ad polysemy
DESCRIPTION
Presentation of the text MEANING MATTERS Polysemy in Advertising by Stefano Puntoni, Jonathan E. Schroeder, and Mark RitsonTRANSCRIPT
MEANING METTERSPolysemy in Advertasing
ALL ADS ARE OPEN TO DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS
Advertasing polysemy
the occurence of multiple
meanings for the same
advertising message
Interperting an ad is inherently different
from liking it!
POLYSEMY
SYNCHRONIC
DIACHRONIC
• occures across 2 or more
audiences at a certain point in
time• different
groups see ads differently
• occurs in the same individual
during advertising
reception – first and repeated viewing of an
ad
Contraversial KFC cricket ad – SYNCHRONIC POLYSEMY in play
How do you survive a crowd of "awkward" black people? According to KFC's latest advertisement a bucket of fried chicken
will do the trick.
Happy family laundry detergent ad
DIACHRONIC POLYSEMY in play
PURPOSFUL POLYSEMY
Advertising polysemy emerging as a consequence of a firm’s stratigic
efforts.In the age of “one-to-one
marketing”, “mass customization”, and online forums such as YouTube, brands must be able to serve the
specific goals and situation of each consumer or otherwise risk
becoming obsolete.
TARGETING
POSITIONING
AESTHETIC
SOCIAL NORMS
4 TYPES OF PURPOSEFUL POLYSEMY depending on the
firm’s goal:
TARGETING GOALAdvertiser designs a polysemic message
to appeal to two different audiences with the same message.
To succeed, it requires the strategic avoidance of explicit information
that can direct the reader toward a certain interpretation.
POSITIONING GOAL
Purposful polysemy is implemented to communicate and underline to target customers core features of a brand in a succinct and effective way.
Over time it should lead to the strengthening of multiple brand associations as well as to more integration between them.
AESTHETIC GOAL
Advertiser designs a polysemic message not for strategic reasons but as a way to
increase interest and appeal of an ad.Most likely implemented in the context of
humorous message.
SOCIAL NORMS GOAL
Occures when the use of ambiguous messages allows the advertiser to promote a controversial message without breaking advertising conventions or societal standards of appropriatness.
TRANSMISSION MEANING
Contextual variables play a key role in opening and closing an ad’s range of possible interpretations. Authors focus on the MEDIA CONTEXT surrounding an ad and the SOCIAL CONTEXT at the time
of message exposure.
MEDIA CONTEXT
SOCIAL CONTEXT
The social milieu has the power to both expose the consumer to an alternative reading and to prime a consumer with the interpretive spectacles needed for the alternative reading.
Viewing an ad together with others may lead to the emergance of advertising polysemy or to reducement of different interpretations emerging.
DECODING MEANING
In understanding how an audience can interpret an ad differently from other audiences, three aspects stand out as critical:
The Meaning-Making Process
Consumers’
Situations
Consumers’ Goals
THE MEANING-MAKING PROCESS
DENOTATIVE CONNOTATIVE
Apple logo biblical apple of
knowledge
Interprative community is a group of individuals that share the same ways they approach and diggest a text.
They share certain reading strategies in ad decoding which leads to the emergence of a discrete number of viable interpretations.
CONSUMERS’ SITUATIONS:Interpretive Communities
CONSUMERS’ GOAL: Resistive Readings
•They consist in the subversive act of “forcing” a preferred reading on a text•They are potentially subversive because the audience affirms its power over the text
LOUIS VUITTON
“VICE LORDS”
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE ADVERTISING INTERPRETATION
•different consumers have different backgrounds
CONSUMER KNOWLEDGE
•the immediate circumstances in which the decoding act takes place
PROXIMAL CONTEXT
•culture shapes the interpative frames
DISTAL CONTEXT
CONCLUSION
Polysemy provides a fruitful perspective for marketing and advertising research as well as grounded framework for understanding and contextualizing advertising meaning.
Connecting advertising to the subjective context of reading, consuming and interacting, we gain a more thorough, yet never complete, understanding of how advertising works.
What Are These Ads Trying To Sell?