Semiotic strategies: The things you are looking at have names

THE THINGS YOU ARE LOOKING
AT HAVE NAMES
DR RACHEL LAWES, METHODOLOGY IN CONTEXT, NOVEMBER 2016
SEMIOTIC STRATEGIES FOR BRANDS

A STORY IN THREE PARTS
• A problem for researchers & research users. Why there is a problem.
• A solution. How to fix the problem.
• What happens next. Benefits of fixing the problem. Are there remaining
challenges?

PART 1: THE PROBLEM
A problem for researchers & research users. Why there is a problem.

PROBLEM
Consumers are great at talking about brands but the MR industry isn't that
great at analysing the things they say. Normally, qualitative researchers
think in terms of 'themes'. What 'themes' seem to be emerging.

PROBLEM
• This is the qual equivalent of descriptive rather than inferential statistics.
• Moreover, sometimes, in qualitative data, you can see respondents are
doing something interesting but there doesn’t seem to be a name for
what they are doing.

PROBLEM
• The problem with the ‘theme’ approach is that it overlooks difference,
discordance and conflict.
• Yet naturally-occurring consumer talk is chock-full of oppositions and
contrasts. Things - eg brands - don't gain any meaning until someone's
pointed out how they are not like some other brand or something else.

PART 2: THE SOLUTION
How to fix the problem.

SOLUTION
In both semiotics and discourse analysis (DA), two closely-related methods,
someone's noticed this tendency, compared it to other data sets, figured
out what it means, given it a name and published the results.

SOLUTION
The classic examples are binary oppositions (semiotics) and contrast pairs
(DA). When a respondent reduces something complex to two polar
opposites, they are almost certainly doing that so as to make one half of the
pair seem better or more normal than the other.

SOLUTION
It is a rhetorical move that advances their own interests. Being able to spot
contrast pairs helps you uncover respondents' priorities and private
agendas.

SOLUTION
Now here's a demonstration in which we apply theory to some real data -
women talking about fashion brands. We are analysing, not just describing,
and the results tell you something about the culture from which the sample
of discourse is drawn, rather than just describing the gross physical
properties of the sample.

SOLUTION
Applying this kind of analysis to this conversation helps us identify
(a) what speakers are bothered about, e.g presenting themselves as
grown-ups,
(b) a few problems that some of these brands are having that they might
not be aware of, and
(c) opportunity spaces where a new fashion brand could step in.

You think because you're no longer shopping
at Forever21 that these clothes should last a
long time
https://www.reddit.com/r/femalefashionadvice/comments/2g55w5/what_your_favorite_brand_says_about_you_thread/

You used to shop at H&M, but then you went
to Europe on a school trip
You’re starting to feel like h&m is beneath you.

You don't want to spend a lot of money but
you're too into fashion to shop exclusively at
H&M and target

You would shop at free people, but don't want
to risk wearing anything over $100 to a house
party
You want something from Anthropologie but
you're between paychecks.

You have seven different animal-print skirts for
each day of the week, but no basics to pair
them with.
You are like a bird in the French countryside. A bird
with disposable income and an insatiable yearning
to alight upon a vintage rickshaw.

You have a giant map on your bedroom wall
with the word WANDERLUST printed across it
in giant font
Your ideal man has a full beard and maintains
it with scented beard oil.

BINARY OPPOSITIONS
YOUNGER GROWN-UP
NOT ENOUGH MONEY MONEY TO SPEND
NORTH AMERICA EUROPE
INTO FASHION REALLY INTO FASHION
GLOBE-TROTTING HIPSTERS PASTORAL FRENCH FANTASY

SOCIAL FUNCTIONS – WHAT IS BEING ACHIEVED FOR
THESE SPEAKERS?
• Show off both maturity and expertise. Only a grown-up could perform this
self-aware analysis of brands and their consumers.
• Worldliness: you actually do travel and did go to Europe.
• Your good taste exceeds the practical demands of everyday life, from
house parties to waiting for a monthly pay cheque.
• You are sensitive to pretty things. The importance of aesthetics in your
surroundings justifies collections, from white dresses to white candles.

Do you want
shoppers to wish
they were
elsewhere?
Retaining customers above certain age & income level. Lifestyle: seasoned
traveller
Lifestyle: white
candles, vintage,
country.
Losing customers at
a certain age &
income level.
Lack personality:
‘better than H&M’
isn’t a strong point
of difference.

PART 3: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT
Benefits of fixing the problem.

SEMIOTIC STRATEGIES FOR BRANDS
• Semiotics has made a special contribution by providing a tool - the
semiotic square - which lets us turn these contrasting pairs of things into
structures which point out brand opportunities.
• Usually, when you turn two binary oppositions or contrast pairs into a
square and look at the quadrants it creates, there are two norms which
represent what people expect the world to look like, there's one area of
dead space that's not offering enough benefits to be worth bothering with
commercially, and there's one new opportunity and that's where the
money is.

RECOGNISING OPPORTUNITIES FOR BRANDS
YOUNGER GROWN-UP
NOT ENOUGH MONEY MONEY TO SPEND
NORTH AMERICA EUROPE
INTO FASHION REALLY INTO FASHION
GLOBE-TROTTING HIPSTERS PASTORAL FRENCH FANTASY

LIGHT DARK
FEMININE HETEROSEXUAL
COMFORT ADVENTURE
PRETTY EXOTIC
THE COUNTRY THE DESERT

RECOGNISING OPPORTUNITIES USING SEMIOTIC
SQUARES
PRETTY
EXOTIC
NORM
NORMOPPORTUNITY
DEAD SPACE

SQUARES
LIGHT
DARK
NORM
NORMOPPORTUNITY
DEAD SPACE

SQUARES
COMFORT ADVENTURE
FEMININE
HETEROSEXUAL
NORM
NORMOPPORTUNITY
DEAD SPACE
http://www.psfk.com/2014/09/fado-creates-pneumatic-ergonomic-footwear-women.html

SQUARES
THE DESERT THE COUNTRY
BRILLIANT LIGHT
SOFT LIGHT
NORM
NORMOPPORTUNITY
DEAD SPACE

SQUARES
THE COUNTRY THE DESERT
PRETTY
EXOTIC
NORM
NORMOPPORTUNITY
DEAD SPACE

CONCLUSIONS & REMAINING CHALLENGES

BENEFITS FOR RESEARCH & RESEARCHERS
• You don't fall for everything that respondents say to you. You have an
external framework for judging whether they are transparently telling you
the truth or whether something deeper is going on.
• You learn something about the thought processes and behaviour of
millions of people, not just 10 people who you met in a focus group
viewing facility near Watford.

BENEFITS FOR BRANDS & BUSINESS
• You can diagnose problems with, and find solutions for, brands, products
and services that respondents themselves are not capable of articulating.
• You can spot new business opportunities that no individual respondent
was capable of pointing out.

ARE THERE ANY LIMITATIONS OR CHALLENGES?
• The challenges aren’t methodological, they are organisational. Bringing
these skills into organisations is like deciding to have an innovation team
or a creativity team. It requires allocation of resources and buy-in at
senior levels.
• If we continue with the metaphor of innovation, your options include
open innovation and crowdsourcing – maybe we need a new system;
instead of briefs & proposals we have problems & experts who want to
make a contribution.

DR RACHEL LAWES, METHODOLOGY IN CONTEXT, NOVEMBER 2016
rachel@lawes-consulting.co.uk, +44 (0)7939 020 466

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