Challenges to corporate and brand image in multinational companies across different linguistic and socio-economic markets : a semiotic analysis
- Authors: Lukusa, Adolphine Cama
- Date: 2014
- Subjects: Advocacy advertising , Mass media -- Semiotics , Figures of speech , Branding (Marketing)
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Doctoral , PhD
- Identifier: vital:8430 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1020189
- Description: Doing business "the French way" in a Francophone market niche may be somehow different from doing it "the English way" in an Anglophone market niche. Since both the employees’ and the customers’ knowledge of an organisation underpins the organisation’s performance in complex business world environments, Multinational Organisations (MNOs) need to find a manner in which they can achieve coherence between their strategic vision, organisational culture and corporate image across the different linguistic and socio-economic markets they interact with through the various marketing tools they use to stimulate recognition. As a result this can support the integrity and sustainability of their corporate brand across markets and across different linguistics landscapes while interacting with their existing and new foreign markets. This study concentrates particularly on the rhetoric figures and visual cues employed in the selected French and English advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements and different product packages of multinational organisation subsidiaries. The study looks at how both the rhetoric figures and visual cues in the selected advertising/promotional messages support the integrity and maintain the sustainability of the corporate brand of the selected companies. The latter is examined across different linguistic and socio-economic markets. The study explores and examines how the possible linguistic properties are used in the selected French and English advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements, including those on different product packages. It also looks at how the linguistic properties in selected advertising/promotional messages belonging to different types of advertisements are used in creating and maintaining a positive corporate image of the MNOs and that of their parent companies. In addition, this study analyzes the potential impacts and challenges on moral, cultural and life-style values that multinational subsidiaries inflict on customers through the advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements in the promotion and branding of their products and how this affects their corporate image and that of their parent organisations. This is a content analytical study of language features evident in the selected advertising/promotional messages from different types of advertisements and different product packages at the lexical, syntactic and discourse levels and their role and impact on selected multinational parent organisations and their subsidiaries’ corporate images together with those of their selected products. In order to conduct a data-driven study, the author built a data corpus based on 29 advertising messages from different types of advertisements and advertising messages printed on different product packages. The types of advertisements include the photographs and scanned images of billboards, mural billboards, outdoor advertising billboards and leaflets advertising/promoting specific services or products. The product packages include photographs and scanned images of product covers/wraps, primary packages of products, product containers’ stickers with messages printed on them, and primary boxes. The sample comes from six selected multinational subsidiary organisations from two different countries, the Democratic Republic of Congo, a Francophone and multilingual country, and the Republic of South Africa, an Anglophone and multilingual country. Through a detailed content analysis of the advertising/promotional messages from a diversity of sources used as a means of communication, with a focus on rhetoric figures ,visual cues and language features, their roles and potential impact on MNO’s, corporate images in foreign markets will be summarized. In the end, possible conclusions are drawn in the light of the role and impact that they have on the selected companies’ corporate image across different linguistic and socio-economic markets.
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- Date Issued: 2014
An assessment of the practice of public relations practitioners in marketing the corporate image in selected organisations
- Authors: Lukusa, Adolphine Cama
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Public relations -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth , Corporate image , Marketing , Professions -- Marketing
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MA
- Identifier: vital:8394 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/1002 , http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1009562 , Public relations -- South Africa -- Port Elizabeth , Corporate image , Marketing , Professions -- Marketing
- Description: The profession of public relations has suffered negative associations and connotations as far as its role and practice are concerned. Alongside these, there are theories put forward within the field suggesting ways that could be used to assist public relations practitioners to become more successful in serving their organisations, marketing their organisation’s corporate image as well as reversing public relations’ negative legacy which has long existed as suggested by Steyn and Puth. This treatise argues that the real situation of the practice of public relations, its roles and the successes of PR practitioners in marketing the corporate image of their organisation might differ from what theories proposed. Thus this study seeks and intends to correlate what has been theorized with current practice in the profession. In addition, this study reflects and corroborates public relations practitioners’ roles in marketing the corporate image of organisations within the proposed new strategic role and through the existing traditional roles as compared to theory. Finally, this study also helps establish required changes to the traditional roles of the practitioners with the aim of reflecting the current situations in the existing selected organisations. In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the views and perceptions of public relations practitioners and managers of selected organisations were examined through a survey by questionnaire. This data was then analysed to determine their roles in marketing the corporate image of organisations in terms of the new strategic role and through the existing traditional roles as compared to theory. The sample included public relations practitioners and chief executive officers of Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Holdings (Pty) Ltd , Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and Transnet National Ports Authority. The findings seem to support the hypotheses of the study in concluding that: The strategic roles identified in theory such as the solution around the myth and allegory of success in the practice and profession of public relations might not be realised in current practice, and Public relations practitioners’ effectiveness in marketing the corporate image of their organisations is affected by the way their roles are perceived within organisations. It is the hope of the researcher that, the findings of this investigation will set foundations for further research on the assessment and estimation of the practice of the public relations practitioners in marketing the corporate image of organisations.
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- Date Issued: 2009