Consumer Symbolicum: The Advertising Legacy of Pierre Martineau (Social Research, Marketing)
Martin, Dennis Grant
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/77280
Description
Title
Consumer Symbolicum: The Advertising Legacy of Pierre Martineau (Social Research, Marketing)
Author(s)
Martin, Dennis Grant
Issue Date
1985
Department of Study
Speech Communication
Discipline
Speech Communication
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Mass Communications
Language
eng
Abstract
Martineau's contributions can be grouped into two major areas of historical importance: First, he devoted his professional life to legitimizing qualitative research (currently known as social research, or "VALS," i.e.--Values and Lifestyles research) in advertising. In 1953, after nearly twenty years in editorial writing and retail advertising management at the Memphis Press Scimitar, he was appointed research director at the Chicago Tribune. Throughout his career, Martineau was a prolific author. In 1957 he published Motivation In Advertising; up until his death in 1964, he was a regular contributor of scholarly papers to prestigous academic journals. Moreover, during his decade of leadership at the Tribune, he was constantly in demand as the keynote speaker at dozens of conferences and seminars where he urged advertisers and marketers to do more qualitative research instead of relying solely on tradtional "nose-counting" techniques. Martineau's first significant change was to realign the priorities of the Tribune's research department. Instead of relying exclusively on empirical methods, his policies evolved toward a more humanistic research philosophy combining a number of social research methods with traditional survey techniques. Second, Martineau did far more than help popularize social research in the Fifties--he contributed to advertising's communication theory and the understanding of symbolic language. Most of Motivation In Advertising is devoted to a discussion of the power of symbolic forms as carriers of meaning. Until Martineau, no other advertising practitioner or scholar had studied the philosophies of Ernst Cassier and Susanne Langer, interpreted them in the context of advertising communication theory, and published these findings. Hence the title, CONSUMER SYMBOLICUM: Martineau's ideas about symbolic language as human communication were embodied in most of his writings. This was his most important contribution to advertising literature and forms the capstone for this dissertation.
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