Department of Business Management

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Browsing Department of Business Management by Subject "Advertisement -- South Africa"

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    The relevance of traditional literary theory for brand storytelling in the South African context
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Turner, Talbot; Human Van-Eck, Debbie; Stefanie, Kühn; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept of Business Management.
    ENGLISH SUMMARY: In this thesis the scholarship and discourse about storytelling from the field of literary theory was consulted as point of departure for understanding what “good stories” entail. Since the time of Aristotle’s The poetics, literary theorists have devoted themselves to advancing the field of storytelling and are therefore considered to be the authority on storytelling. Brand storytelling does not necessarily have the same goal as literary storytelling but is rather focused on building the brand and having a positive impact on the consumer. Therefore, the triadic perspective that is implemented in this study is important. It includes (1) the consumer’s self, (2) the brand, and finally (3) storytelling. The literature pertaining to each of the three perspectives in the triadic perspective are covered in Chapters two to four. These relationships have yet to be explored together in the marketing literature. Through these efforts, this thesis was able to contribute to improved brand storytelling in the South African context with the establishment of the purpose of brand storytelling as well as the use of the storytelling aesthetic elements present in the literary theory discourse to achieve its purpose through consultation of experts and exemplar case studies. Through this endeavour, this thesis uncovered the relevance of literary theory for brand storytelling in the South African context. Chapter 5 introduced the methodology employed in this study. A qualitative methodology was used in a social constructivist epistemology. Unstructured, in-depth interviews with experts were undertaken in three fields of inquiry, namely in psychology (to understand the consumer from the perspective of the self), storytelling (to understand what good storytelling entails), and brand storytelling (to relate the knowledge gained to the world of brands). The interviews were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis. Further, exemplar South African brand storytelling case studies were considered in a deductive within-case content analysis. Findings uncovered from in-depth interviews yielded a number of thematic categories that were later grouped into broader themes: 33 categories from the psychologist interviews (abstracted to six themes); 36 categories from the interviews with South African storytellers (abstracted to six themes), and 36 categories from the interviews with brand storytellers (abstracted to seven themes). These findings are presented in Chapter 6 and 7. From this abstraction, the findings were considered in Chapter 8 with reference to the theory explored in the literature review. Managerial implications, the limitations of the study, and recommendations for future research were also presented. The major contribution of this thesis is the discovery of the critical role of the cathartic experience in storytelling and brand storytelling. Also, the triadic approach followed in the research. This study further made six theoretical contributions, specific to the purpose of storytelling and how to evaluate brand storytelling efforts. This study also made five managerial contributions that suggest how brand storytellers can direct their storytelling effort to be in line with the purpose of brand storytelling, as well as the means to achieve that purpose.