Marketing Convenience Stores Symbolically

Abstract

The spokes-character Open-Chan was conceived in early 2000 and a diverse menagerie of other animal characters was introduced to promote 7-eleven in Taiwan. Over the subsequent decade, 7-Eleven has launched a wide range of campaigns and life narratives involving these spokes-characters to enhance the metaphorical image of the brand. This study aims to explicate the semiotic and linguistic texts launched in a series of campaigns between 2005 and 2015 and so to unpack their sociological and marketing implications. As suggested, visual narratives of cartoon spokes-characters perform a representative function that propagates the metaphoric image of the dominant powers as part of the broader concept of brand culture. In Schroeder's seminal studies on semiotic theory and brand culture, he suggests that physical attributes are important in projecting a proper image. The sign value of a proper spokes-character represents a significant asset in branding a retailing space.