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QUALITATIVE RESEARCH CONSULTANTS ASSOCIATION
S
emiotics is a discipline that studies signs, meaning
something that stands for something else. Roland
Barthes said the sea is not a sign but a beach is full of
them, such as beach umbrellas or swimsuits. Each of
them might stand for a beach. Semiotics studies the
meaning and interaction of signs within a culture. Its aim is to
enhance the awareness of an image.
Well, what is an image? Something
that resembles—by analogy or verisimil-
itude—something else. We use semiotics
to identify scientific, synthesised, men-
tal, and brand images.
Here is an example of what I mean for
image. If the aforesaid beach is full of
umbrellas, garbage, and people, it resem-
bles or gives an image of “a crowded
place, for family entertainment.” If we
see a wide beach instead, with just a
couple of umbrellas and people or palm
trees, it resembles “an exotic paradise.”
If a sign stands for and an image
resembles, then semiotics looks at the
realm of appearance: it reveals and stud-
ies how the signs are organized in sys-
tems “behind the scenes” of what we
see, hear, and perceive.
In practicing semiotics, you will be
more successful if you use your intu-
itions rather than trying to follow all its
theoretical rules.
In my opinion, the point is not
“when” or “where” semiotics should be
used, but “how” to use it. A paradigm
shift is necessary, namely by perceiving
a brand (a product, an idea, a commu-
nication, etc.) as a whole of signs inter-
acting within a given culture. This
means semiotics can be used with or
without qualitative research, depending
on the objectives of the project.
Schools of thought
I am now going to give an overview of
the two main semiotic approaches:
European structuralist and British
codes-oriented semiotics.
European
semiotics follows the struc-
turalist principle of Opposition
(fig.1):
there is no good without evil, and vice
versa. Thus, brand text is similar to a
fairy tale. Say that in an established pat-
tern, Snow White, hero, is opposed to
an anti-hero, the Witch. In turn the
Beast (a special guest in this tale), is
opposed to the Queen. Diagonally, we
have a relationship of Contradiction,
vertically of Alternation. These roles are
interconnected, and you may apply
them to each category, thus revealing
the brand myth.
If you consider a brand as a myth, you
can deconstruct its codes and observe
the interconnections between the codes.
Each brand has its myths and is in turn
a myth. It is up to semiotics, linked to
qualitative research, to discover which
myths the codes represent.
Residual (past), dominant (present),
and emergent (future) codes are in turn
By Luigi Toiati
n
Chairman
n
Focus Srl
n
Rome, Italy
n
luigi.toiati@focusresearch.it“Semiotics studies the meaning and
interaction of signs within a culture. Its aim
is to enhance the awareness of an image.”