ABSTRACT
“Communication” is a single word but not a single idea. This simple truth explains, among other things, why the world has room for communication experts with marvelously different talents. Consider some uses of communication in business. Market researchers spend years learning how to locate the right audiences for a product or service, but may spend comparatively little time learning how to design the copy needed to make sales. Advertisers trained in writing and graphics know how to produce that copy, but may have no expertise in evaluating whether their copy actually works, a skill often left to evaluation consultants. The division of labor among communication experts is real but not absolute. Market researchers could not locate target audiences as easily if the researchers were entirely innocent of the messages needed to rouse consumers. The advertisers could not sculpt these messages into rhetorical masterpieces if they were not also sensitive to the message’s prospects for persuading. The evaluation consultants could not improve these prospects without insight into both how demographics are broken down and how messages will play to different audiences in the breakdown.
