Strategic Semiotics
In this chapter, readers discover the impact of external factors such as competition, new technologies, and cultural change on brand strategy. Management’s decisions about everything from new product development and technology to pricing strategy communicate to consumers what the brand stands for, including the brand persona, value proposition, and its customer relationship. The discussion, exercises, and team project center on the play between code and performance in cultural brand management. Codes are cultural norms that account for the collective understanding of sign systems such as language, rituals, and brand discourse and perpetuate these systems over time. Performance defines the act of manipulating these codes in the interest of creativity. Teams will learn to conduct a binary analysis of brand meaning; decode the strategic dimensions of a product category; define the brand’s strategic positioning in relation to competitors; and find an original positioning for a new brand by bending category codes. Rachel Lawes contributes an essay on the human dimensions of semiotics-based research.