Month: September 2018

As I continue to construct my analysis, I have decided to switch to a new artifact. I will be analyzing the brand, Dove, and how they promote beauty and confidence in women through their products. You may find my artifact below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk

The Social/Public Issue:

Dove has brought serious attention to the issues that women are dealt with on a daily basis, which is how they perceive themselves. According to my artifact, women struggle with seeing themselves beyond their imperfections. Throughout the ad, each woman featured is challenged to describe herself, and what’s apparent is how much they focus on what they do not like about their appearance. Through this video, Dove conveys a message that woman are constantly putting themselves down for how they look, because they would rather look a certain way, and thus, their inner and outer beauty needs to be appreciated. Dove is brining up a vulnerable, yet important social issue on how women’s self-esteem needs to rapidly change, by showing that all women deserve to feel beautiful.

Method:

Considering that this artifact focuses on deconstructing the norms of how women are perceived, I believe the method I would need to analyze is feminist criticism. I would choose this method because the ad’s central focus is to get rid of how women view themselves poorly. Thus, a feminist perspective would bring attention to this social issue, and try to act on this problem, by critiquing how members of society among women have created unrealistic images of how women wish to look.

Audiences:

Dove is targeting women among modern day society that struggle with similar issues to the women in this ad. Because the ad features women of all ages, it appears that this artifact is aiming towards all types of age groups among women, and significantly, this brings a sense of inclusion to the women population that women ranging from younger to older experience the same struggles in the ways they view themselves. The implications of this company’s rhetoric is that Dove wants to bring women together, and lift each other up in order to tear down negative self-esteem that is experienced in an individual woman’s daily life.

Assumptions:

I have gathered an assumption that Dove is trying to sell their products with a story and a purpose. I am a frequent consumer of Dove beauty products, however, their message of delivering positive experiences about how women feel about themselves makes me value my products even more. I assume that Dove cares deeply on the social issue addressed about women’s lack of positive self-esteem, and has taken matters into their own hands. The members of this organization may have previously experienced lower self-confidence, or body image struggles, and put that into products that can make women feel confident. Another assumption may be that the members of this organization feel deeply about empowering women, and utilize their passions throughout their time spent in this organization. Society in general has clearly created false ideas of how women should look, and Dove is striving to end those generalizations for the well-being of struggling women.

Visual Rhetoric:

The visual rhetoric in this artifact suggests how women all come from different colors, shapes, and sizes, and are all made differently. This ad highlights the vulnerability shown in each women when they talk about what they’d like to change about themselves. The audience is able to see how women react to the images that are drawn of themselves by the artist in the video. Drawings of the women are shown, and the audience can visualize how hard women are on themselves for the appearances, when the drawings turn out to look nothing like them in real life.

Interests:

I think this can be answered rather broadly, however, when it comes to what interests represented by the organizations message, I think they primarily focus on women empowerment. Dove makes a powerful message that they want all women to change negative perspectives of themselves. Therefore, I can conclude that this organization feels passionately about making women feel they way they deserve, by giving them the freedom to open up about their insecurities, which, enables them to get past those insecurities. When women are encouraging other women, less harsh judgement is made about each other, and Dove is striving to end that through their ad.

My Personal Goal:

I strongly hope that anyone (even men if applicable), that finds this analysis relatable, or applicable to their lives can overcome their failure to view themselves for who they truly are. I believe that there is something about everyone in society that makes them unique, and when societal pressures to look a certain way takes over, most often, we tend to put ourselves down for not looking like a model on a magazine, for example. I believe my analysis can bring positive reinforcement on encouraging women to embrace their true selves, and that my potential audience is able to do so as well.

For my selected artifact, I will be analyzing a marketing company, MTKG and exploring the rhetorical straggles on how promote high quality branding, with creative and engaging strategies.

Exigencies 

I am specifically analyzing this company’s website. As far as exigencies in this artifact go, the only challenge that occurs in the rhetorical situation is how the website is poorly executed. When I did further research on this company, I found that they work for larger brands, such as the NFL, Leggo, Toyota, and more. Their website, however focuses more on advertising their company’s message. While it is clear that they strive to please their audience, the overall content of their website could use some work. Some options would that organizational rhetors include what specific brands sponsor, in order to bring in a larger audience, as these brands are highly well known.

 

Audiences

The audiences that seem to be the most appropriate for the rhetorical situation are functional audiences. Because this company sponsors very well-known brands across the world, the characteristics of a functional audience go hand in hand with this company. For example, according to the textbook, functional audiences consist of “employees, customers, or suppliers.” (Hoffman, Ford, 66). Thus, with such large brands taking place throughout MTKG, they attract audience that may work for the brands, as well potential customers and suppliers.

 

Constraints and Assets 

I don’t think I have a perfect answer for how it may be difficult for the organization to answer the exigencies, because they provide no explanation. However, what makes it easier is that they do value people. Not only do they pride their hardworking staff, they take into consideration that their audience may be attracted to a company that is welcoming, and hard-working, therefore, that could be why the content of the rhetorical artifact focuses less on the specific brands, and more on people, because that is their targeted audience.

 

Rhetorical Situations 

One rhetorical situation that is similar to other types of situations is risk. The company does put themselves at risk by not properly executing a more specific website. What they may need to take into consideration is how well they advertise their company, because if they don’t they are taking a risk on the success of performing strong rhetorical situations.

For my third post, I am displaying the content of MTKG’s website.

http://mktg.com/about/people/

The medium of delivery:

MTKG’s website allows you to explore each aspect of their company, and explains why they do marketing so well as well as what motivates their employees. I, however, specifically focus on a section of the website that discusses the people. The rhetoric of this website allows viewers to read about this company’s passion for people, and there are several photos of the members of the MTKG team.

“The backbone of MKTG culture is our commitment to a personal and trusting relationship with our clients and with each other. We pride ourselves on being vulnerable- connecting deeply and engaging sincerely.”

Ethos:

The website shows a plethora of real pictures of employees. The significance of these pictures are that they’re not just head shots taken in front of a white screen. These pictures consist of people actively doing things they love outside of their jobs. For example, there’s one photo of a woman named Susana in front of her horse. I can see that these pictures emphasize the importance of ethos, because they visually prove that their company is true to their word about creating meaningful relationships within the company, because they are accepting of everyone’s interests.

Pathos:

One major way that a rhetor appeals to their audience is when they allow themselves to be vulnerable about themselves in front of a crowd. Therefore, this website utilizes pathos when they state in the quote above that they are strongly acceptable to each other’s vulnerability. I believe that this allows viewers of this website to feel emotionally connected to these clients, and that they too, can be vulnerable.

Logos:

Once I clicked on the pictures of the employees, I find specific evidence about them. For example, under a picture of a woman named Laura, it says that she traveled the world for four months alone, and has been able to incorporate her passion for traveling within her job at MKTG. She brings brands together within local organizations in order to create effective social change in various communities. By explaining what Laura does within the company, logos is applied because there is valid evidence that the overall message of MKTG’s love for it’s employees and clients can be used every day.

For my paper, I will be analyzing a marketing company, MKTG. MTKG focuses on connecting branding with people all over the world. I chose this company because it has consists of an audience that goes from average consumers throughout the country, all the way to large companies including Toyota, the NFL, Lego, Wells Fargo, and more. This company cares deeply about influencing their audience emotionally, which is something I believe I can achieve with my own personal skills, thus, studying about a company such as MKTG provides with an opportunity to explore my career path.

By researching this company and learning more about their focus on effective marketing, I am able to gather a plethora of information on how to apply rhetoric into this assignment by observing how they use it to attract their audience, in this case, with marketing strategies. As an Associate Social Media Content Manager, I would work towards providing fresh and exciting ways to grab MTKG’s audience by coming up with abstract branding ideas alongside a team of professional marketers. Their main vision is this: “MKTG seeks boundless opportunity in helping achieve great, emotionally affecting life experiences. For the world’s leading brands, we architect and execute strategic, business-oriented marketing solutions via sport and entertainment, live experiences, retail marketing, enterprise/B-to-B engagement, hospitality, and sponsorship marketing.” (http://mktg.com/about/vision/). Because we live in a growing and diverse society, I feel that there is always room for creativity, and this company supports using it on a daily basis.