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Part of
Persuasion in Public Discourse: Cognitive and functional perspectives
Edited by Jana Pelclová and Wei-lun Lu
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 79] 2018
► pp. 207–224

Chapter 9
Constructing the ideal organization

Metaphor in higher education brand communication

This chapter looks at brand communication and how metaphor relates to the cognitive and functional dimensions of this persuasive communication by way of examining how Singapore’s publicly-funded higher education institutions communicate with their audiences. The chapter highlights the role of animate and anthropomorphic metaphors in communicating ideal(ized) representations of these organizations – typically as dynamic, competitive, and purposefully-motivated actors – in the endeavor to forge affinity with audiences and stakeholders. In doing so, the chapter calls for a view of brand communication that considers not just how such communication seeks to persuade audiences in support of the organization, but also how it encourages audiences to subscribe to the attributes and values that the ideal organization supposedly embodies.

Keywords: brand communication, metaphor, discourse analysis, higher education, Singapore, anthropomorphic organization, marketization, neoliberalism
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Singapore’s HEIs and persuasive communication
  • 3.Metaphor and persuasive communication
  • 4.Textual analysis
    • 4.1Animation/anthropomorphization in HEI brand communication
    • 4.2Analyzing a specific example
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 8 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.79.10ng
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