AN ANALYSIS OF TESTIMONIAL DISCOURSE ASA PERSUASIVE STRATEGY IN THE MARKETING OF GOODS AND SERVICES IN CAMEROON

It is a common practice nowadays in Cameroon for marketers to utilise people who have used their products to tell the world how good and effective they are. This phenomenon is gaining ground in newspapers and journals, on the radio, television and social media applications such as Phoenix and social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram just to mention but these. This paper examines language categories used in testimonies by some Cameroonians in the promotion of their goods or services. It also explores the role they play in the commercial world. This study uses descriptive qualitative design. This is because, the focus is on messages that were identified from the testimonies of people who used the products of these marketers. Data was collected on the social media application Phoenix and the social media platform WhatsApp. Furthermore, data was also culled from messages that were sent to this researcher by Mobile Telephone Network,(MTN) Cameroon. Random sampling technique was used to select 50 testimonies used by some of these marketers in the promotion of their goods and services. This exercise was conducted in the month of June, July and August, 2024. Insights were drawn from document analysis. The analysis revealed that three types of testimonies were used. They are quote, video and influencer testimonials. They were used to market health products especially fertility products, goods and the services of some multinationals such as MTN. The analysis further disclosed that marketers in Cameroon made use of language resources in their testimonies such as verbs, adjectives, adverbs, nouns, conjunctions, tenses, sentences, voice, capitalisation, tone and mood to convince the public to go in for what they are selling. These language features made the testimonies of the users of these products and services to be credible to the public, thus making the messages appealing to the public.