Advertise with Social Discourse, as a Brand Positioning Technique: Review of Research with Special Reference to the Latvian Media

This study examines the nature of the social discourse of advertising used as a brand positioning discourse. The focus is on consumer advertising, which is directed towards the promotion of some product or service to the general public. The study, however, is not meant to exhaust all the aspects of this particular discourse, or present an answer to all the problems it poses. This paper aimed at analyzing some different commercial advertisements (product/non-product ads) to investigate the intentions and techniques of consumer product companies to reach more consumers and sell more products. Norman Fairclough's 3-D model and Kress and van Leeuwen's grammar of visual design were used to analyze the data for professionals, but we are pointed on using stereotypes. Traditionally, stereotypes are defined as patterns or schemes via which people organize their behaviors and activities. Psychologists have been extremely interested in the persuasion techniques used by advertisers. The implicate question that most of such studies have entertained is whether advertising has become a force molding cultural mores and individual behaviors, or whether it constitutes no more than a “mirror” of deeper cultural tendencies within urbanized contemporary society. The one thing which everyone agrees is that advertising has become one of the most recognizable and appealing forms of social communication to which everyone in society is exposed. However, it could be understood from the results that the producers, generally tend to use their power and ideology to change people's behaviour and thought. Sometime more efficiently is used ”old” stereotypes and do not try to going to change people’s behaviuor but do conversely use their power to preserve previous behaviour try to reinforces this behaviour, shown this like some traditional value what confirmed customers identity. When we consider gender stereotypes we look at notions about the supposedly traditional behaviours of men and women and the characteristics and standards of these behaviours, as grounded in our culture and society. This idea allows to producers make customer feel belonging to this society and psychologically be involved into story what is shown by advertisers. Culture covers human values, action patterns, ideas, and material and artificial surrounding which enable interaction among people. The content of culture determines the particular qualities of certain groups of people, and it also determines their consumer characteristics. That is why it is essential to understand the way in which culture reaches individuals. In today’s information area, the media are the primary means for the transmission and reproduction of cultural information. They shape the image of culture in people’s consciousness. In addition this study provides analyses of some ads, using different ways of interpretations. All materials are taken from Latvian media.