Identity Construction of Female Consumers in Chinese and American Cosmetics Advertisements: A Critical Pragmatic Study

Abstract

At present, women are still the main force among cosmetics consumers. In order to stimulate female consumers’ desire to buy cosmetics, cosmetics advertisers strive to build identities for female consumers that they are deeply yearning for, so as to guide and entice female consumers to buy their products. From the perspective of critical pragmatics, this study focuses on the types, distribution, means, and purposes of identity construction in Chinese and American advertisements, and conducts qualitative and quantitative analysis on cosmetic advertisements. Through contrastive analysis, it reveals the types and frequency of identity, and pragmatic strategies, motivation of advertisers in China and America. These identities are used to attract consumers to purchase behavior. When constructing these identities, cosmetics advertisers adopt explicit and implicit means to make psychological hints to female consumers. This study criticizes and analyzes the marketing motives of advertisers from the perspective of pragmatic identity theory, thereby revealing consumption traps for female consumers, and providing new thinking for identity construction and marketing strategies.