Archive for February 2023

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[Commlist] Call for abstracts for an edited volume: marketing communication in African languages

Fri Feb 03 22:13:41 GMT 2023






*CALL FOR ABSTRACTS FOR AN EDITED VOLUME:*

*MARKETING COMMUNICATION IN AFRICAN LANGUAGES*

*Abiodun Salawu *and*Kehinde Oyesomi*

There are approximately over 2,000 spoken languages in Africa (Eberhard, Simons, Fennig, 2019) yet there seems to be an erosion of African languages. It has become commonplace to equate "modernity, globalism, and technological growth" with the English language (Gorter, 2013). According to Chiblow and Meighan (2021), this is due to colonialism. The United Nations (2016) declared 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages; and 2022 to 2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages. UNESCO (2008) explains that indigenous languages have their foundation in the unique social, cultural, and economic characteristics of a people that serve as their identity. In this age of technological advancement, communication entails more than the transmission of culture, values, and norms; it also serves as a means for promoting, informing, establishing customer relationships, improving brand perception, and increasing customer retention, all of which are synonymous with marketing communication. Marketing communication is a concoction of traditional and contemporary media tools used to convey persuasive messages to the target audience. Marketing communication infused with African languages is crucial to increasing brand visibility and exposure by focusing on varieties of languages spoken across various cultures.

Marketing is characterized in terms of the role it plays in engaging and influencing consumers. The American Marketing Association (2017) defines it as the process of creating, communicating, delivering, and trading goods and services that are beneficial to customers, clientele, business partners, and society at large. Despite the dominance of marketing in the global sphere, language plays a key role in how messages are received by the target audience. Communication and marketing go hand in hand. Marketing communication entails allowing businesses to identify and successfully engage their target market, improving overall business performance (Hao and Song, 2016; Takahashi,Bulgacov, Semprebon, Giacomini, 2016). Marketing communication involves the use of advertising, personal selling, digital marketing, sales promotion, and public relations to connect with the target market by building trust and achieving client objectives. Olatunji (2018) claims that historically, African native advertising made extensive use of signs and symbols such as colors, logos, and flags, among others. Therefore, it can be assumed that the indigenous marketing methods previously employed in Africa have returned in what is now popularly celebrated as edutainment, advertainment, or infotainment. All these are made relevant by the type of language employed.**

Nwachukwu (2005) further explains that languages are also rich in illustrations and explanations. They therefore, present opportunity for more details in message creation and adaptation.Language serves as a tool for carrying out actions that are intended to achieve certain goals in addition to being a means of communicating ideas. The importance of an indigenous language stems from its benefits, which include increased comprehension and a sense of resonance among the target audience, which makes it more memorable as opposed to foreign languages.

Though some scholars (Bhatia, Nelson, Proshina, and Davis, 2020) have postulated that the combination of English with native languages gives credibility to some commercial, other scholars, Heo,Jogaratnam, & Buchanan, (2004); and Holmqvist, (2011) have argued that using indigenous languages requires less time and cognitive effort to comprehend and, as a result, is more effective in persuading the target audience to act on what is communicated.

Abstracts of 300 – 500 words on any of the following sub-themes and other relevant ones not listed here are invited.

*Sub-themes*

**Theoretical Foundations of Marketing Communication and African Languages

**Indigenous Modes of Advertising and Marketing in Traditional African Societies

**Public Relations in African Languages

    Advertising in African Languages

    Sales Promotion in African Languages

    Personal Selling in African Languages

    Direct Marketing in African Languages

    Social Media Marketing in African Languages

    Political Advertising and Marketing in African Languages

    Corporate Communication in African Languages

    Government/Public Affairs Communication in African Languages

    Public Relations for Non-Profit Organisations in African Languages

Interested persons should please submit their abstracts to (kehinde.oyesomi /at/ covenantuniversity.edu.ng) <mailto:(kehinde.oyesomi /at/ covenantuniversity.edu.ng)>by February 28, 2023. Decisions on abstracts received will be communicated by March 15, 2023. Full papers of accepted abstracts will be expected by June 30, 2023.

Professor Abiodun Salawu, Indigenous Language Media in Africa (ILMA) Research Entity, North-West University, South Africa

Dr. Kehinde Oyesomi, Department of Communication, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria

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*References*

American Marketing Association. (2017). Definition of Marketing, American Marketing Association. /Retrieved November 27, 2022 from https://www.ama.org <https://www.ama.org/>**/

Bhatia, Nelson, C. L., Proshina, Z. G., & Davis, D. R. (2020). /The Handbook of World Englishes/.

/Wiley Online Library. //DOI:10.1002/9781119147282///

Chiblow, S., & Meighan, P. J. (2022). Language is land, land is language: The importance of Indigenous languages. /Human Geography,/15(2): 206–210.

Eberhard, D. M., & Gary, F. (2019). Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2020.

                      Ethnologue:Languages of the World. Dallas, Texas: SIL International. /Online /

/                      version: http://www. ethnologue. com/.

Gorter, D. (2013). Linguistic landscapes in a multilingual world. /Annual Review of Applied Linguistics/, 33: 190-212.

Haarmann, H. (2011). Symbolic values of foreign language use: From the Japanese case to

a general sociolinguistic perspective. Walter de Gruyter. Volume 51 in the  series /Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL] <https://www.degruyter.com/serial/csl-b/html>/

//

Hao, S., & Song, M. (2016). Technology-driven strategy and firm performance: are strategic capabilities missing links? /Journal of Business Research/, 69(2): 751-759.

Heo, J. K., Jogaratnam, G., & Buchanan, P. (2004). Customer-focused adaptation in New York City hotels: exploring the perceptions of Japanese and Korean travelers. /International Journal of Hospitality Management/, 23(1): 39-53.

Holmqvist, J. <https://www.emerald.com/insight/search?q=Jonas%20Holmqvist> (2011), Consumer language preferences in service encounters: a cross‐cultural perspective. /Managing Service Quality: An International Journal <https://www.emerald.com/insight/publication/issn/0960-4529>, /Vol. 21 No. 2, pp. 178-191. <https://doi.org/10.1108/09604521111113456>


Nwachukwu, F. G. (2005). Advertising effectiveness: The indigenous languages option.

/International Journal of Communication/, 8: 77-88.

Olatunji, R. W. (2018). Trends in advertising and cultures in Nigeria. /Communication /

/             Cultures in Africa/, 1(1): 54-76.

Takahashi, A. R. W., Bulgacov, S., Semprebon, E., & Giacomini, M. M. (2017). Dynamic

capabilities, marketing capability and organizational performance. /BBR. Brazilian Business Review/, 14: 466-478

UNESCO. (2008). Links between biological and cultural diversity (Report of the international workshop, 26–28 September 2007). Paris, France: UNESCOProfessor Abiodun Salawu, PhD



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