Rhetorical Strategies in Sparkling City Game Store's Marketing

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Arizona State University *

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102

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Arts Humanities

Date

Oct 30, 2023

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pdf

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Uploaded by GrandMonkey3616

A Diamond in the Rough 1 A Diamond in the Rough: The Use of Rhetorical Concepts as found in Sparkling City Local Game Store’s social media Keith Benavides Arizona State University English 101

A Diamond in the Rough 2 The repetitiveness of Marketing and Social media have caught onto me. I scroll through the news mindlessly, a blind fish in a never ending whirlpool of vomited ideas, catchphrases and slogans written by an overpaid ad firm. This past week I've decided to try and escape the cycle of ideas and search locally for a breath of fresh air. People who have no college education in advertising, and do it for the noble purpose of bringing in some local people to enjoy their merchandise. I decided to take a look into a local business that I myself have patroned, Sparkling City Local Game Store. Sparkling City has been a famous go to for hobbyists living in the heart of Corpus Christi, upon first look, Sparkling City doesn’t look like much, the outside is plastered with posters and cutouts of recent releases for the games Magic: The Gathering and The Pokemon Trading Card Game, displayed through a suntanned window lies a table draped with terrain made to look like ruins and scattered throughout are painted space marines dramatically positioned to appear as though they are fighting the robotic Necrons. Looking into their Facebook, I hope to show the simplicity and humility of this beloved shop. The store loves to feature their tournament champions and patrons in their posts, pictured is a perfect example of pathos, an appeal towards emotion. The gleaming rays of the morning sun shine through the store, upon its light, sit card game enthusiasts as they partake in the camaraderie of the game; their faces stern, dedicated and sage-like, yet, next to them are snacks and drinks, backpacks of cards and folders. This gives a strong feeling of casual professionalism, and excitement. You can see the people playing with the cards they have spent so much time working with, and the warmness of the sun tells you this is perhaps a beautiful summer morning and like the viewer, is peering in from an outsider’s point of view. The posts on Sparkling City’s Facebook page, have numerous examples of rhetorical concepts, mostly when it comes to the sale of card games and tournaments for said card games. In the text post below, the poster encourages people to come during the selected date to participate in Magic: The Gathering. The excitement in the wording combined with the push for the date listed and the importance emphasized with the cash prize uses Kairos, also known as timeliness. This however is not the only use of Kairos on their page, no matter how far you scroll, it will be populated with announcements for di±erent tournaments, merchandise drops and times in which the store will be having special guests.

A Diamond in the Rough 3 Besides the use of Kairos, the use of ethos is also included, yet a bit more subtle in this case. The post above describes how to enter into the tournament, the price, the rules, guidelines and finally, the layout of the tournament itself. The subtlety harms the use of ethos, and makes it hard to actually show that this is a professional and reliable source. In Contrast, The picture on the left adds a bit of ﬂair by showing a list of dates and optional rules next to the dates, slightly reinforcing the example of ethos. One post i found interesting was the post to the left, congratulating Gabriel Torres and Joseph Schelling on their massive win in a Flesh and Blood Tournament in San Antonio, in the comments the store lists Gabriel Torres as one of their “champions”, and now have a picture of him in the store to promote Flesh and Blood, i find this as a very clever and community including way of using Logos. It helps them by showing that anybody can become champion by trying and by playing in the store. This doubles as a use of Logos and Pathos, as the excitement around this figure can help increase want and competitiveness among the store-goers. In conclusion, as I reﬂect on my analysis, i seem to have found what i have been searching for, my ‘break from the bland’ i could say. As i look through, i find a good sense of community, people who know each other, who like to actively participate in something they’re passionate for with strangers of all people. These people shown welcome newcomers, and encourage them like they’re one of their own, it truly is a heartwarming thing to see in my community and

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A Diamond in the Rough 4 it honors me to say that even though this analysis is objective, I am lucky to be a part of this community and have the opportunity to go to this place, to game and to meet new and friendly people. My analysis is of course amateur, i have yet to do many rhetorical analysis up to this point and i believe i may have done better in a few places. Finding certain examples was di²cult and it feels like the others that i do include aren’t done justice. I ask what points could i do better in? What points were to bland or boring? I believe this draft to be nice, but i know i may do better with advice.