George Angelopulo

Integrated Web-based marketing communication: An institutional tracking study

ABSTRACT Online media have had a great impact on communications and given birth to new paradigms of marketing and marketing communication. Most significant amongst these is the paradigm of integration. Web-based communication permits comprehensive integration and it has raised integration to the status of a business imperative. If integration is indeed so central to the success of the corporate endeavour it becomes increasingly important to evaluate its application and quality. This article explores the assessment of Web-based marketing communication integration. Integrated Web-based marketing communication (IWMC) is conceptualised and the theoretical assumptions of integration are related to Web-based communication. The methodology of the investigation, the analysis of the data and the results of the tracking study are presented and discussed.

The integrated web-based marketing communication model: a South African case study

This paper proposes an integrated web-based marketing communication (IWMC) evaluation model, applied to a South African institution. In the first section, internet development in South Africa is explored, integrated web-based marketing communication is conceptualised and the theoretical assumptions of integration are related to web-based communication. The second section presents the methodology of the investigation, the analysis of the data and the results of the case study. The IWMC evaluation model is finally assessed and its applicability as a tool for the assessment of web-based marketing communication integration briefly discussed.

Scalable competency in the communication profession

ABSTRACT This article describes a research project that investigated the factors that enable entry to and advance within a career in professional communication. The scope of ‘professional communication’ is delimited to the areas that are embraced by the broad and overlapping domains of marketing communication, public relations, internal and external communication. A grounded theory approach was used. Individual professional competencies were identified and clustered. The ability to accumulate or scale these was termed ‘scalable competency’ and identified as a central factor in professional advancement. Scalable competency is related to two sets of determinants that are described as ‘push’ and ‘pull’ factors. An additional competency, that of integration, was identified as a factor that applies to both sets of determinants. Constraints to advancement were also identified.

The economic specification of media ownership in South Africa

Abstract The concentration of ownership in the media industry has been extensively researched in South Africa. It has been considered, for example, in relation to marketing (Hunter 2006); the flow of information (Band 1992); democracy (Botma 2011; Tomaselli 2003); the demographics of media employment, management and ownership (Leshin 2010); government relations and control (Wasserman 2005) as well as freedom of expression (Bussiek 2006). The economic specification of media concentration has, however, received little attention. This study directly addresses the issue of economic specification, reviewing the application of the Noam Index, an economic measure of concentration, to a spectrum of media sectors over the historically significant 24-year period between 1984 and 2008. The period spans the decade before South Africas first democratic elections and slightly more than a decade thereafter. A number of media sectors are included in the study, and the four-yearly measured assessment of each sector begins in the year for which usable data for that sector are available. It describes conditions that have led to South Africas patterns of ownership, assesses trends in ownership and outlines directions for future research.

A theoretical framework for the online consumer response process The article is based on Janette Hanekom's Master's dissertation entitled A theoretical framework for the online consumer response process, Department of Communication Science, Unisa, April 2007.

Abstract This article describes the foundation and development of a theoretical framework for the online consumer response process. It is based on theoretical criteria for web-based commercial communication and the online consumer response process. Central to this article is the development of the concept of web-based commercial communication. This includes all advertising, marketing communication, public relations and promotional messages on the World Wide Web which are intended to move the consumer through certain response phases to the point of purchasing or proceeding to any other type of action; the identification of the marketing communication paradigm shift from offline to online; and the comparison between online and traditional mass media audience characteristics. A theoretical conceptualisation of the online consumer response process is undertaken and an analysis of consumer response models and the theory of the general consumer response process is performed. This article is a theoretical exploration of the phenomenon of ‘online consumer response’ and the proposed theoretical framework is intended to address the dearth of literature on the topic.

THE EXPERIENCES OF SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS STUDYING AT AN OPEN DISTANCE LEARNING INSTITUTION

The article describes the experiences of social work students enrolled at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and the implications for Unisa as an Open Distance Learning (ODL) institution. An online Q-methodology survey and qualitative question was administered to 10 000 students enrolled for social work modules at Unisa, of which, 1,346 completed the survey and the qualitative question. This article focuses on the results of the qualitative data which were analysed according to Cresswell’s methodology. The themes that emerged indicated the role Unisa, as an ODL institution and the Department of Social Work, play in the lives of the students. The study confirms the importance of interacting and communicating with the students. It was revealed that the course content not only provides knowledge and skills about social work, but facilitates life-changing experiences and the development of the person.

Criteria for a South African course in intercultural business communication : the case of Iscor in Japan

ABSTRACT This article describes an investigation into factors required for a development programme in intercultural business communication amongst the personnel of a South African company operating in the Japanese market. Drawing from items that were identified in the literature, and amongst individuals who operate in the Japanese market, a set of criteria was identified that could be included in a South African-Japanese intercultural business communication course. These criteria were used in a structured questionnaire, which was pre-tested in interviews and a focus group, and then administered to a group of company managers who had travelled to Japan on business. The results of the research are a set of items ranked in terms of salience within three categories. The first comprises degree of knowledge of important aspects of Japanese life, the second consists of factors that lead to culture shock, and the third includes aspects that are deemed to be important in a course on South African–Japanese intercultural business communication.