Page 91 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Project Name: Manual for Soft Skills
ACE Pro India Pvt. Ltd.
\\mtpdy01\Womat\Indesign\Bhatnagar-Manual for Soft skills\06-Pagination\06-A-Finals\06-AA-Appl\Bhatnagar_Chapter 04.indd

Evolution and Theories of Communication | 79

attention of the consumer through advertising but this is a different matter
and there is no evidence at all that anything can be sold by proper advertis-
ing. The second assumption is that a product’s success can be attributed to
advertising. Advertising is merely one of the many marketing tools, which
include special sales promotions, in-store display, competitions, discounts,
and other strategies. Any or all of these could be contributing to the success
of the product. The third assumption is that advertising increases the sales of
the particular product rather than strengthening a particular manufacturer’s
version of the product. Most advertising is directed towards enhancing the
sales of one particular brand rather than selling more of a particular type of
consumer goods.
The role of advertising is seldom a very powerful one. It is not a matter
of persuading or manipulating the ignorant consumers, since consumers of
heavily advertised products are most highly experienced. They have already
bought the product often and have used a wide range of different brands.
The magic bullet theory simply did not work for advertising the way it was
expected to. Subsequently, however, sociologists attempted to modify this
theory because they felt that the target was not always a passive one. Most
often they found that the audience resisted any response when hit by the
bullet and refused to play dead. The change was not apparent and it was as if
nothing had happened at all.
The explanation for this apparent failure of the magic bullet theory was
furnished by scholars in the form of the ‘category theory’ of communica-
tion. Especially for the advertisers and heads of media it was necessary to
find a simple way of classifying audiences so that their responses to a given
communication or a type of communication can be predicted more or less
correctly. Sustained research threw up some interesting findings. People who
held certain clusters of attitudes and beliefs would react differently from
others—like college educated people, the teens, the elderly, the men and the
women, people from the southern parts of the country, and the northerners,
the rich, the poor, the middle class and the elite, and so on. It could be easily
seen that these different kinds fall under distinct categories. The category
theory held that educational television would appeal much more to the edu-
cated class than the other categories just like the soap operas telecast during
the day appeal to the women and the music channel to the teenagers.

Media System Dependency Theory
It is not at all clear as to which of the competing theories best explains the
relationship between the mass media and the people who make up the soci-
eties in which they disseminate messages. No single explanation predicts
that relationship fully. Furthermore, some of the theories openly contradict
each other. One says that there will be immediate, universal, direct, and

Bhatnagar_Chapter 04.indd 79 2011-06-23 7:52:12 PM
Modified Date: Thu, Jun 23, 2011 06:32:16 PM Output Date: Thu, Jun 23, 2011 07:52:09 PM
TEMPLATE Page Number: PB