Advertising Claims in Smartphone Slogans

Abstract

          This quantitative research examined and compared advertising claims found in slogans of two best-selling smartphone brands from the West and the East within 3 years (2018-2020). Schrank’s advertising claim categorization (2012) was used to be the framework for analyzing the claims found in the studied smartphone slogans. The results were that the advertising claims found in 9 iPhone slogans were 1) the weasel claim (6 times), 2) the unfinished claim (1 time), 3) the “so what” claim (1 time), and 4) the vague claim (1 time); while, the advertising claims found in 25 Samsung smartphone
slogans were 1) the weasel claim (14 times), 2) the unfinished claim (5 times), 3) the “we’re different
and unique” claim (2 times), 4) the vague claim (2 times), 5) the “so what” claim (1 time), and 6) the “compliment the consumer” claim (1 time) respectively. From this, it was also found that advertising claim found in the slogans of Samsung smartphone advertisements outnumbered that of the iPhone slogans; however, this outnumber was from the fewer number of iPhone smartphone released into
the markets. Among all types of the advertising claim, the weasel claim was the most popular one for both iPhone and Samsung smartphone slogans. A remark to be considered is that a slogan and advertising claims are language use reflecting unlimited creativity which can be artistically used to color human communication and to gain benefits in the business world.