Here’s a tip to improve your #semiotics. Put yourself in the position of the consumer. Once they have purchased a #brand, whether it’s shoes, coffee or a bank account, they are instantly liable to be made accountable for their choice by other #consumers. The question ‘why did you choose that?’ is ever-present.

The answer can’t be ‘because it looks premium’ or ‘because it looks healthy’ and this is where semiotics that is pitched at the level of describing packaging inevitably falls down.

Here are some answers that work. ‘Because I think the people that make it really care about it’; ‘because when I have this at lunchtime I don’t snack as much in the afternoon’; ‘because I get loads of benefits from being an existing customer’; ‘because it makes me laugh every time I look at it’.

Instead of asking ‘what does this brand look like?’, ask ‘what function does this brand fulfil for the consumer?’ How is it helping them be a better, more complete version of themselves?

My new book, Using Semiotics in Marketing, is out 3 March, available for pre-order on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Using-Semiotics-Marketing-achieve-consumer/dp/1789662079/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=lawes+using+semiotics&qid=1580131040&sr=8-1