What has semiotics truly brought to Market Research?
Leading industry figures and clients answer the question:
Wendy Gordon,
CEO, Acacia Avenue ‘A completely different way of understanding a problem or issue that helps reframe thinking and development. It brings an understanding that brand communication consists of multiple and layered messages that are not consciously absorbed by human beings. There is meaning and message in the ‘how’ not only the ‘what’ of any and every communication’.
Michael Thomas, Emeritus Professor of Marketing,
Strathclyde University, Past President,
Market Research Society ‘In a world dominated by brands, semiotics is the best research tool we have for understanding brand symbolism and what the brand communicates. For one thing, it recognises that what is absent from the text is as revealing as what is present. Moreover, semiotics takes us outside the box of consumercentrism and recognises that consumer behaviour must be understood in its socio-cultural framework’.
Adrienne Yentis, Unilever Allows you to anticipate cultural changes that will shape consumer response.
Paul Edwards, Chairman, Research International UK ‘It brings a completely new angle into assessing creative work and locating it in its cultural context’.
John Samuels, Chairman, Conference Awards Committee An entirely new way of thinking...a sort of "out of the box" approach that often leads one to think differently, counter-intuitively, and surprisingly. It leads one to think afterwards "Of Course!!"
That’s what they all say they want nowadays, but mostly don't really pursue: "real insight".
