Introduction

Communication and branding have seen the emergence of numerous approaches that varied businesses are trying to employ with the objective of attracting potential consumers to their products and services. Semiotics has been among these strategies. Semiotics helps to deliver strategic research and analysis, which helps to generate robust and inspirational outcomes that can easily be used for different activities including brand strategy. Semiotics is more of a science that helps to study relevant symbols and signs in a given culture, which interacts with symbols and signs embedded in a brand and shapes consumer understanding (Danesi, 2013). As a result, semiotics is a powerful tool when it comes to the creation of awareness, developing brand associations, and adding brand values with the objective of making a difference in the market. Brands benefit from semiotics in that it leads to innovations that are usually rooted in people’s lived experiences. A product, communication, or brand usually has the ability to make sense among consumers since the outcomes are derived from inherent cultures.

The paper aims at assessing the functioning of semiotics when it comes to the success of brands. In particular, there will be an examination of different luxury brands with the objective of trying to assess how semiotics has been able to contribute to their success in one way or another. A critical analysis will be focused on the logos that these brands normally use. To help make the paper more conclusive, there will be a need of also examining the negative side of semiotics. Everything that brings something good to business also has its downside that might affect the business negatively if it is not well implemented.

Veg-Sala and Roux (2014) assert that consumer attitude is something that businesses will always have interest in while indulging in different operations. It is more of a behavior that consumers usually demonstrate towards a particular product and express their views of whether they like or dislike the product or service at hand. Businesses study consumer attitude with the objective of identifying the relevant marketing strategies to use and attain the desired success level. This is where semiotics comes in place. Semiotics make it possible to study consumers and derive some useful information that will later be used to influence the consumers into associating themselves with the company’s brand. This is because semiotics makes it feasible to identify a tipping point that will help to influence consumer behavior. The business is able to communicate to the consumers in a way that they will clearly understand and get interested.

Examining the logos of major luxury brands would help understand this concept even better. Logos are usually symbols that help to differentiate one brand or model from another. These are things that are used to recall certain brands since they are easily recognizable. Beginning with the Versace logo, the Versace Medusa, which is embedded in the logo is comprised of a story that has been existence for generations. It is based on a Greek mythical story that centers on Medusa, a creature that was associated with varied aspects. Medusa is described as being a beautiful maiden that was turned into a monster as her hair was now made of serpents (Hamdan, 2016). Her eyes were also very scary as they would easily turn gazers into stones. Despite Medusa becoming fatal, she was still described as having stayed beautiful. The logo brands the company with a certain cultural aspect that makes it attractive to consumers. The Medusa head acts a representation of authority, fascination, and attractiveness. There are several aspects involved here, and when combined they become a very good selling point. Consumers would easily like to wear clothes that give them the impression that they are attractive while at the same time exhibiting aspects of fascination and attractiveness.

Another luxury logo that has used semiotics effectively to help build a formidable brand among the consumers is the Bentley Flying Wings. This car logo stands out among the brands with the most artistic vision in the motoring world. The letter “B” found in the middle of the wings represents the founder’s initials. The wings symbolize that driving the Bentley is the closest an individual can come to having wings (Hamdan, 2016). This is more of a metaphor that relates to speed. For the car owners that are usually fascinated by speed, this is something that would easily get them going. There is a notion already that if they purchased this car, they would get exactly what they crave in terms of speed. This is something that will easily motivate them to get associated with the brand.

The Rolex Crown logo associated with the Rolex brand is another logo that demonstrates aspects of semiotics. The brand slogan that is associated with the company is “a crown for every achievement”. The logo tends to demonstrate victory, prestige and perfection (Hamdan, 2016). Since time in memorial, the crown has always been used to signify these things. It is something that had usually been envied by many due to the status that it brought. People have always done extraordinary things in order to be crowned. In different cultures in the past, people even went to the extent of killing for the purpose of being crowned. This is an indication of the aspect of being crowned is valued in different cultures. As a result, consumers will be easily enticed by a brand that gives this feeling.

Starbucks logo also stands out in the way it is represented to create a desired impression. It is a logo that demonstrates a bare-breasted female bearing a crown on her head. It is obvious that the siren looks attractive to a man. The facial expression is that she is happy, and her bare chest is only being covered by her locks. Through different generations, it has been established that a man’s major weakness is a woman. Women fascinate men to the extent of men making some irrational decisions most of the times. The image on the Starbucks’ logo is likely to attract male customers due to the mystery look and inherent sex appeal. In addition, the fact that the woman is wearing a crown makes her appear as being glorified. As a result, this will also attract female consumers since it shows an aspect of “women power” (Monsef et al., 2011). The logo also uses the green color, which is normally associated with growth and brings the feeling of healing and relaxation. Given that it is the color of vegetation, it will remind potential consumers of health and nature. The green color also sends a message that the company is environmentally friendly. This is something that goes quite well with those consumers that are engrained in the culture of preserving the environment.

The Dom Perignon logo also evokes aspects of semiotics. This champagne has been the go-to drink for the wealthy and is usually envied by those people that cannot spend more than a hundred dollars on a bottle of bubbly (Oswald, 2012). The logo is quite simple as it has a shield-shaped image. This is something that represents tradition as shields were used during wars for different generations. Shields are meant to make someone feel safe due to the protection that they offer. This is an aspect that will give consumers the feeling that consuming from this brand ensures that they are safe. It is something that will not bring them harm, but instead, it will bring more protection. The gold color that is embedded in the shield is reminiscent of wealth. As a result, the brand is likely to attract the elite in the society. Given that the name is handwritten also brings about a personal artisan touch.

The logo examples that have been analyzed above show the significant role that semiotics plays in communicating various aspects regarding a certain brand to the consumers. This is something that the luxury brands analyzed above have utilized quite well. Veg-Sala and Roux (2014) postulate that luxury brand players have realized that experiences are very essential when it comes to their consumers. As a result, there has always been a need for these brands to understand their consumers and generate products that they can associate with. Through semiotics, the brands are able to advocate for beliefs while shaping their brands. This is something that gets ingrained in consumers’ minds since it comes with an aspect they can associate with, and it is something that they desire. To these brands, developing a company symbol is more than just a logo. There is attention that is given to monograms, patterns, colors, images and even concepts due to what they represent and how the potential consumers will view them. The customers are always in mind, and this makes it possible to communicate to them effectively. When customers have the ability to associate with a certain aspect, and it is something they like or consider superior, they will likely get hooked.

However, despite semiotics being effective in communication and branding, there are some downsides involved. Among them is that semiotics goes against the traditional market research. The traditional market research works in a way that research asks consumers for their behaviors and attitudes. Semiotics, on the other hand, observes the culture of the people to help uncover underlying cultural triggers for varied responses (Oswald, 2012). A good example is how traditional market research will quiz consumers on their thoughts on black tea. Questions like what they like about it, what they do not like, and what they would want to change are used. This might bring very interesting insights. Semiotics, however, what it uncovers is more of the cultural significance of tea. This might bring about some misinformation because some of the times things are not the way they seem to be.

Another issue is that the use of semiotics when focusing on communication and branding might compromise the interpretations involved. This is because the primary reliance of semiotics is on perception. Consumers might understand a certain message in a different way than what was intended by the relevant organization. There are also times when there is confusion. This will normally occur when a certain symbol signifies more than one thing. There are people who will get one meaning while the others get a different one. This is something that will work against a brand since it will be having more than one identity among the target consumers. That is why some brands are associated with specific slogans to enable consumers to get the exact feeling of what the company intends from the word go (Danesi, 2013). The environments that people have been subjected to determine how they interpret things too. As a result, expecting consumers to interpret certain messages appropriately at all times can be detrimental to the brand. This is what shows that semiotics can sometimes become ambiguous while trying to communicate certain messages.

Conclusion

Semiotics has come out as being a favorable tool when it comes to the development of brands. This is because it helps brands to identify category conventions that can be broken and enable these brands to stand out. Brand managers are able to identify the exact buttons to click to help impact consumer behavior. The aspect is made possible since semiotics give context to the subconscious consumer decisions. A brand can easily leverage on a certain culture, and the consumers embrace it with open arms since it is something that they can relate to. There is usually something familiar about the message being communicated hence making the consumers to develop an interest. This is something that has been demonstrated in the discussion with the assessment of logos for varied luxury brand names. This has included brands like Rolex, Versace, Starbucks, Dom Perignon and Bentley. These are brands that have used semiotics effectively, and it has helped in establishing them in the market favorably. Yes, it is true that semiotics has some shortcomings in its application. However, this cannot result in its elimination since it has its fair share of advantages. The pros involved tend to outweigh the cons.

References

Danesi, M., 2013. Semiotizing a product into a brand. Social Semiotics, 23(4), pp.464-476.

Hamdan, L., 2016. Stories behind the logos of 8 most famous luxury brands. [online] ArabianBusiness.com. Available at: http://www.arabianbusiness.com/photos/stories-behind-logos-of-8-most-famous-luxury-brands-642617.html.

Monsef, S., Mousavian, S. and Gilaninia, S., 2011. The Role of Logo Redesign in Creating Brand Value. Journal of Management and Strategy, 2(2).

Oswald, L., 2012. Marketing Semiotics: Signs, Strategies, and Brand Value. OUP Oxford.

Veg-Sala, N. and Roux, E. (2014). A semiotic analysis of the extendibility of luxury brands. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 23(2), pp.103-113.

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