• DOI:10.1177/002194369002700203
• Corpus ID: 167685607

The Use of Post-Purchase Communication to Reduce Dissonance and Improve Direct Marketing Effectiveness

@article{Milliman1990TheUO,
  title={The Use of Post-Purchase Communication to Reduce Dissonance and Improve Direct Marketing Effectiveness},
  author={Ronald E. Milliman and Phillip Jay Decker},
  journal={Journal of Business Communication},
  year={1990},
  volume={27},
  pages={159 - 170}
}

• R. E. Milliman, P. Decker
• Published 1 March 1990
• Business
• Journal of Business Communication

T business communication literature has, in the last few years, substantially neglected the role of communication in direct sales and mass marketing. This is very surprising since business communication has roots in direct mail advertising. Mail solicitation was in its infancy in 1900 when Sherwin Cody helped to nurture it (see Daniel, 1982). Cody, an early pioneer in the field, influenced many in the area to think about psychological elements in direct mail marketing and business communication. Perhaps the most recent example, even tangentially related, is Sherblom's (1988) article dealing with electronic mail, in which he investigated the type of mail sent in an organization and the presence / absence of a signature. Sherblom found that vertically directed mail was more restricted than horizontal and that mail sent vertically or interdepartmentally was more likely to have a signature. Furthermore, a review of business communication textbooks indicates little attention paid to theories of persuasion which are often used as a basis for understanding marketing and advertising (persuasive communications) phenomenon. Shelbry (1986) synthesized a number of basic theories of persuasion in an attempt to encourage a more theoretical view of communication. Among the four approaches she feels are useful to the discipline is the contingency approach which focuses on the relationship between a stimulus and the receiver's frames of reference. One of the most popular contingency theories of persuasion is Festinger's (1957) theory of cognitive dissonance. Festinger's work is the theoretical foundation upon which this present research is based. Festinger postulated: