Group Communication - Definition, Importance, Types & Example

Published in Marketing and Strategy Terms by MBA Skool Team

What is Group Communication?

Group communication is a mode of communication in groups of people, in an organization, between employers and employees, and employees in teams/groups or people in general to discuss a topic or communicate a message. Group communication can further be looked from an marketing perspective as communicating to a group of people or target customers in order to market a product.

Small group communications can be looked at as groups of size 3 to 20. And larger groups looked can be of sizes 100 to 200 in size. Group communication can be effective, when there is a specific purpose to the communication, a proper means of communication, and content of the communication suitable to the target audience, and a proper communicator who can drive the initiative and process.


Importance of Group Communication

Effective group communication is very important in modern world as well as modern business. One sided communication can work but has its problems. Until and unless groups are not communicating with each other as well as the source of message, proper understanding and feedback will not come into picture. This will lead to loss of message. Applying this concept to marketing, if a company just communicates its products, features, benefits and other elements to groups of target customers, then it may not work until it hears the customer feedback and suggestions. Group communication can have effective results in case of marketing, where the communication is vital for selling and marketing products and product launches etc.

In the age of internet and social media, listening to customer effectively has become a lot easier as compared to past when manual surveys and group studies were conducted. Now businesses can interact with customers through social media, messages, webinars, podcasts and customer service. All these have become channels of group communication.

Types of Group Communication

The choice of the means of communication depends on factors like the target audience, the means and availability of the communication mode, cost implication for the communication initiative.

1. Verbal

Verbal group communication involves people in a group speaking with each other discussing a topic or agenda and reaching a conclusion through everyone participating with views and feedback. In marketing, it can be a seminar attended by target audience. It can also be a group discussion or a focused group study where in a product is discussed before launch.

2. Technology driven

Technology driven group communication has become very relevant in today's connected age. People communicate through social media, forums, customer service channels, webinars etc.

Using technology, a lot of people can collaborate to achieve a common objective. People have come together and discussed an idea with results using social media, group chats etc.

3. Non Verbal

Non verbal communication is when a group communicates using non-verbal cues but get the message clearly and executes the decision effectively. Imagine a busy crossroad junction in a big city. Traffic controllers along with automated lights and information communicate effectively with the passengers and regulate traffic flawlessly.


Group Communication can also be classified on the basis of locations:

4. in-Person

In-person can be a sub-type of verbal communication, where in people are actually located in a physical location and talk directly without the use of any technology. Friends meeting for dinner or a marketer inviting some potential customers for a product demo can be examples of this type.

5. Virtual

Virtual is a new type of group communication where in groups of people can connect using an application and through audio and video interact and discuss with each other seamless as if they were sitting together in the same location.

Group Communication Types

Example of effective group communication

A webinar is a good example of modern day group communication. In a webinar or a seminar, a person or a company present an idea, product or service to a group of interested people or customers. during the course of the webinar, questions are asked and interaction is very high as all the members are connected to a common cause or idea. Few of these people may become potential customers if the webinar was about a product. All the queries and other features can be very well clarified in the webinar. The entire group can derive value from such communication. A typical seminar or webinar may have 40-50 group size.

Another great example is the new concept of online classes, where in a teacher or professor teaches a group of students using technology. Even conventional education is based on effective group communication where a person teaches a concept to a group. The group understands the topic, ask queries, contribute to the topic by doing homework and presentations.

Hence, this concludes the definition of Group Communication along with its overview.

This article has been researched & authored by the Business Concepts Team. It has been reviewed & published by the MBA Skool Team. The content on MBA Skool has been created for educational & academic purpose only.

Browse the definition and meaning of more similar terms. The Management Dictionary covers over 1800 business concepts from 5 categories.

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