Abstract
Based on a mini-corpus of Chinese and American marketing discourse on social media (150 discourses each), this study conducts a cross-cultural investigation of pragmatic identity construction in marketing discourse on social media. The results show that in the context of social media, a larger variety of individual pragmatic identities rather than organizational pragmatic identities is employed in both American and Chinese marketing discourses. Chinese and American enterprises both construct six different types of individual pragmatic identities (Experiencer, Sales Representative, Friend, Adviser, Expert and Official Introducer) in marketing discourse. Both Chinese and American marketing discourses tend to build official introducer and sales representative identity more than other identities. Adviser identity is not regularly constructed in both Chinese and American discourses. American marketing discourse on social media adopts the identity of experiencer and adviser more whereas Chinese discourse adopts expert and official introducer identity more than its counterpart. American discourse adopts more subjective identities than objective identities whereas Chinese discourse evenly employs both subjective and objective identities. Three cultural value dimensions (collectivism vs. individualism, high power distance vs. low power distance, relation-driven vs. task-driven) attribute to the different use of the pragmatic identities.
Highlights
China has the world’s most active social media environment: more than 300 million people use some form of social media including blogging and social-networking sites, and the average Chinese online user spends more than 40 percent of online time on social media [1]
The choice of the pragmatic identity and its construction is by nature a pragmatic process which has an impact on how effectively a particular marketing strategy is implemented to establish a dynamic relationship with the customers or the public who regularly use social media
This research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to conduct a comparative study of pragmatic identity constructed in Chinese and American marketing discourse on social media
Summary
China has the world’s most active social media environment: more than 300 million people use some form of social media including blogging and social-networking sites, and the average Chinese online user spends more than 40 percent of online time on social media [1]. Not solely relying on the organizational identity, marketers on social media construct more diversified pragmatic identities which are created, negotiated in the process of communication, influenced by communicative purpose and context [4]. Unlike the conventional conception of social identity which is established or stereotyped prior to communicative practice, pragmatic identity is a flexible, dynamic, temporary and diversified social identity created and negotiated in the process of communication, influenced by communicative purpose and context [5,6,7]. The choice of the pragmatic identity and its construction is by nature a pragmatic process which has an impact on how effectively a particular marketing strategy is implemented to establish a dynamic relationship with the customers or the public who regularly use social media
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