Semiotics and Its Study
Semiotics is a study of how people use symbols and signs to communicate, interpret, and develop knowledge. Unlike linguistics, which focuses on words and their meanings, semiotics is concerned with signification and how people understand these signs and symbols.
Historical and Contemporary Influences
The concept of semiotics dates back to antiquity, with philosophers such as Cicero, Augustine, and Locke. The field has also grown in recent times and is influenced by thinkers such as Roland Barthes, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Jacques Lacan.
Levels of Culture Explored with Semiotics
There are two levels of culture that can be studied using semiotics: the first is the cultural code, which consists of belief systems and symbolic meaning. The second is the cultural environment, which is how people experience a brand in their daily lives.
The Role of Semiotics in Branding
Understanding the codes and beliefs of a specific culture can help us to create a meaningful brand that resonates with its target audience. It can also enable us to design for that culture by identifying symbols and signifiers that appeal to consumers.
Strengthening Brand Culture
Developing and strengthening your brand’s culture involves looking at the brand in its local context, as well as global trends, lifestyles, and other influences that will shape it. This practice strengthens the connection between the brand and the people it serves, while finding universal principles for expansion into new markets.
The Power of Semiotics for Brands
As a result, semiotics is a powerful tool to help brands make the shift from being followers to leaders in their culture. It can also enable a brand to avoid being passed over by its competitors.
Focusing on People, Not Just the Product
A brand that has developed its culture is one that focuses on the people it serves, rather than the product it produces. This is a big difference between the world’s biggest and most successful brands and those that don’t.
Values and Meanings for Target Audience
This makes it easy for you to identify the values and meanings that are important to your target audience, and ensure they are reflected in your product, communication, and marketing materials. You can then create products and campaigns that will engage and delight them, and keep your brand front of mind in the minds of your customers.
Language and Brand Communication
Another important aspect of developing your brand’s culture is understanding the language that it uses to communicate with its target audience. This includes the way it uses words and imagery, as well as how it structures its brand identity.
Tools for Researching Brand Language
There are many different semiotic tools that can be used to research and evaluate the language that a brand is using, but some of them have been around for years. Examples include the Greimas square, which charts out the relationship between opposing terms (e.g. hot versus cold), or the chess analogy that stresses pieces are only valuable in relation to each other.
Commercial Semiotics Today
While semiotics has been around for a long time, the methods that are used by commercial semioticians today are relatively new. They grew out of the discipline’s academic roots but have been adopted by the world of commerce in recent years.
Wide Spectrum of Semiotic Analysis
Historically, semiotics has been associated with a number of academic disciplines, including linguistics and anthropology. However, these disciplines are only part of a much wider spectrum of human experiences that can be analyzed through semiotics. From social organization to cinema spectating, from traffic flow in malls to animal behavior, there is no shortage of situations in which semiotics can be applied.
