Teresa J. Domzal

Mirror, mirror: Some postmodern reflections on global advertising

Abstract Global advertising succeeds when it is perceived in semiotically-equivalent ways by multicultural consumer segments. Before campaigns can be standardized, it is necessary to identify segments of consumers who share an ethos, since this represents the foundation for creating advertising executions that can be understood multiculturally. This paper develops the argument that fashion and food products — what people put on and in their bodies—enable the universally-held need of self-expression, and in that sense their perceptions are thereby driven by a common ethos. Certain consumers, apart from their resident cultures, regard these products in essentially equivalent, self-relevant ways, so they are prime candidates for global, if not wholly standardized, advertising. Two multicultural segments for which these products are especially self-relevant are identified: (1) the worlds economically-elite consumers (a segment which has been widely recognized); and (2) the post-World-War-II generations of co...

Reading Advertising: The What and How of Product Meaning

Analyses successful international ads for alcoholic drinks, cigarettes and corporate identity to determine the core meanings for each product. Argues that these meanings constitute “cultural definitions” of the products, and that they represent a significant aspect of marketing information. Concludes that the meaning exemplars discerned in each category define parameters for advertising appeals, but still leave a lot of decision latitude about how to target within the market.

Achtung! The Information Processing of Foreign Words in Advertising

This article explains the use of foreign words in advertising from an information processing perspective. The ability of such distinctive words to enhance an advertisements effectiveness derives f...

Getting a Life: Homo Ludens as Postmodern Identity

Abstract The traditional markers of social identity -particularly occupation -lose much of their potency in postmodern times, which are characterized by diversity, fragmentation, discontinuity, and paradox. Many people in the industrialized West have benefited from technology, yet their jobs and day-to-day lives have been reduced to sedentary, boring routines, largely devoid of excitement, challenge, and personal growth. In consequence, they are beginning to replace homo faberwith homo ludensas the characterization from which to draw their social identities and self-enhancement needs, an inflection which has significant consequences for the leisure and tourism industry.

Programs as Products Assessing Television for the New Technology

Since programs will have to be marketed as products under the new TV technology (cable systems, subscription TV, satellite communications, home video systems), it will become necessary to assess viewers’ perceptions and evaluations of them-in addition to their likelihood of viewing them. Moreover, viewer segments will need to be portrayed in far richer terms than the traditional demographic profiles.