Relationship/participant focus in multimodal market communication

Abstract

In this article, we present an integrated multimodal method of analysing marketers' discursive strategies. Using a social semiotic, multimodal framework, we propose 'the relationship/participant focus analysis' (RPF analysis). This method is socially significant in that it helps us identify the strategies marketers use to influence the consumer. RPF analysis reveals how marketing communication - exemplified with the register of packaging - relies on two fundamental factors, namely (i) communication perspective and (ii) personalisation. The communication perspective resides within the interpersonal realm of semiosis, focusing on the enactment of relationships, while personalisation resides within the ideational realm of semiosis, focusing on the construal of represented participants. RPF analysis suggests a way of tackling the multimodal complexity of marketing texts when these are seen as consisting of social semiotic acts of meaning, combining different semiotic resources. In the article, our focus is on the instantiated verbal and visual resources used on food packaging.