ABSTRACT
Consider the following facts about visual communication. First, an analysis of print media trends shows that a larger and larger percentage of print advertising is purely image-oriented (McQuarrie chapter; Pollay, 1985; Stephens, 1998). Second, the video component of a television commercial communicates the advertiser’s message much more effectively than the audio component (Bryce & Olney, 1988). Third, there is overwhelming evidence that visual merchandising (e.g., shelf design, merchandise arrangement, building architecture) has a significant impact on retail sales (Turley and Milliman, 2007). All of these examples suggest images (e.g., pictorial information, video images, shopping environments, etc.), not words, best communicate meaning to an audience. If this is the case, one must wonder why research on visual communication in general, and images in specific, is such an infrequent occurrence, at least as compared to research on verbal communication.
