Presented to : Shoppers & Consumer Insights 2013Date: 13 February 2013
APPLIED SEMIOTICS AS A TOOL FOR BRANDING
WHAT IS SEMIOTICS?
1. Not all consumer motivation is reveal through
market research
2. In order to unearth deep rooted consumer
motivations and desires, Semiotics studies
consumers through Culture
3. The study looks at the Linguistic, Visual
and Behavioral Codes to understand that
which typically cannot be articulated by the
consumer
What is Semiotics?
The Consumer Belief System
PERSONALITY
CULTURE
HUMAN NATURE
Individual Specific
GroupSpecific
Universal
Inherited & Learned
Learned
Inherited
Individual personalities do not all for an aggregate understanding of consumer groups
Culture is learned, not inherited: it derives from one's social environment, not from one's genes
Human Nature is universal and it applies to ALL situations
Why Culture Matters
Semiotics allows this cultural understanding from a life-stage, mindset as well as a geography perspective
It analyses the consumer through lenses like language, rituals, behavior & popular culture which give a deeper insight into their psyche
What is trendy in New York is traditional in New Delhi.
HOW DY WORKS DECODES AND ENCODES BRANDS
APPLIED SEMIOTICS
STAGE 1: Lateral association of the concept across categories like language & popular culture.
STAGE 2: For each stage 1 association, we do a scanning across media and mapping of relevant data.
STAGE 3: DY Works creates stimulus that distills the research & collates all data for further analysis.
STAGE 4: Applying anthropological/ ethnographic lens to the data to define residual, dominant and emerging discourses.
STAGE 5: Decoding the concepts and defining their meaning and how they can be interpreted for different functions - R&D, Sales, Marketing, HR etc.
THESEMIOTIC PROCESS
Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup had little relevance to
the Indian consumer as it was positioned the world
over as Chocolate topping on Vanilla Ice-Cream
GODREJ HERSHEYS - A Semiotic Approach
We identified all occasions where chocolate was added and at another we looked at the symbols of chocolate to understand the world of indulgence
We understood that chocolates were the ultimate bribe to kids
And realized that this bribe was needed the most to drink milk
It was the perfect symbol of mother’s love – tough but sweetened
GODREJ HERSHEYS - A Semiotic Approach
The Indian Appeal
To ensure a smooth foray into the
Indian market, we studied the Indian
nurturer – Mother and her concept of
milk as a diet supplement. We
repositioned the product as “Milk
Plus” We revamped the packaging to
ensure appropriate visual hooks to
appeal to the Indian palate.
GODREJ HERSHEYS
Can the chocolate swirls inspire the shelves
Can the FSU be inspired by the form of the tall glass
How do we introduce the Hershey’s bottle
The Hero
Hershey’s Iconic bottle
Splashing into an milk drink where
the interplay of chocolate and milk
Is the key visual
Elements In Retail
FRONT ELEVATION
HEADER GRAPHIC
DRINK SILHOUETTE STACKING UNIT
SEMIOTICS TO DESIGN
AT EYE LEVELCreate amazing Milk Drinks with Hershey’s Syrup
ENDURING VISUALDripping chocolate on milk
APPLICATION IDEASRecipes for using Hershey’s Syrup with Milk
RETAIL ENVIRONMENT
DY WORKS APPROACH
WHAT ARE THE PILLARS OF SEMIOTICS
Pillars of Semiotics
Language
Mythology
Rituals
Pop Culture
Language
Here we use language roots, translations and common expressions to seed our brand thought
Using an language roots to create a brand name
Using an expression to create a brand name
Leverage local expressions
Mythology
Mythology is a rich source of inspiration for brand creators throughout the world
Other brands that borrow from mythology
A resurgence of interest in Indian mythology
Success of recent works like the Naga Trilogy by Amish suggest that people have an appetite for comptemporizing Indian mythological content
Rituals
A brand that is admired universally for making chocolates a part of India …
Using Rituals to push for a behavior change
WHAT WE DOBarOne Relaunch – Adopting the ‘Gold’ category codes
Pop Culture
The ability of cinema and television to reach a broad spectrum makes them ideal for brand encoding
Brands trying to leverage Pop Culture
Zandu and Santa / Banta are examples of how one brand has tried to recreate excitement and another has piggy backed on a genre of jokes
SEMIOTICS TOOLS
Tools that can be used immediately to apply semiotics to branding
Mind Mapping
De Bono - 6 Hat
Visual Stimulus & Thinking
Semiotics Mapping
Mind Mapping
Mindmapping is a quick way to explode ideas, see thought linkages without loosing the overview
De Bono - 6 Hat (Building Perspective)
Visual stimulus led workshops lead to breakthrough and alignment for brand owners as they are able to decode the consumer and brand world better
WHAT WE DO
Visual Stimulus & Thinking
DY Works has successfully conducted the Brand Seed workshop with Peninsula amongst other brands.
Semiotics Mapping
Finally, we take inputs on language, myths, rituals and pop culture and arrive at the encoding principals that lead to brand manifestation
SUMMARY
AN OVERVIEW OF SEMIOTICS
WHAT• STUDY OF SIGNS AND SYMBOLS
HOW• DY WORKS ENCODES BRANDS WITH
CULTURAL INSIGHTS
PILLARS• LANGUAGE, MYTHOLOGY, RITUALS &
POP CULTURE
TOOLS• MIND MAPS, 6 HAT, VISUAL STIMULUS
AND SEMIOTICS MAPPING