Laura Ancilli

PhD student, Faculty of Business and Economics

Advertisers continually search for fresh phrases to capture the imagination, sometimes even adopting words from other languages. Monash PhD student Laura Ancilli is exploring the link between marketing and linguistics; specifically, how Italian advertising uses English.

Laura completed an undergraduate degree with a double major in Linguistics and Spanish, then worked as a journalist for the Italian Program at SBS Radio. After that she worked as a lecturer in Italian studies. It was there that Laura became interested in the links between marketing and linguistics.

"When I started my masters it seemed almost natural to give it a marketing slant and make my research an interdisciplinary study of linguistics and marketing/advertising," she says.

Laura has experienced the advantages of accessing the research facilities and services a university like Monash provides. "Part of my data collection involved a questionnaire that needed to be answered by Italians living in Italy. Technical staff were able to arrange to have the questionnaire designed for web use and provide access to the Monash web servers. When the data from the questionnaire started to come in I could export them straight into a spreadsheet and start analysing them. Without my data collection would have been impossible within the timeframe and budget I had allocated."