www.marketingmag.co.nz . May 2007
24semiotics
I
In
1996, Montana released a new variety o wine– Azure Bay – in a blue bottle. It was innovativeand daring – but it wasn’t to last. Ater a shortand exciting spurt o popularity, Azure Bay waso New Zealand shelves in 2004. I you’re reallykeen, you can still get it, but only rom a caskand only in the United Kingdom.Montana knew that wine in a blue bottlewould be a ad. But i they hadn’t, and hadcounted on it being a long-term trend... headswould have rolled. How can a marketer tellthe dierence between a genuine trend and apassing ad? The simple answer, believe it ornot, is semiotics.As we discovered in the March issue o
NZMarketing Magazine
, semiotics is a controversialand involved subject. Apparently. But when ap-plied to some real-lie scenarios, semiotics canbecome not just easier to understand, but thesource o competitive advantage, and wealth.I know, I use this stu in my role as an entre-preneur and guy who does innovation.Entrepreneurs are instinctive semioticians.They create products nobody ever knew therewere needs or, because they discerned thelatent need (laed) in the marketplace.Most traditional marketing ignores laeds, inavour o the easier-to-discern overt (oveeds)and covert needs (ceeds). Overt needs are easilyuncovered – just use quant and qual research.People are aware o their needs, and they tellyou how to ll them, end o story.For ceeds, a combination o qualitativeresearch and anthropology should do thetrick. Many household cleaning brands ‘watchpeople’ to discover how their products ail, andhow they can improve them.For laeds, traditional research – qual or quant– won’t get you anywhere. It’s about a leap o aith. But it’s not blind aith. In act, this is aithwith its eyes wide open.Great entrepreneurial breakthroughs likesuperior customer experience on an airline(Virgin), one-stop home maintenance (Green-acres) and even foral abric sotener were notproven ideas until somebody stepped out andtried them. Now their appeal and marketabilityis sel-evident.Why did these products survive – thrive, even– while only 20 percent o product researchgives accurate predictions, even with cleverquant people? There are too many variables.It’s time or a little magic.Semiotics is the science o codes. Why is itunny when a kid swears in church? Becausethat action breaks an unwritten rule. Comedyreveals society’s codes by breaking them. Justwatch
Borat
.So how do you uncover the codes or yoursector? Break them.Take a pen and paper and – I’m absolutelyserious here – think o how you could abso-lutely ruin your brand. What would you do?What messages would you deliver? How wouldyou deliver them? Which messages would youdeliver to which audiences?By now you’ll start to see the unwritten rulesor codes that govern your industry sector. It’simportant to know there are three types o codes – residual, dominant and emergent.Dominant codes are the rules we knowabout, and expect to be ollowed. For mobilephones, it means your phone is used to text orcall people.Residual codes are the stu we expect, butdon’t notice until they’re not there. For in-stance, the residual code around mobile phonesis that they’re ... well, mobile. It’s just a given;nobody thinks about it much.Emergent codes are, as the name suggests,about what is new and emerging. For instance,the emerging code or cellphones is the mini-computer. It’s now a given that phones will domore than just text and make voice calls.
3 Simple Steps To
Uncover
Future
The
Leave a Comment