Market Discourse Research Articles

Pure in body, pure in mind? A sociohistorical perspective on the marketisation of pure foods in great Britain

This paper explores the marketisation of ‘pure’ from the late nineteenth century to modern-day using examples of food packaging and advertising. Adopting a sociohistorical approach to the theoretical perspective of social semiotics, it draws attention to the arbitrariness of the term and demonstrates how, over time, advertisers have constructed a particular discourse that equates the purity of a food product with a physical, mental or spiritual type of purity. In doing so, they invest food with a moral authority and legitimacy that leads consumers to understand commodities through marketing discourses and buy into the lifestyle and cultural value that the product promises, although it may not be true. In emphasising how purity has historically been used as a rhetorical device to sell products, the study hopes to encourage consumers to challenge food advertising and be aware of the myths that it can create in order to become empowered and make informed choices about supposedly healthy products.

Conceptual blending of meanings in business marketing relationships

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the topic of embodiment as a gap in meaning-making within the literature on business relationships in IMP and business marketing academic discourse. Referring to the theories of embodiment, the authors question the dominant worldview of Cartesian dualism which marginalizes the influence of the body in meaning-making and explore relevant implications of an embodiment agenda for research and practice. The aim is to demonstrate that embodiment has a vitally important influence in the construction of meanings.Design/methodology/approachThe paper provides a review of theoretical and empirical literature on embodied cognition and theories of embodiment to construct a cooking metaphor as an analogical vehicle for exploring meanings within business relationships.FindingsThe authors use a cooking metaphor to explore how meaning is created in human interaction. Body and mind blended together produce meaning through the catalyst of discourse and semiotics. Cognition is described as a mixture of rational and non-rational processes involving blended elements of embodied perceptions and psychological ideas stirred and heated in a semiotic “sauce” of discourse (language, communication, information, power/knowledge).Originality/valueThe contribution of the paper is in proposing that both body and mind influence the creation of meanings in business relationships blended through the mediation of language and discourse. The authors aim to advance a “practice” and “linguistic” turn in the business marketing discourse by proposing that embodied, discursive and cognitive processes are more effectively conceived as blended influences.

You need ‘help for the journey’: Freedom and regulation in a ‘market-friendly’ megachurch

One of the dominant trends in contemporary religion is a focus on individual freedom, choice and autonomy, all central tenets of mainstream consumer society. Rather than indicating a lack of religious regulation, we show how they can be the means through which regulation operates. Drawing on the theory of governmentality, which focuses on how power operates in discourse, we present a case study of a highly successful megachurch and global leader in Christian music – Hillsong – and show how this religious producer constructs a subject position for the consumer that promotes freedom and choice but nevertheless has regulatory implications by limiting what is thinkable and possible. Our findings show how Hillsong uses music and offers a worship experience that encourages continued reliance on the Church supported by its selective interpretation of the Pentecostal tradition. We trace how Hillsong claims knowledge of the religious consumer, identifying its central logic and contradictions. In doing so we show how religious regulation is taking new forms in contexts that may appear to be unregulated. We highlight the potential of this Foucauldian theory to not only enhance the understanding of current trends in religion but also to widen the repertoire used by critical marketing scholars to analyse how marketing discourse and practices are mobilized in specific contexts and with what effects.

Gender-based dichotomies in various psychographic attributes for environmentally friendly products

Orientation: Environmentally friendly consumption behaviour is one of the topical issues in contemporary marketing discourse. However, this subject has received considerable research attention mostly in middle- and high-income markets at the expense of developing world contexts. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore if there is a dichotomy between gender groups on the following consumer attributes: green attitude, green personality, green values and green purchasing intention. Producers and retailers of environmentally friendly products need to understand the profile of their customers if they are to effectively segment and target them. Motivation for the study : The study is motivated by a need to understand any potential differences in customer attributes in green markets. An appreciation of such differences will supply marketers of environmentally products with critical information which can help them to design and position their value propositions. Research design, approach and method: An exploratory and cross-sectional survey design was used. Data were collected from a total of 284 respondents using a self-administered, structured questionnaire. The student’s t -test and multiple regression analyses were used for data analysis. Main findings: The study unveiled significant gender-based disparities in social altruistic values, but none in green personality, green attitude and green purchasing intention. Moreover, it was discovered that green attitude, green values and green personality had different levels of influence on the green purchasing intention of different gender groups, with a stronger impact observed among the sample of male respondents. The implication is that marketers of green products should consider gender-informed disparities in various psychographic attributes of consumers of environmentally friendly products. Practical/managerial implications: The findings of this study can assist producers and marketers of environmentally friendly products to develop value propositions that are appropriate for young consumers who belong to different gender groups. Contribution/value-add: Very little research in the Zimbabwean context exists with specific reference to how gender affects the green attributes of young, college-level consumers. This article adds value by unravelling some of the factors that influence the green purchasing intention of college students in Zimbabwe.

A Trojan Horse for marketing? Solutions journalism in the French regional press

This article examines recent efforts to bring ‘solutions journalism’ – an approach to news coverage developed in the United States that encourages journalists to propose potential solutions to social problems – to the French regional press. Drawing on interviews and company documents from news organizations, we show that solutions journalism has found support among both management and journalists, though for different reasons. Whereas management see solutions journalism as a way to bolster shrinking audiences, journalists perceive an opportunity to regain relevance in diversified media companies whose emphasis on news has declined over time. Though solutions journalism changes little in terms of journalist’s everyday practices, its presence legitimates and valorizes marketing discourses, as journalists use it to describe efforts to grow audiences, boost sales and monetize content. As a result, we suggest that solutions journalism’s primary effect on the French regional press may be its operation as a ‘Trojan horse’ for marketing.

СУЧАСНІ НАПРЯМИ ЗАБЕЗПЕЧЕННЯ ТА РОЗВИТКУ ПРОФЕСІЙНОГО НАВЧАННЯ НА РИНКУ ОСВІТНІХ ПОСЛУГ

The paper provides insights to the challenging issues of searching for methods to reduce unemployment by drastic increase in employment capacity in the current and newly created high-performance workplaces. It is argued that the development of innovative paradigm of professional training and retraining of unemployed, associated with reintegration of training participants into working career along with promoting the interaction between all the actors of a social discourse and monitoring of the labour market in the context of professional qualifications, should become a critical guidance to reduce social tension in society and maintain an active job seekers support. It is emphasized that vocational training of temporarily unemployed is one of effective actions to overcome the imbalance between supply and demand on the labour market. The research findings have revealed that at present Ukraine is facing a critical need for building new relationships in the labour market and the market of education services domains, the drivers of which should be customized vocational training against specific orders of employers; qualitative monitoring of workplace needs; strict requirements to professional competences of graduates; coordination and compliance of the content and area of training and retraining programmes with the predictive trends for labour market development. The paper also presents the results of the analysis on the vocational training for the unemployed and the condition of the vocational training market in Ukraine. It is proved that the current module-based technology implementation in the process of vocational training allows offering interactive solutions to respond to labour market challenges, enhance government employment policy, facilitate the development of vocational training for the unemployed, and take full advantage of using innovative technologies in the process of their retraining.

Czy języki marketingu „mogą kłamać”? Recenzja monografii Magdaleny Smoleń-Wawrzusiszyn "Polskie dyskursy marketingu. Perspektywa lingwistyczna"

The author presents the main assumptions and the content of Smolen-Wawrzusiszyn’s monograph paper Polish marketing discourses. A linguistic perspective. This book is placed in the context of critical discourse analysis and the study of the professiolect of the so-called „new professions”. Changes taking place within the style(s) are an indicator of changes in the social and cultural reality of the post-1989 Poland, for example consumerist attitudes and practices becoming more common.

BUILDING METATHEORY: A DEMONSTRATION USING THE CRITICAL SOCIAL MARKETING DISCOURSE

Metatheorisation may be warranted in a situation when a particular body of discourse is boundary spanning in nature and none of the theoretical perspectives within it, taken in isolation, are able to explain a given empirical phenomenon. The literature presently offers scant advice on how to proceed systematically in this tertiary level research process. Drawing on previous scholarship, we advance the concept of 'theory framing devices' and develop a protocol to guide the development of metatheory. The critical social marketing discourse is used as a case study. Further, empirical examples pertaining to the quality of life issues of rural, subaltern consumers are analysed using the foregoing meta-theoretical discussion. The study has implications for the metatheorisation family of techniques and for discourse analysis.

Retraction of: The rhetorics of fictive interaction in advertising: The case for imagined direct speech in argumentation

I can't believe it's not butter! (Dairy brand) The paper examines imagined dialogue, a.k.a. fictive (verbal) interaction, in the strategically motivated discourse of advertising campaigns, i.e., discourse designed for the specific purpose of promoting a particular agenda or commercial product. The paper furthermore explores the grammatical aspect of the examined direct-speech metonymies. Though excluded so far from the grammars of Germanic languages, embedded utterances may in fact function as heads or modifiers in syntactic phrases and as sentence functions (e.g., direct object, verb). The overall aim of this paper is to demonstrate how embedded utterances function linguistically as well as rhetorically in the discourse of marketing – a particularly high-stakes genre of professional communication – and to stipulate hypotheses concerning strategic motivations for this employment of non-quotational direct speech.

Trabzon’da konut projeleri: Pazarlama söylemleri ve fiziksel çevre özellikleri

The
 housing projects, that have turned into concept projects promoted as a
 commodity since last decade in Turkey. These projects, are marketed with
 discourses such as “the long-awaited life”, “ideal home” and are constructed on
 the urban fringes. In this study, the housing projects that developed in
 Trabzon in recent years have been examined in this context. Marketing discourse
 and physical environmental characteristics of the projects have been analyzed.
 Thus, the study finds out to what extent the advertisement discourses are
 actualized and reveals physical environmental features. Kaşüstü and Yalıncak
 neighborhoods were chosen as the study areas. Firstly, discourse analysis
 carried out as the method for analyzing marketing discourse of the housing
 projects. Then, the applied projects were surveyed on site and observed, the
 physical environmental relations were examined and pattern analyzes were made.
 It is seen that, the meanings that ascribed to the house in the literature
 doesn't correspond with the marketing discourses in terms of content. In
 addition, the built environment that is promoted in the discourses is not realized.
 Finally, it has been observed that the environments created by the proposed
 housing projects cause destruction in the natural and physical structure of the
 city.

The rhetorics of fictive interaction in advertising: The case for imagined direct speech in argumentation

Abstract The paper examines imagined dialogue, aka fictive (verbal) interaction, in the strategically motivated discourse of advertising campaigns, i. e., discourse designed for the specific purpose of promoting a particular agenda or commercial product. The paper furthermore explores the grammatical aspect of the examined direct-speech metonymies. Though excluded so far from the grammars of Germanic languages, embedded utterances may in fact function as heads or modifiers in syntactic phrases and as sentence functions (e. g., direct object, verb). The overall aim of this paper is to demonstrate how embedded utterances function linguistically as well as rhetorically in the discourse of marketing – a particularly high-stakes genre of professional communication – and to stipulate hypotheses concerning strategic motivations for this employment of non-quotational direct speech.

Nursing homes with lifestyle profiles – part of the marketisation of Swedish eldercare

Swedish nursing home residents are very frail, but a new trend is for nursing homes to adopt a lifestyle profile. Based on interviews with 16 representatives of care organisations, this study investigates the reasons for adopting profiles in this way. The analysis shows that the existence of lifestyle profiles is strongly linked to a market discourse centred on freedom of choice. It is concluded that lifestyle profiles are used as a differentiation strategy in order to justify marketisation, exposing the Swedish eldercare system – which does not permit competition on the basis of price or standards of care – to market forces.

Inertia Stages and Tourists' Behavior

This article integrates the concept of inertia into a tourism context to understand how repeat visitors act and make revisit decisions. Moderating effect of zone of tolerance (ZOT), switching barriers (SWI) and external opportunity (OPP) on the sequential development of inertial behavior was analyzed through 518 tourists. Findings confirm that cognitive inertia (COGI) and affective inertia (AFFI) are significantly and positively related to conative inertia (CONI), while conative inertia also has a direct effect on determining action inertia (ACTI). The tests of moderating effects of zone of tolerance, switching barriers and external opportunity on the sequential development of inertial behavior show these variables have a significant moderating effect on the sequential development of inertia, except for the relation between switching barriers and affective inertia acting together, and conative inertia. These findings provide valuable insights that enable one to understand tourists' revisit behaviors. Theoretical and empirical implications are discussed, for the purpose of advancing tourism marketing discourse.

The politics of noise: Case study of the commercialization of Alaçatı Village, Turkey

Employing the concept of biopolitics, this study explores noise and policy inaction as normalizing technologies of the body and as market discourse through the commercialization of a small village. Noise in Alaçatı Village, which has been increasing since 2015, is analyzed here in terms of its constitutive processes, which include mechanisms of power and resistance. This approach shows how the normalizing technologies of the body, in conjunction with the inaction and contingency policies of biopower, result in the emergence of new power mechanisms with privatized and individualized modes of action. This study employed a qualitative method involving two months of participant observation and 45 qualitative interviews conducted in 2016 and 2017. The outcomes of policy inaction are as follows: (1) excessive noise is accepted and resistants become silent, (2) connections between noise supporters and resistants are lost, (3) responsibility for overcoming noise is individualized, and (4) de-territorialization and re-territorialization occur.

Communication tactics of positioning in ukrainian-language marketing discourse

У статті здійснено аналіз понять комунікативної тактики, схарактеризовано білінгвальність комунікативної тактики у текстах українськомовного маркетингового дискурсу на матеріалі українських веб-ресурсів.

Entre crainte et désir pour les objets connectés : comprendre l’ambivalence des consommateurs

Notre recherche etudie l’ambivalence des consommateurs a l’egard de l’achat et de l’utilisation des objets connectes. Une etude qualitative en deux phases (composee de 22 entretiens individuels et de 2 groupes focus) explore les dimensions de l’ambivalence (facilite, intelligence, lien social et affect). Plusieurs schemas d’ambivalence emergent en fonction du lien existant entre le consommateur (utilisateur ou non) et la fonction qu’il donne a l’objet (utilitaire, experientielle, symbolique). La typologie proposee permet de recommander une evolution du discours marketing autour des objets connectes.

Opiates for the masses: constructing a market for prescription (pain)killers

ABSTRACTThis paper examines the discursive and material construction of the ongoing US opioid epidemic. It argues that the epidemic cannot be understood apart from the reciprocal relation of cultural and economic processes that have made possible the formation of a market for prescription painkillers. Through an analysis of the articulation and interaction of medical, cultural, political, and market discourses, the author shows how these have been mobilized within a network of actors and institutions in ways that govern the economic life of opioid products. Dramatic transformations in the domain of pain management have coincided with shifting attitudes toward drug use in popular culture and transformations in health and regulatory policy to orchestrate the materiality of an enormous market for opioid products and make intelligible the problem of a nationwide ‘epidemic’ of opioid use and abuse.

Civilization versus commerce: on the sociolinguistic effects of the deregulation of the TV market on Flemish public service broadcasting

In the globalized economy, old metadiscursive regimes have been challenged by new conditions which are often considered to be more favourable to heteroglossic practices. In Flemish Belgium, the liberalization of the TV market is said to have transformed the broadcaster VRT from a public service aiming at educating viewers into a competitive corporation eager to commodify nonstandard language use to attract viewers. The broadcast media, traditionally a stronghold of the standard language, thus appear to have become a key site for the valorization of traditional vernaculars and hybrid linguistic practices drawing on both standard and vernacular speech forms. This paper confronts these impressions with empirical data and investigates the sociolinguistic impact of the deregulation of the Flemish TV market in detail. It does so by analyzing the discourses produced by the VRT’s policy makers and the actual linguistic practices on the VRT during the monopolist and the commercial era. It points out how during the monopolist era the genre of comedy already provided a discursive space where the VRT’s standard language policy could be subverted, and shows how a market discourse may have colonized the VRT’s current language policy, but has left its original standardization ambitions by and large intact. The VRT is shown to nowadays commodify both standard and nonstandard speech forms, but in ways that do not fundamentally challenge the traditional order of high (standard) and low (nonstandard) speech styles. New corporate logics can thus be seen to reproduce rather than drastically alter linguistic hierarchies traditionally attributed to state actors.

A tér a marketingben

A tér és térbeliség napjainkban sem játszik fontos szerepet a különféle szervezetek marketingtevékenységében. Tanulmányunkban – a térbeliség és a marketing alapfogalmainak áttekintését követően – bemutatjuk, hogy az üzleti gondolkodásban, a piacokról folyó diskurzusban, illetve ezen belül különösen a stratégiai marketingben mely területeken azonosíthatók térbeli problémák.A marketing térvonatkozásainak elméleti megalapozásához röviden ismertetjük a társadalmi térfogalom különféle megközelítéseit a társadalomtudományokban (regionális tudomány, társadalomföldrajz, közgazdaságtan, szociológia). A tér elméleti és alkalmazott közgazdaságtani értelmezését követően foglalkozunk a marketingre vonatkozó elképzelésekkel.Röviden bemutatjuk a marketing hazai és nemzetközi fogalmi megközelítéseit, és a marketing kotleri értelemben vett (tágan értelmezett) modelljét felhasználva emeljük ki annak explicit és implicit térvonatkozásait, rámutatunk a termék, az ár, az értékesítés és a kommunikációs stratégia térbeli sajátosságaira, a kapcsolati marketing, a társadalmilag felelős marketing és belső marketing területi aspektusaira. Számos példával illusztráljuk, hogy a marketing erőteljesen térbe ágyazott, így amellett érvelünk, hogy a hatékonyabb marketinggondolkodásban figyelembe kell venni a térbeli kapcsolódásokat, területi meghatározottságokat.A geomarketing-gondolkodásmódban, melynek szükségességére hívjuk fel a figyelmet, a térbeliség nem szűkül le a telephelyválasztásra és az értékesítéstervezésre, hanem áthatja a marketing egészét.

The Role of Trade Associations in Market Discourse and Cognition

This dialog examines the role that trade associations play in influencing the cognitive interpretations that develop within markets. It identifies how trade associations can enable cognition by providing a space for discourse as well as influence its outcome by playing an active role in the unfolding discourse. Taking account of trade associations within can broaden our understanding of how and why cognitive interpretations form within markets.