[MUSIC] Welcome to the second module of marketing communications course. In this module we will mainly talk about the planning process for communications. And in this lecture specifically we will focus on how consumers process information. It's very important to understand this process because when we are communicating with our consumers there is always the risk of losing our messages on the way. To understand how consumers process information will help us refine our messages so that they will survive until the point that a consumer will actually use it. You will see that in the cluttered environment of today, it's critical to communicate with the consumers using all means consistently and ideally in a very simple and synergetic way. Today marketing communications become increasingly harder as more companies are trying to grab the consumers' attention. Consumers are exposed to an excessive amount of ad messages on a daily basis. There are some frightening numbers around the marketing publications stating the amount of promotional messages that are competing for consumers' attention every day. To cut through the clutter, you must try to find the right time and the right place to connect with target customers and build very simple, impacting and creative messages for your brand. Even when people do look at, or hear your advertising messages. It does not necessarily mean that they will actually notice or process the information. Selective processes theory provides an explanation on the process by which individuals receive, attend, comprehend and remember information. This theory is comprised of four steps, selective exposure, selective attention, selective comprehension and selective retention. The theory overall says that people choose the messages that align with their current beliefs. They interpret the information in their own way and tend to avoid messages that are not consistent with their beliefs. The first two steps in the selective processes theory are selective exposure and selective attention. These steps are almost synonymous and refer to the idea that individuals' interests, opinions and beliefs actually influence the message that they attend to. People purposely choose which messages to view and which messages to ignore completely. Now it's impossible to read, hear or see every message available in the media. That's why people selectively expose themselves and show attention to messages that they are interested in. After all, we can always have the television, we can turn off the sound during the commercials right? The next step is selective comprehension. It's about having individuals interpret the information that they have consciously and willingly given their attention to. People with a tendency to alter the meaning of messages so that they become consistent with their preexisting beliefs and attitudes. In other word people use their prior experiences, memories and expectations to attach meaning to a message. This suggests that one method may carry, ideally, totally different meanings for different people depending on their backgrounds, values, attitudes and beliefs. The final step is selective retention. This step is mainly about whether consumers will remember our brand at the point of purchase. People remember messages that support their beliefs rather than messages that contradict them. So throughout the various selective processes it's evident that people both consciously and unconsciously prefer messages that align with their preexisting beliefs. Additionally, they remember information for a longer period of time, again, when it is consistent with their already established attitudes. We see that some messages may be lost on the way to the consumers in each step. And in order to survive until the very last step, brands must actually pay close attention to the beliefs and attitudes of their audience. So that they can provide messages that are simple and straight forward enough to avoid different interpretations and that will also appeal to their target audience. For an ad to be successful, it must physically reach the consumer, the consumer must attend to it, It must be correctly understood and stored in the memory so that it will be remembered at the point of purchase. In the next lecture, we will talk about the steps of effective communications. [MUSIC]
