Question

Example of noise in marketing communication

Answer 1

Noise: Confusion caused by too many messages trying to be delivered at one time.

You could almost group that in with the slang definition of Noise: “empty talk; nonsense” because that is what the public do with your message if you can’t break through the noise.

I’ve always viewed noise as anything that gets in the way of someone receiving the message I’m trying to convey in my marketing campaigns. From this, you should certainly understand that “blending in” with all of your competitor’s messages and copying them may not be your ticket to success. And if you do, it had better be really good.  The risk you take is that your message is ignored.

For example, in the early 90’s, you could write an ad with the words “cutting edge” regarding a new procedure you were offering or a new strategy you were delivering  to your public.  “Cutting edge huh?” they would say. And you’d say, “Yep! Now sign on the dotted line, you won’t regret it.” Boom – deal. Then, a year or so later, all of your competitors were saying “come in for our cutting edge new service!”  Everyone is now getting a piece of your pie. But it gets worse… After a while, the public becomes numb to “cutting edge” altogether as unfortunately for you, some of your competitors were less than “cutting edge” and now the public KNOWS none of you are cutting edge and they’ve heard it all before.