A practical look at how the communication model shapes marketing success


In one of my most recent posts, From Decision to Satisfactions: Why the Post-Purchase Phase Matters Most, I dove into why the post-purchase stage is key for establishing satisfaction and loyalty between you and your clients. In this post, I’ve decided to take a step back to the beginning of the journey: how communication shapes perception and influences consumer decisions before the purchase ever even happens.


The communication model provides us with a practical framework for understanding how marketing efforts either succeed or fail. As marketing experts, our role is to help businesses design clear, credible, and well targeted messages, choose the right channels to distribute the messages through, and use feedback that they receive to further refine their strategies in order for their communication efforts to truly drive measurable results.


Why the Receiver Matters

Every message passes through the “filter” of the receiver. Demographics, past personal experiences, and even a person’s current emotional state affects how information is processed. A message that resonates deeply with one person may fall completely flat with another. This is exactly why segmentation and tailoring are crucial! What works for one audience may not work for another.


Central vs. Peripheral Processing

The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) remind us that people process information in different ways depending on the importance that they give each decision.


  • Central Route (high involvement): Buying a car is a classic high involvement purchase. Customers usually spend weeks or even months comparing models, evaluating safety rating, reading reviews, and weighing costs. Before making a choice, people usually need strong arguments, credible data, and side-by-side comparisons that will help them find their “obvious” choice.
  • Peripheral Route (low involvement): On the other hand, picking out a snack at a gas station is low involvement. In that moment, packaging, visual appeal, or a quick association with a familiar brand is usually what triggers the purchase decision.


Being able to identify whether your audience is processing peripherally or centrally helps marketers determine whether the brand should prioritize building logical, data-driven arguments, or focus on keeping things visual and emotionally appealing.


Feedback

Feedback is what closes off the communication cycle. Without feedback, companies are left to guess how their messages are functioning and being interpreted by their audience. With it, they’re able to gain insight into what customers get confused by, what they understand, and what changes are necessary. Whether it’s one on one conversations, analytics, customer surveys, etc. feedback plays a huge role in making sure that strategies remain effective.