Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
This integration of rationality and emotion in the consumer is what makes adver-
tising both a science and an art.
Issues with the buying funnel and the consumer decision
process buying behavior
Both the buying funnel and the consumer decision process are flawed, although
they do provide workable insights into the area of consumer behavior in sponsored
search.
In the buying funnel, the seller comes across as being in charge. The advertiser
guides the consumers, like sheep, though a series of gates to the final purchase. We
do not hear from the consumer at all in this model.
In the consumer buying process, the consumer is in charge. The consumer has
taken total control of the purchase process, with the advertiser almost nonexistent.
In actuality, we know that neither of these scenarios is the actual case. The adver-
tiser and the potential consumer are in a communication process. Both the query and
the advertisement are the communication messages between the two in sponsored
search.
Communication Theory
Given that both the buying funnel and consumer decision making view different
actors as in charge, it is more helpful to view the advertiser-consumer exchange as
one where neither is in charge.
Instead, sponsored search is a communication process.
Figure 5.6
illustrates the
fundamentals of any communication process, including that between the advertiser
and the consumer in sponsored search.
A communication process conveys a message (i.e., a chunk of information) to
someone. There is a sender, a message, a channel of communication, and a receiver.
Challenges of communication processes include accurately conveying the message
to the receiver, who may or may not provide feedback. There are always constraints.
There is also the context, which also affects the communication between any sender
and receiver. Certainly, this sender-message-receiver-feedback progression describes
the sponsored-search process.
Viewing sponsored search as a communication process has several advantages.
Most notably, neither the consumer, as in the buying funnel, nor the advertiser, as in
the consumer buying process, is a passive participant. In a communication process,
both the consumer and the advertiser are active participants in that they are both
engaging in a commercial exchange and their individual and combined actions will
affect the outcome of the exchange.
To understand the constructs of the communication process deeper, we look at
Watzlawick's five axioms of communication [
43
]. The five axioms are:
•
Axiom 1: “One cannot not communicate.”
Every behavior is a kind of communication, and people are constantly communicating
with each other. Therefore, any perceivable behavior, including the absence of behavior,
can be interpreted by others as having meaning [
43
].
