Credibility of Advertising Account Managers as Perceived by Their Account Directors

Abstract

People communicate with the goal of relaying the message effectively. This is done on various ways and is affected by many different factors. One of the factors that affect it is the credibility of the message source. A credible speaker increases the probability of having his message accepted by the message receiver. Credibility is gained through time by several credibility formation factors. Most of these factors can be exhibited on the way the person communicates. These factors are: competence, objectivity, dynamism, coorientation and trustworthiness. In advertising agencies, one department has the job of liaising between the client and the agency. The Account Management department does the job of communicating with the client, getting information vital for the projects the agency must deliver, then relaying this information to the agency people involved in the project. The account managers, people working in account management, deals with communication on most parts of their job. They hold vital information that can make or break a campaign or project. It is then important that they are credible. This study looked into how account managers build their credibility through their communication practices and how their account directors perceive their credibility. In the end of the study, it aimed to answer the question “How credible are the account managers as perceived by their account directors?” In order to arrive at the answer, there were the following sub-questions: 1. What communication practices the account manager uses that aid in credibility formation? 2. What credibility formation factors do the account managers exhibit? 3. How do the supervisors perceive the credibility of the account managers? The study was a descriptive qualitative design and applied interviews with account managers and their account directors. The account managers and account directors were from top advertising agencies in the Philippines as determined by organizations in the field. Their answers were transcribed and analyzed. Most of the respondents view their account managers as credible. This credibility was formed through the various credibility formation factors identified in the study. It is revealed that these credible account managers exhibit all the factors but the competence best aided in the credibility formation as perceived by the account directors. It was consistent with the data gathered from an account director who vjew her account manager as not credible. The director said that even though the accoupt manager exhibits all the other factors of credibility formation, lacking competence was enough to make her perceive the account manager as not credible in her job. It was apparent that the credibility formation factors do not equally contribute to the over-all credibility of a person. Of all the communication elements identified in the theory used in the study, language plays a major role in the credibility formation pf the account managers. Lack of mastery of the language and choice of words can highly pffect the account directors’ perception of the account managers’ credibility. The credibility formation factors interact with one another. The existence of one can compensate fop the absence of the other or it could be that the absence of one can lead to lowering of tf^e level of other credibility formation factors.