The tendency of persuasive messages in Instagram captions @tacobellid period March – August 2023

Abstract

Taco Bell is a fast food brand still very new in Indonesia. The arrival of Taco Bell in Indonesia, which is very late, is a challenge to compete with other fast food giants. This challenge is no exception in managing social media, especially Instagram. This quantitative research examines the tendency of persuasive messages in the captions of posts from the Instagram account @tacobellid, a promotional medium for the Taco Bell Indonesia brand. This research uses a quantitative content analysis method on 149 post captions uploaded by @tacobellid in March-August 2023. The persuasive messages analyzed are captions with the category of compelling message requirements. The structure of a persuasive message includes message-sidedness, order of presentation, conclusion drawing, and how to convey a persuasive message. The results of this research show that of the 149 captions during March - August 2023, there were 114 captions containing persuasive messages, with the most detailed categories of persuasive message requirements containing the interests of the sender and recipient of the message, there were 61 captions with a percentage of 54%, the highest message sidedness category was two-sided, there are 92 captions with a percentage of 81%, the highest order of presentation category is primary, there are 71 captions with a percentage of 62%, the highest category for conclusion drawing is explicit, there are 100 captions with a percentage of 88%, and the category for how to convey the most persuasive messages is emotional appeal. There are 42 captions with a percentage of 37%. These findings show that the Taco Bell Instagram account is trying to attract audience awareness by providing a tendency towards a two-sided message structure that displays the emotional side so the audience can accept the messages.