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Home , Meaning (semiotics), Sign system, Value (semiotics)

Feature By Alex Gordon

Right Nike’s imagery takes us back to the wings of the Greek goddess of victory, Nike Signs and wonders: how and why adds to trademark design and protection

Understanding the complexity of brand identity without consciously being aware of how they have been conditioned messages can both help protect the brand from to act in a specific way purely by the use of coloured lights. But we all willingly collude in what seems to be a rational and inflicting damage on itself and prevent others sensible way to manage the relationship between pedestrian and car from utilising ideas in the same way. Semiotics traffic, which compete for dominance of the public street. is one of the fundamental building blocks to this Everyone is a semiotician, because everyone is constantly understanding unconsciously interpreting the of signs around them – from traffic lights to balloons on doors, colours of flags, the shapes of cars, the architecture of buildings and the design of cereal packaging. Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and And signs need not only be visual. They can be aural or sonic, communicated. Its origins lie in the academic study of how signs too, such as the sound of a police siren – usually heard before and (visual and linguistic) create meaning. the vehicle is seen; or the sound of a champagne cork popping in Although the word comes from ‘Semeion’, the ancient Greek another room, signalling to us that we have a licence to have fun word for ‘’, and has come to be associated with visual imagery, and enjoy ourselves in a decadent and luxurious way. commercial semiotics for marketing purposes assists with We know, for instance, that the thumbs-up sign in the West understanding how to make brands culturally relevant and thereby means that everything is okay, dating back to its alleged use by more meaningful to consumers. Roman emperors to signal whether a gladiator would live. Its reverse Semiotics is a way of seeing the world, and of understanding – thumbs down – signified death. But in scuba diving, this sign means how the landscape and in which we live unconsciously ascend to the surface. So if your scuba buddy does not understand the impact on all of us. meaning of the thumbs-up sign under water, he will think that you Our actions and thoughts are often governed by a complex set are signalling to tell him that you are having a great time, when in of cultural messages and conventions, and are dependent upon our fact you are trying to tell him that you are having difficulties. ability to interpret them instinctively and instantly. By the side of the road, the thumbs-up sign has yet another For instance, when we see balloons attached to a front door, meaning – that the signaller would like to hitch a ride. If you do not we understand instantaneously that a party is going on in the understand that the same sign means specific and different things house. Similarly, when we see the different colours of a traffic by the side of the road, underwater and when signalling in a bar or light, we automatically know how to react to them. We know this club, then all sorts of chaos can ensue. without even thinking about it. But these are signs which have In other words, we need to understand the context in which a been established by cultural over a long period of sign is communicated in order to comprehend its real meaning and time and which we learn as children, and it requires a great deal of hence act appropriately. What is going on around the sign is usually unconscious cultural knowledge to understand their meaning. as important for us to know as the sign itself in order to interpret its Viewing and interpreting (or ) these signs enables us to meaning. navigate the landscape of our streets and society. Traffic lights, for Semiotics is a key tool to ensure that intended meanings (eg, example, constitute a which is shared globally and which of a logo or brand mark) are unambiguously understood by the millions of people actively participate in ‘decoding’ on a daily basis recipient. Usually, there are good reasons if someone does not

70 World Trademark Review February/March 2013 www.WorldTrademarkReview.com understand the real intention of a message and semiotics can help could ask a very large number of people those questions and get to unravel the confusion, ensuring clarity of meaning. no agreement about what the signifieds/meanings of the signifier Semiotics started out as an academic investigation of the ‘beauty’ are. In this sense, we are a long way from talk of an ‘orange’. meaning of words (). It moved into a study of people’s And of course, these are not just words plucked out of the behaviour (anthropology and psychology), then evolved to become air, but actual values that major global brands want to stand for. an enquiry into culture and society (sociology and philosophy). Most importantly they want to own these values in a way that Following that, it moved onto assisting with analyses of cultural significantly (and I use the word advisedly!) differentiates them products (films, literature, – critical theory), and finally became from their competitors. a methodology for researching and analysing consumer behaviour In often crowded categories, the choice of the most relevant and brand . and appropriate image can make all the difference between a It is from this social science background that applied semiotics brand communicating meaningfully and creating a clear, relevant for marketing has emerged. Semioticians apply the high- cultural definition which is recognised unconsciously by consumers, level thinking of semiotics to enable clients to understand the ensuring stand-out and cut-through. commercial implications of the culture around their brands and its Of course, the choice of an appropriate logo or brand mark can impact on consumers. Ultimately, we assist with the development of be crucial to achieving that goal, especially if that image is pregnant culturally relevant brand strategies and meaningful with multiple meanings, all of which unconsciously amplify our (logos/brand marks, packaging, communications and point of sale). understanding of its hidden cultural value. In this way, we are The subtle nuances and complexity of this journey are brought closer to the brand very quickly and with much less effort illustrated in the following way: if I suggest to you that I would on the part of the brand. really like to eat an orange, you understand that I am referring In other words, so much can be conveyed by the right sign to a spherical, orange-coloured citrus fruit. For most of us, the and can be so beneficial to the brand; but equally the wrong sign word ‘orange’ clearly refers to the fruit – or in semiotic terms, we or imagery can inflict significant (again, advisedly!) damage on a understand the relationship between the signifier (orange) and the brand, undermining consumer connection and reducing marketing signified (a spherical, orange-coloured citrus fruit). That’s an easy effectiveness. one for us to agree on, despite the relative sophistication of the sign We can therefore characterise brands that have successfully system at play in that conventional linguistic structure. We are all grabbed or retained market share as having considerable ‘cultural agreed, for instance, that the signifier ‘apple’ does not have the same capital’ – that is, they stand for culturally relevant values and corresponding signified (meaning) as the signifier ‘orange’. frequently employ a key brand mark to represent them. Typically, However, things become a little more complicated when we move for the world’s most successful brands, the cultural capital will on from those conventions to think about the values that many reside in a mark or logo. A good example of this phenomenon is global brands wish to stand for and communicate to consumers. the annual assessment of the Best Global Brands conducted by What is the definition of premium-ness, healthiness, naturalness, Interband. In its recent 2012 survey, Mercedes was ranked 11th, with joyfulness, masculinity, femininity or beauty? What imagery and its logo assessed as an intangible asset worth $20 billion – far more should be chosen to represent those values not just in than the tangible asset of its car manufacturing business. a single market, but in 30 or more markets across the world? You Right now, for instance, the number one brand in the world – at www.WorldTrademarkReview.com February/March 2013 World Trademark Review 71 Feature: Signs and wonders

least according to the financial value of the company – is Apple. Many people would quite naturally argue that the power of the company lies in the quality of its product – the iPod, iPad and MacBooks – all of which combine Jonathan Ive’s design simplicity with sophisticated functionality and ease of use. But I would argue strongly that the true power of the company resides less in the product, than in the imaginative resonance of the logo. Think for a minute about the Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan (pictured right). The actual store is below ground – a subterranean temple to playful technology. What we see, and what draws us towards the store, is not an image of an iPhone, but the glowing Apple logo, suspended in mid-air like a religious icon, held in glass like a valuable art installation. This is not a technology retail store, seems to be the message; this is a place of awe and wonder – come inside and worship. What lies beneath the surface of the icon that captivates us and gives it permission to glow and behave like a spiritual ? It is the range of underlying cultural meanings that it conveys and which we are unconsciously drawn to identify. The apple clearly has a large bite taken out of its side. This connotes That image takes us back to the wings of the Greek goddess of action dynamism – it is not static and monolithic, but participates in an victory, Nike. There she stands on the Acropolis, near the Parthenon, active process. In addition, we are led to associate that bite with another with wings outstretched- a dynamic force despite her design in from one of the origin stories of the Western grand . Eve did frozen marble. Is this the sporting apparel of the gods, we are not just eat an ordinary apple, but the fruit of the tree of knowledge, encouraged to ask? in this way, using an Apple computer is a process of enlightenment Of course, the ‘Swoosh’ take us further than that powerful and intellectual self-improvement. Similarly, the bite itself was a positive connection. The dramatic curve and upward lift are transgression against divine authority in pursuit of individualism a reminder of the tick we received as children for successful and exploration of societal limits. Apple has not challenged God, homework. We remember the elemental feeling of pleasure and but it certainly transgressed the power and authority of IBM, which satisfaction that we felt on seeing those ticks running down the previously owned and dominated the computing world. margin of the page or above a word, and unconsciously transfer that IBM’s logo can be said to signify monolithic and static authority positivity to the Nike brand through its logo. – the horizontal lines signal functionality and technological But perhaps the most important and deeply buried cultural certainty, and the capital letters masculine dominance. By contrast, association encouraged by the Swoosh is the idea of flight. The tip the curved fluidity of the Apple logo connotes feminine creativity, of the image seems to move onwards and upwards to the right, imagination and playfulness. predicting its continued journey despite its absence. Given the fact The logo further reminds us of the role of an apple in Isaac that we write from left to right in the West, the future always lies Newton’s expansion of scientific knowledge and human progress, in that direction. The Swoosh heralds a positive momentum; the and as a signifier of courage and determination in the story of Nike brand helps us to take off like Superman or Michael Jordan, William Tell’s archery challenge. propelling us into a bright future by overcoming our natural Ultimately, the most obvious connection that we are irresistibly limitations. Nike’s Swoosh logo resolves a central contradiction of inclined to make when we see the logo is with the fruit itself. being human – we don’t have wings, but the brand enables us to fly. Healthy, sweet, it keeps the doctor away in many and But given that brand marks act on the cultural cortex in such an – the Apple brand and its products are naturally good for important and nuanced way, it is vital to manage the meaning of you, seems to be the implication. a logo or brand mark carefully to ensure that it communicates the Now, I am not suggesting for a minute that we wake up on a values that are most relevant to the brand’s identity and positioning. Saturday morning, turn to our partner and say, “Darling, I fancy The complexities of managing a brand mark are illustrated by a bit of Newtonian physics; I’m off to the Apple store”. As I have a number of competing campaigns in the insurance industry. The indicated, this is unlikely to happen because we are not even aware category leader for many years was Norwich Union, now Aviva, of the way in which we make these cultural connections. which employed the image of a church spire as its logo. In this way, So for semioticians, the consumer (at least in the West) consumers were forced into a position of deference to the heavenly establishes the meaning of the Apple brand through an might of Aviva’s divine insurance; they were protected by God, not instantaneous assimilation of all of these inevitable cultural just by Aviva, was the implication. associations – inevitable because we have been educated to make Into this scenario parachuted Churchill Insurance, whose key them by generations of social and cultural convention. brand mark was a bulldog who walked by your side and chatted This cultural richness creates deeper connection to the Apple with you like your best friend. As well as coding the friendlier face of brand without us even realising it, and therefore accounts for insurance, the brand mark leveraged the cultural status of Churchill the extraordinary success of the brand. It is not the products that himself – courage, probity, integrity, heritage, longevity, nationhood matter, it is the story wrapped around them; and those multiple – all brilliant associations for an insurance company to engender. narratives are all bound together through the employment of a You didn’t worship Churchill Insurance; you trusted it. powerful brand mark. Admiral Insurance was caught between these two visions of It is a similar story for Nike’s ‘Swoosh’ logo. Here again, the the insurance world – distant and divine or close and friendly. As a central image has become so ubiquitous and filled with meaning result, it created a campaign in which it took its key brand mark – that the brand name itself has become surplus to requirements. the admiral – and placed a talking parrot on his shoulder.

72 World Trademark Review February/March 2013 www.WorldTrademarkReview.com We cannot be sure of the aspiration behind the execution remove the parrot. Now, the admiral stands alone, his arms folded, (after all, it’s not about the brand owner’s intention, but rather the with a point of view above us, looking down at the consumer from a consumer’s receipt of the message which is most important to us); vantage point of military leadership and insurance supremacy. but we can hazard a guess that, taking Churchill’s lead, Admiral The brand decided to embrace its essential hierarchical identity added a talking animal to create a sense of comic lightness. In this (the brand name arguably trapped it into that role), and the original way, the austerity of the admiral character was softened and made brand mark was returned to and refined, conveying its essential more approachable, and the Admiral brand was framed as a more heritage clearly and unambiguously. relevant and contemporary. This is a classic example of the importance of semiotics and As we know, however, a parrot on a shoulder – while sharing understanding the underlying meaning of a brand’s logo or mark. maritime connotations with an admiral – is more commonly associated The employment of a semiotic analysis prior to launch would with pirates (think Long John Silver). These associations caused a great have enabled Admiral to avoid the expense and reputation- deal of confusion for the viewing consumer in trying to understand damaging side effects of adapting the mark by adding a culturally the benefit, value and purpose of Admiral Insurance. Was the brand contradictory parrot, ensuring clarity of meaning and prompting a maverick brand, challenging the status quo of the insurance internal considerations by the brand guardians of what identity and establishment or – worse – stealing your money? Or was Admiral a meaning they wanted to adopt and communicate about Admiral. conservative brand embracing the hierarchical traditions of the category Employed in this way, semiotics is a necessity, both strategically as signalled by Aviva, unchanged over time but entirely familiar? and creatively, to understanding the full complexity of a message, Crucially, the presence of both icons – the parrot and the protecting the brand from inflicting damage on itself, but also admiral – made it that much more difficult for consumers to preventing others from utilising ideas in the same way. Fundamentally, understand the meaning of the advert and of the brand as a result. semiotics can be used to help craft and refine visual identity (from They were instinctively forced to create associations with culturally logos and marks to advertising), ensuring that the most appropriate contradictory values and hence become confused about what iteration of a logo is adopted for the optimum benefit of a brand. WTR Admiral stood for as an insurance brand. By viewing more recent print ads, we can see that at some point Alex Gordon is chief executive of semiotics and cultural insight the brand owner realised the confusion it was causing and the agency Sign Salad ensuing damage it was doing to the brand, and therefore decided to [email protected]

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