The Advertising of Smartphones: Discourses of Assurance, Functionality and Experience

Smartphones are a socially and culturally significant technology available in a wide variety of brands, models, and options. Consumers consistently seek devices that best align with their needs, and advertising plays a vital role in promoting these smartphones by delivering comprehensive information that fulfils consumers’ informational requirements. This study investigates the key underlying discourses in smartphone advertising through the verbal components of print advertisements. Conducted as a qualitative analysis, it examines 41 print advertisements from various brands showcasing a range of smartphone models. The verbal content was coded and categorised using reflexive thematic analysis, revealing three prominent discourses: assurance, functionality, and experience. These discourses suggest that smartphones are marketed by instilling a sense of trustworthiness, highlighting the features and performance of the devices, and illustrating the potential for a rich user experience. The implications of these findings are noteworthy, as they deepen the understanding of product advertising, particularly within the smartphone context, where advertising not only serves as a platform to convey product information but also shapes and informs consumers’ latent interests and aspirations for the device. The insights from this study could potentially inform future advertising strategies and consumer behaviour research.