1. What is Brand Semiotics?

Firstly…what is semiotics?

This is the $6 million question.?

And I cannot give a satisfying answer. In fact… I’m bound to disappoint you.

Any definition I could give you: ‘the study of signs and meaning’ ‘making the invisible visible’ ‘how implicit communication influences us’ will just be a bunch of words

Unless and until…

https://vimeo.com/1024904139?share=copy

You are actually exposed to some semiotics...

Because semiotics has to be experienced before it is understood.

That is why fewer than 30% of all students of my students have actually ever finished a book on semiotics but why more than 50% of my students have worked with a semiotician...Because once they have got a taste…. They never go back

Look at these 2 book covers…Both books by me (that I haven't written yet) on semiotics.

Same same... But different

They each give you a different impression of what it contains.?Thusly...

That’s semiotics. Because, whether uou like it or not, as a brand, people will always judge a book by it's cover, both metaphorically and literally...

Look at these two ads

https://vimeo.com/1024866514?share=copy

The music makes you feel differently about what they are advertising, no?

More semiotics

How about

Semiotics, innit?

Semiotics studies how media has an influence on you beyond words...

It makes you feel that because of codes. Semiotics also about codes.

No, not ersatz, arcane Dan Brown DaVinci Code bullshit, much of that book was ripped off from Umberto Eco’s Name of the Rose and no ‘symbologist’ isn’t actually a real word…

Although the Rosetta Stone is a good metaphor for semiotics translation

Communication codes. Like these...

Except code convergence is bad - because you're subsidising each other's brand equity.

Yes, it is about codes. But communication codes.

Semiotics is a perspective, a way of seeing that comes with practise and experience..

It's like going into the Matrix and “the unveiling of the familiar unknown”

It’s the stuff that is hiding in plain sight that you just don’t see.

This is why, for me, at least, semiotics is a form of mindfulness, just like meditation helps you to slow down and observe the habit of the mind, semiotics helps you see the deep habit patterns of culture, so you can work out how to manage them more effectively.

?A famous semiotician, Yuri Lotman even has a book on this: The Universe of the Mind

But I digress…

Why semiotics?

Well, that’s my main topic for next week it’s a technique made for upstream brand strategy

Well in essence, it is a communication problem solving technique. A tool amongst others.

The easiest way for me to explain it is to show you examples of problems that I've solved

?But that’s for next month’s newsletter

But for now, suffice it to say that branding fundamentally IS semiotics.?

Brand names, logos, colours, narratives, celebrity endorsers – all mean something

Does this Penguin logo just identify and distinguish Penguin from its competitors?

No?

It conveys brand associations, meanings, values and evokes memories.

It creates a brand image in consumer minds.

This...

But maybe also this...

But brand owners and their agencies can’t always see this…

?Partly it’s short termism, obsession with performance marketing etc

The stuff that Mark Ritson’s always banging on about (more on that next month)?

But there’s another reason. And I don’t mean to be rude here

But clients are at least partly delusional about their own brands, that’s right I’ve said it.

I don’t mean this pejoratively... I’ll explain more about what I mean next month

I’m writing this newsletter in short bursts

A bit like famed UK creative director Dave Trott – well they say don’t borrow – steal!

I hope he’s okay with that… because he seems to like semiotics sees it as fundamental to creativity. Like in this piece:

https://davetrott.co.uk/2009/06/how-words-cloud-our-vision/

On the subject of creativity, semiotics is a creative thinking method rooted in likely impacts. Oliver Perrin, a contact of mine, former advertising creative director turned rogue semiotician, has coined the phrase?non-arbitrary creativity a term I've adopted as a way to explain why semiotics is so powerful to clients in design and branding.

Not everyone likes semiotics – some people hate its whiff of intellectualism, some people don’t like that it critiques power structures, don't like it because it make their head hurt

Semiotics can seem magical in its thrust because its depth leaves nothing untouched

It’s actually not spiritual, but it does join all the dots, make things make sense, and a good semiotics debrief can leave you feeling like you've seen what was hidden. I love doing it.

Semiotics interprets and synthesizes a wealth of cultural material.? It equips brand owners with the tools to better understand the latent meanings in the brand and category sectors, giving them a rigorous, evidence based rationale for creative and strategic decisions for competitive advantage. Some of the biggest brands in the world hire semioticians to solve complex meaning problems. But more of that next month!

As a student at School of Communication Arts at which I mentor once said:

“I never knew that there was a subject that seems to unite all the things that most interest me - brands, visual culture, psychology and sociology; well there is: it’s called semiotics!”

Like her... i love it

Thanks for reading my first newsletter and let me know what you think of it.

To find out more about learning how to do semiotics you can join my quarterly critically acclaimed CPD accredited course How to Do Semiotics in Seven Weeks in Q2 2025 for more details or tickets email course co-ordinator Pavla: [email protected]

If you want to discuss a potential project or have an enquiry about brand semiotics in your business you can book into my OnceHub here on https://go.oncehub.com/ChrisArning