Noise, according to Marketing Communication, is anything that disturbs the proper reception of the message, which may be caused by the number/content/attraction of other messages both within and outside of the channel distracts the receiver(s), and may influence the quality of the reception and/or the feedback (Egan, 2015, p. 68). It includes any distractions receivers and senders face during the transmission of a message (Unnamed Author, 2015, p. 330), and causes distortion to or interruption of messages (Cardon, 2016, p. 28).
In Business Communication, noise is classified into four types: physical noise, external noise that makes a message difficult to hear or otherwise received; physiological noise, disruption due to physiological factors, like hearing problems, illness, memory loss of the message receiver, or stuttering, sickness, or other temporary or permanent impairment of the message provider; semantic noise, which occurs when communicators apply different meanings to the same words or phrases; and psychological noise, interference due to attitudes, ideas, and emotions experienced during an interpersonal interaction (Cardon, 2016, p. 28). The former two can be referred to as external noise, while the latter two as internal noise.
In marketing communication, the very common example of physical noise could be the clutter of advertisements today, when the competing messages are everywhere, which makes it difficult for every organization to have consumers attention for a relatively long period of time. Another example of external noise is the motion of the information, usually the advertisement, or the motion of message receivers, which usually occurs when an advertisement appears on a billboard or on a moving bus, making it hard for consumers to catch, read, and remember the information clearly. Internal noise usually happens in cross-culture marketing when people from different culture have a different understanding/ interpretation of the information to the marketers.
References
Cardon, P. (2016). Principles of Interpersonal Communication. Business
communication (2nd ed.), 346–376. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Egan, J. (2015). Marketing Communication Theory. Marketing Communication (2nd ed.). London: Sage.
Unnamed Author. (2015). Integrated Marketing Communications and the Changing Media Landscape. Principles of Marketing (University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing Edition). Minneapolis, MN: MINNEAPOLIS, MN: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.