5/20/2021 IGNITOR Student

:…… ground or culture. It follows from these points that meanings are not contained in a marcom
message per se but rather are perceived by the message receiver. Thus, the challenge when
positioning a brand is to make sure consumers interpret as intended the signs the marketing
communicator used.
NOTES
This desirable outcome is most likely accomplished when signs are common to both the
sender 's and the receiver 's fields of experience. A field of experience, also called the percep—
tnal field, is the sum total of a person's experiences that are stored in memory. The larger the
overlap, or commonality, in their perceptual fields, the greater the likelihood that signs will
be interpreted by the receiver/interpreter in the manner intended by the sender. Effective
communication is severely compromised when, for example, marketing communicators use
words, visualizations, or other signs that customers do not understand. This is especially
problematic when developing communication programs for consumers in other cultures.
Up to this point we have referred to meaning in the abstract. Now a definition is in order.
Meaning can be thought of as the thoughts and _feelings that are evoked within a person when
presented with a sign in a particular ccmtwctfl lt should be clear that meaning is internal, rather
than external, to an individual. Meaning, in other words, is subjective and highly context de-
pendent. Again, meaning is not imposed upon us, but rather is constructed by the interpreter
of signs, such as consumers who daily are barraged with hundrecls of advertisements and
other marcom messages.

Meaning Transfer: From Culture to Object to Consumer

The culture and social systems in which marketing communications take place are loaded
with meaning. Through socialization, people learn cultural values, form beliefs, and become
familiar with the physical manifestations, or artifacts, of these values and beliefs. The artifacts
of culture are charged with meaning, which is transferred from generation to generation.
For example, the Lincoln Memorial and Ellis Island are signs of freedom to Americans. To
Germans and many other people throughout the world, the now-crumbled Berlin wall signi-
fied oppression and hopelessness. Comparatively, yellow ribbons signify crises and hopes
for hostage release and the safe return of military personnel. Pink ribbons signal support for
breast cancer victims. Red ribbons have grown into an international symbol of solidarity on
AIDS. The Black Liberation flag with its red, black, and green stripes—representing blood,
achievement and the fertility of Africa—symbolizes civil rights.
Marketing comrmmicators, when in the process of positioning their brands, draw meaning
from the culturally constituted world (i.e., the everyday world filled with artifacts such as the
preceding examples) and transfer that meaning to their brands. Advertising is an especially
important instrument of meaning transfer and positioning. The role of advertising in trans-
ferring meaning has been described in this fashion:

Advertising works as a potential method of meaning transfer by bringing the consumer good
and :: representation of the culturally constituted world together within theframe ofa particular
advertisement... The known properties of the calturally constituted world thus come to reside in
the unknown properties of the consumer good and the transfer of meaningfrom world to [con—
sumerl good is r.:ccomplished.5

When exposed to an advertisement (or any other form of marcom message), the consumer
is not merely drawing information from the ad but is actively involved in assigning mean-
ing to the advertised brand}; Stated alternatively, the consumer approaches advertisements
as texts to be interpreted? (Note that the term text refers to any form of spoken or written
words and images, which clearly encompasses advertisements.) To demonstrate the preced-
ing points, take into account the following advertising illustrations.
Consider first an advertisement for the Honda Accord that was created some years ago
when American consurners were suspicious of Japanese-made automobiles and perhaps even
considered it un-American to buy something other than an American model. Shortly after the
Honda Motor Company began producing automobiles in the United States, it undertook a
safe… print advertising campaign to convey that four out of five Accords sold in America are manu-
66 Material factured in the United States. Beyond stating this fact in the ad copy, the two-page advertise-

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