Mary's Cookies submitted an ad to the local newspaper with a coupon stating that a dozen cookies cost $2.99. The newspaper instead printed the price on the coupon as $29.99. Consequently, no customers came in to buy cookies using the coupon. The factor working against effective communication between Mary and her target market in this case was most likely the result of

Noise

Explanation:

Communication represents the means of passing information from the sender through an appropriate channel or medium to the receiver. An effective communication is the ability to adequately transmit the intentions of the sender to be adequately received by the receiver.

Noise is anything that has the ability to disrupt the adequate flow of information from the sender to the receiver. Noise can affect any of the following: Sender, Message, Transmission Channel and the receiver.

Communication Noise in the context of the question is described as any influence on communication that affects or distorts the right interpretation of the message a sender is transmitting to a receiver.

In the context of the question, the noise is indicated in the error of printed price. Instead of #2.99, the interpretation for the consumers is $29.99. The consumers will therefore, consider the cookies to be too expensive. This is noise in the message as a result of an error in the transmission channel.