As trade becomes more international and global , and as trading companies become more specialized, more precise and in-depth customer analyses are needed for targeted communication 1 KPMG (2010): Consumer Markets and Retail: Trends im Handel 2010. KPMG, o.O.2010. .

The complexity of communication policy is increasing 2 Theis, Hans-Joachim (2007): Erfolgreiche Strategien und Instrumente inHandelsmarketing // Erfolgreiche Strategien und Instrumente im Handelsmarketing. 2.Aufl. Frankfurt am Main 2007. . Information technologies are considered a "critical success factor".

In this context, the steady growth in internet usage 3 AGOF e.V.: internet facts. 2013-04. Hg. v. AGOF e.V. o.O. 2013. and sales via e-commerce also contributes to this. This contributes to communication policy. Furthermore, communication policy is currently in the phase of dialogue communication. A dialogue with the customer can be established particularly via the Internet as a communication medium . 4 Eisenegger, M. (2008): Blogomanie und Blogophobie Organisationskommunikation im ‐Sog technizistischer Argumentationen. In: Organisationskommunikation online.Grundlagen, Praxis, Empirie, S. 37–59. as well as collecting extensive data for primary research, which may, for example, allow conclusions to be drawn about the effectiveness of communication messages and carriers or reduce uncertainty in strategic communication policy decisions. 5 Barth, Klaus; Hartmann, Michaela; Schröder, Hendrik (2007):Betriebswirtschaftslehre des Handels. 6. Aufl. Wiesbaden 2007

Due to technological progress and favorable price developments, e.g. for data storage media, more and more data about the individual communication media and about the success of the message or each individual contact can be recorded and stored in communication on the Internet 6 Weiss, Sholom M.; Indurkhya, Nitin (op. 1998): Predictive data mining. A practicalguide. San Francisco 1998. .

New methods are being sought for the rapid and economical presentation, analysis and use of the constantly growing data and knowledge assets of so-called " Big Data ". In this context, semantic networks are understood as an analysis and representation of knowledge as a structure of interconnected nodes and connections 7 Sowa, John F. (1992): Semantic Networks in Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence.edited by S. C. Shapiro, Wiley, New York, 1987; revised and extended for the secondedition. New York 1987. .

Depending on the type of connections and application, a distinction is made between definitional, implicational, executable, learning, hybrid and propositional semantic networks 7 Sowa, John F. (1992): Semantic Networks in Encyclopedia of Artificial Intelligence.edited by S. C. Shapiro, Wiley, New York, 1987; revised and extended for the secondedition. New York 1987. .

Various approaches to the accumulation and evaluation of data in the form of semantic networks enable a simplified representation of the information obtained, forecasts based on the stochastic expected value or semi-automated promotion of new insights 9 Steyvers, Mark; Tenenbaum, Joshua B. (2005): The Large-Scale Structure of Semantic Networks: Statistical Analyses and a Model of Semantic Growth. In: Cognitive Science 29 (1), S. 41–78. o.O. 2005. .

Decision-makers in the field of communication policy are therefore confronted with a shift in media usage in favor of the internet, with growing demands regarding the accuracy and depth of market analysis , and with the simultaneous growth in the amount of available data.

This paper examines the extent to which the application of semantic networks in communication policy can contribute to the efficient use and analysis of existing data, as well as to supporting market research and advertising effectiveness measurement. The fundamentals of semantic networks are discussed and evaluated with regard to their relevance to selected objectives and functions of communication policy, based on the criteria relevant to the problem: cost-effectiveness and the effectiveness of data processing. The aim is to investigate the suitability of semantic networks for structuring existing knowledge and for systematically gaining insights in communication policy—especially for retail businesses that use new media for sales contact management or in e-commerce—so that, ultimately, meaningful recommendations regarding the application of semantic networks in selected areas of communication policy can be generated.