UNDERSTANDING INFOMERCIALS : THE SOCIAL COMMUNICATION STRUCTURE AND CONTENT ANALYSIS

국문 초록 (Abstract)

본 논문은 마케팅에서 효과적 광고로써 관심을 받아 온 인포머셜 연구를 보다 사회문화적인 시야로 확장시키면서 실증적 조사에 근거를 둔 인터뷰, 기사분석과 함께 인포머셜 메시지 효과를 위한 질적 내용분석을 행한 논문이다. 인포머셜의 성장요인, 문화적 영향력을 다양한 입장에서 고찰하고 사회의 문화적 가치, 일반적 가치를 제공하고 그 메시지가 어떻게 조작되어져 있으며 욕망을 만들어 내고 있는가에 주목하고 있다. 방법론적으로는 각 장에서 인포머셜을 둘러싼 송신자, 수신자의 의견, 사회적 반향을 파악하고, 기존의 인포머셜 연구의 한계점을 인식한 후, 내용분석, 기존의 텔레비젼 광고와 비교분석했다. 제 1장에서 인포머셜의 성장배경, 역사적 변화, 인포머셜 비지니스를 둘러싼 사회 커뮤니케이션 구조를 논하고, 광고학자들의 연구와 인포머셜 제작자들의 의견, 수신자의 의견을 담은 매스 미디어 기사를 비교 분석했다. 1990년이후의 신문, 잡지, 텔레비젼 뉴스에서 인포머셜에 관한 것을 선택, 송신자와의 인터뷰를 추가했다. 상품회사, 제작회사, 케이블국의 인포머셜 산업에 관한 의견을 정리, 인포머셜을 강력한 다이렉트 판매 장치로써 보는 광고학자들과의 의견 차를 밝히고 있다. 광고 매체로서의 장점을 가지는 것뿐만이 아니라 송신자들 간의 완전협력관계, 만들어진 메시지가 작용하고 있었고 인포머셜은 미국 사회의 신체중심문화와 깊은 연관이 있으며, 소비자의 소비 욕구와 그것을 일으키는 매개로서의 역할을 하고 있었다. 제 2장에서는 지금까지의 광고학자들에 의한 인포머셜의 내용분석의 한계를 밝히는 동시에, 87개의 인포머셜 샘플의 내용분석을 행하여 그 사회적 의미를 고찰했다. 주로 등장인물 분석과 메시지의 Cluster분석으로, 건강미용용품, 가정용품, 운동도구의 세 카테고리별로 특징을 정리했다. 그 결과 호스트, 인터뷰이, 전문가, 관객은 소비자가 그 상품에 신뢰를 가질 수 있도록 각 카테고리별로 효과적으로 판매장치로써 역할을 하고 있었고, Cluster분석에 의해 인포머셜 메시지는 '합리적인 구매태도', '행복의 추구', '변신', '편안함의 추구', '가족과 인간관계를 위한', '건강 지향'이라는 내용으로 소비자의 마음을 사로잡고 있었다. 제 3장에서는 기존의 텔레비젼 광고 메시지와 인포머셜 메시지를 비교했다. 텔레비젼 광고에서는 모델의 추천이나 상품의 성능에 관한 것이 대부분으로 '행복의 추구'를 강조하는 인포머셜과는 차이를 보였다. 인포머셜은 보다 소비자의 감성적인 부분에 호소하며, 욕구의 해방을 희망하는 그들에게 조작된 메시지를 전한다. 이 메시지는 또 새로운 욕구를 형성하고 그 욕구의 해방을 위해 소비자는 재구매를 하게 된다. 결론에서 인포머셜의 성장, 사회적인 의미를 생각할 시, 그 경제적인 배경과 광고로서의 효율만이 아닌 수신자, 사회 전반적인 반향을 생각하지 않으면 안되는 것을 언급하며, 일상생활에서 인포머셜이 욕구를 형성하는 메시지로서 어떠한 역할을 하고 있는가를 내용분석 뿐만이 아니라 시대의 변화에 의한 변천, 수신자 연구의 필요성을 추가연구로써 제안하고 있다.

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Americans are becoming more familiar with half-hour program-length commercials promoting a new miracle weight loss treatment starring a famous actor, women sitting together discussing the latest technology in hair removal or demonstrations from famous chefs showing the advantage of their cookware. In the United States, infomercials have continued to grow since the 1980s and in the 1990s, and it finally became a subject of advertisement researchers in late of the 1990s. In fact, it has grown rapidly since 1984 when the long advertising regulation of FCC (Federal Communication Commission) was revised and has been developed with a cable network developing in the United States in the 1980s. Now they are exported and broadcasted in Asia and Europe as well as the United States. Given this growth, it is important to understand about how and why infomercials have been developed, focusing on the aspect of industry and cultural background. Also, this paper has the purpose in materializing the social influence of informercials by analyzing the messages.
An advertisement undertakes not only the economical purpose but also a social role. Robert Guerinha even says that air consists of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and an advertisement and advertisement has a deep relation not only with information of producs but also our everyday life.(Hwang 1985) According to Mooji and others, in modern society an advertisement offers not only information for sales promotion of products or service, but also the society’s general and cultural value which influence people.(Jung 2000)
This paper describes how Infomercials have been gaining power and growing in American society and how they have been influencing the public by analyzing newspapers, magazines, and statements of television news from 1990 to 2002. Also it focuses on the contents of infomercials especially the use of messages to reveal the reason of popularity. Finally, since infomercials are completely different from traditional television commercials, there is also a necessity of analyzing the content to clarify the meaning of infomercials in the society.
The paper proceeds as follows : The first section discusses social communication structure of infomercial industry. More precisely, in chapterⅠ, it will be clarified how infomercials have affected at American society, comparing ads researchers’ approaches to the contents of mass media articles which describe infomercial producers and public opinion. It notes that infomercials have been gaining power and growing in American society and considers newspapers, magazines, and statements of television news from 1990 to 2002. Also the interviews that I did last year in the United States will be added when explaining infomercial makers’ (retail stores, infomercial companies and cable stations) view about infomercial business.
Ads researchers tend to describe infomercials as most “powerful advertisement and direct sales device.” However, in the analysis of the mass media articles, the public did not always evaluate it as a positive thing. Infomercial companies have had strong confidence about starting infomercial business according to interviews with them and several articles. There is also a sort of correlation among retail stores, infomercial companies and cable stations. On one hand, infomercials have been recognized as one of social phenomenon which has been concerned with American people who care seriously about their body image. There were not only infomercial consumer surveys, but also American people who desire “a change of life” and “a solution of something” through infomercial product. Infomercials have become a social phenomenon that makes consume passion and influences consumer society as the effective sales device.
In chapterⅡ, infomercial contents analysis is discussed. Most researches about infomercials have focused on the effect as an advertisement with marketing approach. In spite of an infomercial’s growing in the American society, the research, which has a question in the contents and explains it in detail completely are not found compared with television commercial studies. ChapterⅡ clarifies not only the limit of the existing infomercial studies but also conducts contents analysis with a cluster analysis and character analysis using 87 infomercials. As the result, host, stereotyped users, and audience were playing role effectively as a sales device, which makes consumers have a credit about the product. It also became clear that through a dendrogram cluster analysis of the various messages, infomercials are catching consumer’s heart using some of values, such as “for happiness,” “life transformation,” “comfort,” “for family and people relationship,” and “for health.” Those all were always included inside of infomercial messages and which means that “desired happiness” is exposed strongly in the infomercials.
In chapter Ⅲ, the comparative analysis of health and beauty infomercials and television commercials was set up to clarify the feature of infomercials. After sampling work and coding work, all messages of television commercials and infomercials were clusterized by a dendrogram. As the result, most messages currently in the television commercials were “performance,” “sponsor effect” and “social relationship.” This is pretty different from the result that health and beauty informercials are using mostly the message, “for happiness.” It is considerable that ordinary TV commercials are emphasizing the effect and performance of product and infomercials completely have different message use from television commercials. Infomercials emphasized a spiritual and emotional portion such as being happy and changing life from terrible situation compared with television commercials which emphasize the performance of product, and recommendation of models.
In conclusion, I summarized the content of all three chapters and suggested future study and my interest in the future.
Finally, I appreciate my professor, Kimio Ito, graduate students of Osaka University, coders in the United States who gave much help me doing this paper work and I want to say thank you to my family.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDMENTS = 1
• Chapter Ⅰ Introduction of the Social Communication Structure of Infomercials with Article Analysis of Mass Media and Interview = 4
• 0. Introduction = 4
• 1. Historical Background of Infomercials = 5
• 1.1 From the 1950s to the 1980s = 5
• 1.2 The 1990s = 5
• 1.3 Recent Direct Marketing Advertising = 6
• 2. Previous Research Involving Infomercials = 6
• 3. Article Analysis and Interview Process = 9
• 4. The View of Infomercial Senders = 10
• 4.1 The View of the Product Companies from Mass Media Articles = 10
• 4.2 The View of an Infomercial Making Company = 13
• 4.3 The View of a Cable Station = 15
• 5. The Public Opinion = 18
• 5.1 Social-Phenomenon = 18
• 5.2 The Consumer's Opinion = 23
• 6. For Understanding the Consumer's Desire = 25
• Chapter Ⅱ The Meaning of Infomercial Messages through a Cluster Analysis: "Characters as Sales Device" and "Manipulated Happiness" = 27
• 0. 'Read' Advertising as a Cultural Text = 27
• 1. Contents Analysis of Previous Infomercial Researches = 28
• 2. The Method of Contents Analysis = 31
• 2.1 Sampling = 21
• 2.2 Coding Process = 33
• 3. Result of Character Analysis = 33
• 3.1 Attention-Getting Devices with Testimonials; Lecture-Style Infomercials and Presenters = 37
• 3.2 The Satisfied-Customer Technique. = 38
• 4. Message Analysis ; From a Dendrogram Analysis = 40
• 4.1 Analysis Results = 41
• 5. The Meaning of Manipulated Messages = 45
• 6. Time Pressure and Interesting Program = 50
• Chapter Ⅲ The Difference from TV Commercials ; Comparison of Health and Beauty TV Commercials and Infomercials = 53
• 0. Introduction = 53
• 1. Methodology = 54
• 2. The Result of Comaparison = 54
• Conclusion and Limitation = 58
• BIBLIOGRAPHY = 60
• APPENDIX 1 = 67