Communication Kraft Foods Study Effective

Communication

Kraft Foods Study

Effective communication is a vital precondition for any business to attain superiority in its administration. Organizational communication entails the transmission of messages amid its members and other stakeholders. It is only by way of broadcasting messages from one person to another that information and thoughts can be traded. In actuality, communication entails more than just conveying a message. It must also be comprehended. It includes transmission of a message, the comprehending of its substance and the understanding of the fundamental meaning and its intention (Guidelines on the Organizational Communication Process within and beyond Autonomous Hospitals, n.d.).

Communication serves, amid other things, four major things inside a group or organization: observing, feedback and control; inspiration; emotional expression and information trade. In order for communication to happen, a rationale, articulated as a message is first necessary. It passes amid the sender and the receiver. The message is encoded or converted to representative form and then it is transferred by way of some channel to the receiver, who retranslates or interprets the message commenced by the sender. The consequence is conversion of meaning or intent from one person to another. The criticism acts as a check on how effectual the communication procedure is (Anderson, 2011).

The Listening Process

Listening is a multifaceted procedure and an essential part of the entire communication procedure, although it is a part that is frequently overlooked. These disregard consequences mainly from two things. First, speaking and writing or the sending parts of the communication procedures are very noticeable, and are more easily reviewed than listening and reading or the receiving parts. And reading actions are looked at much more frequently than listening actions. Second, many people aren't willing to advance their listening skills. A great deal of these reluctance consequences from an incomplete comprehension of the procedure and comprehension of the procedure could help show how to advance. In order to understand the listening procedure, it must first be defined. There are numerous definitions of listening that have been projected. Perhaps the most helpful one defines listening as the procedure of receiving, attending, and understanding auditory messages; that is, messages broadcast by way of the medium of sound. Frequently the steps of reacting and remembering are also incorporated. The procedure moves through the steps of receiving, attending, and understanding, in that order. Reacting and recall may or may not follow (The Process of Listening, n.d.).

Assumptions and Research Tenets

This research will look at the listening process within the Kraft Foods Company. It is assumed that the message that Kraft is conveying in their advertising is indeed the one that they want to send. It is also assumed that the message is well written. What is going to be looked at is the notion of whether consumers are listening and thus hearing what is being told.

Literature Review

Advertisements are everywhere. Whether one is watching television, driving down the highway, reading a magazine, or listening to the radio, they are barraged on every side by messages trying to get them to buy a product or service. And even though there have been innumerable arguments over whether or not advertising is effectual and whether it really does sway people to buy products, the fact is a lot of businesses will spend a lot of money on a single advertisement in the hopes that it will augment their profits. Advertising generates awareness of the product and can communicate messages, outlooks, and emotions to attract and intrigue viewers. At least those are the preferred results of an advertisement (The Elements of a Good Advertisement, 2009).

Advertising must be an expansion of a high-quality marketing communication strategy. If it differs from the other mechanisms of the plan, then it is not meeting the objectives of the strategy and maybe generating inadvertent consequences or messages. Advertising needs to be pertinent to the customer's needs, wants, and values. Marketers frequently generate advertising that is stated in a manner that shares the marketer's needs, wants and values, instead of the customers. It is necessary to find what the customer needs and then to direct the advertising messages to those needs (The Elements of a Good Advertisement, 2009).

It is getting more difficult to get a customer's attention these days, thus, one should plan their advertisements in such a manner that it cuts through all the other things that are attempting to get the customers attention as well. Customers tend to ignore advertisements, so one needs to try and find a distinctive way of getting them to pay attention. There are numerous ways of doing this. One can use humor, sound, lack of sound among other things (The Elements of a Good Advertisement, 2009).

Advertising should be straightforward. Being straightforward is not only ethical; it is also the smart way of doing business. No one likes being misled, and if dishonesty takes place, the customer will have a pessimistic view of the organization. Ones business will make it a lot further with optimistic attitudes towards the company then with pessimistic ones. Occasionally advertisement designers get so caught up in planning a creative, advertisement that they fail to efficiently deliver a message that will make possible the achievement of their marketing communications approach. The final result of the advertising labors should be to sell the products, not to have advertisements that look astonishing and win all kinds of awards. The awards for creativity don't sell things (The Elements of a Good Advertisement, 2009).

As a leader in the food industry, Kraft Foods is both a big and very perceptible and the company has gone through frequent controversy and disapproval over its advertising campaigns. One of the most current issues has had to do with childhood obesity. The food industry has become evidently worried about food marketing and childhood obesity. In late 2003, Kraft fashioned the Worldwide Health & Wellness Advisory Council, made up of ten nutritionists and media professionals to explore claims that Kraft had been intentionally advertising unhealthy foods. The force for Kraft to evaluate its advertising policies came in the middle of rising disapproval from congressional panels, parent groups and other alarmed citizens that food corporations, such as Kraft Foods had been intentionally marking young kids in their advertising campaigns (Case 6-3 Kraft Foods, Inc.: The Cost of Advertising on Children's Waistlines, 2006).

Kraft needed to take a step back and evaluate whether the message that they were obviously sending what really the one that they wanted to be. The message being conveyed was that they were targeting their advertising of unhealthy foods at young children. If this is what they were trying to do then they needed to revisit their idea of ethical communication and if not they needed to figure out how to better convey their meaning to the consumer. If this isn't the message that they were trying to send, it was definitely the one that the public was hearing when they listened to the message. The message needed to be evaluated.

Communication is all about messaging. When a portion of communication is to the point, pertinent, valuable, and convincing, it moves the receiver to action. Moving people is not magical; it's all about effectual communication. Anyone can attain effectual communication by utilizing a simple tool that has a strange capability to pin down why any message works or doesn't work, and how to progress it. It's called the 4Cs Model, which stands for Comprehension, Connection, Credibility, and Contagiousness (Albanese, 2011).

The 4Cs model is a helpful tool for neutrally assessing the success of many types of communication. It answers the questions of what's working, what isn't working, and why. The first C. is comprehension. Does the viewer get the message, the chief idea, and the point? What does the message immediately communicate? Can the viewer play the message back? If they can this proves that they get it and the first C. is working. There are three rules that should be followed for better comprehension:

The message should be clear and sharp

Repetition should be carried out. The viewer should be told what one is going to tell them and then told again.

The message should be kept simple (Albanese, 2011).

The second C. is connection. Making a connection with a communicated thought or message means not only that the viewer gets it, but that it sticks with them, has connotation and implication for them, and typically elicits an illogical or emotional reaction like aggravation, enthusiasm, irritation fervor, delight, contentment and grief. When connection is there, it will ignite new behaviors and actions (Albanese, 2011).

The third C. is credibility. The viewer needs to trust who is saying it, what is being said, and how it is being said. If not, any association starts to break down right away. Credibility is the vital C, for the reason that the viewer may totally comprehend a communicator's message, and even associate with it on an emotional plane, then quickly turn around and say that coming from this particular foundation, whether it be the business, political contender or manager, they don't believe it (Albanese, 2011).

The fourth C. is contagiousness. In communications, contagiousness is good. One wants their viewers to catch the message, run with it, and spread it around. In order to be contagious, a message has to be lively, new, dissimilar, and unforgettable. It should also suggest a bright emotional reaction, have talk prospective, inspire the target to do something, and draw out a comprehensible response (Albanese, 2011).

When it comes to advertising in regards to children the advertising industry has acknowledged a need to be aware of:

The special sensitivities involved in communicating to kids

The diverse stages of development the child goes through in its social environment

The lack of understanding the child has and its limited ability to measure the trustworthiness of messages it receives from the media

The significance for concern when appealing to the creative capabilities of younger kids

The important roles of parents and their accountability in the education of their kids