Woolworths Communication Theories and IMC Strategy
This paper examines communication theories and integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategies as applied to Woolworths Limited, one of Australia's largest retail companies. The paper provides an overview of Woolworths' market position and financial scale, then discusses foundational communication theories including Lasswell's communication model and Schramm's encoding/decoding model. It further explores IMC theory, the hierarchy of effects model, and McGuire's Information Processing Model, explaining how each framework informs how corporations like Woolworths craft and deliver messages to consumers, marketing personnel, and stakeholders across multiple channels.
- About Woolworths Limited: Overview of Woolworths' size, history, and revenues
- Corporate Communication Theories: Lasswell and Schramm models applied to corporate communication
- Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Theory: IMC concept, hierarchy of effects, and consumer response models
- Consumer Response Models and IMC Effectiveness: McGuire's eight-step information processing model explained
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What makes this paper effective
- It grounds abstract communication theories in a real-world corporate context, connecting each model directly to how a major retailer like Woolworths would apply it.
- The paper moves logically from company background to foundational theory to applied IMC frameworks, building context before introducing complexity.
- Comparative presentation of multiple consumer response models (AIDA, Hierarchy of Effects, Innovation Adoption, Information Processing) in a structured table aids comprehension and highlights relationships between frameworks.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied theoretical analysis — taking academic communication models (Lasswell, Schramm, McGuire) and explicitly mapping them onto a specific corporate communication context. This technique shows command of the theory while demonstrating its practical relevance, a core skill in business and marketing coursework.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a factual company profile to anchor the discussion, then introduces general communication theory before narrowing to IMC-specific frameworks. It closes with a comparative breakdown of consumer response models and McGuire's eight-step Information Processing Model, supported by a citations list in APA format. The structure mirrors a standard business analysis: context → theory → application.
About Woolworths Limited
Woolworths Limited is one of the most prominent companies in the Australian retail industry, and it has been operating since 1924. Woolworths is the largest food retailer in Australia and the second largest retailer in New Zealand (Commission: Red Shed takeover would create a 'pure duopoly,' 2007). The company was ranked as the 19th largest retailer in the world in 2008 (Woolies makes top 25 global retailer list, 2008). Woolworths recorded revenues of 54.28 billion Australian dollars, along with profits of 2.14 billion Australian dollars, in 2011. In Australia, the company is also considered the largest takeaway liquor retailer.
Corporate Communication Theories
Communication theories are important for fully understanding the process of effective communication. Communication plays a vital role in everything a business deals with, and without effective communication no organization can grow (Werner, 1988).
There are three main areas of corporate communication: public relations, marketing communications, and stakeholder communication.
Harold Lasswell was a political scientist and communications theorist who defined communication as "who says what to whom in what channel with what effect." According to this theory, corporate communication requires that a corporation understand what it is trying to communicate, who the target audience is, and through which channels the message will be delivered. In doing so, corporations must carefully consider the kind of message they communicate to the public, to marketing personnel, and to other stakeholders.
Schramm's Model: In 1954, Wilbur Schramm developed a communication model according to which decoding and encoding are critical activities to be carried out by both sender and receiver (Duncan and Moriarty, 1998). Applying this theory to corporate communication, messages should be effectively encoded by the sender and decoded by the audience. When crafting messages, corporations must consider the perspectives of the public, marketing personnel, and other stakeholders.
Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Theory
In today's challenging business environment, it has become necessary to integrate and interrelate all marketing and communication channels in order to break through the clutter and stand out. The concept behind integrated marketing communication is that the same core message should be communicated to the audience and potential customers through all channels and advertising mediums (Holm, 2006).
There are different theories that define the impact and influence of advertising on the consumer decision-making process. One such theory is the hierarchy of effects, according to which target customers move toward a final purchase decision in steps as they are exposed to marketing information (Barry, 1987). Customers move through five different stages:
In addition to the hierarchy of effects model, there are several other consumer response models, including:
The table below compares these models across cognitive, affective, and behavioral stages:
Cognitive stage: AIDA — Attention; Hierarchy of Effects — Awareness, Knowledge; Innovation Adoption — Awareness, Interest; Information Processing — Presentation, Attention.
Affective stage: AIDA — Interest, Desire; Hierarchy of Effects — Liking, Preference, Conviction; Innovation Adoption — Evaluation; Information Processing — Yielding, Retention.
Behavioral stage: AIDA — Action; Hierarchy of Effects — Purchase; Innovation Adoption — Trial, Adoption; Information Processing — Behavior.
References
Barry, T. (1987). The development of the hierarchy of effects: An historical perspective. Current Issues and Research in Advertising, 2, 251–295.
Commission: Red Shed takeover would create a 'pure duopoly.' (2007). New Zealand Herald.
Davis, H., and Silk, A. (1978). Behavioral and management sciences in marketing. NY: John Wiley & Co.
Duncan, T. and Moriarty, S. (1998). A communication-based marketing model for managing relationships. The Journal of Marketing, 62(2), 1–13.
Holm, O. (2006). Integrated marketing communication: From tactics to strategy. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 11(1), 23–33.
Werner, E. (1988). Toward a theory of communication and cooperation for multiagent planning. Theoretical Aspects of Reasoning About Knowledge: Proceedings of the Second Conference, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 129–143.
Woolies makes top 25 global retailer list. (2008). News Limited.
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