European Journal of Marketing: CIMC and Customer-Centric Approach

This report, extracted from the European Journal of Marketing, explores customer-integrated marketing communication (CIMC) as a customer-centric approach. It critiques existing marketing communication and integrated marketing communication (IMC) models, advocating for a shift towards a customer-driven perspective. The analysis introduces the concept of 'communication-in-use,' where the customer integrates and makes sense of messages from various sources to form value. The report develops a CIMC model, emphasizing the customer's individual ecosystem and the integration of messages. It highlights the need for a change in mindset for companies and marketers, providing guidelines for planning marketing communication. The paper also discusses customer-dominant logic (CDL) and value-in-use, emphasizing their contribution to a more customer-centric view of marketing communication, challenging traditional inside-out approaches.

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Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing communicati
Article in European Journal of Marketing · April 2017
DOI: 10.1108/EJM-08-2015-0553
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European Journal of Marketing
Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing communication
Åke Finne, Christian Grönroos,
Article information:
To cite this document:
Åke Finne, Christian Grönroos, (2017) "Communication-in-use: customer-integrated marketing
communication", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 51 Issue: 3, pp.445-463, doi: 10.1108/
EJM-08-2015-0553
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Communication-in-use:
customer-integrated
marketing communication
Åke Finne and Christian Grönroos
Centre for Relationship Marketing and Service Management (CERS),
Department of Marketing, Hanken Schoolof Economics, Helsinki, Finland
Abstract
Purpose –This conceptualpaperaims atdeveloping a customer-centric marketing communications
approach that takes the starting point in the customer ecosystem.
Design/methodology/approach –After a critical analysis of existing marketing communications and
integratedmarketingcommunication(IMC) approaches,a customer-drivenview of marketing
communications is developed using recent developments in relationship communication, customer-dominant
logic and the notion of customer value formation as value-in-use.
Findings –A customer-integratedmarketingcommunication(CIMC) approachcentredon a
communication-in-use concept is conceptually developed and introduced.The analysis results in a CIMC
model, where a customer in his or her individual ecosystem, based on integration of a set of messages from
different sources, makes sense of the many messages he or she is exposed to.
Research limitations/implications –The paper presents a customer-driven perspective on marketing
communication and IMC.The analysis is conceptualand should trigger future empiricalgrounding.It
indicates the need for a change in mindset in research.
Practical implications –CIMC requires a turnaround in the mindset that steers how companies and their
marketers communicate with customers.The CIMC modelprovides guidelines for planning marketing
communication.
Originality/value –The customer-driven communication-in-use concept and the CIMC model challenge
traditional inside-out approaches to planning and implementing marketing communication.
Keywords Customer-dominant logic, Value-in-use, CIMC, Communication-in-use,
Customer-integrated marketing communication, Relationship communication
Paper type Conceptual paper
1. Introduction
The introduction of integrated marketing communication (IMC) with its concept of helping
senders to speak with one voice was a step forward in the developmentof marketing
communication.However,whatremained unclear was whether the receiver,such as a
currentor potentialcustomer,recognized whatwas communicated as one voice,or
recognized it as different voices, or recognized it at all. For this reason, in an earlier article
(Finne and Grönroos,2009),we suggested a relationship communication model,where the
focus on how the voice of a sender is perceived is shifted from the sender to the receiver. In th
present article, we take this a step further by introducing the communication-in-use concept,
which is based on thevaluethat emergesfor a customerof messagessentby a
communicator. We define communication-in-use as:
The authors would like to thank their colleague,Professor Tore Strandvik at the Hanken School of
Economics, Finland, for his most useful comments and suggestions.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0566.htm
Marketing
communication
445
Received 18 August 201
Revised 2 December 201
Accepted 31 December 20
European Journal of Marketing
Vol. 51 No. 3, 2017
pp. 445-463
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0309-0566
DOI 10.1108/EJM-08-2015-0553
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[…] the customer’s integration and sense making of all messages from any source, comp
or stemming from other sources, the customer perceives as communication, forming valu
him/her for a specific purpose.
Based on this,IMC is developed into outside-in-oriented customer-integrated marketi
communication (CIMC).
Indeed,there has been a callfor a more customer-oriented view of IMC (Schultz and
Barnes,1999;Schultz,2003,2006;Kitchen etal.,2004a,2004b;Shimp,2007;Finne and
Grönroos, 2009). Schultz (1996) was among the first to argue in favour of this. Subs
attempts to implementsuch a view included Finne and Grönroos’(2009)relationship
communication model. This model addresses the changing view of customer activit
contemporary world, which is considered one reason for this call for a change in em
(Finne and Strandvik,2012).Lately,changes in the range of channels,use of media and
technicaldevelopmenthave been rapid,with customers using severaldevices online
regularly. The customer has access to multiple forms of media and can interact wit
of these simultaneously, choosing or rejecting sources, receiving and sending mess
being simultaneously active in some media and passive in others. In addition, the c
is influenced by severalforms ofsocialmedia and,as demonstrated by relationship
communication, by a host of other sources (Duncan and Moriarty, 1997) and factor
situational ones that are internal and external to the customer (Mick and Buhl,1992) and
temporalonesthat relateto past, ongoing and/orenvisioned futurerelationships
(Edvardsson and Strandvik,2000).This change in customer practices has become more
pronounced in recent years. Parallel to this change in customers’ communication a
behaviour, companies have access to a growing amount of data (big data) through
devices and online gadgets or collected through other means,which can be used for more
customer-focused planning of marketing communication. In combination with anoth
in marketing, neuromarketing (Braeutigam, 2005; Lee et al., 2007; Hammou et al.,
change may challenge future marketing research and practice.However,in spite of these
developments ofcustomer activity,the media structure and marketers’access to more
customer-specific data,the development of theoretical concepts and models of marketi
communication have not kept pace.
On the other hand,new thoughts regarding the customer’s role in marketing and
marketing communication today can be found in the literature on customer-domina
(CDL) (Heinonen et al., 2010; Heinonen and Strandvik, 2015; Rindell et al., 2010). B
logic is based on a customer focus grounded in the customer’s own ecosystem,customer
value is a central concept in CDL.Following Grönroos (2008,p.303),we define customer
value in the following manner:
Value for customers means that after they have been assisted by a self-service process (
meal or withdrawing cash from an ATM [and also being exposed to an ad; authors’ comm
full-service process (eating out at a restaurant or withdrawing cash over the counter in a
also being involved in sales negotiations; authors’ comment]), they are or feel better off t
Lately,customervaluehas extensively been emphasized by severalresearchersas
value-in-use. This value concept (Edvardsson et al., 2011; Grönroos, 2006, 2011; V
Lusch,2008)differs from the traditionaltransactionalvalue-in-exchange concept,as it
focuses not on money paid for a product or service but also on perceived customer
emerging from the use of a product or a service. In this discussion, customer activit
addressed,but this stream of literature does not discuss marketing communication in
greater depth. Thus, in this paper, we argue that the focus on the customer ecosys
and the notion of value-in-use will contribute to a more customer-centric and outsid
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of marketing communication.A similar attempt to combine value-in-use with an existing
marketing concept can be found in branding literature, where Rindell (Rindell, 2013; Rindell
and Iglesias,2014) discusses image-in-use as a branding concept with a strong customer
focus. For the development of a customer-centric approach to marketing communication, we
consider these insights useful.
One problem has been that definitions of marketing communications are rather limited in
scope – e.g. defining who is doing what and through which channels, and listing instruments
of communication. The focus has been merely on getting messages out and, when doing so,
making effective decisions.Such definitions lead to a focus on marketing communications
management from a company perspective rather than focusing on the customer’s value
process triggered by communication,whoeverthe sendermightbe.For example,De
Pelsmacker et al. (2013, pp. 3-4) define marketing communications in the following manner:
All the instruments [e.g. advertising SP, sponsorship PR, direct marketing, e-communications] by
means of which the company communicates with its target groups and stakeholders to provide its
products or the company as a whole.
This definition represents a traditionalinside-outcompany-oriented view (i.e.whatthe
company does to influence a customer). Even though researchers or practicing organizations
sometimes may take the outside-in view into account as well,at the end of the day,it
probably remains a marginal attempt.
It is understandable thatIMC at the time was developed in this way.IMC was a
developmentof earliermarketingcommunicationsapproachesfrom a managerial
perspective based on the fact that customers were increasingly exposed to multichannel
messages. However, the managerial approach and the problem at the time to gather specific
data about customers disguised the outside-in idea of IMC.Changing realities have now
turned these definitions into relics from times when customer-specific data were difficult to
gather and customer-focused communications solutions were equally difficult to implement.
Our approach is also managerial and intended for management use, and not primarily a
consumer behaviour view. However, we aim to develop it such that the outside-in aspect is
not distorted. It differs from earlier IMC in that we believe that only the customer can define
the instruments that influence him or her in the communication process – i.e. define the real
instruments in use in his or her case. Thus, we consider marketing communications from the
customer’s perspective in terms of the following aspects:
Marketing communication is a process where a customer perceives an offering,product,service,
company or person. It can be deliberated or embedded in context, visible or merely in the head of the
customer.It can include experience,processes,activities triggering value-in-use for the customer,
and can consist of several simultaneous senders. On the other hand, a sender has not to be involved
at all, and parts of the perception may be sourced in the past, present or future, and the process is
constructed on the customer’s logic.
Therefore, we propose a perspective that deepens the understanding of the customer process
and the customer’slogic, which is intendedto supporta company’smarketing
communication management (Finne and Strandvik, 2012).
The purpose of the article is to develop a customer-centric marketing communications
approach, based on customers’ real use of communication messages in their own ecosystem
for various information-gathering and decision-making reasons (communication-in-use). To
this end, it imports insights into marketing communication from CDL, particularly from its
view of the customer ecosystem, and the contemporary notion of value-in-use, to develop a
customer-driven view of communication. Rather than undertake an in-depth elaboration of
marketing communication orIMC literature,this paperfocuses on the customerand
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value-in-use.The article will introduce a conceptual construct (communication-in-use)
the CIMC model inspired by integrated communication from a CDL perspective.
The remainder of this article is structured in the following manner. A short overv
marketing communication is followed by insights from the above-mentioned discus
value and value-in-useand CDL, concludingwith a conceptualdiscussionof
communication-in-use and the development of the CIMC model.
2. Structuring previous marketing communication research
The use of sources in the communication process can be mapped by use of a two-d
figure (Figure 1).The traditional perspective on communication normally focuses on o
message at a time,with a clearly defined sender (company)sending the message and a
receiver (customer) receiving it (for such a communication model,see Schramm,1971);in
these terms,the message does something for the customer.Most textbooks on marketing
communications (Duncan,2005;Pickton and Broderick,2005;Shimp,2007;Fill, 2013;De
Pelsmacker et al.,2013) still build on that concept,dealing with marketing mix and media
strategiesin which rolesand instrumentsare clearly defined.In this view of the
communication process,the company is the subject (active sender) and the customer is
object (passive receiver) (Finne and Grönroos, 2009). Noise, miscommunication (Mortens
1997) or distortion (Russo et al.,1996,1998) can occur and interfere in the process,but the
communication process is still company-driven, from sender to receiver. Figure 1 (l
describes this as a company-driven process built on a single source.The process is linear,
beginning with one message at a time that is to be transported to a potential custo
typicalexample ofthis situation would be the planning and execution ofa marketing
communication campaign.
Moving from single-source communication to communication using severalsources
(Figure 1;upper left) leads to what can be labelled traditional IMC,which has its roots in
internalplanning methodology.In IMC,the centralidea is that communication does not
occur in a vacuum but in a broader context, including both traditional media and ot
of communication, as well as product and service encounters, some of which may b
difficult to control from a company perspective (Duncan and Moriarty, 1997; Lindberg-Repo
and Grönroos, 1999).
Single source
Several sources
Company-driven
process
Customer-driven
process
Company-driven
process
Customer-driven
process
Several sources
Single source
Integrated
Markeng
Communicaon:
consistency/
1 + 1 = 3 (effect)
Tradional
markeng
communicaon:
Sender-receiver
models
Meaning-based models:
Customer-defined
sources
(e.g. relaonship
communicaon model)
C2C
communicaon:
Word-of-mouth,
online acviesFigure 1.
Categorizing
marketing
communication based
on sources and process
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In the traditional IMC approach, the goal is synergy (1 ⫹ 1 ⫽ 3), as the company attempts to
integrate alloutgoing messages into one voice.However,this stillrepresents a rather
instrument-driven view where the company creates the instruments.Typically,the IMC
literature is outcome-focused,emphasizing attentiveness,consistency and effectiveness.
Most of this stream of literature still relates to a company (sender) inside-out perspective, in
which the company drives integration and a consistent message is conveyed to the consumer
(Schultz, 1996). This can be characterized as company-integrated marketing communication.
Based on Pitt et al. (2006), the sources of messages included here were labelled closed source
by Rindell and Strandvik (2010).Despite the call for customer-oriented views,there have
been few studies on sources that are not necessarily determined by the sender,or open
sources.Pitt etal. (2006)argue that the closed-source view represents the conventional
organizationalstandpoint,where the power and controlof the corporate brand in allits
aspects are in the hands of the organization. Open-source brands represent the counterpoint,
where the consumer’s role as an active creator of the constructed corporate brand image from
multiple sources is recognized. Accordingly, the organization loses control and the consumer
becomes empowered (Pitt et al., 2006; Rindell and Strandvik, 2010).
The lower-right quadrant in Figure 1 refers to C2C communication. Customers receive a
lot of input in their daily lives from sourcesotherthan conventionalmarketing
communications (Rindell and Strandvik, 2010), and the importance of word-of-mouth is well
represented in the marketing literature (Arndt,1967;Richins,1983;Trusov et al.,2009).In
this context, many companies monitor social media on a daily basis, and some offer an arena
for their customers to meet online and share and discuss ideas.It is also possible that the
company does not participate in this communication process,as it may be outside the
company’s line of visibility (Heinonen et al., 2013), beyond planned messages. For example,
a customer who needs a camera might ask around or just happen to hear about an interesting
offer and go to a store to buy it.Here,online activities on Facebook,Twitter,YouTube or
similar media offer a good platform for communication. It may also be that the perception of
a particular camera brand is built on earlier experience (Finne and Grönroos, 2009; Rindell
and Iglesias,2014),perhaps from a borrowed item that felt good in use.In such cases,the
communication process does not include a company source.
Over the years, the scope of IMC has broadened to take account of what is to be integrated
and who is doing the integration (Kitchen et al.,2008;Kitchen and Schultz,2009).The
traditionalschoolof communication has long been criticized for its passive view of the
customer (Buttle,1995;Schultz,2006).Although researchers now pay greater attention to
customer integration, the set of what to integrate is still very company-oriented, building on
traditionallists of communication instruments (De Pelsmackeret al.,2013).Today,a
company is required to listen to customers, find touchpoints where they actually meet their
customers and understand them, thereby recognizing customer contexts and transforming
messages to address customer meaning and value.Today,a customer can sit passively
watching TV on a commercial channel while at the same time actively searching Google or
Wikipedia and sending messages via Facebook and chat rooms. Meaning-based models of
communication (McCracken, 1986, 1987; Mick and Buhl, 1992) are one way to place an active
customer at the centre of the process. On this basis, Finne and Grönroos (2009) developed the
relationship communication model (Figure 2).
This modelintegrates factors from the customer’s ecosystem into a customer-driven
communication process and includes both temporaland situationaldimensions (Finne and
Grönroos,2009).The temporal dimension encompasses a continuum from past to envisioned
future experiences; the situational dimension includes a wide range of elements, from individu
motivations and abilities (internal factors) to trends and family and competitor activities (exte
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factors).Meaning-based models are described as a customer-driven process based on
sources (Figure 1, upper right). Based on Pitt et al. (2006), Rindell and Strandvik (2
these as open sources as opposed to company-driven closed sources (i.e.list of traditional
instruments). However, it can be challenging for a company to clarify what constitu
and sources – i.e.to identify touchpoints (called messagesin the traditionalschoolof
communication) – as some of these may be hidden (Finne and Strandvik, 2012; Heinonen et al.,
2013).An example of a hidden message can be a brand used in criminal contexts by
members,thus influencing other customers’image ofthe brand (Anker etal.,2015).In a
customer-driven process, the customer subjectively and independently decides wh
defined as a message,what a message contains and which sources are in use.In such a
process, some, sometimes most or all of the touchpoints may be, and most probab
of the company’s reach (Finne and Strandvik,2012).This customer-driven process can be
described as CIMC.
3. Value of communication
In the context of the emerging service perspective on marketing (Grönroos, 2006, 2
and Lusch,2008),the notion ofvalue-in-use has been discussed extensively in service
marketing literature. According to this perspective, products, services and informat
considered distributorsof service(Edvardsson etal. 2011)that rendervalue-in-use
(Gummesson, 1995; Vargo and Lusch, 2008). Following this logic, from the custome
of view, it appearsnaturalto treat marketing communication likea service.In
communication terms,all messagesources– either from traditionalcommunication
instruments or beyond the range of these instruments,such as product messages,service
messages and unplanned messages (Duncan and Moriarty,1997;Lindberg-Repo and
Grönroos,1999;Finne and Strandvik,2012) – serve customers’needs for knowledge and
understanding relating to a product, service or any phenomenon that renders value
theirneeds (e.g.in making purchasing decisions orconsumption situations).Further,
marketing communication, as products and services, is or should be of value to cus
and facilitate their value formation. A message which is not considered useful by a
is of no or limited value. On the other hand, a message that a customer can act upo
Historical
factors
Meaning
creation
Future
factors
External
factors
Internal
factors
Time frame
Situational context
Source: Finne and Grönroos (2009)
Figure 2.
The relationship
communication model
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a solution, make a purchasing decision) has value (-in-use) for that customer. By switching
the focus from sources and messages to value and value-in-use in consumer processes, the
mental model and mindset of communication is expanded. Value-in-use is about customers’
experience of value, not the marketer’s intended value of a message. Therefore, it is beyond
what can be created by the marketer (Heinonen et al., 2013). As compared to the traditional,
company-orientedview, this representsa broaderand rather differentview of
communication instruments and resources. A communication message carries only potential
value, which in the best case transforms to realized value (as value-in-use) in the mind of a
customer.
Consequently, value is neither exchanged nor delivered but emerges as value-in-use in a va
creation or formation process (Grönroos,2006,Gummesson,1995)that extends beyond the
company’s line of visibility (Finne and Strandvik, 2012; Heinonen et al., 2013). This process ne
notbe deliberate or active butcan emerge as embedded in customers’mentalprocesses.
According to Zaltman (2000, 2003), the greater part of the communication process occurs in t
customer’s head. It follows that the starting point for understanding that process should be th
customer’s reality, network and ecosystem (Heinonen et al., 2010, 2013). In addition to marke
other actors and activities are included in the customer’s value-creation process (Heinonen et
2010; Rindell and Strandvik, 2010), where value is formed “in the experiential context of living
often outside the direct interaction or control zone of the provider” (Heinonen et al., 2013, p. 1
According to Rindell,value-in-use is the customer’s present construction of value,based on a
temporal dimension (Rindell, 2013; Rindell and Iglesias, 2014); this is termed the customer’s i
heritage, including all contexts and sources relevant to the customer. The scope of value-in-us
extended to a longitudinal experience perspective of the customer’s dynamic and multifacete
reality (Heinonen et al., 2013, p. 110). Grönroos and Gummerus (2014) emphasize that value-
evolves over time. Heinonen et al. (2013, p. 112) give the following example:
The customer experience and the interpretations made before, during and after it are coloured by
affective, social, economical, cognitive, physical, psychological and biological dimensions, forming
the “potential value landscape”. For example, on vacation with family, customers live their life and
vacation also though the eyes of their children and other family members interpreting their value
experiences. The reality of family members is part of their own reality and the value formation is
embedded in the multi-subjective experience comprising the multiple internal and external contexts
of the customer and her family members.The individual is not at focus but the whole customer
ecosystem is relevant, referring to a network of actors, activities and practices that shape and are
shaped by experiences.
Connecting value and communication is not new, but it remains rather rare. Ducoffe (1995)
has argued that certain factors might generate value in advertising,and Heinonen and
Strandvik (2005) have drawn similar conclusions regarding communication as an element in
service value.What is new here is the elaboration of a process view beyond one that is
focused merely on outcome to include both the outcome and the process view, in the manner
explained by Heinonen et al.(2013)above (Rindell,2013).Instead of defining roles and
communication instruments from a company perspective,the view putforward here
emphasizes that the customer defines the instruments of communication used. The essential
aspect here is not just to include more things to integrate to arrive at a more complete list, bu
to presenta new way ofunderstanding marketing communication thatis based on
customer-driven activity.
The company has never had the power to limit the world of the customer (Schultz, 2006);
the only limitations that were created were those imposed by narrow theoretical models.
Communication instrumentsand processesmust be usefulto customersto create
value-in-use. At best, they facilitate the customer through valuable and useful processes and
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outcomes (Table I). This is a long way from traditional approaches that involve obse
rates,or from discussionsof messagesthat fulfil requirementsfor entertainment,
information or helpfulness in content marketing. What is essential is that the custom
only integrate messages but also form value (value-in-use) based on multiple comm
sources (Heinonen et al., 2013). For this reason, customer logic becomes a necessary
the development of a customer-centric communication model.In CDL,customer logic is
defined as“[…] customers’idiosyncraticreasoning and theirsense-making about
appropriate ways for achieving their goals and conducting their tasks” (Heinonen and
Strandvik,2015,p.478).This logic steers customers’behaviour and is both cognitive and
affective as well as – to a certain extent – explicit. Therefore, it influences how they
among what they are offered,such as the many communication messages that they are
exposed to (Heinonen and Strandvik, 2015).
4. Customer-dominant logic
As we have pointed out in previous sections, the concept of CDL offers a new persp
marketing communication. CDL differs from other perspectives like service-domina
(Vargo and Lusch, 2008) in that it explicitly takes the customer and his or her ecosy
the starting point.CDL is a marketing and business perspective with a management
approach that is dominated by customer-related aspects rather than products,services,
systems,costs or growth (Heinonen and Strandvik,2015).Rather than focusing on what
companies are doing to create something that will be favoured by customers, CDL
that the focus should be on what customers are doing with that something to accom
their own goals, and what management conclusions can be drawn from this (Heinonen et al.,
2010).This perspective particularly addresses the customer activity referred to atthe
beginning of this article.
The issue of who is the subject (trad. sender) and who is the object (trad. receive
found in discussions of value-in-use as well.Grönroos and Ravald (2011) adopted the view
that value-in-use is not only assessed by customers but is also created by them. Ac
Grönroos(Grönroos,2011;Grönroosand Ravald,2011;Grönroosand Voima,2013),
advocating for a service logic (SL) as a management-oriented alternative to SDL (G
and Gummerus, 2014), the roles of firms and customers in value creation and co-cr
to be defined. According to SL, customers are value creators and firms are value fa
thatprovide customers with resources thatenable value creation:“Fundamentally,the
customer always is a value creator” (Grönroos,2011,p.293).If marketing communication
provides messages that do not enable a customer’s value creation well, his or her a
use them for decision-making is notfacilitated welleither.In such a case,although a
customer may have been exposed to communication, no, or low, value-in-use is cre
the messages. If direct interactions between the two parties occur, such as in dyad
a platform for co-creation is established (Grönroos and Gummerus,2014).In this manner,
Table I.
Examples of messages
based on value-in-use
Product-based Service-based
A well-designed product (e.g. an Apple laptop)
that is easy to use, reliable and good-looking,
gives a lot of value-in-use
A critical negative service incident (e.g. at a
restaurant), where the staff does not react or
does it very slowly
Can be categorized as embedded messages in
the usage process of a company that cares
about its customers’ everyday life
Can be categorized as an embedded message
regarding a restaurant that does not care
about customers (Calonius, 1989)
A strong positive message A strong negative message
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according to Grönroos (2006, 2011), customers are ascribed an active role in the process as
drivers of value creation, and the company can attempt to engage with their value creation as
co-creators.According to Heinonen etal. (2013),value-in-use is actually notcreated,it
emerges forthe customeror is formed forhim or her.This represents a base fora
customer-oriented view, instead of a company-dominant approach providing customers with
messages through clearly defined channels.This helps professionals and researchers to
focus on what customers are doing in the communication process as a starting point for
marketing communication decisions, instead of a dominating focus revolving around what a
company can do.
Finne and Strandvik (2012) expanded the discussion on who is active and who is passive
in the communication process. Based on customer logic, some messages will be selected and
somenot. They included both deliberateand embedded messagesin the list of
communication instruments. According toFinne and Grönroos (2009), it is the customer who
determines what is in fact communicated:perhaps messages from the company,or from
competitors, or memories of earlier experiences, or word-of-mouth, or discussions on social
media,to mention justa few. As mentioned before,in Finne and Grönroos’s (2009)
relationship communication model, the influence of factors and activities in the customer’s
network is structured along two dimensions: time and situation. The level of integration of
messages with time and situationalfactors may vary between individuals (Finne and
Grönroos, 2009). The customer’s time frame can be broader than the company’s time frame
(Heinonen et al., 2010) Heinonen et al. (2010) conclude that value is experienced before, duri
and after a service is experienced. For example, in the case of a holiday trip, customer value
can emerge before the trip when reading about a destination, be created during the trip when
experiencing the many aspects of the destination and also after the holiday in terms of
memories of such experiences (Heinonen et al., 2010, p. 539). Following the viewpoints of CDL
and relationship communication,to facilitate customers’value creation during this whole
process, marketers should look for types of messages and channels that have the potential to
facilitate value creation throughoutthis process.This points to the need for a broad
understanding of communication instruments and sources of messages, warranted by both
temporal and situational dimensions. When analysing customers’ need for communication
messages, all this should be taken into account by the marketer. In communication terms, the
receiver is fully in charge of his or her forming of value-in-use, based on whatever sources, if
any, he or she chooses to use. The marketer’s role is using today’s technologies for getting
customerinsight and implementingcommunicationto build upon this and plan
communication activities and channels accordingly.
Further, customer value formation can vary between individuals. This variation can be
described by whatMickelsson calls activityscapes (Mickelsson,2014),as “a customer
engages in different activities in order to have experiences of value” (Mickelsson, 2014, p. 40)
The process of value-in-use formation is subjective. Some customers form value on the basis
of several sources whose relative impact might vary, while others form value based on fewer
sources whose impact may be more consistent.
5. Communication-in-use
The notion that value emerges for the customer in the form of value-in-use switches the
emphasis from a message-driven,instrument-based view ofcommunication towards a
customer-oriented focus, where the customer’s value perception of communication messages
and processes is the natural starting point. Instead of focusing on available instruments or
the outcome of messages merely from one particular sender – as,for example,in a typical
communication campaign – the focus switches towards customers’value formation,and
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towards how, and based on what messages, value of communication emerges for c
Building on meaning-based communication (Mick and Buhl,1992) rather than on a list of
communication issues,and including contextualand temporalsources influencing the
interpretation of messages (Finne and Grönroos,2009;Rindell,2013;Rindell and Iglesias,
2014),value-in-use of communication becomes the focal communication instrument.This
switch from message to value of messages in the context of the customer’s reality
influence of several types of sources and messages provides actionable customer i
into marketing communication.This is the foundation of customer-driven communication
that builds on several sources of value-in-use of communication (Figure 1, upper right).
This analysis paves the way for the concept of communication-in-use. Building on
aspects, from both the communication literature and the notion of value as value-in
CDL literature (Table II),communication-in-use manifests a customer-oriented approac
towards marketing communication, based on active customers using whatever sou
choose.
We define communication-in-use as a customer’s integration and sense-making
messages from any source, company-driven or stemming from other sources the cu
perceives as communication, forming value-in-use for him or her for a specific purpIn
addition to traditional communication instruments, this definition encompasses all t
open sources. It can include perceptions of an offering, a product, service, company
and it can be deliberated or embedded in context, visible or solely in the head of th
Communication-in-use can include experience,processes and activities and can involve
several senders considered simultaneously by the customer. Furthermore, no speci
needs be involved, and parts may be sourced in the past, present or future. This m
example, that a competitor’s deliberate price reduction campaign can change or di
focal message regarding a product, service, brand or company. In the context of ou
trip example,the introduction of budget airline companies such as Norwegian,Ryanair or
Air Berlin on the one hand,and the uncertainty with increasing bankruptcy oftravel
agencies on the other,forms a contextof severalcontradictory messages.The list of
messagesand sourcesof messagesused can belong or short and may include
company-initiated communication. It may also include absence of messages (Calonius, 1989),
which is communication as just an explicit message. Furthermore, only a few mess
as much as numerous messages – may influence the formation of value-in-use and
the foundation of communication-in-use.
From a communication-in-use perspective, sources are contextual and vary dyna
across individuals (Mickelsson,2014)as wellas among different situations for the same
individual. Further, sources may relate to the three temporal dimensions of past, pr
future (Rindell, 2013; Rindell and Iglesias, 2014). Some sources from the present m
deliberate, while past and future sources may be more embedded. Occasionally, al
Table II.
Key aspects of
communication-in-use
Concept Authors
Meaning-based communication Mick and Buhl (1992)
Relationship communication model Finne and Grönroos (2009)
Invisible sources/hidden messages Finne and Strandvik (2012);
Value-in-use Vargo and Lusch (2004, 2008), Edvardsson et al. (2011),
Grönroos (2006, 2008, 2011)
CDL/value-in-use Heinonen et al. (2010), Heinonen et al. (2013, 2015), Rindell a
Strandvik (2010)
Temporal dimension/value-in-use Rindell (2013), Rindell and Iglesias (2014)
EJM
51,3
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