Verbal and Visual Signs in Indonesian Cosmetics Advertisement: Which is More Influential on the Purchasing Decision?

This research is aimed to investigate verbal/linguistic and visual elements that construct the advertisement of Indonesian traditional cosmetics and the effect of each element on consumers’ purchasing decision. The results of the study show that the advertisement of Indonesian traditional cosmetics used as the data in this research has all the elements of printed advertisement as a multimodal text. It shows that both verbal/linguistic and visual elements have provided a simultaneous significant effect on consumers’ purchasing decisions. It has also been proved through the use of regression analysis that the significant influence of the advertisement lies in its verbal element rather than visual. It is expected that the result can be used to create new strategies of using persuasive texts and visual images in cosmetics advertising to attract more consumers.