Description
In order to stay relevant and in-demand with modern audiences, more and more 21st century businesses are finding success in adopting postmodern means and methods for marketing. These companies are adapting into sustainable, environmentally-aware platforms for change and have proven this a prosperous business-model. With consumer values in mind, these companies work to promote their brand by dually functioning as sales-driven businesses as a well as vehicles for environmental good. And so, this discussion concentrates on the fundamentally rhetorical nature of these postmodern marketing techniques. To examine this approach, this thesis considers rhetoric’s ethos, kairos, and call to action as marketing frames. These principles, paired with the knowledge of consumer- demand, create a postmodern advertising technique that plays a key role in the success of the company at hand, Patagonia Inc. Further, this analysis argues that the ancient rhetorical ideas of ethos, kairos, and call to action remain central to fields outside of rhetoric. The intent with this paper is to encourage a consideration of these modes of persuasion as both ancient rhetorical strategies and contemporary marketing strategies.
