Research Proposal in Communications Research Proposal

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Car Advertisements

The automobile industry is one of the largest in the world, and one of the largest advertisers in the world. In the 20th century, and into the 21st, automobiles became the dominant force in the development of the world, giving a high degree of independence to people who previously would have had much more limited means of transportation at their disposal. That freedom proved exceptionally popular, to the point where our entire world was re-designed around the needs of the automobile and its users. Large automobile companies rose quickly to become among the largest companies on the planet, dwarfed only by petroleum companies whose product is essential for most cars. The automobile became ubiquitous. Everywhere in the world, automobile ownership has become a status symbol for people on the lower rungs of the socioeconomic ladder, and for those higher the automobile represents the fulfillment of higher order needs.

The following critical discourse analysis will look at the way that the automobile has been marketed, in particular during the period of 2000-2010. In this period, the automobile industry had become highly fragmented in the United States. The large American producers were matched by Japanese producers, but there was also strong competition from Korean companies, older German firms, and other companies trying to gain a foothold in the market. This fragmentation was also expressed in the vehicles themselves -- categories were narrow and tightly defined, leading to marketing that had little spillover from one category to the next.

Against this background, it is worthwhile to engage in an exploration of the meanings behind the automobile advertisements of the period. A mixed methods approach will be used to explore the meanings of the ads of this particular period, in particular the values that are expressed in these ads.

Conceptual Framework

McQuarrie and Mick (1996) provide a framework for understanding the language that is used in advertisements. They break down rhetoric figures into a set of four rhetorical operations: repetition, reversal, substitution and destabilization. Repetition includes devices as rhyme and alliteration, epanalepsis, and others. Reversal would be antimetabole and antithesis. Substitution would include hyperbole, ellipsis, rhetorical questions and metonyms. Destabilization would include metaphor, puns, irony and paradox (McQuarie & Mick, 1996, 426). Such regularity and irregularity in the structures have different effects on the consumer. They note that when rhetorical devices are widespread in their use that they "must be deliberate and designed to serve as an effective adaptation to the circumstances in which the advertisement is encountered" (McQuarie & Mick, 1996, 427). In particular, the authors argue that rhetorical devices serve as motivation for the reader to continue reading. It has been found that "positive effects on attention, ad liking and recall drive from the artful deviation that constitutes a figure" (McQuarie & Mick, 1996, 427). This framework will form the basis of the analysis of the car ads from this period that were in magazines specifically. Magazine ads are typically a mix of visual and verbal, but the emphasis of this model and thus this paper will be on the verbal devices that are used.

Theoretical Framework

There are a few theories that drive this analysis. A magazine ad is inherently a space, on paper, and within that space the creator of the ad has the ability to mix visual and verbal content to convey the overall message. An ad needs to capture the attention of the reader, so it must have the sort of cues that draw the reader in. Moreover, the ad must be able to hold that attention, and make a convincing pitch to inspire recall and action on the part of the reader. Fauconnier and Turner (2002) outlined their conceptual blending theory as a means of explaining how people think. Conceptual blending reflects the idea that people take concepts from many sources, and blend them together to create ideas. Marketers frequently do this, and in doing so can create a message that conveys a set of multiple meanings, each drawing upon concepts embodied or understood elsewhere. A key element of blending is that the audience must understand the blending that is being done -- a reference can be created by a marketer, but it must be understood by the audience to have the desired effect. Fauconnier and Turner (2002) make the case that there is a tremendous amount of innovation that can be created from conceptual blending.

McQuarie and Mick (1996) expressed their theory about the use of rhetoric.

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Rhetorical devices are verbal cues, so they serve a different purpose than conceptual expression. The verbal cues serve as means to attract the reader; the conceptual blending comprises the heart of the message. In other words, the two theories are complementary to one another. An ad is effective if it attracts the reader, and it is effective if it conveys its message effectively.

Research Questions

There are three main research questions that will be explored in this analysis of car ads in magazines, from 2000-2010.

Question 1: What are the rhetoric figures used in these ads?

This is a qualitative question. The figures will be drawn from McQuarie and Mick (1996), and will be expressed in a qualitative manner.

Question 2: What are the differences between socioeconomic backgrounds and ethnicities in the perception of the rhetorical figures seen?

Essentially, this question is to try to determine if there is a correlation between certain types of devices and the apparent targets for a certain vehicle. This could be a challenge in some cases, in that cars often have a fairly broad market, but the objective with this research question is to identify whether or not there are any correlations that can be identified through the analysis of the ads. This may be investigated using a mixed methods technique. Some of the data gathered will be qualitative in nature, but to derive correlations will require statistical analysis.

Question 3: How effective are rhetorical figures in persuading consumers to buy cars?

This question is complex. The first point of complexity is that magazine ads alone do not sell cars. This study will not attempt to isolate this variable and its particular influence, as that would be near impossible to do. However, it is possible to learn about the role that rhetoric plays by examining the ways in which it is used. This will be primarily a quantitative approach, to determine the extent to which different rhetorical techniques are used in car ads. Drawing on the principle that the use of rhetorical devices is deliberate -- and given the amount of money and thought that goes into car ads that is a reasonable assumption, and the long history of car ads that has established what works and what does not, there is good reason to believe in the relationship between the degree to which rhetoric is used and the perception that the industry has of its effectiveness.

Literature Review

McQuarrie and Mick constitute the beginning of the literature review on the subject, and they have contributed the theoretical framework that is being used. Their framework defined the key terminology and concepts that can be used to identify the different verbal traits that are present in the ads. In particular, their model of the four rhetorical operations provides a valid framework for this analysis.

An interesting test was conducted in Malaysia to determine if a set of students would construct something similar, if they were to build a model of how to evaluate advertisements. It was found that for the most part they would. But one of the interesting findings from that study was the degree to which context and knowledge affected their interpretations of how to interpret ads. Consumers interpret ads in subtle ways, so it is important to understand how people without substantial training in communications look at such ads; this study found that there are some significant differences. This relates to the idea of deliberate use of rhetorical devices. If rhetorical devices are used deliberately, is that because they have a proven track record of success -- to what degree has empirical analysis contributed to this is certainly a question for debate (Yee & Tonawanik, 2011).

He Xinxiang (2003) notes argues that rhetoric is a vehicle of meaning. The devices that are used, therefore, have some sort of specific meaning, and this is even true of the rhetoric that McQuarrie and Mick describe. This theory challenges the idea that rhetoric exists in advertisements predominantly to attract the reader's attention, instead viewing the rhetoric as something that exists in its own right to convey a message.

Van Mulken (2003) outlined means by which advertisements could be analyzed. This included McQuarrie and Mick, but examined other theories as well. In particular, there was a discussion about visual rhetoric. In a magazine advertisement, there is always a blend of images and words, and because of that the rhetorical devices used cannot be fully explained via understanding of.....

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