Integrated Communication Strategies for High-End Consumer Goods through a Semiotic Lens: A Case Study of Huawei’s Tri-Fold Smartphone Advertisement “Three Folds, Any Fold, Enhances Prestige”

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_6How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Huawei; semiotics; Integrated Marketing Communications; digital advertising; brand prestige

Abstract

This paper examines Huawei’s 2024 advertising campaign for its tri-fold smartphone, the “Mate XT Ultimate Master”, through a semiotic lens. The campaign, aimed at middle-to-high-income consumers in China, blends technological innovation with cultural values, particularly the concept of “face” (mianzi), to position the smartphone as a status symbol. Using Jean Baudrillard’s theory of symbolic value production and Roland Barthes’ semiotics, the study analyzes how the campaign’s slogan, “Three folds, any fold, enhances prestige”, communicates both technological leadership and social prestige. The research also integrates the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) framework to explore the efficiency of transmedia storytelling across platforms like short-video apps. The findings suggest that the campaign’s strategic combination of technological and cultural symbols has driven Huawei’s success in the premium smartphone market, highlighting the importance of culturally relevant marketing strategies in a globalized digital economy.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Zichen Tian
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/02/26
TI  - Integrated Communication Strategies for High-End Consumer Goods through a Semiotic Lens: A Case Study of Huawei’s Tri-Fold Smartphone Advertisement “Three Folds, Any Fold, Enhances Prestige”
BT  - Proceedings of the 2025 5th International Conference on Culture, Design and Social Development (CDSD 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 41
EP  - 49
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_6
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-541-6_6
ID  - Tian2026
ER  -