On AIDMA Theory In Advertising From Sociolinguistic Perspective

Advertising is omnipresent in modern commercialized society, and thereby has attracted more and more linguists to study its main carrier: the advertising language.Advertising language distinguishes itself with the ultimate aim to persuade people to take purchasing action, making a study of advertising language is worthwhile in linguistic field. Meanwhile, as a product of the socioeconomic life, advertising is unavoidably affected by such social factors as regional variation, gender difference and social changes, and hereby its prominent social features have been clearly shown. Researchers contribute a lot to advertising language studies, mainly concerning the linguistic or rhetorical features, fuzzy expressions and even cultural insights into advertising language, etc.; however, only a few of them have conducted in the framework of sociolinguistics. Though Tanaka, K. (Advertising English, 1994) does pay some attention to the relationship between the advertising and the society, she does not make a systematic sociological study and merely attempts to see how language is extended and altered by advertisers.Based on the previous researches, this thesis attempts to perceive advertising language through sociolinguistic respects. Firstly, it clarifies that the study of advertising language is inseparable from social factors. Then, it briefly introduces the famous AIDMA theory in advertising (an integrated and ideal process of advertising: attracting people's attention (A), then arousing and sustaining interest (I) which would lead to desire (D), reinforce memory (M) and eventually making people take action (A)). By resorting to William Blight's (1964) interpretation of sociolinguistics (the scientific study of language in relation to society), the author points out it would be beneficial for both sides (admen and sociolinguists) to make a study of advertising language from sociolinguistic perspective, namely, promoting the advertising optimization and enriching the sociolinguistic studies.In the following part, the thesis tries to interpret advertising language from the aspect of variety, including: field, tenor and mode. Advertising language distinguishes its field and mode by the specific objective or aim, while its tenor reveals the interrelationship between the advertisers and the potential consumers. And then the thesis tries to expound some other sociolinguistic features reflected in advertising language, such as regional variation, gender role and social realities. Based on the former analysis, the thesis, in the end, tentatively seeks ways to realize AIDMA theory from sociolinguistic perspective. The ways suggested mainly include creating proximity atmosphere to capture the consumers' attention, using pun or metaphor tosustain interest, satisfying the psychological needs to stimulate desire and employing simple language or repetition techniques to reinforce memory, etc..This thesis tentatively analyses advertising language and tries to seek ways to realize AIDMA theory from sociolinguistic perspective, expecting that it can help to enrich the sociolinguistic studies, and promote the advertising studies from a new and creative perspective. Besides, the thesis also provides the indication that sociolinguistics does set a solid theoretical foundation for advertising studies.