Advertising Translation: A Consumer Psychology And Functionalism Perspective

Accelerated by the globalization and integration process, advertising, a newfledgling business, has become a booming industry across the world. China, thesecond largest economic community in the world today, has also witnessed adynamic growth in this new emerging business. According to the statistics fromeMarketer and Starcom MediaVest Group (SMG), China will become the secondlargest advertising giant in the international advertising market in2013due to itsdynamic economy and online and mobile booming (China Advertising, Nov.21,2012). Accompanied with the flourishing advertising business, advertisingtranslation is badly needed in the global market. Advertising translation, born in theeconomy-driven circumstances, is totally different from traditional literarytranslation. Advertising translation, as a channel of intercultural communication, hasits inherent materialized intention. At present, numerous advertising translationstudies can be found in China, most of which are confined to the literary-orientedapproach, such as to some specific translation strategies, pros and cons, aestheticvalue, faithfulness, elegance, which fails to strike the essence of advertisingtranslation. The thesis, from practical perspective, puts forward two appropriateguiding principles for advertising translation: Consumer Psychology andSkopostheorie.Quite different from literary works, advertisement in nature belongs to apractical text genre, with its strong commercial and materialized goal to address ortitillate consumers’ buying motives or to maintain existing buying attitudes andchange negative and neutral attitudes to positive ones. Consumer Psychology isabout understanding why and how individuals and groups engage in consumeractivities, as well as how they are affected by them. A large part of this subject isfocused on the cognitive processes and behavior involved when people purchase anduse products and services. Created by Reiss and Vermeer, Skopostheorie studiestranslation from a distinctive perspective. Under the guidance of Skopos Theory, translation is viewed as an intentional action in which translators could flexiblyadopt any strategy to achieve the promotion value.The thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter generally introducesadvertising-related information, such as definitions, components, essence ofadvertisement. The second focuses on two basic theories: Consumer Psychology andFunctionalism. As for Consumer Psychology, theories such as Attention,Involvement, Heuristics and Peripheral Route to Persuasion are mainly stressed. Asfor Functionalist school, the Skopos Theory is highlighted. The third demonstratesvarious kinds of advertising cases, and their corresponding translation strategies. Thefourth mainly deals with conclusion, the creative points and shortcomings.