This thesis describes and demonstrates the use of discourse analysis as a means of facilitating critical awareness and stimulating research practice within a consumer research context. In a generic sense, discourse analysis applies to a range of semiotic methods for studying text (including talk, writing and visual images), where the objective is to gain insight into both the meanings of a text and what it signifies. Emphasis is placed on the constructive use of language, where texts of various kinds are said to construct our social world. Two approaches to discourse analysis are detailed. Firstly, Foucauldian discourse analysis is shown to operate more generally and globally as a social and cultural resource that underpins many human endeavours and activities. Under this approach, discourses are seen as resources that interact with one another. Foucauldian discourse analysis is therefore quite a different enterprise from the finer-grained investigation of talk and texts that is undertaken in discourse analysis and discursive psychology. Instead, discourses are treated as being dynamic in nature, having the ability to mutate over time, and gain dominance in certain settings and cultural locations. Discourse analysis under this approach facilitates critical awareness because it seeks to uncover the ways in which such discourses produce, maintain and constrain people within particular positions and relationships. Secondly, a discursive psychological approach to discourse analysis focuses on the strategic use of discourse within a particular piece of text, where interaction and the acknowledgement of such interaction by the researcher underscores the importance of language and the ways that people purposefully and strategically use language to achieve particular outcomes or goals. A discursive psychological approach focuses upon discursive practices and constructions, rather than cognitive-perceptual processes. A discourse analytic approach is therefore able to potentially redefine and stimulate current research practice. Psychological phenomena that might have traditionally been framed and studied as 'cognitive' and 'internal' processes can be recast as particular situated discursive accomplishments that people are able to draw upon. Because analysis is not subject to what may be termed 'cognitive reductionism' (where attempts to explain social events and processes are made entirely by reference to events and structures in the mental processes of individuals), a discursive analytic approach suggests new insights into current research practice. The specific context for analysis within this thesis is provided by an advertising campaign for Xenical, a pharmaceutical product promoted as a treatment for obesity. Xenical was one of the first prescription medications to be marketed directly to consumers in New Zealand via the use of direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA), a relatively recent form of marketing communication. The Xenical advertising campaign created both controversy and high awareness for the product. Contributing to this controversy was the overt use of DTCA itself, which critics suggest influences patient demand, encourages the use of expensive and sometimes unnecessary medications and in effect, 'creates' disease. As argued here, positioning obesity as a disease in effect justifies (warrants) the pharmaceutical industry�s efforts to offer medical solutions. In addition to the use of DTCA, the nature of the Xenical advertisements was also controversial. Critics suggested that the Xenical advertisements were based upon negative emotions, associating the state of being overweight with feelings of sadness, shame and embarrassment. These 'emotions' become a key subject in the current study. But in this thesis, rather than viewing such emotions as internal and mental phenomena, the use of discourse analysis focuses on the socio-cultural nature of emotions. Discourse analysis is concerned with uncovering the ways in which bodily sensations are rendered into language and what the subsequent implications for the speaker might be as a result. Using the advertising campaign for Xenical as context then, discourse analysis is used as a research approach to examine the television advertisements from multiple perspectives. Analysis includes the study of the casting tapes that were used by the advertising agency as source material to inform the creative strategy for the advertisements. In addition, one of the Xenical advertisements is deconstructed in greater detail, outlining the effects of visual and aural discourses that weave together to convey meaning within the advertisement. Analysis is informed by interviews conducted with the creative director of the advertisements as well as the marketing manger for Xenical. Discourse analysis allows us to examine the ways in which the producers of an advertisement purposefully (although perhaps unknowingly) create particular effects for strategic reasons, and how advertisements may be subsequently read as a consequence. The final analysis is based on a reader-response to the advertising campaign. Analysis focuses on the �emotional� talk contained within a particular interview, and how talk functions as performance. Rather than treating emotional talk as a description or reflection of inner psychological worlds, discourse analysis examines participant talk in terms of its content and meanings and how participants use such talk to construct their worlds. Although often overlooked within traditional forms of consumer research, the importance of representing social interaction through detailed interview transcripts is demonstrated, underscoring the analysis provided. Results suggest that the language of description and the methods of data capture that are typically utilised within consumer research are not able to provide an accurate account of the external world. This is because the only way we can know our world is always going to be mediated by and through language, and as a consequence, the meanings and interpretations available to us are never going to be transparent or neutral representations. The findings suggested in this thesis are intended as a starting point for subsequent research into the study of language in use and human meaning making within advertising and consumer research environments. Because consumer research has borrowed heavily from the social sciences and particularly from psychology, then it is important that researchers within the discipline re-examine many of the psychological topics that we commonly take for granted by considering the way such talk and text is used in action. Discourse analysis provides a research approach that enables such a re-examination.

Dissertation (BCS(Hons)) -- AUT University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. Also held in print (iii, 111 leaves ; 30 cm. + CD ROM) in City Campus Theses Collection (T 659.2936312510993 SMI)

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Alberta, 2009. / Title from pdf file main screen viewed (on Oct. 6, 2009). "Fall 2009." At head of title: University of Alberta. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation. Includes bibliographical references.

Following the global 'capitalisation' of public institutions, academic institutions have embarked continuously on a drive towards 'marketisation' and commodification of their services. Tertiary institutions are utilising aggressive marketing strategies and media campaigns to attract students. This study examines the advertising campaign embarked on by the University of Natal in 1998/ 1999. This is a first stage of a two-tier marketing strategy, and it involves brand-building the University. This research assesses the University of Natal's advertising campaign both on radio and in print, it analyses the campaign from creative conceptualisation to media exposure, while giving a brief background to advertising and commodification trends among tertiary institutions in South Africa. Eric Michaels' (1990) proposal of a circular message transmission model called 'hermeneutic circle' (12-28) of a teleported text serves as the theoretical backdrop for the assessment of lhe conceptualisation process to the media exposure of the campaign. A semiotic analysis of the University of Natal's advertising campaign is also given and located within a particular context in the 'henneneutic circle'. Various focus group discussions were conducted : one comprising mainly white students from Pinetown Girls High School in Standard Nine; the second, mainly Indian students in their matric year at Queensburgh High School. The others comprised of black students from Ferndale Secondary School, Phoenix, but who reside in KwaMashu, and also black students from Amangwane High School in Bergeville, near Ladysmith. One on one interviews were also conducted with high school students. Most of these students were in Standard Nine with some completing their matric year. These discussions were conducted separately to avoid any kind of intimidation and domination of the discussions by students from the private schools who are more fluent in the command of the English language. The other group comprised of an alumnus, a parent, four students - two local and two international, and two staff members of the University. Their comments provide information in identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign as well as the evaluation of the campaign concepts and contents in correlation with the cultural contexts of the target groups. The group discussions also provide insight into the reception and perception of the campaign. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

Thesis (M.Com. (Marketing Management and Information Systems))--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, School of Economic and Business Sciences, 2014. / This study evaluates the impact of the TOMS Shoes one-for-one campaign on the perceptions, attitudes and purchase intentions of Generation Y (GenY) consumers in the United States. The theoretical framework of the study is based on the CRM Response Model, which integrates several psychological and behavioural measures in describing GenYs‘ response to campaign messages (Waters 2006, Hyllegard 2009). The model was operationalised by a hypothetico-deductive research design and data was analysed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis. The strongest determinant of the model‘s outcome variable (i.e. ‗purchase intentions') is brand motivation or ‗attitude towards the brand‘. Consequently the causes chosen must have affinity with the company‘s products for GenY to respond favourably to the campaign messages. Combining emotionally evocative stimuli/imagery with a cause that GenY consumers care about or are ‗involved‘ is bound to make them like or believe (accept) the campaign. The ‗emotional‘ reactions of GenY determine whether they will pay ‗attention‘ and/or 'like the campaign message' or not. The cohort‘s ‗involvement‘ in the shoe cause is partially mediated by ‗attention‘ and has a weak but significant influence on ‗attitude towards the brand‘. Likeable and/or memorable ads tend to be more effective in persuading consumers than neutral advertisements. ‗Attention‘ has a direct influence on ‗attitude towards the advertisement‘ or liking the campaign message, with communications effects in essence minimal without ‗attention‘.

© Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC) Information Center Best Marketing Practices in Peru. A selection of the 2015 ANDA Award winners Lima: Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), 2015 ISBN (spanish printed edition): 978-612-318-037-9 ISBN (spanish e-pub edition): 978-612-318-039-3 ISBN (spanish PDF edition): 978-612-318-038-6 ISBN (english PDF edition): 978-612-318-049-2 / This book, an initiative of ANDA and the Administration and Marketing Study Program of Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), is the first in a series of books. It seeks to share, each year, some of the new ANDA Awards winning cases. Hence, students, professionals and entrepreneurs will be able to see, in concrete terms, how to achieve effectiveness and excellent business results through innovative strategies based on the fields of marketing and communications. Seven 2015 ANDA Awards winning cases are included in this first book. The selection process considered those cases whose whole campaign was based on the implementation of research-based and insight strategies closely associated with marketing practices.

Esta dissertação trata sobre o cenário de usos e abusos de crack que impregna os meios midiáticos e a atual psicopatologia juvenil brasileira. A análise parte da construção de uma cena de pedras, com a caracterização dos atores envolvidos e da trama entre eles. O objetivo é desempedrar o cenário epidêmico estabelecido, identificando os conceitos, histórias e estórias que, dispersamente, solidificam a questão. Sobretudo, intentamos suspender os nomes e as verdades ficcionais que preenchem o sujeito-objeto dessa cena e que, de modo contundente, o fazem desaparecer num circuito de exclusão. / This dissertation deals with the scenario of use and abuse of crack which pervades the press as well as Brazilian youth psychopathology nowadays. The analysis begins by building a scene of rocks, with the characterization of the plot and the actors involved in it. The goal is to undo the established epidemic scenario by identifying the concepts, facts and stories that, sparsely, solidify the issue. Above all, we intend to suspend the names and fictional truths that fill in the subject-object of this scene and which, so strongly, make it disappear in a circuit of exclusion.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-125).

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2007. / Typescript. Appendix A: Percent change in spending by industry ; Appendix B: List of top 30 advertisers by medium. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48 - 51)