Semiotic Advertising by International Firms: A Comparative Study of Premium Smart Phone Brands in China, South Korea and USA

Elizabeth Adaobi Oputa, Fakhrorazi bin Ahmad

Abstract


This paper presents a theoretical discussion regarding how semiotic advertising is adopted by international firms. The semiotic advertising concept as explained in this study is defined as an advertising approach or method based on the use of signs and symbols for the purpose of communicating with a target audience. The signs and symbols act as indirect communicators of messages that firms try to convey to consumers. Since this method of advertising is focused and based on the use of different symbolic features or signs, it was found to be beneficial for cross-cultural advertising by international firms. Therefore, this study evaluated the use of semiotic advertising by two (2) premium smartphone brands in three countries, i.e. South Korea, USA and China. Analysis of different advertisements adopted by these firms in the three countries revealed that there were two underlying factors regarding the use of semiotic advertising. The first factor was definitely the cultural factor, where it was found that Apple’s hidden messages in the advertisements were highly aligned to each country’s cultural aspects and other factors. The other factor established by Samsung was the use of signs to create a special perception about the brand, thus, leading to the development of better relations between the brand and the customer. The findings showed that the use of semiotic advertising by international premium smartphone brands was definitely different across countries.

Keywords


semiotic advertising, international firms, smartphone brands, cross-cultural marketing

Full Text:

PDF

References


Amatulli, C., Pino, G., Iodice, M., &Cascio, R. (2016). Linguistic and Symbolic Elements in Luxury Fashion Advertising: A Qualitative Analysis. International Journal of Business and Management, 11(9), 265. Anand, S. (2014). Challenges in Cross Cultural Marketing Communication-Effective Approach Using Semiotic Lens. Global Journal of Finance and Management, 6(9), 875-886. Berger, A. A. (2015). Media and communication research methods: An introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches. Sage Publications. Callier, P. (2014). Class as a semiotic resource in consumer advertising: Markedness, heteroglossia, and commodity temporalities. Discourse & Society, 25(5), 581-599. Danesi, M. (2017). Understanding media semiotics. Bloomsbury Publishing. Di Giovanni, J., Levchenko, A. A., & Zhang, J. (2014). The global welfare impact of China: trade integration and technological change. American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, 6(3), 153183. Evans, M. (2016). Semiotics for Brandsâ€the Next Generation? Research World, 2016(59), 4246. Freire, N. A. (2014). When luxury advertising adds the identitary values of luxury: A semiotic analysis. Journal of Business Research, 67(12), 2666-2675. Jin, D. Y., & Yoon, K. (2016). The social mediascape of transnational Korean pop culture: Hallyu 2.0 as spreadable media practice. New media & society, 18(7), 1277-1292. Johnson, J. P. (2013). Targeted advertising and advertising avoidance. The RAND Journal of Economics, 44(1), 128-144. Kim, K. S. (2015). Advertising Contents based on Semiotic Methodology. Journal of the Korea Convergence Society, 6(6), 87-93.

Michelson, K., & Alvarez Valencia, J. A. (2016). Study Abroad: Tourism or education? A multimodal social semiotic analysis of institutional discourses of a promotional website. Discourse & Communication, 10(3), 235-256. Minowa, Y., & Belk, R. W. (2017). Ad hoc Japonisme: how national identity rhetorics work in Japanese advertising. Consumption Markets & Culture, 20(4), 329-349. Mohanty, P., &Ratneshwar, S. (2015). Did you get it? Factors influencing subjective comprehension of visual metaphors in advertising. Journal of Advertising, 44(3), 232-242. Oswald, L. R., & Oswald, L. (2015). Creating value: the theory and practice of marketing semiotics research. Oxford University Press, USA. Patel, N. C., &Bhutiani, S. R. (2017). A Semiotic Approach Through Print Advertisements. Global Observations of the Influence of Culture on Consumer Buying Behavior, 146. Radford, L. (2010). Algebraic thinking from a cultural semiotic perspective. Research in Mathematics Education, 12(1), 1-19. Sifaki, E., &Papadopoulou, M. (2015). Advertising modern art: a semiotic analysis of posters used to communicate about the Turner Prize award. Visual Communication, 14(4), 457-484. Smith, J. A. (Ed.). (2015). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods. Sage. Solík, M. (2014). Semiotic approach to analysis of advertising. European Journal of Science and Theology, 10(1), 207-217. Wenzhong, H., & Grove, C. (2010). Encountering the Chinese: A modern country, an ancient culture. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.32535/ijabim.v4i1.381

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.




Copyright (c) 2019 Elizabeth Adaobi Oputa, Fakhrorazi bin Ahmad

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

International Journal of Applied Business and International Management (IJABIM)

ISSN 2614-7432 (Print) | ISSN 2621-2862 (Online)

DOI Prefix: 10.32535 by CrossRef

Published by AIBPM Publisher

JL. Kahuripan No. 9, Hotel Sahid Montana, Malang, Indonesia

Email: journal.ijabim@gmail.com

Phone: +62 341 366222

Website: https://aibpmpublisher.com/

Governed by

Association of International Business and Professional Management

Email: admin@aibpm.org

Website: https://www.aibpm.org/

Indexed by

SINTA Garuda Google Scholar Dimensions ASEAN Citation Index

Visitor Statistics

Flag Counter

Web Analytics

View IJABIM Stats

Follow Us: