Marketing communications with sensitive groups: the case of bereavement care services

Abstract

Extant models of marketing communications tend to see the process as largely unidirectional and consisting of a single ‘event’ with a beginning and an end-product. They ignore the interactive and structural aspects of communication in which formal and emergent networks become established through attempts to exchange information and seek mutual understanding. The underutilized technique of communication network analysis is crucial for understanding these structures of communication. This is nowhere more necessary than when marketing non-profit voluntary services to sensitive groups of people such as the bereaved. The largest bereavement organization in the UK is used as a case study to illustrate the complexities of the communications involved and to demonstrate the need for communication network analysis.