Interpersonal Meaning in Apple New Product Launches: An Analysis of Tim Cook’s Speeches Based on AIDA Model

Abstract

A new product launch is a popular strategy for companies to promote new products, publicize brand image, and connect with customers. It conforms to the four stages of the AIDA model: awareness, interest, desire and action. To introduce new products, the presentation speech conveys a plethora of interpersonal meanings. Based on the AIDA model, this thesis analyzes the interpersonal meaning of Apple’s current CEO Tim Cook’s speeches during Apple’s new product launches through mood, modality and person systems. This study aims to explore the types and distribution of lexico-grammatical resources that Cook adopts, and how these resources realize the interpersonal meaning and help Cook achieve alignment with the audience over Apple’s new product information in four steps of the AIDA model. The findings show that Tim Cook has an obvious preference for the resources in the speeches of Apple’s new product launches. He tends to use distinctive lexico-grammatical resources in four stages of the AIDA model to realize the interpersonal meaning.