Roxy: Beauty and Fame Sells
The Roxy website is constructed very well. I believe that it is a great website to analyze simply because the semiotic domains are being used to maximize its modalities. Roxy.com caters to people of all ages living in all the main surfing regions throughout the world. It allows viewers to see seasonal lines before they hit stores, upcoming events, contest results, etc. The company definitely capitalizes on the "utopian surfer girl lifestyle" by using pictures of youthful females to persuade viewers into buying their products. The well known indexical Roxy symbol is dispersed throughout the site. Also, very little words are necessary on the site because the vibrant graphics speak for themselves. There are specific types of typefaces and fonts that are used to complement the cool ambiance of the website. Flash Five is also prevalent on the site. Upon arriving, viewers are instantly greeted with a picture of Roxy team rider Sofia Mulanovich, 2004 world champion female surfer. The “I” in Sofia’s name turns into the number 1, which rhetorically suggests that Roxy is number one, simply because they produce world class surfers. The site also uses music to accompany its pictures. The song that plays softly in the background whispers, “come and get it, you’re gonna love it when you get it.” The site also incorporates its team riders’ biographies which are complemented with digital videos of them surfing. The site is interactive in the sense that viewers are encouraged to ask Roxy professionals questions that they regularly respond to. Viewers are also encouraged to actively participate in the site by signing up to be acknowledged as a “Roxy Girl,” which essentially allows the recipient to feel the fame that is conjugated with the name Roxy. The website is very easy to navigate. It includes main headings that gracefully trickle down into subtopics. The hypertext enables the user to efficiently navigate through the headings and subtopics, while giving them the option to explore different areas on the site.
Visually impaired people have an advantage because they are usually not tainted by appearance to the extent that people with sight are, thus Roxy is probably not concerned in making accommodations for them. Roxy's target audience is definitely the tiny bobber surfer girl that is easily sold by hype, beauty, and fame.
Visually impaired people have an advantage because they are usually not tainted by appearance to the extent that people with sight are, thus Roxy is probably not concerned in making accommodations for them. Roxy's target audience is definitely the tiny bobber surfer girl that is easily sold by hype, beauty, and fame.
posted by Kamera Lang at 1:50 AM
1 Comments:
You do a great job showing how the Roxy company ties its marketing strategy into the worldwide surf culture, mixing data like colors and sizes of clothing with results from major surfing competitions. The variety of "services" the site offers is also quite interesting, especially the offer of "professional" assistance. Many companies are now drawing on the idea of "experts" who can advise customers on their purchases, a blending of professional services (like law or psychotherapy) and plain old shopping.
Your examination of the animation of Sofia Mulanovich's name--the "i" turning to the number "1"-- is really perceptive. It's also good that you pay attention to the lyrics of the song: they're seductive, appealing to the reading/listener's desire.
You also notice the connection between the kind of surf-oriented "lifestyle" Roxy is promoting and the individual lives and accomplishments of the women surfers Roxy sponsors, represented by the biographies and videos on the site. "Be like these women," the site is implicitly telling its visitors, "by buying our stuff." It's a typical strategy for ad campaigns that use celebrity spokespersons, but it's tweaked in interesting ways, as you point out, to appeal to members of the surf community.
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