3
TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1. Rationale …………………………………………………………………
1
2. Aims and Objectives of the Study………………………………………….
1
3. Scope of the Study………………………………………………………….
2
4. Method of the Study………………………………………………………
2
5. Design of the Study…………………………………………………………
2 PART II: DEVELOPMENT

Chapter 1: Theoretical Background

1. Business Slogans – Another Term of Advertising Slogans………………
4
2. A Review of Previous Studies ……………………………………………
4
3. Advertising as a Form of Communication………………………………….
6
3.1. Communication…………………………………………………………
6

16 4
2.3. Lexical Features…………………………………………………………
18
2.4. Syntactic Features………………………………………………………
22
2.5. Semantic Features………………………………………………………
25 Chapter 3: Findings and Discussions

1. Findings and Discussions on Graphetic Features…………………………
27
2. Findings and Discussions on Phonological Features……………………….
27
3. Findings and Discussions on Lexical Features……………………………
28
4. Findings and Discussions on Syntactic Features…………………………
30
5. Findings and Discussions on Semantic Features…………………………
31 PART III: CONCLUSION

1. Recapitulation of main ideas………………………………………………
32

Advertising slogans are critical to the image of the business, regardless of the size. The
slogan or tagline is part of the business image. It is a major part of the branding. Therefore,
slogans must be central and condensed messages which leave unforgettable impressions on
the consumers’ minds.

The question that is often raised for advertisers is how to create a successful slogan. In
order to compose a meaningful slogan that can wrap up the essence of a product, there has
been a full exploitation of language from phonology, lexicology, and syntax to semantics
and pragmatics. A slogan is a combination of many stylistic features which deserves to be
written and researched by a copywriter with experience in writing slogans that gets the
business noticed.

Because creating a successful slogan is not an easy task, slogan writing has now become an
industry. It requires the study into the aspects of language exploited.

Realizing the importance of advertising slogans to every business, this study is carried out
to investigate the exploitation of some stylistic features in terms of graphology, phonology,
lexicology, syntax and semantics of some English and Vietnamese advertising slogans.
The results of the study may be useful for Vietnamese advertisers to produce successful
slogans.

2. Aims and Objectives of the Study
This study aims to find out the similarities and differences in the writing style of
advertising slogans between English and Vietnamese. To achieve this aim, two objectives
are set. Firstly, an investigation into certain stylistic features in terms of graphology,
phonology, lexicology, syntax and semantics must be carried out. Secondly, there should
be comparison between English and Vietnamese slogan writing style in business. From this
investigation and comparison, some hints can be drawn for Vietnamese advertising
language in order to improve the effectiveness and profession of Vietnamese advertising.


intended to accomplish. It, later on, provides some classifications of different types of
advertisements and the popular structure of an advertisement. After that, it gets insights
into the term “advertising slogan”, its definition and its characteristics.
7
Chapter 2 will start with the procedures of the investigation. The analysis is then presented
in details in terms of graphology, phonology, lexicology, syntax and semantics. In this
analysis, some advertising slogans – both in English and Vietnamese – are chosen to
support for the argument.

Chapter 3 focuses on presenting findings of the research and discussions. The discussion
comes after statistical results for each stylistic feature. It is the basis of the later
conclusions.

Part 3 “CONCLUSION” provides the recapitulation of main ideas, the limitations of the
study and some suggestions for further research.

The study is closed with the appendix of English and Vietnamese advertising slogans that
are used for the analysis.

That is the reason why business slogans or company slogans are named under a term
“advertising slogans”.

Because advertising slogan is the central message that advertisers want to convey to
consumers, it is an important part of an advertisement which is written to introduce,
promote the product or service of a business. Hereafter is a review of advertising language,
advertisement and slogan.

2. A Review of Previous Studies
In the US and European countries, advertising is a kind of industry. Studies have been
carried out in the aspect of advertising language, of which some well-known studies are
“English in advertising: A linguistic study of advertising in Great Britain” by Geoffrey
N.Leech (1996), “Advertising as communication” by Gillian Dyer (1982), “English for
sale: A study of the language of advertising” by Lars Hermeren (1999), or “The discourse 9
of advertising” by Guy Cook (2001). There are also some studies which only focus on
certain language features of advertisements. Some of these are “Selling America: Puns,
language and advertising” by Michel Monnot (1982), “Pictorial Metaphor in Advertising”
by Char Forceville (1998). There are also some contrastive studies which compare the
advertising language in English and that in other languages, e.g. “Advertising language: A
pragmatic approach to advertisements in Britain and Japan” by Keiko Tanaka (1994).

Meanwhile advertising activities in Vietnam are quite new and have been rapidly expanded
for the last few years. Therefore, the number of studies in this field in Vietnam is limited.
Some notable researches on the language of advertising include two PhD theses done by
Mai Xuan Huy (2001) about “Các đặc điểm của ngôn ngữ quảng cáo dưới ánh sáng của lý
thuyết giao tiếp” (Features of advertising language on the theory of communication) and
Ton Nu My Nhat (2005) in which she carried out a contrastive discourse analysis of travel


According to Bovee and Thill (2000:57), communication can occur in various forms,
written or spoken, verbal or nonverbal, to show a process of sending and receiving
messages. This concept has much to share with the definition given by Saundra Hybels and
Richard L. Weaver (1992: 7) which says “communication is any process in which people
share information, ideas, and feelings. That process involves not only spoken or written
word, but also the body language, personal mannerism and style, the surroundings –
anybody that adds meanings to a message.” As seen from this definition, communication
itself is an on-going process with a lot of factors that help. Based on particular situations,
communicators will choose to make use of some factors that are most useful and available
in such cases to make their messages understood.
For Shannon (1948: 379-423 and 623-656), he breaks the process of communication down
into eight discrete components:
1. An information source. Presumably a person who creates a message.
2. The message, which is both sent by the information source and received by the
destination.
3. A transmitter.
4. The signal, which flows through a channel.
5. A carrier or channel. The most commonly used channels include air, light,
electricity, radio waves, paper, and postal systems. 11
6. Noise, in the form of secondary signals that obscure or confuse the signal carried.
Today we use noise more as a metaphor for problems associated with effective
listening.
7. A receiver. In Shannon's conception, the receiving telephone instrument. In face to
face communication a set of ears (sound) and eyes (gesture). In television, several
layers of receiver, including an antenna and a television set.
8. A destination. Presumably a person who consumes and processes the message.

advertisers and customers. As it is a communicative activity, it must share the principle
procedures with other types of communication. The following model of communication
represents rather appropriately the procedure in advertising communication.
It is clear that the intended message does not come to the receiver directly. The intended
message is often decoded and transmitted to the receiver by means of media. Therefore, the
message sounds implicit.

3.3. Functions of Advertising
Although the primary objective of advertising is to persuade, it may achieve this objective
in many different ways.

The first and foremost function of advertising is to get consumers’ attention. This is
considered to be the first step in trying to be persuasive. In trying to reach this goal, some
SOURCE
Intended
message
Decoded
message
Satisfy
the
receivers
’ needs
Media
Satisfied

3.4. Types of Advertising
Advertisements are classified based on different criteria. Geographically, there are local,
national and international advertisements. In terms of advertising medium, they are divided
into print and electronic categories. Another classification is based on their purposes which
sorts them out into commercial and non-commercial categories. The former includes
Consumer Advertising, Trade Advertising and Service Advertising. The latter can be
called Public Interest Advertising.

Consumer advertising aims directly at mass audience; trade advertising is responsible for
the communication between manufacturers and retailers; and service advertising is directed
at raising customers’ awareness and attitude toward the organization rather than its
products or services.

Public Interest Advertising aims to inform, persuade, or remind people about the particular
idea, cause, or philosophy being advertised. This kind of advertising is often used by non-
business institutions, such as schools, hospitals and charitable organizations. We also see
advertising by associations or government organizations. Much government advertising
announces the availability of such valuable government services as consumer assistance, 14
welfare aid, or career guidance. Many state government use advertising to attract new
businesses, tourists, or workers to aid their economy.

Because of the fact that public interest advertising is nonprofit, the words it uses are much
more different from the other 3 kinds of advertising. Its purpose is not to urge readers to
spend their money, but to disseminate a kind of concept or advocate a social ethic.

3.5. Structure of an Advertisement
Generally, an advertisement begins with a headline which has the function to attract

with a logo to symbolize for the product, a slogan is thought to be even more powerful than
a logo as people often remember and recite the slogan of a product rather than sketching its
logo.

According to Charles L. Whittier (1955), a slogan “… should be a statement of such merit
about a product or service that it is worthy of continuous repetition in advertising, is
worthwhile for the public to remember, and is phrased in such a way that the public is
likely to remember it.” (p.36). That means the typical characteristics of a slogan is
memorable.

However, one interesting fact is that slogans are referred to with different terms in different
countries. Here are some of them.

In the UK, they are end lines, endlines or straplines.
In the USA, they are tags, tag lines, taglines or theme lines.
In Germany, they are claims.
In Belgium, they are baselines.
In France, they are signatures.
In the Netherlands
and Italy, they are pay-offs or payoffs.
To the unimaginative,
they are rip-offs or ripoffs. The bland leading the bland.
Generically, they are slogans.
At ADSlogans Unlimited,
we call 'em slogos (the slogan by the logo).
They are often ™ Trade marks (UK)
™ Trademarks (USA)
SM Service Marks (USA)
 It should not make you say “so what?” or "ho hum".
 It should not make you say "oh yeah??" 17
 It should not be meaningless
 It should not be complicated or clumsy
 You should like it
 Trends in slogans

 All the slogans are originally English. We do not collect the translated ones.

40 English advertising slogans and 40 Vietnamese ones are respectively divided into 4
categories (finance and banking; telecommunication, broadcasting and publishing; food
and drinks; fashion) with an equal number of slogans in each category.

The population of 40 Vietnamese advertising slogans covers mostly all famous brands in
Vietnam. They are representative enough to reflect the current trend in creating slogans in
our country. And certainly, foreign companies which have their branches in Vietnam will
not be taken into consideration. 19
1.2. Data Analysis
To find out the prevailing trend in creating advertising slogans, all the chosen slogans will
be studied and compared in the light of common features of advertising slogans to see what
features or techniques are mostly employed by advertisers. This purpose is best achieved
by working out the commonly-employed stylistic features and the proportion of slogans
possessing each feature and employing each technique.

The result of this study will be presented based on the statistics to see which features are
most used by slogan makers as well as the differences between English and Vietnamese
advertising slogans in terms of language style. The findings will be provided after the
statistical results.

2. The Analysis
In this section, some stylistic features of English and Vietnamese advertising slogans are
presented in terms of graphology, phonology, lexicology, syntax and semantics. From each
perspective, the slogans will be analyzed in terms of subtypes to investigate their language
style in details.

Among 80 advertising slogans investigated, only 3 English slogans use initial
capitalization inconsistently:
ABC
Still the One
Coca cola
It’s the Real Thing
Calvin Klein
Between love and madness lies Obsession.
In the slogan of ABC, the most important word is “One” which implies the highest ranking
of the brand. In the slogan of Coca cola, the implication that it is real, it is not just a saying
is expressed by the initial capitalization of “Real Thing”. And the spirit of Calvin Klein’s
slogan lies in the word “Obsession”. “Obsession” is what Calvin Klein brings about.
Full use of capitalization.
Sometimes for the same reason as above, the advertising slogan needs to emphasize every
letter it uses or to make the advertising slogan look trim and tidy. However, none of 80
advertising slogans in this study use full capitalization.

2.2. Phonological Features
From the perspective of phonology, the two most noticeable phonological items employed
here are rhymes and alliteration.

Use of rhymes 21
Rhyme is the best technique to make something memorable. You can easily know by heart
a poem or a song because they are rhythmical. Taking advantage of this feature,
advertising slogans both in English and Vietnamese employ rhyme as an effective way to
stick in people’s mind.


This effect is achieved by beginning each word with the same letter “b” in those words as
“Britain”, “best”, “business”, and “bank”. 22
Because the beating rhythm achieved by alliteration is too strong and the creation of it is
not easy at all, the English slogans employing this technique is countable. This is also the
reason why no trace of it in Vietnamese advertising slogans is found.

2.3. Lexical Features
From the lexical point of view, there are some typical lexical items that are noticed as the
followings:

Common uses of first and second person addressee “you”, “we”, and “us”.
The use of second person addressee “you” tends to shorten the distance between the
product or the producer and consumers, as if the producer or the advertiser is speaking to
you face to face, making sincere promises, honest recommendations. In so doing, the
advertising slogans stand a better chance to move the receiver or customers to action,
because the receiver feels that he is being thought of and taken care of and he is the center
point of the producers.
O2
See what you can do
Manu Life Insurance
For your future
The use of first person addresser “we” and “us” is the most direct way to tell the receiver
what the sponsor of an advertising slogan stands for, his idea, his view, and his credit. It’s
a little bit like a self-introduction to the potential customers to let them know you,
recognize you, believe you and trust you.

Advertisers in Vietnam also employ the second person addressee when making advertising


Use of “every” “always”, etc.
These words are often used in advertisements to indicate the universal application of the
product or to include as many potential customers as possible or to achieve the emphasis of
the product’s utility or the company’s unswerving commitment.
In the slogans of CitiBank (The United States), Levis jeans (The United States), Mobile
phone (Vietnam) we can see these words:
CitiBank-
Your Citi never sleeps
Levis jeans
Quality never goes out of style.
Mobile phone
Mọi lúc, mọi nơi
Anytime, anywhere.

Use of “no”, “none”, etc.
Negatives tend to be used very sparingly because the purpose of all advertising slogans is
to strengthen the positive side. But when negatives do occur, they are usually placed in an
emphatic position to highlight the special the positive side.
Stones bitter
There’s no taste like Stones.
However, it seems that these words are not favored by Vietnamese advertisers.

Use of verbs 24
The choice of verbs is very careful in advertising. Although the purpose of advertising is to
persuade consumers to buy its products, advertisements seldom use the word “buy” in it.
According to statistics, only two out of ten advertisements use the verb “buy” directly.

Geographical names and brand names act as good indicators of the place the slogans come
from, which helps customers to choose their banks. It’s interesting that a large number of
English advertising slogans of finance and banking have brand names in them.

HSBC Bank
HSBC. The world’s local bank 25
Citibank
Your Citi never sleeps
Natwest Bank
To save and invest, talk to Natwest
State Farm Insurance
Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there
Allstate Insurance
You’re in good hands with Allstate.
It can be said that brand name is the identification for the business. As investigated,
finance and banking is the area that has the most indicators as brand names in the
advertising slogans.

Following this trend, Vietnamese advertising slogans also include their geographical
names and brand names in them.
Nutifood
Vì tương lai Việt
For Vietnam’s future
Vinamilk
Chất lượng quốc tế - Chất lượng Vinamilk
The international quality – The Vinamilk quality
Bitis

they are rarely used by Vietnamese advertisers. Below are some English advertising
slogans in the study which have the form of short simple sentences:
Citibank
Your Citi never sleeps.
British Telecom
It’s good to talk.
De Beers Consolidated Mines
A diamond is forever.
However, in 40 Vietnamese advertising slogans, there is only one slogan which is
sentence-structured:
Café Việt
Bạn đã đủ mạnh để thử?
Are you strong enough to try?

Use of everyday expressions
Every day sentences tend to be overly used in daily life, but it can be very forceful when
used in an advertising slogan. These sentences travel very fast, because anyone can
remember it without any effort. It can just hang upon people’s lips. It’s something
popularized without much publicity.
For example:
Manu Life Insurance
For your future
ABC
Still the One
California milk
Got milk?
Nike
Just do it.
It’s a pity that every day sentences are only used in English advertising slogans, but
Vietnamese ones. Vietnamese people seem to prefer something formal when creating

theme line or tagline) begin as successful headlines. (Arens, William F. & Bovée,
Courtland L. 1994: p.289). Therefore, it is not surprising that the slogan can use questions
too for the same purpose.

MacDonalds fast food has a very interesting advertising slogan in the form of question:
Have you had your break today?
It is a daily life question that makes readers have the feeling of being cared. It also implies
that it’s high time you stopped work and had something to eat.

Another slogan is by California milk:
Got milk?