Reimagining Consumer Identity and Experience: A Social Semiotic Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Themed Restaurants Inspired by Popular Culture Narratives

Abstract

This study employs multimodal discourse analysis to examine how restaurant adaptations inspired by popular culture narratives in the capital city of Pakistan, Islamabad, communicate and construct consumers’ identities and experience through visual and semiotic modes. The themed restaurants are approached as sites of mediated communication that speak through their design, and narratives transforming multi-sensory immersive dining experiences. A sample of 4 themed restaurants was selected to investigate the extent to which the ambience and atmospheric cues of these restaurants re-conceptualize consumers’ sociolinguistic identity, experience, and their need for uniqueness. This study has embarked on what Leitch (2008) referred to as post-literary adaptation, and going beyond mere adaptation theories in which stories were adapted into other forms of social existence, such as restaurants, is the case in point. Approaching restaurant adaptations as a linguistic spectacularisation of novels, stories, and television shows, the resulting analysis expands the boundaries of adaptation theory by delineating the central theme and the related atmospheric cues that make the adaptation more appealing. For this, Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2020) social semiotic multimodal discourse analysis approach has been selected as the main theoretical framework to analyze restaurant adaptations. It was found that by adapting meaningful environmental cues, these themed restaurants fostered an immersive experience for their consumers in terms of decoration and memorabilia.