The power of storytelling is well known throughout human history, and it has been used in many fields, such as education, politics, medicine, culture, art, and more. In recent years, businesses have increasingly recognized the importance of storytelling. Realizing the resonance between consumers and advertisements is conducive to brand building, and stimulating positive emotions are the core of effective advertising development. This is particularly important at Christmas when retailers need to attract attention, engage consumers, and build relationships with the audience. Retailers’ advertising has become a part of Christmas tradition and an annual event that many look forward to, evoking a huge marketing competition among different kinds of brands. However, UK retailers can always stand out, and their storytelling advertising plays a critical part in shaping and strengthening their brand identity. Thus, this thesis addresses the prevalent phenomenon of retailer Christmas TV advertising in the UK. It is aimed to understand the way that UK retailers take advantage of storytelling in their Christmas advertising to convey brand identity through the thematic analysis of 31 Christmas storytelling advertisements from 6 UK retailer brands (Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrison, John Lewis, and M&S) between 2012-2021. The research in the field of story advertising relies heavily on a quantitative approach, focus group, or interviews, which reflect the effectiveness of advertising and the feelings and reactions of the audience. This paper uses the theories of storytelling, narrative, brand, etc., and directly uses qualitative research to conduct a thematic analysis on advertising. This method provides insight and significance related to the demands of advertising information used by retailers because it tries to explain the phenomenon of Christmas advertising from the perspective of brands rather than the consumers. The study evidences the strong tie between the storytelling in advertising and the brand identity. The findings demonstrate how UK retailers use stories and narratives to make the storytelling Christmas advertising and how these techniques contribute to conveying brand identity. All in all, this study identified four ways for UK retailers to convey the brand identity through storytelling in the Christmas advertising, which are “Establishing an emotional connection through storytelling elements”, “Constructing the brand through narrative intertextuality”, “Creating brand association and increasing brand value through literary devices”, and “Reflecting the brand personality through brand archetypes”.

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Dr. Fred Lund
hdl.handle.net/2105/64937
Media & Business
Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication

Bingyan Chen. (2022, July 15). Uncovering the unseen side of UK retailers: Storyteller A qualitative thematic analysis on Christmas storytelling advertising of UK retailers. Media & Business. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/64937