This is “Consumers and the Communications Process: SS+K Gets to Know Its Consumers”, chapter 4 from the book Advertising Campaigns: Start to Finish (v. 1.0). For details on it (including licensing), click here.

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Chapter 4 Consumers and the Communications Process: SS+K Gets to Know Its Consumers

Figure 4.1 Twelve Months to Launch!

We are now twelve months from the launch of the msnbc.com campaign. The SS+K team needs to start thinking seriously about how it’s going to make consumers crave the msnbc.com brand of news. Before they can do that, however, they need to take a step back to understand how advertisers “talk” to customers—what works and what doesn’t, and what determines what works. This means we need to take a look at communications and break down a complicated process into simpler elements. Does it matter exactly what we say? Who says it? Where people get the message? How about others’ opinions—to what extent are our own preferences shaped (consciously or not) by what we believe others like or dislike? And, with the magical world of technology, how might the advertiser/consumer relationship evolve?