Chris Miles

Persuasion, marketing communication, and the metaphor of magic

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the significance of academic accusations of magical practice towards marketing communication, asking what might motivate such accusations and what meaning they have for marketings relationship with persuasion. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the ways in which four distinguished scholars (Raymond Williams, Judith Williamson, Sut Jhally, and Stephen Brown) have accused marketing of either sharing its transformative power with the social effect of magic or in some way offering a metaphorical parallel with the manner in which magic works to cast a glamour over the “reality” of the world. The paper outlines a rhetorical understanding of magic and uses it to construct a reading of these accusations which focuses around a discomfort with the pursuit of persuasion. The analysis is then extended to contemporary marketing theory, particularly the communicative aspects of service-dominant logic and the broader service perspective. Findings – The argument is ...

Deconstructing the meerkat: fabular anthropomorphism, popular culture, and the market

Abstract In this paper we attempt to create an understanding of fabular anthropomorphism of particular relevance to marketing communication. Through an examination of the religious, anthropological, rhetorical and marketing literature on personification and anthropomorphism we arrive at six principles that characterise the use of animals as symbols in instructional storytelling. We then examine the applicability of these principles by investigating the way in which meerkats have recently been used in popular culture and marketing communication. We find that our proposed definition of a marketing-orientated fabular anthropomorphism is broadly applicable and is helpful in understanding why certain anthropomorphic depictions will resonate with audiences and others will not. Summary statement of contribution This research proposes a set of principles that help us to understand the way in which fabular instantiations of anthropomorphism can be successfully used in marketing communication. It presents a case study that demonstrates the applicability of the findings.

The rhetoric of managed contagion Metaphor and agency in the discourse of viral marketing

This article investigates the ramifications of the epidemiological metaphor at the centre of viral marketing. In particular, it explores the tension that exists between the presentation of the viral marketing message as an independent, quasi-organic entity with a threatening, wild potential and the apparently contradictory assertion that it can also be ‘domesticated’ through careful management of its design parameters and infection vectors. The influence of both memetics and the tipping point motif on this depiction is discussed, and the article considers the persuasive advantages of implications of message agency in the marketing of viral marketing itself. This article is the first study of the root metaphors underlying the discourse of viral marketing and serves to contextualise that discourse within the historical influence of memetic theory and the early literature on word-of-mouth marketing, and the more general relationship that marketing continues to have with issues of control.

Rhetoric and the foundation of the Service-Dominant Logic

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the use of rhetorical and narrative strategies in the foundational text of Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic. The author argues that the success of Vargo and Luschs (2004a) paper in establishing the foundational premises of the new S-D Logic is greatly aided by their persuasive use of classical rhetorical techniques of word choice, metaphor, and framing as well as the careful construction of a narrative that is guaranteed to be attractive to their audience. Design/methodology/approach – The author uses techniques of rhetorical and narrative analysis to closely examine some of the principle argument in the foundational text of S-D Logic. Findings – The author finds that Vargo and Lusch (2004a) make use of a powerful narrative of redemption in which marketing is seen to be saved from a potentially destructive internal struggle by a revelatory shift in perspective. The choice of key framing terms such as “logic”, “evolution”, and “paradigm” is found to have a...

The prospect and schizogenesis: A Batesonian perspective on the implications of the double-bind in advertising messages:

The author argues that current trends in advertising, particularly an increased reliance on complex destabilizing metaphors, have produced a double-bind situation within target audiences that has resulted, as per Gregory Bateson’s description of the schizogenic process, in schizophrenic communication patterns being fed back to advertisers. Links are made to the roots of ironic consumption and other paradoxical tensions in consumer behavior.

Occult Retraction: Cornelius Agrippa and the Paradox of Magical Language

Recent work on the relationship between rhetoric and magic has tended to pivot around the issue of magics perceived identification of signifier and signified and what that might mean for its relationship to larger theological, empirical, and rhetorical approaches to language. This article seeks to problematize the assumptions underlying this issue through an examination of the work of Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), the author of what is commonly regarded as the European Renaissances most influential magical text, De occulta philosophia libri tres (1533). In investigating the rhetorical strategies contained in Agrippas famously ambiguous retraction of his occult works we may uncover an equally polysemic stance toward the ability of language to deal with both the everyday world and the realm of the sacred, a stance that uses textual instantiations of paradoxes of self-reference to forcefully undermine the apparently paradigmatic magical identification of signifier and signified.

Ericksonian therapy as a grounding for a theory of persuasive marketing dialogue

Calls for the abandonment of manipulative and controlling marketing communication practices have become increasingly common in relationship- and service-orientated marketing theories. Scholars supporting such calls agree that the pursuit of communicative control should be replaced by a dialogical, negotiative orientation. However, there has been little thought given to how exactly dialogical marketing communication can practically reconcile itself with the issue of persuasion. In this article, I argue that a critical appraisal of the techniques of the clinical hypnotist and therapist Milton Erickson can provide marketers with a constructive framework with which to refashion their communicative roles and practices around the notion of a therapeutic, rhetorically grounded, marketing dialogue in which marketing stakeholders interweave dynamic narratives of value, which have the power to change other stakeholders and themselves. I also use the comparison with service-orientated marketing literature to point out certain weaknesses in the Ericksonian conception of the therapist/client dyad.