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ATTENTION SEEKING TECHNIQUES IN MAIL ADVERTISING: A FOCUS ON

CUSTOMER DISTINCTIVENESS AND IDENTITY TARGETING

Yaşar Onbaşıoğlu

Hacettepe University

Ankara, 2014

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ABSTRACT

Advertisements are all around us, and every day we come across with dozens of

advertisements in various mediums. Advertising language has a special aim which is to

persuade the consumers to buy or support the product, the service or the idea being advertised.

This study aims to define the attention seeking techniques being used in spam mail

advertisements‟ titles. The paper focuses on the identity targeting technique, which is an

important marketing strategy, especially how the text writers use the limited area of mail titles

to attract attention and persuade the target to open the mail by. Our data consists of 86 mail

titles chosen from 4500 Turkish advertisement mails from various companies marketing

different products and services or promoting a charity campaign. The data was analyzed with

a special focus on how the customer distinctiveness is evoked. It is found that the advertisers

are using customers‟ personal names and personal pronouns like “you, we” very often to give

the impression that they know each other. It is also found that advertisers use various

strategies in order to target different groups.

Keywords persuasion, advertising language, identity targeting

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Table of contents

Title…………………………………………………………………………………………….1

ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………...2

Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………………...3

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………4

1.1 Previous studies in the discourse of advertising…………………………………………...4

1.2 Mass vs. target advertising…………………………………………………………………6

1.3 Previous studies on identity targeting……………………………………………………...7

1.4 Aim of the study…………………………………………………………………………....8

2. Methodology………………………………………………………………………………...9

2.1 Data………………………………………………………………………………………...9

2.2 Data collection……………………………………………………………………………..9

3. Data analysis………………………………………………………………………………...9

3.1 The construction of in-group identities……………………………………………………9

3.1.1 The use of personal names……………………………………………………………….9

3.1.2 The use of pronouns…………………………………………………………………….11

3.2 Targeting specific groups…………………………………………………………………14

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………17

References…………………………………………………………………………………….19

Appendix……………………………………………………………………………………...21

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1. Introduction

Every day we interact with dozens of advertisements in different mediums. They are all

around us in different forms. We see them on billboards on the streets, in newspapers, while

watching television or listening to the radio, and even surfing on the internet. Advertisements

have one aim and that is to persuade the target audience to buy the product or the service

being advertised or in a case of charity, fund-raising organizations to get peoples‟ attention to

their campaign.

The word „advertisement‟ comes from the Latin verb „advertere‟ which means to turn towards

(Goddard, 1998:6). Thus it is possible to say that the persuasive nature of the advertisements

comes from their roots. As Jana Lapsanska suggests in her thesis, advertising is a means of

promoting the product, idea, or organization on the market with the aim of giving information

and to persuade people of the advantage of the product and convince them to take an action

and buy it (2006:14). In order to grasp the attention of the audience and to convince them to

buy their product, companies use various linguistic features to increase the effectiveness of

their advertisements and these techniques have been the subject of many articles.

1.1 Previous studies in the discourse of advertising

The attempt to identify the general properties of the language used in advertising started

around 1950‟s. One of the most cited and the earliest study on the language of advertising is

Geoffrey Leech‟s English in Advertising: A Linguistic Study of Advertising in Great Britain

(Leech, 1966). The study of the language used in advertising has become increasingly popular

since then.

In a more recent study Linghong studied the stylistic features of English advertising in

graphological, lexical and syntactical level (2006). Another comprehensive study on the

language of advertising was carried out by Lapsanska in which she approaches advertising

slogans from phonological, morphological, syntactic and semantic aspects.

In Turkey the study of advertising language is limited. One study on the advertising language

is unpublished doctoral dissertation by Işıl İnce (İnce, 1993). In this dissertation, İnce

analyzed the language of Turkish TV commercials, their effect on the society and on the daily

language use. In 2002, Uğur Batı studied the language of advertising in order to see how the

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texts are morphologically constructed to increase the persuasive effect of the message. As a

sample he used advertisements collected from three magazines over a year and concluded that

the language used in different ways such as ceremonial, regular, personal, complex and

simple depending on the purpose. He also found that the most common types of words in

advertising texts were nouns and adjectives (Batı, 2002).

The study of advertising language cannot be limited to a single discipline. As it has been

mentioned in several studies the preparation of advertising text requires an interdisciplinary

work (İnce, 1993; Lapsanska, 2006; Rossi et al.). Therefore the analysis of advertising texts

should be carried out with interdisciplinary methods.

In 2007 Şen discussed the construction of global and local lingualism in which the cultural

and the linguistic differences gain importance by focusing on the effect of globalization on

advertising language (Şen, 2007). Another study by Reiterlehner analyzes the linguistic

strategies used in green ads for non-green products by taking picture text combination into

consideration and metaphorical naturalization (Reiterlehner, 2007). There are other studies in

the literature concerning the attention attracting strategies such as intertextuality (Fuerst,

2007), using foreign elements (Blumrich, 2007), iconicity (Henning, 2007).

In the literature there are a lot of articles approaching the advertising language from different

aspects. The diversity of the topics originates from the constantly changing nature of the

advertisements. The competition in the market as well as the changing demands and needs of

the consumers and also the changing technology motivates the advertisers to develop new

ideas and techniques in order to be ahead of their rivals. For this matter Cook (2001) makes

the following statement in his study:

The conventions of ads change quickly and constantly, reflecting changes in the industry

itself, changes in society, and changes in the genres in which ads are embedded. Almost

immediately after a statement has been made about advertising,it is outdated.

Cook‟s statement makes it clear that the content and the design of advertisements should

always keep up with the changes in the market and new techniques should be developed by

the text writers and designers.

In the past advertisers did not have access to much information about the customers so the

advertisements were designed to attract everyone with a single marketing appeal (Lewison &

Hawes, 2007). This type of marketing is known as mass marketing. However, today

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technology is providing customers with various conveniences like online or mobile shopping,

banking transactions, and similar services which also provide the companies with information

about the interests and preferences of the consumers and allow them to design their

advertisements accordingly. E-mail advertising is one of the areas that this information can

actively be used.

1.2 Mass vs. Target advertising

Mass marketing treats the entire market as a target and focuses on the similarities of the

consumer needs and it is characterized by mass production and distribution (Lewison &

Hawes, 2007). In mass marketing strategy the company ignores the differences in the market

and makes a one offer to the whole market and each person in the market is treated similarly.

Target marketing on the other hand as Kotler et al. (1991) identifies refers to the

identification of customers that share a common need or characteristic. The underlying notion

of target marketing is making the customer feel distinctive and have sympathy for the brand

(Aaker et al., 2000). Aaker et al. also suggests that the more consumers make similarity

judgments between themselves and the company the more distinctive they fell and that

increases the target marketing effect. On distinctiveness Aaker et al. (2000) suggests;

Distinctiveness theory predicts that an individual’s distinctive traits will be more

salient to himself or herself than commonly held traits because such highly

distinctive traits are more central to the self-concept. Thus, individuals who

belong to a distinctive or numerically rare group (e.g., Native Americans,

Professional athletes, handicapped individuals) tend to be highly aware and

mindful of the characteristics shared by that group and are more likely to

incorporate that group identity into their self-concept than individuals who do not

belong to such a group.

Following the Aaker et al.‟s statement about distinctiveness theory it is possible to say that in

target marketing the use of distinctiveness as a persuasive device is crucial. In order to be

successful the marketers need to understand what makes a consumer feel distinctive as a

member of a particular group (Grier & Deshpande, 2001).

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1.3 Previous studies on identity targeting

Identity targeting is one of the most common advertising strategies. Lenoir et al. (2013), states

that ethnic targeting is an increasingly important marketing strategy in today‟s multicultural

societies. Also it seems that the majority of the studies in the literature are about ethnic

identity targeting.

One influential study in identity targeting was carried out by Despande & Stayman (1994).

This study was an empirical application of McGuire‟s distinctiveness theory to the advertising

context as a persuasive device. Despande & Stayman found that people that are members of a

minority group in a society were more likely have positive attitudes towards the

advertisements using a spokesperson from their own ethnic group compared to the majority

groups. They concluded that the use of ethnic spokes people in advertisements would be

effective only on majority ethnic groups.

Another study by Grier and Despande (2001) focused on the influence of the social status of

groups in South African consumers in addition to their numeric status. They hypothesize that

increased ethnic salience should be evoked by factors that makes people socially distinctive

due to the fact that social distinctiveness influences the importance of the self concept. As a

result Grier and Despande concluded that when social factors are involved, target advertising

can be effective even on majority groups.

Aaker et al. (2000) examined the effects of target advertising on non-targeted groups in

addition to the targeted groups. In this study three experiments are conducted and the results

of all three experiments indicate that there is a favorable target market effect for the

distinctive members because they feel similarities with the advertisers on the other hand for

non distinctive members there is a negative effect.

A study by Lenoir et al. (2003), as the author states, is the conceptual replication of Despande

and Stayman‟s study. This study criticizes the previous studies for generalization that the use

of ethnic spokesperson as a persuasive technique has a similar effect on all the members of an

ethnic minority. Lenoir et al. concluded that generational status (first vs. second generation) is

an important variable for the effectiveness of the ethnic targeting strategy.

All of these studies have similar results and that is the target marketing has a positive effect

on consumers especially when they feel similarities between themselves and the source of the

advertisement. These studies concentrate on the sociological and psychological aspects of the

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targeting advertisements and they only mention language use as a factor that arouses the

feeling of distinctiveness or completely ignore it. There seem to be a lack of investigation in

the literature about how these distinctiveness effects are aroused by means of language use in

targeting advertisements.

In a master‟s thesis in 2006 by Kökpınar the culture based representations in TV

advertisements was analyzed at the linguistic and semiological level. Kökpınar focused on

how culture elements were used in TV advertisements that are new to the culture to construct

in-group identities and create sympathy to the brand. Kökpınar concluded that in

advertisements; colloquial language, substandard forms, filling words, address terms,

exclamation words and repetitions which are commonly used in the culture were exploited.

This study will deal with the in-group identity construction in e-mail advertisements‟ title

with a focus on how specific groups are targeted.

1.4 Aim of the study

This study aims to identify the persuasive function of language used in e-mail advertisement‟s

titles in relation to how the consumer distinctiveness is evoked by the use of language, how

in-group identities are constructed and how consumers are persuaded to open the mail with

the feeling of belongingness.

Although there are quite a few articles on the persuasive language used in advertisements in a

linguistic perspective, those studies are mostly concerned with the stylistic properties of the

advertising texts. There seem to be a need to examine the effect of language in distinctiveness

and this study attempts to do so.

In the course of this study we will try to find answers to the following question:

1) How does the consumer distinctiveness effect is evoked in the target advertising e-

mail‟s title texts?

a) How the in-group identities are constructed?

2) What kind of linguistic elements are used in order to target specific identity groups?

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2. Methodology

2.1 Data

The data of this study consist of 86 Turkish e-mail advertisements (spam mails) chosen from

4500 e-mail advertisements sent by various companies and organizations marketing different

products, services or promoting campaigns.

2.2 Data Collection

The data was collected out of 4500 Turkish mail advertisements that accumulated in different

e mail addresses over the last 2 years. Then the titles of these 4500 mails were examined and

86 of them, which are targeting a certain group and using a more intimate language, were

chosen.

3. Data Analysis

The data analysis consists of two sections. In the first section the language use of the

advertisers will be analyzed in terms of addressing of the recipients in an attempt to convince

them that they have something in common or belong to the same group and make them feel

sympathy towards the company. In the second section examples will be given for the use of

specific group representative language elements which are targeting specific groups to get

their attention and earn the trust of the customers to give them the impression that they are

one of them.

3.1 The construction of in-group identities

3.1.1 The use of personal names

Example 1: From Yemek Sepeti.

İyi ki doğdun Yaşar, doğum günün için hazırladık. (Happy birthday Yaşar, we have prepared

this for your birthday.)

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Burcu, Coca-Cola‟nın 50. Yılında senin için bir süprizi var. (Burcu, Coca-Cola has a surprise

for you for its 50th

anniversary.)

In the first example the customer is addressed directly with his name and the message is about

his birthday. In the second the company is celebrating the 50th

anniversary and they want to

do it with the customer. The company is trying to impose the idea that they care about the

customers and prepared something special for them.

Example 2: From Yemek Sepeti.

Yaşar, bu 5 TL senin mi? (Yaşar is this 5 Turkish Lira yours?)

Burcu, kapıyı aç harcadığın para geri geldi. (Burcu, open the door the money you have spent

has returned.)

In these mails the advertising company is informing the customers about a discount. The first

one is in a form that friends talk to each other. The sender asks whether that 5 lira is the

customer‟s or not as if the customer dropped it and they have found it. The second title gives

the impression that the company has a very close relationship with the customer that they

know the home address and brought money to the customer. In both of the titles personal

names were used by the company to attract the customer.

Example 3: From Google+, Badoo respectively.

Ahmet isimli kullanıcıyı tanıyor musun Yaşar? (Do you know Ahmet, Yaşar?)

Yaşar, Ahmet sana bir mesaj bıraktı. (Yaşar, Ahmet left you a message.)

These two mails were sent by online friendship and dating applications. In both titles the

message is that the company made an association between the customer and a user named

Ahmet and they are trying to bring them together by notifying that they might be

acquaintances. Again the addressing choice of the company is the personal name.

Example 4: From Gitti Gidiyor.

Yaşar tam sana göre ürünler seçtik. (Yaşar, we have chosen products just for you.)

Yasar, annen en iyisine layık en iyi anneler günü hediyeleri gitti gidiyor‟da (Yaşar, your

mother deserves the best, the best mother‟s day presents are in gittigidiyor.)

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In these two examples it is clear that the company is trying to impress the customer by

implying how much they know about the customer like what they would like and what would

fit their mother and even the company makes a selection for the customer.

Example 5: From Gitti Gidiyor.

Sevgili Yaşar 2013 sensiz olmaz. (Dear Yaşar, we need you in 2013)

Teşekkürler Burcu, bu ödül hepimizin. (Thank you Burcu, this award is ours.)

Both of these examples have the implication that the company needs the customers. The first

one is an obvious effort to keep the customer at hand in the new year. Here in addition to the

personal name a salutation “dear” was also used which is an informal use when combined

with a first name. In the second example the company thanks the customer and implies that

they form a group, a family together by using the possessive pronoun “our”.

The use of pronouns will be analyzed in detail in the following section.

3.1.2 The use of personal pronouns

Example 6: From Pegasus airlines

30% indirimi kaçırıyorsun. (You are missing a 30% discount.)

30% indirim dilediğin şehre, dilediğin zaman uç. (30% discount fly to the city you desire,

whenever you desire.)

Sonbaharda 44.99 TL‟de uçmak ister misin? (Would you like to fly for 44.99 Turkish Lira in

the fall.)

All of the titles are informing the customer about a discount. The first one is in a form of

warning and by using the second person singular pronoun “you” the company addresses the

customer as a friend would do. In the second example again the pronoun “you” is used in a

similar way to convince the customer that they have a close relationship with the company

that they are addressing them with “you”.

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Example 7: From Yemek Sepeti.

Siparişlerini inceledik ve Coca-Cola sevdiğini biliyoruz. (We have examined your orders and

we know that you like Coca-Cola.)

The addressing is again in second person singular and in this example the company went a

step further and gives the impression that they are obsessive about the customer that they are

examining all of their orders in order to give them better service.

Example 8: From Yemek Sepeti and Morhipo

Bu summer menü sana özel. (This summer menu is special for you.)

Pegasus seni Barcelona‟ya uçuruyor. (Pegasus is flying you to Barcelona.)

Kimse görmeden Hotiç kampanyasına göz atmak ister misin? Sana özel fırsat! (Would you

like to take a look at Hotiç campaign before no one sees it? Opportunity special to you!)

In these examples the goal of the advertiser is to make the customer feel special by pretending

to have prepared a special offer just for the exact person they are sending the message to.

Example 9: From Foursquare.

Yolculuktan döndün, hosgeldin! Nasıldı? (You have returned from a journey, welcome back!

How was it?)

In this example the advertiser is again following the actions of the customers. Foursquare

which is an application keeps track of the users‟ whereabouts welcomes the customer in a

friendly manner and wants to share the memories of the customers from the journey.

Example 10: From Hepsi Burada, GS Store and Gitti Gidiyor.

Derbide sarıyız, kırmızıyız. (We are red and yellow in the derby.)

Tebrikler, seninle birinciyiz. (Congratulations, we are the first with you.)

Korkmuyorum, başaracağız. (I am not afraid, we will succeed.)

In these examples the first person plural pronoun “we” is used. This pronoun refers to the

advertiser and also includes the customers. By doing so the advertiser posits that they have

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similarities with the customers and they belong to the same group. First and the second

advertisement are targeting certain groups which will be analyzed later.

Example 11: From Greenpeace

Zaman az sana ihtiyaç çok. (The time is short and you are greatly needed.)

There is a call for help in this example which would be expected from an association like

Greenpeace but the choice of address again addresses the receiver with second person singular

pronoun to influence them and persuade them that they are a member of the team and should

answer the call.

Example 12: From Gitti Gidiyor and Change.org

Seni özledik! (We missed you!)

Bizi artık sevmiyor musun? (Don‟t you like us anymore?)

When two people have a very close relationship and do not see each other for a while they

miss each other or rebuke to each other like the latter example from Change.org. In this case

these mails that were sent by Gitti Gidiyor and Change.org after the recipient had stopped

visiting the site for a while and the language use of the advertisers is very informal.

Example 13: From Yemek Sepeti

Bu hafta evimizde İtalyanları misafir ediyoruz. (We are harboring Italians in our home this

week.)

Can dostlarımızın fotoğrafı yerine, gelin mama paylaşalım! (Let‟s share food, instead of

sharing our friends‟ (pets‟) photos.)

These titles contain the possessive pronoun “our” which directly adds the recipient to the

same group with the company. The underlying message in the expression “our home” in the

first title is “we are sharing a house and we are a family”. In the second title again the

possessive pronoun is used for animals and the attempt is to convince the customer that the

company is also an animal lover like them and they have a common interest.

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3.2 Targeting specific groups

Example 14: From MSN

Genç olmayı siz iyi bilirsiniz! (You know best how to be young!)

This title is an example of the use of intertextuality which is one of the commonly used

techniques in advertising to attract attention. Here MSN used a structure the President of

Turkey uses frequently in his public speeches while addressing the opposing parties. It is

unclear whether MSN used this expression intentionally or not but it is possible that it will

grab the attention of the recipients and persuade them to open the mail.

Example 15: From Yemek Sepeti

Aile saadetini kovaya doldurduk. (We have filled the (KFC) bucket with family bliss.)

Annenizin mantısını özlediniz mi? (Did you miss your mother‟s patty?)

These two mails are targeting a population who is living away from their family, most

probably the students. The first one asserts that the customers will find the family bliss in the

KFC bucket and that the food is just like they ate back at home. The second one triggers the

longing emotions for the mother and the home made food to set the customers into action and

order some food.

Example 16: From Yemek Sepeti

DOY-KUR başvurunuz sonuçlandı. (Your DOY-KUR application has been concluded.)

The target population of this mail is the university students. Firstly DOY-KUR needs an

explanation. Here the company made a word play by changing the first part of the name of

“YURT-KUR” which is the short name of “Yüksek Öğretim Kredi ve Yurtlar Kurumu”.

“YURT-KUR” is a corporation which provides dormitory, scholarship and loan to the

university students. In the title of the mail the first part “YURT” which means dormitory is

changed with “DOY” to get full. The aim of this kind of references is to get the attention and

the sympathy of the students and to convince them that the company is making a special effort

for them.

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Example 17: From Yemek Sepeti

[Rektörlük Duyurusu] Hacettepelilere indirimli menüler ([Rektorate announcement] Deals for

Hacettepe students.)

This mail is another example which is targeting the university students especially Hacettepe

students. In this example the advertiser used a deceptive title. The structure used is the exact

same one the real announcements have and can easily be mistaken for a real one.

Example 18: Hepsi Burada

Can dostuna da yılbaşı hediyesi aldın mı? (Did you get a christmas present for your true

friend too?)

Can dostlarımız için hep iyilik peşindeyiz. (We are always working for the benefit of our

friends.)

Onları sevmek paha biçilemez. (The love for them is priceless.)

Here the target population is the animal lovers. Hepsi Burada used an expression which

indicates their attitude towards animals. The expression used is “can dostu” which can be

translated as the closest friend. By using this expression the aim of the advertiser is to leave

the impression that they also care about animals and love them.

Example 19: From Morhipo and Limango

Mezuniyetin en güzel kızı olmak için önerilerimize göz atın. (Take a look at our

recommendations to be the most beautiful girl in the graduation ceremony.)

Mezuniyette tarzınızla büyüleyin: ışıltılı mısınız, klasik mi, sade mi? (Fascinate with your

style in the graduation ceremony: are you sparkling, classic or plain?)

In these two examples the advertiser is targeting the girls who are about to graduate and have

a graduation ceremony soon. The words like “fascinate” and “be the most beautiful girl” are

used as the attention seekers and by making recommendations the advertiser is attempting to

make itself accepted among the girls as one of them.

Example 20: From Yemek Sepeti and Aralgame

Ohannes bu menüler ne? (Oh my god, look at these menus.)

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Hadi pes atak! PES 2015 satışta. (Let‟s play pro evolution soccer! PES 2015 is on sale.)

Here Yemek Sepeti and Aralgame appeal to the young by using colloquial expressions like

“Ohannes” which is an exclamation and “pes atmak” literal translation “to throw pes” which

means to play pro evolution soccer. The advertisers‟ aim is again to be accepted by their

target audience and arouse sympathy for themselves.

Example 21: From various unidentified dating sites sent with an e-mail address consisting of

scrambled letters.

Rana Yonamis seni ekledi yakınlaşmak istiyor. (Rana Yonamis has added you and wants to

develop intimacy.)

İpek Natiya seni beğendi, arkadaşlarına ekledi. (İpek Natiya liked you and added you.)

Burası çapkınlık yapmana olanak sağlar. Sadece dene. (This site gives you a chance to go on

the loose. Just try.)

All of these mails are targeting male users. The first two examples are common notification

mails like Facebook sends and similar in nature. Both contain a female name and indicate that

those females have interacted with the users even if they are not registered to the site. The

third example on the other hand has a more intimate language use as if men are talking to

each other with expressions like “çapkınlık yapmak” and the final phrase “sadece dene” urges

them to open the mail.

Example 22: From Aralgame

Yaşar intikam için hazır mısın? God of War Ascension satışta (Yaşar, are you ready for

vengeance? God of War Ascension is on sale.)

Aramıza hoşgeldin assassin. Assassin‟s Creed III satışta. (Welcome to the order assassin.

Assassin‟s Creed III is on sale.)

In the first mail the company is making a reference to the content of the game by using

“vengeance”. The gamers who had played the prequels would know that they are going to

avenge something. In the second example the company welcomes the customers to the order

and names them assassins. Using this kind of strategies might be effective to the behavior of

the recipients and motivate them to open the mail.

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Example 23: From Yemek Sepeti

Domino‟s ortaladı. Gol olur! (Domino‟s crosses the ball. That is gonna be a goal.)

These two mails are prepared for football fans. The first example is about a special offer by

Domino‟s and the advertiser chose to announce this offer is by using a sports commentary

style. The moment when the ball is going towards to the goal was chosen carefully to

associate the excitement of that moment with the Domino‟s offer. Also it might be associated

with the famous Turkish commentator Rıdvan Dilmen which would be an inside joke as he is

famous for the phrase “gol olur” in most of the attack positions and make the customers smile

and feel close to the advertiser.

Conclusion

In this study the titles of advertising e-mails (spam mails) were analyzed with a special focus

on how the advertisers are making use of language to evoke customer distinctiveness and

spoil emotions like belongingness to set the customers into action. Spam mail titles were

chosen on purpose firstly because they were never studied before and secondly they are a

different kind of advertisements.

Spam mails can be separated into two stages. The first stage is the unread stage when the mail

is received but not read and the second stage is when it is opened by the user. In this study the

first stage was analyzed which consists only from text which differentiates spam mails from a

common TV or a newspaper advertisements. Other advertisements are mostly accompanied

by a picture or a video which functions as an attention seeker but in the case of spam mail

titles the language is the only tool. On the other hand in the spam mail domain the advertisers

have a huge advantage which is they have access to a lot of information about the customers.

The analysis revealed that in mail advertising the advertisers resort to the use of personal

names and second person singular pronouns to address the customers and sometimes they also

add themselves and use the first person plural personal and possessive pronouns which is the

struggle to make the customers feel close and attached to the advertiser psychologically.

The results also indicate that companies are using different strategies to attract attention of

different groups. It was observed that companies are using the information they have access to

while choosing their target audience as seen in the examples like 15 and 19. They know that

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the customer is living away from his/her family and s/he is about to graduate. Some of the

strategies observed in the data were: intertextuality, colloquial language use, intimacy terms

like “can dostu”, tricking, inside jokes, content reference.

The general intention is to construct ideas like “we know each other, we share common

interests, we care about you, we know you needs, you are special for us” in the customer‟s

mind and persuade them to buy their product or service with the feeling of belongingness.

In this study the strategies used by companies were described, however the effectiveness of

these strategies in mail advertising domain is questionable. A further study might be carried

out by designing an experiment to measure the effectiveness of these strategies.

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21

Appendix

Full list of the mail titles

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Dünya kupasının tadını KFC 11-11 Bucket‟la çıkarın Yemek Sepeti

Domino‟s ortaladı. Gol olur! Yemek Sepeti

KFC Best of indirimli oldu, FreeZone‟lu tavuğa doydu Yemek Sepeti

İyi ki doğdun Yaşar, doğum günün için hazırladık Yemek Sepeti

DOY-KUR başvurunuz sonuçlandı Yemek Sepeti

[Rektörlük Duyurusu] Hacettepelilere indirimli menüler Yemek Sepeti

YAŞAR, bu 5 TL senin mi? Yemek Sepeti

Sen „doğa‟ya gidemiyorsan doğa sana gelir MSN

Sen hala Alfredo ile tanışmadın mı? Yemek Sepeti

Bu hafta evlerimizde İtalyanları misafir ediyoruz Yemek Sepeti

Yaşar, Ahmet sana bir mesaj bıraktı Badoo

Ankara seçimini yaptı Yemek Sepeti

Genç olmayı en iyi siz bilirsiniz! MSN

Oyunu oynayın ve dünyanın dört bir yanında müthiş indirimler kazanın PayPal

Doymaya hazı mısın yaşar, binlerce yemek seni bekliyor Yemek Sepeti

….. isimli kullanıcıyı tanıyor musun yaşar? Google+

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30% indirim dilediğin şehre, dilediğin zaman uç Pegasus

Sonbaharda 44,99 TL‟den uçmak ister misin? Pegasus

Pegasus seni Barcelona‟ya uçuruyor Pegasus

39,99 TL‟den başlayan fırsatlarımızı gördün mü Pegasus

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Can dostuna da yılbaşı hediyesi aldın mı? HepsiBurada

Erkeklere yeni yıl hediyesi almak çok zor değil mi? Morhipo

22

Öğretmenler günün kutlu olsun LTB Jeans

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Erkekler bunları tercih ediyor… Moschino, Versace, Tru Trussardi 80%‟e varan Limango

indirim.

Can dostlarımız için hep iyilik peşindeyiz HepsiBurada

Annenizin mantısını özlediniz mi? Yemek Sepeti

Onları sevmek paha biçilemez HepsiBurada

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Derbide sarıyız kırmızıyız GS store

Okula başlarken hediyen adidas‟tan, çanta ve okul setin seni bekliyor Morhipo

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Bu Summer menu sana özel Yemek Sepeti

Aile saadetini kovaya doldurduk Yemek Sepeti

Akşama ne yiyeceğini bulduk Yemek Sepeti

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En uzun günü kutluyoruz kargonuzu bedava gönderiyoruz LTB Jeans

Karne hediyem nerede? Sorusunun cevabı burada GittiGidiyor

Sen bizi unuttun ama biz seni unutmadık! GittiGidiyor

Mezuniyetin en güzel kızı olmak için önerilerimize göz atın Morhipo

Mezuniyette tarzınızla büyüleyin: ışıltılı mısınız, klasik mi, sade mi? Limango

Burcu, Coca-Cola‟nın 50. Yılında senin için bir süprizi var Yemek Sepeti

Sana en çok yakışacak stil önerilerimiz LTB Jeans

Bahar geldi, senin babetin hangisi? Dogo Store

Teşekkürler Burcu, bu ödül hepimizin GittiGidiyor

Seni Özledik! GittiGidiyor

23

Burcu, kapıyı aç harcadığın para geri geldi Yemek Sepeti

Ohannes bu menüler ne? Yemek Sepeti

Üniversite 3. Sınıf öğrencisiysen seni yapı kredi heroes club‟a bekliyoruz Yapı Kredi

Pagan min rejimine karşı gel! FarCry 4 satışta Aral

Hadi bir pes atak! PES 2015 satışta. Aral

Amerika da yaşam ve iş şansın oldu

Amerika hayalin gerçek oldu formu tamamla amerikada iş sahibi ol

Ege için evdeki altınları ziraate getirmenin tam vakti! Ziraat

Tebrikler 20 tl indirim sana çıktı formu doldur 20 tl‟yi al

Kazanan sen oldun ücretsiz online falına baktır

Rana yonamis seni ekledi yakınlaşmak istiyor

Seni beğendi arkadaş listesine ekledi

Korkmuyorum başaracağız Losev

Araban için! Cyber araç içi kameradan navigasyona 50%‟ye varan indirimler Gitti Gidiyor

Burası çapkınlık yapmana olanak sağlar sadece dene

Play seni dominik‟e götürüyor Yapı Kredi

Zaman az sana ihtiyaç çok Greenpeace

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Sevgili Yaşar, general mobile discovery akıllı telefon 599TL Gitti Gidiyor

LÖSEV gönüllüler bizim göz bebeğimizdir Losev

Bizimle her an yeni hissetmeye hazır mısın? Gitti Gidiyor

Haydi Spora! Gitti Gidiyor

Evlilik Hazırlığı gitti gidiyor‟da Gitti Gidiyor

Yasar, annen en iyisine layık en iyi anneler günü hediyeleri gitti gidiyor‟da Gitti Gidiyor

Paraya mı ihtiyacın var Yapı Kredi

Yaşar mutfakta biri mi var? Gitti Gidiyor

Yaşar intikam için hazır mısın God of war ascention satışta Aral game

Yasar tam sana göre ürünler seçtik Gitti Gidiyor

Tebrikler, seninle birinciyiz Gitti Gidiyor

24

Sevgili yaşar 2013 sensiz olmaz Gitti Gidiyor

Aramıza hoşgeldin assassin. Assassin‟s creed III satışta. Aral game