Effective Communication in a Business Environment - Essay Example

The paper "Effective Communication in a Business Environment" is a good example of an essay on business. The current century has been christened the information age due to the extensive amount of information that is being passed around through the diverse communication channels. Effective communication takes place when the conveyer of the message delivers the message to the listener with minimal distortion of the information therein. Communication is deemed to be effective if the listener has understood and derived sense out of the message that is being communicated. The most effective business communication outcome that I have witnessed in recent times has got to be the Guinness audio-visual infomercial where five gentlemen are depicted as playing basketball on wheelchairs. As soon as the game is over, four men stand up on their feet leaving one man still moving around using his wheelchair. It is later revealed that only one man in the group was truly disabled.  

I perceived this form of communication to be effective because the message therein was clearly passed to the listeners – who were mainly the audience to the advertisement. The communication is effective because it makes use of both nonverbal and verbal means. As the commercial comes to an end a voice-over reminds the viewers, who are the listeners in this case, that life is all about choices. The subjects in the advertisements effectively used the movements of the body as a way of communication. Their body language easily conveyed positive feelings about the product that they were advertising. This is evident at the point where the able-bodied gentlemen stood from their wheelchairs to accompany their disabled friend for a beer drink. The feel and the mood in the commercial did not leave doubt to the viewing audience that friendship and camaraderie are at play. Their gestures, body movement, and facial expression were also utilized to pass across the core message in the infomercial. All that was needed to be passed across was communicated within the forty seconds of the advertisement.  
For the company, the message that was passed through the advertisement ensured that the company’s core product, beer, was seen in a different light. Often, beer is perceived as a cause of social ills. Indulging in beer is known to cause undesirable outcomes such as road accidents and in most cases a costly addictive affair. Conservatives within the society cannot even remotely contemplate any form of association with a beer brand. However, the effective communication that was in the Guinness advertisement seems to dispel these notions. The association of the beer brand with such a humane act made the product look very much acceptable even amongst its loudest critics. It is difficult to come out publicly and criticize such a product even after seeing the advertisement. Effective business communication is that which has the ability to bring on board even the worst adversary (Guffey & Loewy, 2013). Such is the milestone that was achieved by Guinness in the advertisement. The communication managed to convince the audience that after all, beer – and especially the Guinness brand of beer does not promote social evil, but instead advocates for what is good for the broader society. The communication managed to repackage the beer brand and dispel the fear and the common perception that beer can only lead to irresponsible behavior.