Bruce Hallas is the owner of Marmalade Box, an innovative and progressive information security practice. He has a podcast called Rethinking The Human Factor and in each episode he interviews someone who’s famous for their expertise or unique perspective on human behaviour. In the episode linked here he interviews Dr Rachel Lawes of Lawes Consulting about semiotics – the signs and symbols that carry sometimes hidden meanings and that are present in every aspect of daily life.

Listen to this lively and wide-ranging discussion to find out:

– what semiotics is and how it is used in the private and public sectors

– how it can be used to change behaviour, including getting customers to switch brands

– why people are more involved with written language now than they have been within our lifetimes

– what you reveal about yourself by the way you physically handle your mobile phone

– why your gas and electricity bills are hard to understand

– why there’s a world of difference between advice and rights

– how to design products and marketing messages that will work globally and locally

– why the brand marks of the majority of successful companies are red, blue or black

– what contemporary art can reveal about the experience of supermarket shopping