YOUR Donation Will Make a Change : Rhetoric Discourse Analysis on Charity Campaign Marketing
Hutri, Juulia (2019)
2019
Master's Degree Programme in Comparative Social Policy and Welfare
Yhteiskuntatieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Social Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-09-09
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201910013630
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-201910013630
Tiivistelmä
This master’s thesis examines charity campaigning in the market-oriented environment of postmodern societies. Contemporary societies build upon markets, and even charity organizations have adopted business logic in their actions. Market competition is intense, as charity organizations compete over the attention of private donors. Charity marketing is often targeted to individuals, reflecting the general trends of individualization in the postmodern era. Individuals are regarded the primary actors in the forums of society, politics and markets, and freedom of choice can be applied almost everywhere from lifestyle to consumer decisions – also in charity participation.
In this research, charity campaign participation is treated from the perspective of individual decision-making. Charity is considered as an everyday consumer decision that represents a form of political consumerism. In addition, charity participation is understood to be an element of personal self-expression and identity-building. Individuals demonstrate personal needs in the market, and businesses and organizations meet these needs by offering personalized solutions. This research seeks evidence of the processes of individualization and marketization in charity campaigning and discusses the meaning of these phenomenon for campaign audiences and charity organizations.
The research takes place in the context of Finland, and the data of the research consists of poster marketing of the Finnish Red Cross Hunger Day campaign from the period of 1981–2018. With the analytical focus in marketing language and style, the campaign posters are analysed with methods of discourse analysis and visual rhetoric analysis. The results of the analysis suggest that the campaign marketing strives to meet individualistic needs by offering campaign participants a selection of desirable status roles to identify with. Charity marketing appears consumer-oriented and strategic in a business sense. With these findings, the research aims to contribute in the recent discussion on the changing role of non-profit organizations in the postmodern consumer societies. In addition, the research wishes to offer fresh viewpoints on political consumerism, by treating charity participation as a form of politically aware decision-making in the market.
In this research, charity campaign participation is treated from the perspective of individual decision-making. Charity is considered as an everyday consumer decision that represents a form of political consumerism. In addition, charity participation is understood to be an element of personal self-expression and identity-building. Individuals demonstrate personal needs in the market, and businesses and organizations meet these needs by offering personalized solutions. This research seeks evidence of the processes of individualization and marketization in charity campaigning and discusses the meaning of these phenomenon for campaign audiences and charity organizations.
The research takes place in the context of Finland, and the data of the research consists of poster marketing of the Finnish Red Cross Hunger Day campaign from the period of 1981–2018. With the analytical focus in marketing language and style, the campaign posters are analysed with methods of discourse analysis and visual rhetoric analysis. The results of the analysis suggest that the campaign marketing strives to meet individualistic needs by offering campaign participants a selection of desirable status roles to identify with. Charity marketing appears consumer-oriented and strategic in a business sense. With these findings, the research aims to contribute in the recent discussion on the changing role of non-profit organizations in the postmodern consumer societies. In addition, the research wishes to offer fresh viewpoints on political consumerism, by treating charity participation as a form of politically aware decision-making in the market.