The interpretation of print advertising : how interpretive communities based on gender and social class interpret advertisements

• Main Author: Yannopoulou, Natalia Helen
• Published: University of Warwick 2008
• Subjects: 658; HF Commerce
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.524229

The aim of this study is to explore how interpretive communities based on gender and social class interpret advertisements. By distinguishing between open and closed text advertisements on one hand and by considering audience as active viewers of marketing communication on the other, this research explores, the symbolic meanings that are drawn by people when consuming an advertisement. A reader-response/reception theory approach was adopted, because it offers insights into the relationship between language, meaning and consumption, while it also emphasizes the meanings that consumers draw from advertisements. Moreover in depth interviews’ method has been selected for the data collection, since it gives us the opportunity to capture the rich and complex interplay between elements of the advertisement and consumer responses, by exploring how print advertisements are being individually decoded. Findings of the in-depth interviews indicate that people of different genders and from different social classes do interpret print advertisements in different ways. The main themes that emerged during the data analysis are the following: i. Male participants approach the advertisement in a descriptive way. ii. Male participants concentrate on the parts of the advertisement and attempt to solve the puzzle. iii. Female participants approach the advertisement in an interpretive way. iv. Female participants look into the whole of the advertisement and use it as a stimulus to think, imagine and create fantasies. v. Working class participants approach advertisements in an implicit way. vi. Middle social class participants approach advertisements in an explicit way. The research implication of this study lies in capturing how interpretive communities interpret advertisements and analysing the symbolic meanings that are drawn by them. The managerial contribution includes suggestions for the search and formation of more successfully targeted messages, in order to be successfully communicated to multiple target groups.