perceived by the consumer or in a “hidden”, unconscious state. The specificity of this method lies in the fact that at the first stage it is not the perception of the advertising material that is evaluated, but the expectations that this advertising material generates in relation to the product. The expectations that are revealed after reading the advertisement are compared with the expectations that are generated by the product in its physical embodiment - packaging and logo, without additional advertising communication. This technology makes it possible to select an advertising material that generates the most favorable expectations from the product, that is, to find an effective advertising "promise". The method of perception maps, due to its universality with respect to communication channels, has a wide scope and a wide range of research issues. Unlike many methods, the construction of perception maps allows you to identify a direct relationship between the elements of communication and its overall effectiveness, to find an advertising message that will not only be noticed and remembered, but will generate a favorable effect.

Semantic differential method (Yasevich, Perminova 2005: 12). Consumer behavior cannot be explained solely by the motives that he can demonstrate and voice (for example, in focus groups or in-depth interviews). Human behavior is also influenced by unconscious motives that cannot be identified by direct questioning. The task of identifying such unconscious motives is solved by the method of semantic differential, the possibilities of which include obtaining information from the affective level. Semantic differential is a projective psychosemantic method. It is used in studies that are related to consumer behavior and perception of a person, analysis of motivation. It is a combination of the scaling method and associations. The method allows revealing the emotional side of those meanings that an individual perceives in an object, and unconscious associative links between objects. The essence of the method lies in the construction of a semantic space - a certain model of individual consciousness, and in determining where in the semantic space the object under study is located. The evaluation result is a map of the relative position of factors in the semantic space. The factors that form the basis of the semantic space are not objective characteristics, but a metaphorical expression of the respondent's attitude to the object being studied. The researcher compares some ideal parameters with those being tested. This is how an assessment and comparison of objects is made, which can be both an entire advertising campaign and its individual elements. Also, using the semantic differential method, the problem of identifying the impact of evaluating the effectiveness of individual advertising elements is solved. Russian authors Pavel Yasevich and Yulia Perminova (Yasevich, Perminova 2005: 12) note that the advantage of this method is its relatively low cost, which is explained by the small size of the required sample compared to other estimation methods. The researchers also point out two significant drawbacks of the method. Firstly, these are the difficulties of analyzing information that is presented in a three-dimensional data matrix (respondent, object and scale), and analytical statistical packages are not designed for such an analysis. Secondly, in addition to subconscious motives, it is necessary to take into account “rational explanations of consumer actions” (Yasevich, Perminova 2005: 12), which cannot be taken into account when evaluating the effectiveness of advertising communication using a semantic differential. Quantitative methods for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising are diverse in their theoretical basis, and depending on their specifics, they can solve various problems. Davis Joel has attracted the attention of marketing analysts in measuring advertising research by relating concepts such as opinions and attitudes to observable events (indicators) such as responses to survey questions. The measurement process consists of seven stages, combined into three main stages: the first stage of measurement - the identification and definition of the concept - is the stage of clarification. It begins with the development of a general idea of ​​the area under study and ends with the formation of an explicit operational definition of what should be measured; the second stage - the indication of observed indicators - is the creation of measurement tools. At this stage of the measurement process, specific observable events are established and tools are developed. The researcher determines the nature of the required information and looks for the most appropriate ways to collect it. In the process of implementing the second stage, decisions are made on the appropriate level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval or ratios) and the appropriate format of questions (open or closed) is selected. At the nominal level of measurement, responses are assigned to mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories. At the ordinal level of a dimension, values ​​or responses are ordered according to severity along an explicit dimension axis. The interval measurement level has all the properties of an ordinal measurement with the additional property that the distance between any two divisions on the scale is the same.

The relationship measurement level has all the distinctive features of the previous levels and an additional property - a true, arbitrarily non-selected zero point; the third stage - evaluation and revision of indicators (observed events) - is an assessment of the quality of measurement tools. The measurement tool must be both reliable and valid at the same time. Unreliable or invalid instruments are recycled or discarded prior to the study. (Davis 2003: 4)

Let us turn to some qualitative methods for assessing the communicative effectiveness of advertising.

Focus group- the most popular form of qualitative research in the field of advertising. Focus group planning begins with two parallel steps. The first stage is related to the work of the moderator: a moderator is selected, briefed and a guideline for conducting a focus group discussion is developed. The second stage is related to the provision of the focus group: decisions are made regarding the characteristics of the group, the number and location of the focus groups, the necessary equipment, the recruitment of participants. The successful completion of these two stages precedes the actual conduct of the focus group. A typical focus group works in seven stages:

1. preliminary briefing;
2. introduction of participants and personal information;
3. setting the context for the discussion;
4. main discussion;
5. summary;
6. collection of opinions in the observation room;
7. conclusions.

The process ends with the evaluation of the performance of the first set of groups, making changes or corrections (if necessary), analyzing, presenting and applying the results for decision making.

The quality of the information obtained as a result of the work of focus groups depends on the behavior of the observers. Observers must:

• come prepared;
• follow the progress of the discussion from the very beginning;
• focus on the big picture;
• listen to the words of each participant;
• listen to all the comments of the participants;
• do not jump to conclusions;
• not allow judgments about the personality of the participants to influence the perception of their statements;
• not succumb to the opinion of dominant participants.

Finally, new technologies, such as video conferencing, telephone focus groups, and "virtual" groups, expand the possibilities for advertisers with specific needs. (Davis 2003: 5)

The method of group focused interviews is aimed at obtaining preliminary information, developing research hypotheses about the process of advertising communication, testing the persuasiveness of argumentation systems and choosing motivation for developing the concept of an advertising campaign, that is, for situations where extended texts are used in advertising communication.

A significant advantage of this method is the ability to identify the most detailed and specific information.

Augmented Creative Group Method is a study based on the standard focus group method, but provides an opportunity to obtain information about much deeper levels of human consciousness. A.Kutlaliev and A.Popov (Kutlaliev, Popov 2006: 8) offer the following techniques for “revealing” subconscious motives: intuitive associations (verbal and non-verbal); drawing techniques, bubbles (completion of the drawing), collages (applications), modeling from plasticine; unfinished sentences, anthropomorphism (respondents give the product characteristics of a person), role-playing games. The results of such studies are much more unpredictable than the results of focus groups, but the data obtained are much more difficult to interpret, which creates a significant drawback and little practicality of the method. Firstly, there is a need to quickly obtain a large amount of generalized information about the perception, attitude of the target audience to advertising - this is provided by focus groups. Secondly, information is needed about the subconscious motivation of the consumer, about his unconscious judgments - this problem is solved by the method of extended creative groups. Thirdly, a high level of control over the reliability of information reported by the respondent and assistance in comprehending and formulating the mental processes that arise in the process of communication are necessary.

In-Depth Interview Method . The key feature of this method is the strong involvement of the respondent and the interviewer in the research process, which, with high-quality and correct conduct, guarantees the receipt of reliable information about consumer attitudes, attitudes towards advertising, and understanding of advertising materials. That is, the extraction of psychological characteristics, manifested as the effect of advertising communication, is likely to occur without errors. This is the main difference from group qualitative methods, where it is not always possible to control the reliability of the information provided by respondents. An in-depth interview as a method for assessing the communicative effectiveness of advertising can be used to evaluate any type of advertising media and at any stage of the development and implementation of an advertising campaign. As can be seen above, the scope of tasks that qualitative research solves is wide and heterogeneous. An in-depth interview avoids two problems that are difficult to control in group discussions. The first problem that can be solved with the help of an in-depth interview is the difficulty of verbal transmission and description by the respondent of the state that he is experiencing. This method enables the moderator to assist in revealing the motives of consumer behavior that are not recognized by the respondent. More and more new methods and new approaches to quantitative and qualitative assessment appear on the market of research services, their number is actively growing. This is largely due to actively developing new media, changing consumer trends in the country and in the world, and other external factors. A large number of methods that seem effective and innovative are copyrighted and patented. It is impossible not to mention among them such quantitative methods as the Benchmarking method (Mindshare communication agency), AdWiser methods (Nielsen research agency) and Eye-Tracking, and many others. With regard to the development of media carriers, several relevant examples can be given. Thus, to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising in computer games, systems for tracking the main indicators of communicative effectiveness have been developed. Developments to optimize valuation methods have been actively conducted by IGA Worldwide over the past five years. (Sostav.ru: 31) Quantitative research today is becoming increasingly popular and in demand due to the active use of a new, unique media channel, the Internet, for advertising purposes. In addition to studies that have already become traditional, evaluating the effectiveness of placement and the effectiveness of the creative of traditional banner and contextual advertising, innovative methods for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising communication in social networks are emerging. These are unlike anything else, unique approaches developed specifically for this area.

Let us consider some aspects of the analysis of methods for assessing the communicative effectiveness of advertising, which are used Russian research companies, such as: Comcon, Romir, Magram, Gfk Rus, Ipsos, Synovate. These companies are market leaders. Here are the results of a review of the methods offered by leading companies in Russia.

I. To date, a research company Comcon ( www.comcon-2.ru: 24) adheres to the classification of evaluation methods described by us into quantitative and qualitative ones. Several methods have been proposed within the first and second groups. Quantitative research is mainly represented by survey techniques, as well as specialized tools such as Eye Tracking. Qualitative - focus groups, extended creative groups and in-depth interviews. In parallel, Comcon's problem-solving field is expanding with a group of specialized proprietary techniques designed specifically for different types of media. It is obvious that two ways of systematizing the offered services are optimal based on the list of proposed methods. For different types of media, the company offers a set of methods that most effectively organize the collection and processing of the necessary information based on the tasks and specifics of the medium. Often, qualitative and quantitative methods are combined to achieve the best result. Comcon researchers evaluate the effectiveness of video, audio, outdoor, print and online advertising. A unique feature of evaluating advertising in the press is the ability to identify not only the attitude of the audience to advertising and its perception, but also to assess the compatibility of advertising with non-advertising materials of the publication. The second advantage of Comcon is the ability to "study the comparative effectiveness of advertising formats in the press, evaluate the media effectiveness of advertising and analyze the impact of various creative concept parameters on effectiveness" (www.comcon-2.ru: 30). Evaluation of the effectiveness of outdoor advertising at Comcon is multifaceted and carried out for a wide range of media. This service distinguishes the company from many others by the list of media for which evaluation methods have been developed.

II. research company Ipsos Russia ( http://www.ipsos.ru: 26) does not classify his methods. They are presented in a list, which first gives patented techniques that solve the problem of evaluation at different stages of the development of an advertising campaign. Next*Adlab and Next*Stratlab are combined pre-test methods that set Ipsos apart from the competition. They include methods of focus groups and surveys, solve the problem of finding and choosing the most successful creative strategy and promotional materials for any kind of "stimulus materials" (http://www.ipsos.ru: 18). The next group of patented Ipsos methods is designed specifically for different types of media - video, radio, print, outdoor advertising. The company also evaluates advertising whose target audience is children; for this, a separate methodology has been developed that combines qualitative and quantitative methods. In addition to patented methods, Ipsos uses the focus group method. The range of Ipsos Russia services is very wide and covers almost all areas and areas of advertising, with the exception of evaluating the communicative effectiveness of online advertising.

III. gfk Rus(www.gfk.ru: 25) offers a range of methods that combine quantitative and qualitative methods (this trend can be traced in all the companies we examined). In addition, Gfk is the author of a methodology optimized for a one-time assessment of both cost-effectiveness indicators and advertising communicative effectiveness indicators (Gfk ATS).

IV. Synovate ( www.synovate.com: 29) is the only one of the leading companies that does not offer specialized methods for evaluating the communicative effectiveness of advertising. The standard methods that Synovate researchers use are focus group, extended creative group, mini-group, in-depth interview (with one respondent, dyads, triads).

V. Approach Romir (www.romir.ru: 28) to evaluate the effectiveness of advertising differs in many respects from the approach of other companies: the rejection of specialized programs is explained by individual programs that most effectively solve specific customer problems by combining various methods. The methods are not systematized, the company does not distinguish between qualitative and quantitative methods. Romir uses focus group methods, in-depth interviews, surveys, hall tests.

VI. Company Magram(www.magram.ru: 27) divides the methods into qualitative and quantitative ones. Like Synovate and Romir, it does not offer proprietary or proprietary methods for evaluating the effectiveness of advertising. Among the methods used are focus groups, extended creative groups, several types of interviews, various types of surveys.

A visual comparison of the two "levels" of methods is presented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Based on the review, a number of trends can be identified that are inherent in the “level” of methods that are proposed by researchers:

• Focus groups, extended creative groups, in-depth interviews and surveys are the most common methods that are used by almost all large companies. This can be explained by two reasons. Firstly, this group of methods makes it possible to obtain a large amount of information in a short period of time, they are operational and informative. Secondly, these methods do not require special equipment, which means that they can be considered in many respects easy to implement and economical.
• The focus group method is used by absolutely all companies studied in this paper.
• Otherwise, the offer of research companies is represented by author's patented methods that expand the scope of the company's research. Most often, these methods allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of printed, BTL, audio, video advertising materials based on their specifics. However, this trend cannot be transferred to the entire industry: in general, only large companies can afford special developments and technically sophisticated resources.
• Since most companies offer a very limited range of services, the question arises about the demand for more sophisticated research based on semantic differential methods, building perception maps that allow you to extract information from the unconscious and affective levels of the psyche and simulate advertising effects. Perhaps these methods are included in the patented methods of companies, but we did not find any mention of them on the websites of research companies. If their supply is significantly less than the supply of simple and operational research, then it can be assumed that the demand for complex research is low. To what extent the demands of the industry correspond to the supply, what advertising professionals expect from the evaluation of the effectiveness of their products - these questions are brought up by the author in the third chapter.

The level of practical application is represented by a wide group of methods. The scope of the tasks to be solved is not as wide as it could be: we noticed that it is not proposed to study the affective components of the psyche, modeling the effect of advertising at the pre-test stage. The theoretical level, of course, is much more extensive, because initially we considered only the main methods, however, in addition to those that were analyzed in this paper, there are still a huge number of methods. It is obvious that the theoretical level is not fully utilized; there are large areas of methods that are absolutely not in demand in practice.

The next task to be solved with the help of this article is to study the next "level" of methods - those that are familiar and used by employees of advertising agencies. It is necessary to identify trends in the application of various methods for assessing communicative effectiveness and formulate provisions that characterize the area of ​​advertising assessment from the point of view of an advertising agency. In addition, the study of this direction can provide an opportunity to study the specifics of the demand for research, which we outlined in the second chapter.

In a 2011 study (Chernikov 2011: 10), experts from advertising agencies were interviewed. Based on this survey, types of evaluation of advertising communication were identified. So, we present the general list of methods known to advertising agencies in the form of a detailed list with an indicator of the level of knowledge of this method by the interviewed experts.

Table 2.

Universal methods such as surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews are known to a large number of respondents. Awareness and expectations from the assessment of communicative effectiveness in large and small advertising agencies differ significantly. This is due to the specifics of business organization and agency activities. In a large advertising agency, there is a division of activities into several areas. Managers and strategists in their activities directly face the issues of evaluating the effectiveness of advertising - mainly these are studies that precede the development of advertising materials, preliminary testing of finished materials and post-testing aimed at assessing the direct effect produced by advertising communication. Employees of small advertising agencies do not mention the methods by which one can evaluate the communicative effectiveness of advertising. It can be concluded that communicative effectiveness is most likely not evaluated at all in their practice. Representatives of small agencies are more likely to talk about cost-effectiveness. If we are talking about the communicative effectiveness of advertising, then employees of small agencies note the solution of private and more specific tasks, however, almost the entire team of employees is more or less aware of the specifics of the use of evaluation methods by the agency.

There is an ambiguous attitude towards qualitative research in Russian advertising agencies. Basically, it can be described as distrust. The opinion of practicing advertisers on this issue is supported by Russian authors of books. The first reason is improper research preparation. Samples, initially required for qualitative research, are not observed - instead of consumers of the goods, just random people or acquaintances are invited. The second reason for distrust is the often unprofessional moderators and interviewers, their low qualifications and inability to properly conduct research. There is an opinion that conducting focus groups in Russia is incorrect due to improper conduct and organization. The next reason is the complexity of processing the information received, since qualitative research methods involve a deep analysis and search for motivation and causation, namely, why the participants in the study speak in a specific way about advertising material. Data can be interpreted in different ways, and in this case, the quality and result of the assessment will largely depend on the researcher who analyzes the primary data. Regarding the use of various methods for assessing the communicative effectiveness of advertising, respondents emphasize that it is difficult to understand the reasons for a particular consumer reaction. This shortcoming was recognized by a significant proportion of experts who took part in the survey (about 25%), other respondents did not indicate the shortcomings and limitations inherent in quantitative assessment methods. Only 7% of experts cite the measurement and analysis error caused by the existence of factors external to communication as a limitation of any assessment method. More than 50% recognize the negative impact of internal factors in relation to advertising communication. For example, the factor of the existence of group bias when using the focus group method, the subjectivity of analysts and researchers who interpret research results.

What are the goals pursued by companies and specialists in evaluating the effectiveness of an advertising campaign? Firstly, it is a form of reporting to the client. This task is especially successfully solved by quantitative methods of evaluation. First of all, evaluation can be carried out to monitor the effectiveness of solving business problems.

Client briefs always indicate the objectives of the advertising campaign in quantitative terms, i.e. by how much brand awareness should increase, etc. Therefore, the main purpose of the evaluation is to control the indicators and compare them with the advertiser's established parameters. It is also a form of reporting to the client and monitoring the implementation of planned targets.

In Russian practice, it is generally accepted that the choice of specific assessment methods to be used in the study is carried out either jointly by the advertising agency and the advertiser, or this issue is decided by the research company when familiarized with the specific tasks that need to be solved. There is a very negative attitude towards qualitative assessment methods, especially focus groups, which was noted in the article.

However, the use of the focus group method by frequency in practice shows the highest result. Many advertising agencies use this method, with the exception of small agencies, including those specializing in BTL and digital areas, where evaluation tasks require different approaches and tools.

Table 3 presents a list of methods that we analyzed at a theoretical level, and relative to this list, an indicator of use by research companies and advertising agencies is revealed.

Table 3

The table shows which methods, although well developed in theory, remain unclaimed in practice. First of all, it is a method of using perception maps. It cannot be stated with certainty that the method of perception maps is not used due to its theoretical complexity or the impossibility of solving problems. This method has its own unique advantages.

In relation to the semantic differential method, a different situation was revealed: some experts are familiar with this method of evaluation and their agencies have experience in using the method. However, offers of such services by leading research companies have not been identified.
It can be concluded that the specifics of the research market, the range of methods and forms aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of advertising, is determined not only by the largest research companies. They are, rather, a reliable indicator of the quality of the development of the advertising industry as a whole at the present stage of its growth life cycle.

Let us pay special attention to which methods showed the highest level of knowledge and application - these are focus groups, in-depth interviews and surveys. It is very important to understand that these methods are interdisciplinary, and most importantly, universal. They are suitable for evaluating advertising materials at any stage of readiness and on any media. The trend is quite obvious, because the methods offered by research companies are basically universal, and in addition to them, companies offer specialized methods that solve more specific, particular problems - this was revealed by us earlier.

The conclusion that can be drawn is that the set of approaches to evaluating the effectiveness of advertising that are actually used in practice are basically universal methods.

• For advertising agencies, the evaluation of communicative effectiveness is, first of all, one of the stages of reporting to the client - the advertiser. (Davis: 6)
• The key features and specifics of various methods are clearly recognized by employees of advertising agencies. Since theoretical knowledge is backed up by experience and practice, advertising agency employees are aware of the advantages and disadvantages of various methods.
• Representatives of advertising agencies believe that there are no methods that provide absolutely reliable results.
• Employees of advertising agencies question the effectiveness of qualitative assessment methods, however, the use of some methods from this group is the most active compared to other assessment methods.
• For advertising agencies, the solution of private and specific problems is a priority, and not the reliability of the effectiveness of the measurements of advertising impact. A key feature of the use of advertising communication evaluation methods is the preference for universal operational methods over complex methods and specialized methods.
• Some employees of advertising agencies in their professional activities do not encounter the evaluation of advertising effectiveness at all, however, they also have basic theoretical knowledge about some evaluation methods.

According to the authoritative opinion of J'Son & Partners analysts, the volume of the video content market grew in 2010 to $20 million. And over the next 5 years, the market can grow another 9 times - up to 182 million dollars. These are the trends. While watching an online movie, ads can be shown at the beginning, end and middle of the video, just like on a TV screen. At the same time, advertising is less intrusive than on TV: its duration is shorter, it can be targeted based on the plot of the film and the geography of the user. At the same time, the CTR (the share of responses from the audience) in video advertising is 15% versus 5% in display advertising on the Internet. (J'Son & Partners: 19)

Figure #1. (MPG: 21)

The PR Technologies agency conducted a survey of directors and marketing specialists from 50 companies included in the list of 100 largest Russian online advertisers. The purpose of the survey was to identify current trends in the online advertising market. According to 62% of respondents, social networks remain the main trend of Runet - this is an obvious consequence of the popularity of this type of Internet services. Among specific advertising trends, complex integrated campaigns are the most interesting (46.5%). Targeting (43.4%) and communication of campaigns with sales were not far behind them, incl. through the CPA model (with payment for placements based on user actions). (www.prt.ru: 20)

The volume of this article does not allow to highlight in detail the features of approaches and methods in assessing the communicative effectiveness of advertising on the Internet. But they are well known to specialists and can be observed in Fig. No. 1.

Based on the analysis carried out, it can be concluded that the specifics of using methods for assessing the communicative effectiveness of advertising, especially with the use of advertising on the Internet, consists in an unlimited number of approaches used in practice and universal methods for its assessment.

): what survival and development strategies we use and why. In this article, we will talk about the second pillar of the Psychea model: information theory. And also about what is the task of branding and marketing in building high-precision and effective communication.

What is communication?

Scientific definition: communication is an effective synchronous or diachronic interaction, the purpose of which is the transfer of information from one subject to another. For example, you are talking to a friend, or reading a letter from a colleague.

At the household level: communication is discussing a project with a colleague, sending an email, your company website, packaging on a shelf, advertising on TV and much more. In any case, in communication there is always a structure "source -\u003e information -\u003e person".

The linear model of communication proposed by the American political sociologist Harold Lasswell:

1. Who reports?
2. What does it report?
3. On what channel?
4. To whom does it inform?
5. With what effect?

Someone -> something -> informs someone -> through some channel -> and for a specific purpose. If it is not clear to whom and with what effect the information should be sent, then the communicative act will not take place, since no changes will occur as a result of this communication. As folk wisdom says: it flew in one ear, flew out the other.

Therefore, there is such a thing as communicative effect- reducing the level of uncertainty due to the acquisition of new knowledge, arousing emotions (anger, joy, sadness, fear), motivation for action, changing attitudes and behavior.

Examples of Communication Effects

Example 1: Teacher lecture

• Who reports: teacher.
• What it says: Fermat's theorem.
• Through which channel: through the auditory (the lecturer speaks, the student listens).
• Reported to: student.
• With what effect:
  • The goal of communication is achieved (communication is effective): the student listens attentively to the lecture and applies the theorem to solve problems.
  • The goal of communication is not achieved (communication is ineffective): the student "beats the bullshit" at the lecture and does not apply the theorem.

Example 2: Product on the shelf

• Who reports: manufacturer.
• What says: buy my product.
• Through which channel: packaging on the store shelf (distribution channel).
• To whom it reports: to the buyer who makes the decision near the shelf.
• With what effect:
  • The goal of communication is achieved: the product is purchased.
  • The purpose of communication is not achieved: a neighboring product is bought.

You already see that there is such a thing as “communication efficiency”. Let's see how you can influence it.

What determines the effectiveness of communication?

The structure of communication according to the Shannon-Weaver model

One of the most popular models was proposed by engineers and mathematicians Shannon and Weaver in the middle of the 20th century. Each communication is treated as encoding and sending a signal, which is then decoded by the receiver.

In the example of a lecturer and a student, the source of the signal is the lecturer, where the transmitter is his vocal apparatus. He tells the material and creates sound waves (signal) that reach the recipient receiver through the air. The channel in this case is the air in the classroom between the lecturer and the student. The receiver is the student's ears.

In the product example, the signal source is the manufacturer, where the transmitter is the packaging (shape, weight, color, symbols, price, etc.). The channel is a shelf in the store. A signal is a complex image of a product at the moment of contact. The receiver is the buyer's eyes.

The structure of communication in this model is as follows:

• Communicator encodes a message: the lecturer formulates a thought in the mind, the logic of the statement, selects the right words, intonation, intensity.
• The transmitter sends a signal: the lecturer's voice apparatus makes appropriate sounds, sound waves are transmitted through the air
• Channel interference affects the signal: if the lecturer is far from the students and speaks quietly, then some of the information is lost. If one of the students is talking nearby, then part of the information from the lecturer is also lost, because the other signal is mixed with the main one.
• The receiver receives the transmitted signal: sound waves enter the student's hearing aid and turn into words and meanings.
• The receiver decodes the signal (recovers the message): in the mind of the student there are ideas and attitudes associated with the information received from the lecturer.

Stage 1. The concept of encoder and decoder in communication: how it happens

Telepathy has not yet been invented, so in order to convey a message, it is necessary to use information encoding systems.

Coding— the process of transforming the ideal meaning of the message that arose in the mind of the communicator (lecturer) into the form necessary for this message to reach the recipient (student) through a given channel.

Decoding in a broad sense - the process of restoring the original meaning of the message from the received signal. What the student will understand from the teacher's lecture is what he decodes.

In the Shannon-Weaver scheme, it is clear that the signal source is the encoder - the communicator encodes the meanings and broadcasts them to the addressee. The signal enters the recipient's receiver and the decoding process takes place. The destination is the decoder.

In the lecturer example, the encoder is the lecturer and the decoder is the student. The encoder sends a signal in speech form, which is interpreted by the decoder, i.e. the listener.

The example with the speech of the lecturer and students is quite understandable. But you can look at more hidden coding examples.

Imagery in Coca-Cola advertising

Coded signal: Coca-Cola lemonade is drunk during the New Year. Coca-Cola is a holiday. Holiday = Coca-Cola.

Key visual from Pepsi ad

Coded Signal: Pepsi-Cola Lemonade is drunk by young, energetic, athletic, and popular people. So Messi also drinks it. Be like Messi. Lemonade Pepsi = youth, energy, sport.

Encoded signal: The owner of the Mercedes is the Lion King. Buy a Mercedes, you will feel like a King. Mercedes = to be king.

Encoded signal: A giraffe is a small child (head-to-body ratio, eye sizes and proportions). We are just like your baby.

What do we see?

In fact, the encoder here is the author of this communication. A designer (director, cameraman, creative, etc.) who has packaged information and sent a signal in the form of a TV spot, poster, or packaging. The decoder is the audience that receives this signal in a particular channel (TV, a shelf in a store, street banners, etc.).

• using the image of "lion", they create a connection with the concept of "king"
• emphasizing the situation with Christmas, form a stable connection: Coca-Cola is a holiday
• demonstrating the energy and appeal of Messi, create a sense of status and energy in the Pepsi brand
• broadcasting the image of a small child, the brand forms an emotional connection with the buyer

With the help of symbols and images, a holistic emotional image-metaphor (a kind of gestalt) of the brand is formed in the mind of a person. At the same time, such formation occurs at an unconscious level, which is not controlled by the recipient.

However, not all communication is effective. Why do some messages reach their goals, while others go to waste?

Stage 2. The concept of "noise" in communication: why does communication have different effectiveness?

If you knew how rarely we are understood correctly, you would be silent more often.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Everything is ideal only in fairy tales and annual media strategies. In the real world, there are always losses. And in the Shannon-Weaver model, there are key stages at which a partial signal loss occurs. Losses are associated with noise.

Noise- any source of distortion of the scope and meaning of the message.

There are 2 types of noise:

1. Mechanical noise (channel noise, technical loss)- due to the imperfection of the channel through which the signal moves.
2. Semantic noise (semantic loss, source and destination noise)- due to semantic distortions during encoding and decoding.

Mechanical noise is interference in the channel itself, due to the fact that in the process of signal transmission it loses its strength and dissipates. If you show the video on TV only once, then people will quickly forget what was said. If you put only one outdoor shield in a big city, then the signal will be too weak to be noticed. If your product only hits the shelf in one out of a thousand stores, then you won’t have to expect big sales.

Semantic noise is a misunderstanding of the meaning of a message. That is, the encoder sends a signal that cannot be decoded by the decoder.

We all know the children's toy sorter.

The child learns to match the appropriate shapes of objects to fit the holes. If he selects the correct form, then it easily and without difficulty passes into the corresponding hole. If not, it will put effort into trying to push the wrong shape into the wrong cell.

The same thing happens in the mind of the consumer - if the brand's communication corresponds to the codes of the target audience, then it passes easily and without resistance, achieving the desired effect. And if not, decoding does not occur, the audience does not understand the meanings and ... sales fall. Money is spent on advertising, and the effect is negative.

Noise examples

Example 1. Mechanical noise of the channel through which the signal goes

Imagine that a lecturer is reading in such an audience:

If there is no microphone in the hall, then the students at the far end will not hear anything, as the sound will be absorbed by the air. The lecturer does not have the strength to shout to them.

Another example of channel noise is interference from another signal source. For example, a competitor's packaging on a shelf next to your product:

Each brand on the shelf sends its own signal, which is blocked by its neighbor.

Example 2: Encoder and Decoder Semantic Noise

Imagine that you were told the most important information about how to achieve success and find a treasure, but they did it in Swahili… If you know Swahili, it remains only to congratulate you! But in most cases, this information will remain a meaningless set of sounds. The fact is that you do not have a signal decoding system, that is, knowledge of this language.

Not knowing your code system, the sender encoded the information in such a way that it could not be deciphered in principle.

An example of a semantic encoding error

Or, for example, a brand conveys values ​​that are not acceptable in a particular socio-cultural environment. For example, like this: in an advertisement for tea, a father says to his daughter - "Valera was in my life."

On the territory of the Russian Federation, such a statement by an adult man, and even in the presence of his child, will raise many questions. The message that the authors encoded will be decoded erroneously in the vast majority of cases. I wonder how they are doing with sales.

Stage 3. So what affects the effectiveness of communication?

Brand communication will be effective if you achieve minimal semantic loss and can overcome channel noise. It is necessary to study consumer psychology and design communication that will be correctly interpreted, because it uses familiar meanings and images.

Speak the same language with your audience

To reduce semantic noise, you need to have a good understanding of your target audience. This means speaking in a language she understands.

Studying your consumer, find the answer to the question: what is his system of codes in which he operates? What are his sociocultural norms and attitudes?

That's what the research phase is for:

• By analyzing the market, you will understand trends at the social level: consumer trends, consumption patterns, technological shifts that will affect the market in the future.
• By studying the communication of successful competitors, you will find out what semantic fields they activate in the minds of target audiences, what they “encode” in their signals (products, packaging, advertising, etc.)
• Using in-depth interviews, point-of-sale observations, cognitive research, you will be able to understand exactly what meanings can be used in relation to your brand and category. By studying your customer, you will be able to accurately identify which symbols, forms, verbal and non-verbal metaphors you need to use in order for communication to occur without loss and achieve the desired business results.
• When designing a customer journey map (consumer path), you will know exactly where, how, at what moment and what the brand should broadcast to its customers in order to become that “only” top of mind in the category.
• By doing quantitative research, you can test hypotheses and insights from people and create communication as accurate as a sniper shot.

By diving deep into your target audience's decision-making, you can design the architecture of choice and manage what your competitors can't copy: the customer experience. By creating communication of this level, you open up the opportunity to build a brand that goes beyond the economic relationship with the consumer and finds the shortest path to a person's heart.

Carefully study the features of the channel in which you work

To effectively overcome channel noise, you need to know and be able to work with the following areas:

• consumer journey: where it meets your product, where it decides, how it uses the product, what happens along the way. This will give an understanding of the most effective channels of interaction.
• channel specifics: coverage, relevance, type of audience. You will know where to invest in order to get the maximum ROI
• perceptual possibilities in the channel: format, signal availability through visual, auditory, kinesthetic channels of perception. You will learn how contact should be built in order to achieve goals.

Understanding the specifics of the channel helps to reduce or minimize noise. Knowing how, for example, a “shelf works” helps to correctly build a system of shelftalkers and wobblers, choose well-defined fonts, colors and images, achieve the correct placement and share on the shelf, etc.

Understanding how your audience uses a web service or online store (devices, time of day, typical scenarios, etc.) allows you to accurately design UX interactions, interface types, colors, icons, etc. Knowing consumption patterns will help build an effective strategy for mailings and activations for repeat purchases or upsells.

The choice of channel will influence the quantity and volume of information: an outdoor advertisement on the highway must be understood in seconds (for passing drivers), and a product promotional leaflet can contain a lot of information (it can be read in a calm mode), etc.

By studying the specific channel in which the brand meets the consumer, you can maximize the return on every dollar invested in the creation and delivery of the product to your consumer.

The role of branding and marketing in communication

It is not enough to produce a product and deliver it to the consumer. After all, at the moment when he refuses it in favor of another, you will lose everything that you invested in its creation and delivery.

To avoid this, you need to understand what your signal should be so that the consumer understands and fully understands it. This is exactly what branding does.

The role of branding in modern communication— overcoming semantic noises. Branding is not “risovalding”, but the design of meanings. The semantics of your message is what branding is all about.

Delivery of the product to the consumer, sending advertising messages, distribution - all this is working with the channel, that is, overcoming mechanical noise.

The Role of Marketing is the delivery of your message/signal/product.

Finally

The time we spend on recognizing advertising messages is shrinking rapidly. Now a person is being bombarded with a stream of about 34 gigabytes per day. Within 20 years, the amount of information consumed will grow by 100%. This suggests that the requirements for the availability and capacity of communication messages are growing rapidly. That is, any noise can become critical for your communication. Therefore, only those brands that rely on a deep understanding of the consumer and scientific approaches to branding and marketing will be able to survive and take leadership positions in their categories and people's minds.

In the next article, we will talk about the third basis of the Psychea model - the ontology of common sense.

As already noted, communication between people, in contrast to the communication of animals, is clothed in various forms, subject to appropriate conventions and laws. On this basis, communication in each case occurs with varying degrees of success and efficiency. As observations show, in order to achieve high communication efficiency, interpersonal perception is very important, that is, a holistic reflection of the external appearance and behavior of another person, his understanding and evaluation. It can be adequate (that is, corresponding to reality) or distorted. Often, the reflection of the other is inadequate due to the individual characteristics of the partner and the lack of communication skills, as well as the ability to “read” the character and intentions of others using the elements of verbal and non-verbal signals. As a rule, the formation of an opinion about another person is influenced by the first impression of him.

However, ultimately, the success of communication is determined by a number of indicators, among which the pragmatic and socio-psychological aspects are the most important. In the first case, the effectiveness of communication is determined by the achievement of the goal and the success of overcoming the obstacles that have arisen in the course of achieving it. From a socio-psychological point of view, the most important is satisfaction from the very process of communication (when during communication there is no feeling of annoyance, long pauses, psychological contact and trusting relationships with a partner are established). This is accompanied by the absence of difficulties: tension, stiffness, internal barriers and tightness. In other words, this is a subjective feeling associated with a sense of completeness and stability of interpersonal relationships in the absence of fears, suspicions and feelings of loneliness.

The success of communication is also manifested in achieving and maintaining contact with a partner in order to stabilize interpersonal relationships, their agreement and mutual fitness. In this case, a successful outcome is understood not so much as a specific end result, but rather as a process to which both partners must contribute equally.

Thus, the success of communication is an integral characteristic of a person's communicative behavior. In this context, interpersonal communication is a process that is regulated by both certain sociocultural patterns and culturally established rules. And this process is determined simultaneously by external influences (stimuli) and the internal state of a person.

2.4.2. Personal factors of communication

The forms and results of the communication process are largely determined by the characteristics of the individuals involved in them. In turn, these characteristics are entirely determined by the norms and values ​​of the culture of which the person is a representative. After all, all personal characteristics are the result of inculturation and socialization. The way of thinking, self-awareness, ways of expressing emotions, habits depend on this. In accordance with the norms and values ​​of culture, a person acts, plays certain social roles and is able, to a greater or lesser extent, to communicate with other people.

Assessing the characteristics of a person and their influence on communication processes, first of all, it is necessary to single out formal personality characteristics: gender, age and marital status. But the specificity of communication is also associated with the professional affiliation of a person. Indeed, in any culture, the behavior of women differs from male behavior, the same applies to the behavior of adults and children. There are rules for communication in women's and men's groups, in children and adults. In different cultures, men communicate with women, children with adults in different ways. So, Asian women traditionally do not look into the eyes of men, especially strangers. And in Western European cultures, on the contrary, normal communication, both among men and among women, requires constant eye contact.

Children in almost all cultures communicate with each other quite freely, but when in contact with adults, they should show more respect. So, Russian children talk to each other on "you", but with adults (if they are not parents) - on "you".

Their own rules of communication exist within the family, professional groups. They also vary from culture to culture.

In addition to formal personality characteristics, individual psychological traits of a person’s character have a significant impact on communication: sociability, contact, communicative compatibility and adaptability.

Sociability- one of the most common and primary traits of a person's character. It is largely related to the type of temperament. Sociability expresses a person's need for other people and contacts with them, the desire for these contacts, their intensity and ease. It is characterized by the ability not to get lost at the moment of communication, to establish friendly relations, to take the initiative in contact.

Sociability as a character trait implies the presence of communication skills that ensure ease of communication and facilitate contact with your partner: the ability to listen, speak out to the place, keep up the conversation and change the topic of conversation in time. This is usually associated with the possession of gestures, facial expressions, intonation and other verbal and non-verbal means of communication. The opposite is closedness.

contact- a specific social quality, which is based on natural sociability. This is the ability to enter into psychological contact, to form in the course of interaction trusting relationships based on mutual consent. Contact is provided by the possession of communication and self-regulation skills, as well as the personal properties of a person that underlie these skills.

Contact is formed in the early stages of a child's life in the process of inculturation on the basis of the psychophysical structure given to him. It is expressed in the ability to control the situation of communication, to control one's state and body for this, to change, if necessary, the degree of one's openness and the means of influencing the partner.

Communication Compatibility represents the willingness and ability to cooperate, create a relaxed atmosphere of mutual satisfaction with communication, and ensure a good climate in the group. It arises on the basis of mutual understanding and consistency of a common position, characterized by the absence of such unpleasant consequences of communication as tension, annoyance, psychological discomfort.

adaptability in communication is a readiness to revise habitual ideas and decisions, the ability to respond flexibly to changing circumstances. Good adaptability means a high measure of personal freedom in contacts. This is expressed in the ability to maintain perseverance, confidence in oneself and in one's principles. Therefore, although adaptability is associated with conformism, this relationship is not direct.

The process of communication is also influenced by such characteristics as self-control, self-awareness, understanding in communication, communication style and locus of control.

self control- this is self-observation and self-analysis in a situation of communication, which are carried out in order to achieve social adequacy. A person who controls himself always cares about how his actions correspond to the social norm, and uses the behavior of his communication partner for self-correction.

It is believed that people with high self-control are highly trainable and socially adaptable in new situations, have good control over their emotions and are able to give people the impression they want to make.

The American scientist W. Gudikunst conducted an interesting study in 1981, in which he showed that Americans (representatives of an individualistic culture) demonstrate a greater degree of self-control than Japanese and Koreans (collectivist cultures). Perhaps this is due to the fact that representatives of individualistic cultures in any situation strive to preserve their personal identity and behave as they are used to. In collectivist cultures, it is important for a person to know the context of communication, to have an idea about the participants in communication, to know their status. Since such information is not always available, they may behave according to the norms of their culture, which are unusual for their partners.

Thus, in collectivist cultures, self-control depends on knowing the context of communication, and in individualistic ones, on knowing oneself.

Self-awareness of the individual- this is a stable property of an individual to direct attention to his own internal or external actions and deeds. Self-awareness has three aspects: personal self-awareness (attention to one’s thoughts and feelings), public self-awareness (knowledge of oneself as a social subject, about the perception of oneself by other people), social anxiety (discomfort in the presence of other people). Thus, it has been found that people with a high level of personal self-awareness are more emotional and better aware of their relationships with other people. In different cultures, different aspects of self-awareness receive priority in development.

So, Gudikunst in the same study showed that Japanese and Koreans demonstrate higher social anxiety than Americans. He explained this by a high level of uncertainty avoidance, the rejection of duality, which are more developed in Korea and Japan. For this reason, representatives of these cultures experience more discomfort and insecurity in intercultural communication than Americans.

Public self-awareness is associated with a focus on oneself, on one's influence on others, but without taking into account the social context. Therefore, it develops more in individualistic cultures.

Personal self-awareness is associated with introspective attention to yourself, to your thoughts, feelings and relationships. Therefore, it develops more in cultures that value diligence, achievement motivation, which is impossible without a clear understanding of oneself and one's capabilities. The Japanese demonstrate a high level of personal self-awareness.

understanding in communication, or communicative understanding, - a relatively constant, typical for each individual orientation towards a certain way of communication in various situations, the ability to understand the interlocutor. Communicative understanding is the higher, the more a person is prone to loneliness, is in social isolation, he has developed public self-awareness, he is prone to loss of self-control and dogmatism. In other words, people who are prone to self-isolation, closed and conservative, feel the interlocutor more accurately than socially successful, self-confident bright individuals. According to V. Gudikunst, it is the experience of failures in communication that develops increased sensitivity to the internal states of another person, contributes to a deeper and more accurate understanding of him.

Communication style is a way of transferring information in the process of communication. The interpretation of the content of the message, its understanding and presentation depends on this. There are usually ten main communication styles (ways of interacting with other people in the process of communication):

Dominant - the desire to reduce the role of the other in communication;

Dramatic - exaggerated emotional coloring of the message;

Controversial - aggressive or proving;

Soothing - reducing anxiety in communication;

Impressive - the desire to impress the interlocutor; I

Precise - the desire for accuracy and accuracy of the message;

Attentive - showing interest in the interlocutor and what he says;

Inspired - frequent use of non-verbal means of communication (facial expressions, gestures, body movements, etc.);

Friendly - the desire to encourage the interlocutor to further communication;

Open - the desire to express their opinions, feelings, emotions. The choice of communication style depends both on the norms and values ​​of the culture in which communication takes place, and on the personal experience of human communication. In a study by V. Gudikunst, it was noted that attentive, controversial, dominant and impressive styles of communication are more developed in the United States. Japan is more characterized by soothing, dramatic and open styles. These results of the study are quite understandable. If a culture is characterized by a high level of uncertainty avoidance (Japan), then it will develop openness and drama in communication. Representatives of individualistic cultures are more attentive in communication, like to argue and leave an impression about themselves.

Locus of control- a deeply personal characteristic of an individual, showing how much a person perceives himself responsible for everything that happens to him. If a person assumes this responsibility, believes that only he himself determines both the positive and negative consequences of his behavior, then we can talk about an internal (internal) locus of control. If a person perceives his life as happening at the will of fate, does not believe that the future depends only on him, then we are talking about an external (external) locus of control.

So, a person with a developed internal locus of control will look for the reasons for his failures in himself and consider that he did not have enough knowledge or skills to successfully implement any business. If a person has an external locus of control, then he will blame external circumstances, other people, but not himself for his failure.

Locus of control is a characteristic that depends on a person's cultural affiliation. Researchers suggest that collectivist cultures with a low level of uncertainty avoidance develop an internal locus of control, while other collectivist cultures are characterized by an external locus of control. Individualistic cultures tend to have an internal locus of control, but if they develop a desire to consider other people, this can contribute to the development of an external locus of control.

Lecture 1. CONCEPT AND TYPES OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS

1. Concept, goals and objectives of the course

2. Criteria for the effectiveness of information

3. Scheme of the communicative act

4. Barriers to information transfer

5. Basic types of communication

Concept, goals and objectives of the course

Communication is a natural human habitat. This is a complex process in which people interact, exchange information, influence each other, strive to understand each other. Speech is a communication tool.

Often the terms "communication" and "communication" are used as equivalent, synonymous. However, according to other researchers, Communication is a connection in the process of which, through different channels, information is transmitted. At the same time, the object receiving information can be not only a person, but also a machine, an animal. Communication is always a two-way process based on the interaction of equal partners - the subjects of communication.

The concept of communication is broader than communication, but we will take the first point of view and consider the terms "communication" and "communication" as synonyms, since communication in its pure form is practically never found in human communication, because the transfer of information, as a rule, in society is a two-way process, speech interaction.

Business communications is the communication of people in the field of official relations, which is aimed at achieving a specific task or solving a specific problem.

Owning the right technique of business communications is an integral part of a person's professional culture.

Business communication is the most massive type of communication between people in society. It is indispensable in the sphere of economic, legal, diplomatic, commercial, administrative relations.

The ability to successfully conduct business negotiations, competently and correctly draw up a business paper, and much more has now become an integral part of the professional culture of a person: a manager, a leader at all levels, a referent, an employee, a leader of a public organization. To achieve high performance in almost any type of management activity, you must possess a certain set of information, knowledge, ideas about the rules, forms and methods of communication, about the postulates of business communication.

Important feature of business communication- strict observance by its participants of the status role: boss - subordinate, partners, colleagues, etc. If business people have to constantly communicate with people at different levels of the career ladder, they talk about vertical and horizontal relations. Vertically- these are subordinate relations, they are determined by social status, administrative and legal norms and are characterized by the subordination of the younger to the senior in rank. Horizontal Relations involve participation in joint activities on the principles of cooperation, mutual understanding, taking into account common interests.

Criteria for the effectiveness of communication.

If, as a result of communication, we got what we wanted, that is, we achieved the realization of our own communicative intention (we received exactly the information we needed; we told and were correctly understood, etc.), then the communication was successful. Such communication is called effective.

If the speaker's intention is partially realized (for example, the addressee received information, but not complete), one can talk about communication slip if the communicative intention is not realized at all - o communication failure.