Brand response analysis: A Peircean semiotic approach

Sign Systems Studies 42(1), pp.98-136, 2014

The aim of this paper is to outline a methodological framework for brand equity planning with structuralist rhetorical semiotics. By drawing on the connectionist conceptual model of the brand generative trajectory of signification it will be displayed in a stepwise fashion how a set of nuclear semes and classemes or an intended semic structure that underlies manifest discursive structures may be projected by its internal stakeholders (i.e., a brand management team, an account planning team or a marketing research team) with view to attaining differential brand associations. The suggested methodological framework focuses on the strength and uniqueness of brand associations as integral aspects of a brand's equity structure and comprises a set of calculi that aim at addressing from a brand textuality point of view how associations may be systematically linked to their key sources with an emphasis on the ad filmic text. The propounded methodology is exemplified by recourse to a corpus of ad filmic texts from the major brand players in the UK cereals market. The argumentative thrust is intent on demonstrating that structuralist rhetorical semiotics is not only useful for analysing/interpreting brand texts, but, moreover, for constructing and for managing them over time. This demonstration is deployed by adopting a synchronic/diachronic and intra-(ad)-filmic/inter-(ad)-filmic approach to the formation of brand associations that make up a projected brand equity structure, in the context of embedded product category dynamics.

2015

Consumer behaviour based on the marketing semiotic s udy can help create high impact brand communicatio ns. Effective brand communication will help elevate an ex isting top brand to a super brand status. Consumer b haviour has long been studied and researchers have been explori ng new ways to decipher the thoughts within the black box of decision making that exists in the minds of the consumers. C onsumer not only looks at brand communication but a nalyses it too. Previous exposure to similar brand communication an d memory of such brands can affect the future perce ption of a brand within a consumer’s mind. Today, advertisers use a s tory telling mode, consumers assimilate and process that information to build contexts/connotations around the brand. This research was aimed at studying the connotations that a consumer associates with a brand and how it impacts his behav iour and the overall brand image. Quantitative data analysis had been used for two personal care brands used in th...

Approaches to the semiotics of brand are troubled by the lack of any accepted analytic definition of the phenomenon, as well as capacious, almost metaphysical, extensions in which brand becomes identified with semiosis as such, and thus everything is a brand. In addition, studies of brand tend to focus on highly visible or successful brands, as often as not as a proxy for a real object of analytic interest that lies elsewhere. Brand discourse defines brand in opposition to the material properties of the product, leading to a dematerialization of brand, which erases the messy materialities, contingencies, and hybrids that continually arise in the material semiosis of brand. Rather than attempt a definition of brand, the recent literature on brand semiotics is explored along several material and semiotic dimensions of the variousness of its relationship to its universes of circulation and in different professional discourses and historical and cultural contexts

is paper explores the role of cognitive structures and socially shared meanings in communication e ectiveness, focusing concretely on brand communication. Traditionally in communication sciences, ambiguity and polysemy have been considered prejudicial to the e ectiveness of communication. However, we argue that in branding, the more possible meanings a brand alludes to, the more people are able to identify with it and emotionally connect to it, thus contributing to the e ective communication of the brand, understood as the building or reinforcement of a positive relationship between the receiver and the brand. Our main argument is explored within a theoretical framework that is founded on the following assumptions: a) the new media are one of the main factors that shape the contemporary society; b) this shaping takes place on a cognitive level, thus originating concrete cognitive structures that are characteristic of the contemporary society; c) brands are more e ective if they allude to meanings shared on a social and cultural level and if they are adjusted to contemporary cognition. We empirically test our arguments by exploring 15 cases of rebranding of Portuguese enterprises. We focused on the logotype as the main element of the brand, and we conducted a comparative visual analysis which combined the methods of content analysis and semiotic analysis. Plus, we complemented our visual analysis with qualitative interviews to one member of each organization who was involved in the rebranding process. Our ndings showed that the brands which allude to more meanings and to more ambiguous meanings and which have more levels of meaning (denotation, connotation, myth) are more e ective in generating identi cation and emotional relationships. Furthermore, they are cognitively more engaging and involving. We hope that our research contributes in an applied way to enhance creativity and communication e ectiveness in brand design and in branding.

The American Journal of Semiotics 34(3-4), 2018

A semiotic approach to the study of brands and branding moves beyond new-age personifications of consumerist desire and Marxist deconstructions of oppressive deceit. Brands are approached, instead, as systems of folk-ontology and semiotic ideology that function both in tension with and in tandem with the economic objects prized by corporate clients (Manning 2010). This thematic double-issue borrows its title from a turn of phrase suggested by Malcolm Evans (see e.g., 2016), one of the pioneering individuals to first apply semiotic thinking deliberately and systematically to client/consumer-oriented challenges encountered in marketing and branding contexts (cf. Rossolatos 2012: 59–60). As will become clear in the articles that follow, the topic under consideration is “applied” in keeping with Evans' approach: contributing authors are all first-hand practitioners who each have years of actual industry experience working directly with clients to better develop brand communication through the application of semiotic theories and methodologies. [pdf contains covers, toc and preface]

2010

This article takes the metaphor of myopia to explain the most limited vision of brand, understood as the identifying sign of a product. As brand is a sign, we turn to semiotics, the science of signs, in order to apply a model which broadens the concept of brand to three dimensions: that of the identity sign itself, that of the object the sign refers to and that of the response of the market to the sign.

This paper addresses the marketing concept of brand equity from a semiotic perspective, by demonstrating why and how the notions of code/subcode are central in accounting for the multifarious dimensions of brand value. Based on the basic premises that surplus of meaning is reflected in surplus financial value in the concept of brand equity and that brand equity and code are fundamentally interdependent, an attempt is made to lay the conceptual foundations for operationalizing brand equity semiotically in a political economy of brands. The managerial implications in terms of planning for brand equity against the background of the relative novelty of brands as signs and different levels of codedness are discussed through the import of the planning platform of The Generative Matrix of Equity Potential. Keywords: code, subcodes, brand equity, brand meaning, generative matrix of equity potential * George Rossolatos is an experienced marketing practitioner, with extensive experience in advertising (JWT), marketing research (Research International) and brand management (Colgate-Palmolive, Nestle, Weetabix, Cosmote). He holds a BA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Essex, an MSc in Marketing from Manchester Business School, during which he coined the model of Consumer Psychoanalysis and an MBA from Strathclyde Business School, including research in the field of brand equity. He also conducted part-time PhD research in the field of Brand Equity and Integrated Marketing Communications at Manchester Business School. He is currently a PhD Candidate at the University of Kassel (Germany) in the field of Marketing Semiotics. He has edited and co-authored a book on Interactive Advertising (Interactive Advertising: Dynamic Communication in the Information Era, Libris Tech Publications), translated FT Publications' Mastering Marketing into Greek and published 300+ articles in marketing related trade journals. His research interests rest with effecting inter-textual cross-fertilizations between marketing and semiotics discourses with an applicable managerial orientation, also informed by disciplines such as accounting and finance, brand valuation, branding, advertising effectiveness, consumer behavior, phenomenology, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, anthropology, communication theory, cultural studies.

The paper argues for the need, at least theoretical, of “brandology” as detached knowledge in the marketing field. The idea is based on the observations and research in brand management practice in recent years which have demonstrated the increasing social life of brands, especially those with high level of brand equity. What is knowledge as a whole, scientific method and discipline is discussed, in the first place, and what are the advantages of brand knowledge, in the second. Together with distinguishing marketing and branding, semiotics is introduced as powerful enough tool in branding and brand equity’s examination and explanation. The “angel share” is an analogy suggested for better understanding the brand as social phenomenon. Finally, some suggestions are made for further development on how this “discipline” ought to be taught before the students, in order to create better understanding about the brand “nature”, and which looks at culture, marketing communications as well as social and consuming practices from different perspective. It needs intensive project-based and on-field research educational approach, counting on social and cultural studies more than on the conventional business, profit-based thinking.

Integrated Journal of Business and Economics

The article analyzes the image of a brand and a brand image, brand value assessment methods, brand value, and benefits. A brand is a word or phrase that identifies and separates goods belonging to one person from belonging to another person. A brand is one of the elements of marketing, advertising. High-quality brand brings significant benefits to the manufacturer or the trader. A brand name may consist of a brand name and a brand symbol. There is several brand value evaluation model analyze in the article, like capital market-oriented brand value model, Aaker's brand value model, the Interbrand Brand Assessment Methodology, which helps evaluate brand value and benefit.

Cases on Branding Strategies and Product Development: Successes and Pitfalls

Most theories in brand management, evolved from 20th century economics, rely on a convenient assumption of how consumers should make purchase decisions. In contradistinction, this chapter demonstrates a semiological tradition in the context of brand management using a 128-year-old brand, Muthoot Group, to expound upon the ways consumers prevalently perceive brands, which then drive their purchase decisions. Just as in marketing, where the focus changed from “economic exchange” to “social exchange,” in brand management the focus needs to change from “symbols” to the way people use semiotic resources to produce both communicative artifacts and events to interpret them, which is also a form of semiotic production. Since social semiotics is not a self-contained field, the chapter historically plots the brand-building voyage of Muthoot Group, applying semiotic concepts and methods to establish a model of brand and extend the scientific understanding of differentiation, loyalty, and advoc...