Emojis have been around for a while. As described by the Oxford Dictionaries, an emoji is “a small digital image or icon used to express an idea, emotion, etc..” For example, “in electronic communication: an emoji livens up your text messages with tiny smiley faces.” Origin: “Origin —1990s: Japanese, from e ‘picture’ + moji ‘letter, character’.” There is even an emoji encyclopedia.
Click the emoji to see this post from Mashable:”10 Emoji Meanings That Might Surprise You.”
Now, a growing number of firms are using emojis in their marketing efforts. As Robert D. Hof reports for the NY Times:
“’There’s a lot of brand demand for emojis,’” said Ross Hoffman, senior director of global brand strategy at Twitter, which recently started offering custom emojis for companies to use in advertising. That is because some 92 percent of the online population now uses emojis, according to a study by Emogi, a startup that uses them to let people indicate how they feel about particular ads. Swyft Media, which creates alternate phone keyboards featuring multiple emojis, says people send six billion of them a day.”
“Brands like emojis for several other reasons. For one, they reach ad-averse millennials, sailing past ad-blocking software. They are visual, which makes them a natural fit for popular messaging apps such as Snapchat and Instagram and also appeals to international audiences. And because they are meant to be shared, the brand images are distributed widely, free.”
Here are emojis for Taco Bell. Click the image to access a Taco Bell Web page dedicated to emojis!! 🙂
I like emojis, they are always so funny and cute. For marketing, i think the emojis that may just like slogan is easier for customers to remember, memorize and recall, when they prepare to purchase something. so if there are two brand A and B, A has a interesting and known emojis, but B doesn’t have, apparently, more customers will prefer to recall brand A when they make purchase decision.
The following article was interesting to me because as a young adult I am/would be more attracted to marketing advertisements if they consisted of modern references such as emojis. I personally use them and am constantly receiving them, suggesting they are extremely popular. To me this makes whatever being marketed more relatable and I would even be more attentive to an advertisement if it consisted of an emoji.
Emojis makes it possible to share a understood language in the international market. It’s free, vivid, and sometimes can replace wording, for me, it’s a great invention. As more and more emojis are used in chatting tools, the social media channels are trying to be more competitive depending on the emojis to some extent.
Emojis are such an effective way to advertise. The younger population is very tuned into the meanings of Emojis and it can create an attraction to whatever is being advertised. Graphics in general are attractive to consumers because it QUICKLY and effortlessly plants a thought, feeling, or emotion in the consumers mind without having to “read” something. An emoji instantaneously creates an understanding, even across cultures.
Personally, I don’t usually use emojis because they have too many options, and they don’t have a good look. However, I agree that emojis help people to express their emotions and improve the experience of chatting. Since emojis become popular among young generation, it is a great idea for companies to use emojis on advertisements.
In terms of international marketing, it is always a critical issue for company to develop a marketing strategy based on the specific country’s culture and language, so as the potential customers of the country acknowledge its products and establish company image, which can be confusing and if mishandle, the company can be ended up in a lawsuit when people are offended. However, emoji solve this problem as it is a visual icon that people will understand regardless of cultural background and eliminates the language barrier as well. Therefore, using emoji as a marketing tool is highly effective and convenient as it is direct and simple, also it is relatively cheap to do so.
Emojis can very easily portray what one is trying to say. For me, I use it regularly, so if a company is using it, it would make the advertisement easily memorable. It will attract the millennials as we are more used to using it. Therefore, using the emojis to market products towards the young generation would be a helpful tool to possibly increase sales.
I like emojis, they are always fun. Different companies are coming up with new emojis and this market is full of those. I would be more attentive to an advertisement if it consisted of an emoji.