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Semiotics and Persuasion in Marketing Communication

2014; Volume: 13; Linguagem: Inglês

2471-0881

Manuela Epure, Eric Eisenstat, Cristina Dinu,

Marketing and Advertising Strategies

ABSTRACT. Since the first conference on Marketing and Semiotics, organized at Northwestern University in 1986, research on the application of semiotics techniques in marketing, and particularly in consumer advertising, has evolved with considerable momentum. By looking at advertising campaigns as compositions of signs and understanding the underlying relationships with the meanings they may convey, marketers gain better control over the communication process, and thus, create the opportunity to communicate more effectively with the target population. This, in turn, paves the way for developing powerful marketing tools in terms of transmitting truly persuasive messages. In this article, we review the current theoretic and practical uses of semiotics in advertising, particularly in relation to the concept of persuasion. To this end, it is argued that semiotics allows for the practical distinction of persuasion from manipulation in marketing communication. Because signs are as volatile as they are powerful, understanding the semiotic structure of the communication is crucial: some message will almost surely be transmitted in a powerful way, whether it is the one that was intended or not. To demonstrate these concepts in practical application, we construct a basic, comparative semiotics analysis of three recent public service campaigns in Romania The resulting analysis provides a clear framework for understanding the various shortcomings commonly noted with respect to these campaigns. More importantly, however, the semiotics investigation suggests that these techniques may constitute a powerful arsenal in social marketing and other domains of marketing, not just consumer advertising.Keywords: signs; subliminal messaging; representational codes; signification systems; consumer advertising; social marketing1. IntroductionWhat is semiotics? Simply put, semiotics is the study of signs. But what are signs? Scholars specialized in academic work involving semiotics, or Semioticians, refer to signs as cultural symbols and as essential building blocks of language and communication. In this context, signs are typically endowed with a two-part definition, consisting of a signifier - a particular person, object or idea, and a signified - the particular person, object or idea that is being referred to. Semioticians typically focus on understanding the relationship between a sign and the thing or concept that it comes to stand for, the relationship between various signs and the relationship between signs and the people who interpret them (e.g. many traffic signs are the same across countries so people from different countries come to understand them in the same way).Let us take as an example the Romanian publicity spot for the local milk brand Fulga.1 This brand belongs to the company Albalact Alba Iulia and was first introduced in 2004. Before embarking on a semiotic analysis of this brand, it would of course be useful to understand the literal meanings of the Romanian phrases involved. To that end, the company's name is a composition of lactate meaning dairy; the brand name is itself derived from meaning flake.With this in mind, consider the cow as the symbolic animal representing the product drinkable milk, whose name is intended to transmit a sense of something white and lightweight. Moreover, one can view as a silly feminine form of fulg innocently conjured up by a child who is not yet able to speak grammatically correct.Using animation as the basis for communicating the brand and the message, the strategists responsible for the brand wished to transmit this attitude of youthful jubilation. The brand creators say that Fulga is a brand that grows together with the children - its own best friends. It is pampered, it plays and it learns to speak at the same time with them. This is what makes it so adorable - it tries to learn as it goes while preserving its innocence.2 The idea is reiterated through the images in which the cow is depicted in her world - in the clouds, in fields of flowers underneath a smiling sun or rocking on a swing. …