Metaphor in Marketing Language

Abstract

From Aristotle to Roman Jakobson to George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and others, the

concept of metaphor has undergone substantial changes. This paper deals with conceptual

metaphor in marketing language. At the heart of metaphorical conceptualisations are

mappings between different conceptual domains, linking a newer or more complex,

more abstract domain with a more familiar or simpler, more accessible one. In addition

to denotative terms, a vast network of conceptual metaphors operates in marketing

language, helping to shape and understand its key concepts. The most numerous category

of conceptual metaphors are created with the key marketing variables of product, brand,

consumer, enterprise and promotion as their reference points. The most common metaphors

in marketing language are the living organism metaphor, the war metaphor (including the

sports metaphor), the anthropomorphic metaphor, the medical metaphor. Metaphor is not

an isolated phenomenon, but a resource used systematically in marketing language, with a

substantial role in building the economic reality of the field, facilitating the understanding

of abstract and complex marketing concepts by analogy with familiar areas of experience.