Abstract:

Technology affects the way people communicate and especially younger generations prefer using emojis in social media platforms and in text messaging. This interaction tremendously increases the significance of emoji, therefore emoji becomes important instruments that need to be actively used in marketing communication. Thus emojis are not only used in written communication but also in marketing communication elements such as advertising, packaging and brand. In the study, the main purpose is to find the relationship between the amount of young generation use of emoji and the perception that they have towards the brands that use emoji. For the purpose, 332 students who are studying in Suleyman Demirel University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of Business Administration are put to answer a survey. Data is analyzed by frequency, reliability, factor, correlation and regression analysis. The hypothesis is analyzed and the findings are evaluated. As a result, it is found that, the participants' use of emoji is remarkably high and the attitude towards emoji use are related to the perception of emoji use in brands. Additionally, 2 dimensions are used to determine the attitude scale toward the brand that uses emoji (Tweet, 2017). 2 dimensions are convincing/persuasive and disturbance. It is found that emoji use affects convincing/persuasive dimension positively; and the disturbance dimension negatively.

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