IMPORTANCE OF SEMIOTIC BRAND AUDIT FOR BETTER BRAND POSITIONING

 

Innovations in brand communication, in recent years, have been expected to rise due to the application of semiotics in brand development. This is because it accelerates and step above the traditional market research and directly works to influence spontaneous reactions of the humans. Also, semiotic brand audit isn’t very costly and time consuming which also offers broader chances of creativity. Brand Semiotics is crucial for brand positioning and messaging for it helps in considering the inspiration of thinking out of the box. Offering semiotic answers to the customers’ FAQs will help your brand a ride to success.

Semiotics is an examination concerning how meaning is derived and how it is conveyed. Its origins lie in the academic study of how signs and images (visual and linguistic) derive meaning. Specifically, they impart the things that are spoken as well as unspoken. In other words, semiotics is the translation of signs and images that disentangles those subconscious perceptions.  It is a method of seeing the world, and of comprehending how the landscape and culture where we live massively affects all of us unknowingly.

Semiotics includes the "assortment and analysis of the information drawn from communication of all types – artistically or regularly, in a wide range of media including verbal, visual, and olfactory" and is valuable for "explaining the brand values in the brand audit, and then tracking the application of these values over all components of the marketing mix."

A semiotic analysis interprets the implications that resonate with your audience. With that information, you can consolidate the decoded elements into your brand and throughout your brand communication. A semiotic analysis can be an important for building up ad campaigns or publishing a core content asset. Unlike traditional research, semiotics conveys strategic research and examination that produces powerful and persuasive results that can be used for a brand positioning scope, intending to innovative turn of events.

While implementing semiotics in brand development, you need to study the brand as well as the communication codes of the targeted audience. No business in the market works in isolation. Every business lives in a broader context: it is surrounded by competitors, communication discourse and local forms of expressions. In larger sense, the business is surrounded by global market which involves globalized form of communication, its values and culture. This is where semiotics for marketing comes in the picture.

One who is following semiotic brand audit needs to look at the three most fundamental contexts associated with a product that helps a brand to easily penetrate into the market and capture their niche:

1.      Brand context: It is the symbolic layer that is closely associated with the brand. It not only takes brand into consideration but also the layers of meanings associated with the brand and its core assets.

2.      Category context: This is defined as the layer that encompasses not only the brand, its communication and other marketing activities, but also takes into the account the workings of the competitors which helps in creating a system of expression, values, message and communication. Together it helps to define the look and feel of the market category that’s acceptable by consumers’ perception.

3.      Cultural Context: The third most fundamental context of the brand is the cultural context. Here the exploration of the culture, current dynamics, dominant codes, new emerging trends and residual narratives is taken into consideration which helps in conceptualization of the symbolic trajectory. There’s a complete analysis in which the culture evolves, moves and gains its momentum across different regional markets at a different pace in time. It helps to strengthen the cultural relevance of the brand.

Semiotics can assist brands with moving from being followers to pioneers: from responding to culture, to building it. Semiotics can help brands in various ways: they make creative developments that normally fit into society, they uncover ideas and bits of knowledge that don't emerge from conventional market survey, and they assist brands make culture rather than just respond to it. Semiotics need not be expensive or time-consuming. Even a couple of hours to semiotic thought can rouse you and push the limits of innovation, assisting you to think laterally and strategically.