The branding of the e-commerce

the onomastic, semiotic and psychosocial roles in the construction of the post 4.0 identity - Magalu case

Abstract

This transdisciplinary study focuses on Magazine Luiza/Magalu branding from a historical revisiting: from the company's origin to the pandemic paradigm associated with Covid-19. We propose a dialogue with an area of Publicity from the perspective of Onomastic – the study of proper names, as well as we rely on Semiotic science and identity studies regarding the interpretation of the sign publicity and of the strategies of consolidation the brands. Based on the relationship between the identity construction of Magalu to the name and semiotic issues involved in such a subjective process, we ask which emotional message comes from the gradual change of the brand (commercial name) from Magazine Luiza to Magalu and which - if present - the relationship of this phenomenon with the digital improvement and the humanization of the character Lu: icon of the company. As for the interpretative analysis of the phenomenological meanings, the hypocorization present in the new commercial name and the intimate sociodigital interaction undertaken by the character Lu showed to add affection to the sociocultural sign of the company, as well as to propose indications of the possibility of emergence of a new advertising identity, what we call “post 4.0”: marked by the becoming of the identity resulting from the horizontalization of the brands and the infiltration of the digital means.