Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Irma Figueroa
Professor Speiser
Writing 2
Introduction
Fast Food Industry 3
America is a country that many other parts of the world look at for business and economics,
however it is also a country that others look at in shock because of the increase problem with obesity.
Fast food is part of the American culture, it is ubiquitous. Most people however, think little about how
fast food companies influence us whether by a restuarants specific location or through persuasion of an
advertisement. The fast food industry has grew immensely in the 20th century and it has become a topic
of discussion within many different fields of study. In this essay I will be analysing how the fields of
Marketing and Psychology each approach the fast food industry to fulfill the purpose of communicating
to a specific audience within their discourse communities. For analysis of the Psychology field, I will be
looking at a scholarly journal article called Receptivity to Television Fast-Food Restaurant Marketing
and Obesity Among U.S. Youth, by Auden C. McClure, Susanne E. Tanski, Diane Gilbert-Diamond,
Anna M. Adachi-Mejia, Zhigang Li, Zhongze Li, and James D. Sargent. For analysis of the Marketing
field, I will be using a scholarly journal article called Product Positioning and Competition: The Role of
Location in Fast Food Industry, by Raphael Thomadsen. I will also be using a course Syllabus from
Professor Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas at the University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business
and personal observation from attending an Introduction to Psychology lecture taught by Professor
Tamsin German at the University of California Santa Barbara to further evaluate the way each discipline
is taught at the university level. Both disciplines have similarities and differences, yet they have
completely different purposes and we will see how each are able to construct a conversation within their
communities.
Psychology is the study of behavior and the mind. In observing the lecture Introduction to
Psychology , I noticed Professor Germans (2017) use of studies through videos and graphs as a large
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part of what the lecture consisted of. There was no interaction or engaging from the students in class. As
an introductory course however, the students probably do not have prior knowledge and therefore the
professor is authoritative. Another literary practice I noticed was specific lexis used. Some of the words
that I saw come up repetitively were: survey, categories, control group, participant, demonstration, trial,
study, patent, demonstration, research, case study and measurements. Some of these words are easy to
understand and others would definitely require more context about the class and topic itself in order to
be understood. This demonstrates how vocabulary used is key to the communication within the
discourse community because there is in fact studies, surveying, trials and research done within that field.
Marketing is a field in business that researches and studies selling, developing, and promoting
products in markets of the economy. In the syllabus, Professor Gourinchas (2015) course goal is to
build personal and corporate skills by studying the influences of goods, services, capital, rates and crisis
(p.1). The syllabus shows that the class will be 3 hours and 15 minutes long,unlike the 1 hour and 15
minute Psychology lecture. It also acknowledges that there will be oral participation and packets of
cases on real life situation problems. This class is an upper division course and it is evident that the
reason for a longer class is because there will be more interaction and expectation from the students to
participate. From the syllabus it is clear to see that some of the literary practices are based on
observations of research and current news of the economy around the world. Other literary practices
based off of the syllabus will be the use of graphs, tables, models, numbers and perhaps even maps to
look at demographic patterns around the world or specific areas. In both subject areas it is clear to see
the overlapping of literary practices, however they both have there own form of lexis, structure and
Similarly, as the two field engage at the university level owning specific characteristics, articles
do too. The difference is that the articles are often directed at a broader audience and sometimes
specific audiences such as in scholarly articles. With articles it is more clear to see the literary practices
of the Fast food Industry in action and in depth. Both of the articles I analyzed speak about the
Marketing of fast food however, the purpose of the articles are different.
In the psychology article (2013), the purpose is to analyze the way that television advertisement
can correlate with the obesity rates among youth in the United States. In the Marketing article (2007)
the purpose is to show the audience, which is stated to be marketing managers, how differentiating and
locating their product affect competition with other companies and profits in the fast food industry.
McClure et al. propose that Exposure to marketing of calorie-dense foods is recognized as a probable
risk factor for obesity (p.560), meanwhile Thomadsen examines, the relationship between product
differentiation and prices and profits in the fast food industry, (p.792) in order to find the optimal
product positioning strategies (p.792). Clearly there are two different purposes within the same topic of
fast food and marketing. Meanwhile McClure et al. (2013) want to analyze the way fast food
advertising and marketing affects youth health, Thomadsen wants to examine the best way to market
In order to support their analysis, McClure et al. provide A national sample of 2541 U.S
Youth, aged 15-23 years, that were surveyed in 2010-2011 (p.560). Sampling is one of the key
literary practices in psychology, it allows for evidence from direct populations that are being affected
which gives a more effective result. Thomadsen (2007) on the other hand uses competition models
where the first stage, each firm chooses a location. and in the second stage each firm chooses a price
Fast Food Industry 6
( p.794). This shows a marketing literary practice. What counts as evidence is through the analyzing of
a set up indirect experiment. Both of these practices although different, in return create credibility of the
McClure et al. (2013) conclude the results as follows: Using a cued-recall assessment, TV
fast-food advertising receptivity was found to be associated with youth obesity (560). Thomadsen
(2007) concludes that the role of price competition on product positioning is fundamentally different
under asymmetric competition than under symmetric competition (p.792). The language for each
example even though it is fairly simple there is certain vocabulary that would need prior knowledge
within the field to understand. The lexis, in the marketing article is much different than that in the
psychology one, Thomadsen (2007) uses words like, optimal, product positioning, profits, asymmetric,
and symmetric competition and in the article the use of equations with variables such as Vi,0= B0+ni,0
(p.792-800). Meanwhile in the psychology article, McClure et al. (2013) use words such as
CI. This is significant because it shows an identification with each discourse community. If you are not
the audience of the specific article it is most likely that you would not understand much of the equations
or most of the language. Lastly, another similarity I noticed was the use of tables, figure (models), and
graphs. Even though both McClure et al. (2013) and Thomadsen (2007) both use tables, figures, and
graphs there is a difference in the types of tables,figures,graphs. For example, McClure et al. use
theoretic models,percent to receptivity line graphs and larger tables. Thomadsen (2007), uses models of
maps to show geographic areas, price to distance line graphs , and smaller tables. The vocabulary,
format and characteristics of the literary practices are tailored to serve a unique and specific purpose.
Conclusion
Fast Food Industry 7
As we can see, within a specific field or discourse community there are similar or perhaps
completely different structures however, there is importance in the vocabulary used and careful selection
of how the information is presented. Whether it is in a classroom setting or in a scholarly article each
field or subject has certain characteristics that their discourse community identifies with, that is what
makes them unique. Even though marketing is focused on the business perspective of the fast food
industry and Psychology on the health perspective they both use logical reasoning when analyzing and
using evidence to prove their claims valuable to a specific audience. No doubt the Fast food industry
has grown immensely and it is almost inevitable that it will continue to grow. Overall, the purpose is to
show that there is importance in taking a moment to see more than the superficial. Ask why a specific
field like Psychology is trying to explain the effects and damages on youth meanwhile a field like
Marketing is trying to find strategies to sell and advertise more efficiently.Ask yourself why it is that a
certain restaurant is located at a specific location or analyze why an advertisement how it is, because it
References
German, T.C.M (2017, May 4). Introduction to Psychology [Lecture]. Address at Lotte Lehmann
Macroeconomics_Syllabus_POG_for_web.pdf
Mcclure, A. C., Tanski, S. E., Gilbert-Diamond, D., Adachi-Mejia, A. M., Li, Z., Li, Z., &
10.1016/j. Amepre.2013.06.011
Thomadsen, R. (2007). Product Positioning and Competition: The Role of Location in the Fast