The theatralization of brands' self: chatbots as a brand humanization tool under the eyes of Erving Goffman.
chatbots; brand; goffman; production of meanings
Chatbot is an automated conversation software that aims to emulate human
dialogical behavior . Currently, is gaining space in the advertising market as a tool
that acts in the process of humanizing brands. Based on the Theory of
Theatricalization of the Self, proposed by Erving Goffman, three chatbots served by
brands on the Facebook Messenger platform were analyzed in order to understand
how brands are building their selves using these automated chat software. In this
way, first an exploratory research was carried out with the objective of identifying
conversation robots used by brands within the brazilian market, which were shown
on Facebook Messenger during the first half of 2020 and with different marketing
objectives. From this mapping, three bots methodologically different from each other
were selected to be analyzed from the interactionist concepts proposed by Erving
Goffman. It concluded with the identification of certain steps to be observed in the
process of creating and programming these conversational robots in order to
enhance their anthropomorphization and their reflexes in the affective brand-public
bond.