A Study Of Persuasive Strategies In Cosmetic Advertisements

It is impossible to escape the various forms of advertisement persuasion which areconstantly bombarding our senses, emotions, interactions and activities. Advertisements havebecome part of our daily life. The main goal of advertising is to persuade us to buy or use us toinfluence others to buy something based on our desires. Advertisers appeal to our intellect,motions and morals using various strategies. Aristotle's three appeals are used as the theoreticalframework of this study, the persuasive strategies in cosmetic advertisments are discussed andillustrated; the data used in this thesis are taken from the department stores or from the Internetby myself.The qualitative and quantitative analyses are adopted to explore the following 4 questions:1.What kind of persuasive strategies are commonly used in cosmetic advertisements? 2. Howis persuasiveness achieved by means of rational strategies? 3. How is persuasiveness achievedby means of emotional strategies? 4. How is persuasiveness achieved by means of moralstrategies? It is found that about 48% of cosmetic advertisers are using emotional strategies topersuade buyers while 32% use moral strategies; only 20% use rational strategies to appeal tobuyers.This thesis explores the persuasive strategies in cosmetic advertisments through rhetoricalapproach. It is divided into five chapters. Chapter 1 clarifies some advertisements andpersuasive terms, presents the research questions and shows the significance of this study.Chapter 2 provides the reviews of some influential researches relevant to this study, bothadvertisements and persuasiveness. Data collection and research methods are illustrated inchapter 3. Chapter 4 analyzes the data in terms of two research methods, it shows why rhetoricis an effctive way of studying cosmetic advertisements,it not only gives detailed analysis ofpersuasive strategies in cosmetic advertisements, but also identifies the persuasive stategieswhich marketers preferred most. There are different strategies used in cosmetic advertisements,and within each major strategies, there are some sub-strategies for further illustration. InChapter 5 we summarize the findings, state the limitations, and show some possibleimprovements and directions for further study.However, due to the limitations of the data, because printed advertisements are easier tostore and easier to study than TV and radio advertisements, moreover, printed advertisementscan be reproduced as a whole, so the advertisements in TV and radio need furtherinvestigation. We hope that this paper will help the readers or potential customers to seethrough or be alert to the persuasive language as used in cosmetic advertisements. It is also hoped that the potential customers of cosmetic products will benefit from this research notonly in adopting a wise consuming behavior but also in raising their persuasive consciousness.