Every aspect of a brand or company communicates. The brand or company’s name, logo, colours, visuals & images, tone of voice, celebrities used, product packaging, affiliations, channels all play in role in creating the external face of the brand.
Communications are most effective when the received message and the desired message are closely coupled.
Semiotic analysis helps us identify and close the gaps to improve effectiveness and therefore ROI in brand and corporate communications.
This technique helps our clients to:
- Ensure the message received from a piece of communication matches closely the desired message.
- Understand why communication is not effective enough in communicating its intended message
- Understand how to evolve a written communication before it becomes outdated
- Understand how a piece of communication can be used effectively across several markets (to improve ROI, to build global brands)
- Create the desired vision of the company in the eyes of its employees, shareholders, and the public as a whole
“[Semiotics was an] amazing, eye opening process that allows you to see the gaps between your brand perception in the minds of consumers and what the packaging/label represents when looked at in isolation. The process provides insights for strategy changes in brand positioning and communication.”
Victoria Nuevo-Celeste, Marketing Manager Nestle Beverages, US
Case Study - Leo Burnett; Communication Assets for Gain
"Through a semiotic analysis of the Gain brand, Space Doctors made a fundamental contribution to our understanding of why the brand is so successful and how that success can be built on in the future. Space Doctors gave us the concepts and words with which to describe the heart and soul of the brand."
Heidi Philip, VP Planning Director, Leo Burnett, Canada
Identify the core communications assets of one of the biggest detergent brands in the US in order to maximise the effectiveness of its communications in the future.
Needs
As one of the most successful detergent brands in the US, Gain has a unique voice, based on the uplifting experience of its fragrance.
The Gain team at Leo Burnett asked us to identify what the essential elements of a successful piece of Gain communication are and how these can continue to be harnessed in advertising and beyond.
Impact and Conclusions
We conducted a semiotic analysis of how the Gain brand communicates in packaging, advertising, in-store and online. The conclusions were used to:
- ensure the successful development of a new advertising campaign based on the brand’s fundamental communications assets
- minimise misattribution of Gain’s messages
- provide direction on how messages need to be attuned to different audiences, in particular the Hispanic audience in the US
We identified a handful of core communications assets with detail on the kinds of tone of voice and design cues that could be employed to maximize these assets in the future.
Case Study - Nestle; Packaging Design for Juicy Juice
“[Semiotics was an] amazing, eye opening process that allows you to see the gaps between your brand perception in the minds of consumers and what the packaging/label represents when looked at in isolation. The process provides insights for strategy changes in brand positioning and communication.”
Victoria Nuevo-Celeste, Marketing Manager Nestle Beverages, US
Identify and understand current equities of Juicy Juice packaging visuals, then recommend ways to optimize the pack design to better communicate certain themes.
Needs
The team at Nestle have built a very successful juice brand, loved by kids and trusted by parents as healthy, 100% juice. And while flavours and advertising progressed through the years, the pack was left behind. The team was conscious that it no longer communicated the values of the brand as effectively as desired.
Impact and Conclusions
We conducted semiotic and consumer qualitative analysis of the Juicy Juice brand and several of its competitors, reviewing how they communicate in primarily packaging, with some context from advertising. We then semiotically analysed several stretch categories for inspiring ways to communicate the key Juicy Juice values. The conclusions were used to:
- Create a full semiotic equity analysis of the various pack elements to guide future use in design
- Generate six recommendations for future directions the pack design could take
- Recode two of these opportunities into specific recommendations on how to bring the area to life through colour pallet, shape, substrate, image style, etc
In a workshop with the brand team, advertising, and design agencies we worked through these recommendations and options to create the final creative brief for the pack redesign, one that will optimally communicate the desired brand values.