Elmira Djafarova

Exploring the credibility of online celebrities' Instagram profiles in influencing the purchase decisions of young female users

The growth of Instagram continues, with the majority of its users being young women. This study investigates the impact of Instagram upon source credibility, consumer buying intention and social identification with different types of celebrities. In-depth interviews were conducted with 18 female Instagram users aged 18–30 to determine the extent to which Instagram influences their buying behaviour. The research findings show that celebrities on Instagram are influential in the purchase behaviour of young female users. However, non-traditional celebrities such as bloggers, YouTube personalities and ‘Instafamous’ profiles are more powerful, as participants regard them as more credible and are able to relate to these, rather than more traditional, celebrities. Female users are perceptively aware and prefer to follow Instagram profiles that intentionally portray positive images and provide encouraging reviews.

Why do advertisers use puns? A linguistic perspective

ABSTRACT This article explores the role and interpretation processes of puns in print advertising. The function of punning (wordplay) in advertising varies from double meanings to humorous effects. Textual analysis based on a pragmatic approach (branch of linguistics) demonstrates how advertisements with the use of punning can be interpreted within the context. A combination of qualitative content analysis and pragmatics reveals that the ambiguous meanings of puns can be interpreted by the audience according to their background and inferential knowledge. This article contributes to the theoretical knowledge of advertising and its creativity by applying the linguistic approach to this research area. This study attempts to show how texts can reveal some interesting and important issues within advertising communication, which in its turn can generate some further discussions.

Visual images of metaphors in tourism advertising

This study explores the contribution of metaphorical patterns to the representation of tourism images in print advertising. The focus of this chapter is on print advertising as metaphor and is analysed from a linguistic point of view. It investigates metaphor within the context of advertising and aims to distinguish the tendencies in the metaphorical use of tourism advertising. Two hundred individual adverts were selected from various British print publications where tourism advertising could appear: national newspapers, general interest magazines, womens magazines and tourist brochures. Tourism advertising was collected from the following publications: Thomas Cook, Thomson, STA Travel brochures, Vogue, Ocean Village, Explore, and Cornwall. Analysis identified that 15% of the selected advertisements from 2005 employed metaphors in their messages. Findings show that metaphors can provide more distinctive visual images, which are used in object-based metaphors.

Exploring User-Generated Images in Online Reviews of Hotels

Consumers within the tourism industry have become increasingly dependent upon electronic word-of-mouth, such as online reviews, when making purchase decisions. Previous research in this area has explored the importance of textual content within online consumer reviews; however, little research has been carried out with regard to the role and influence of online user-generated visual content. This study aims to fill this gap by analyzing the content of user-generated images on TripAdvisor. Findings from both qualitative and quantitative research methods show that the difference, in terms of its helpfulness to consumers, is insignificant when comparing online reviews with accompanying photos and reviews without it. Results also indicate positive correlation between overall image quality and image usefulness.

‘Instafamous’ – Credibility and Self-Presentation of Micro-Celebrities on Social Media

ABSTRACT Companies increasingly use micro-celebrities for product endorsement. However, there are concerns around the self-presentation and credibility of this source of information online. This study examines the relationships between source credibility, self-presentation, and consumer behavior towards micro-celebrity endorsements. In-depth interviews were conducted with 38 female active users of Instagram, from Russia, to explore the impact of micro-celebrities’ credibility and self-presentation upon consumer purchase decisions. This study attempts to construct an extended source credibility framework applicable to the online context. The findings show that users deem micro-celebrities credible if they follow certain criteria of online behavior and self-presentation.

‘Radical marketing, meet Newcastle upon Tyne’: reflections on a memorable AM2016

Marketing has evolved over time to meet the constantly changing environment in which it operates. Some contemporary marketing practices could never have been envisaged only a decade or two ago, while some remain true to the founding tenets of the marketing tradition. Radical marketing spans both the traditional and the truly innovative; ‘radical’ is a term which describes both the fundamental (stemming from the roots of modern and postmodern marketing), as well as that which is challenging, cutting edge and inventive. The 2016 Academy of Marketing (AM2016) conference, hosted by Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University in the North East of England adopted radical marketing as their conference theme.

Why do advertisers use visual metaphors? A pragmatic perspective

This article investigates the role and interpretation processes of visual metaphors in print advertising using a pragmatic approach, more specifically, Relevance Theory (RT). Relevance Theory reveals that the audience interprets ambiguity of metaphors according to their background and inferential knowledge. Complex metaphors require more processing effort from the consumers and can be left misunderstood if no extra anchoring is provided. This study contributes to the theoretical knowledge of advertising and its creativity by applying a pragmatic approach to this research area. It shows how images can reveal some interesting and important issues within advertising communication with potential consumers, which in turn can generate some further discussions. Research findings have direct implications for the creative management of advertising techniques and consumer research.

Language of tourism advertising: a pragmatic approach.

Much of the existing research on tourism advertising has focused on visual semiotics rather than verbal language. This research note discusses the methodological approach that was taken to investigate language use in British tourism print advertising. Pragmatics, a branch of linguistics, was utilized to support the content analysis of figures of speech. This methodological approach is the first serious attempt to explore the language use in tourism advertising. The approach taken provides rich insight into the interpretation of figures of speech and demonstrates how language contributes to the communication of tourism images. The major contribution of this research lies in the detailed textual analysis of figures of speech. This analysis is based on pragmatic approach, relevance theory, which enhances the interpretation of tourism images.