Danesi, Marcel

Chapter 2: From product to brand

pp. 7-33
Danesi, Marcel Brands Routledge

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Course of Study: APM1000 - Brands ,Media and Society (Hendon, Dubai, Mauritius)
Title: Brands
Name of Author: Danesi, Marcel

Name of Publisher: Routledge

 2

FROM PRODUCT
TO BRAND

My image is a statement of the symbols of the harsh, impersonal prod-

ucts and brash materialistic objects on which America is built today. It is
a projection of everything that can be bought and sold, the practical but
impermanent symbols that sustain us .
Andy Warhol (1928-87)

Today, companies invest considerable time and resources into creating

appropriate "brand identities" for themselves- identities that generate a
sense of goodwill and care for the product. It is no exaggeration to claim
that economic stability and even survival depend on carving out such
identities. As Bedbury has aptly put it:

It can safely be said that Coca-Cola 's total market value is more an emotional
quantity than a physical one . Hard assets like bottling plants, trucks, raw
materials, and buildings are not as important to Coke-or Wall Street, for
that matter-as the consumer goodwill that exists around the world toward
the brand .
(Bed bury 2002 : 12)

How does one create brand identity, spread it, and sustain it in an
ever-changing world? Answers to this question are the directives that
motivate marketing science today- a science that is taking on, more
and more, the look of a semiotic science in how it now tends to put the
role of "signifying structures" of human psychology at the center of its
8 FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND

methodology using, like semiotics, an interdisciplinary blends of psy-

chology, statistics, anthropol ogy, and sociology in an approach that
mirrors the multifaceted nature of the brand phenom enon. Marketers
are finally beginning to perceive brands as signs that link products and
users within an overarching system of meanings that w e call a culture.
Originally, the term "branding" r eferred to the searing of fl esh w ith
a hot iron to produce a scar or mark with an easily r ecognizable pattern
for id entification purposes . Livestock were branded by the Egyptians as
early as 2000 BCE. This practice was brought to N orth America in the
sixteenth century by the Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes ( 1485-
154 7). Used primarily as proof of ownership, branding developed over
tim e into a practice for keeping r ecords on quality. In most American
cattl e states, the law requires the r egistration of brands, and altering a
brand is a criminal offense . Branding has also been used on human
beings- the branding of prisoners, for instance, was a form of punish-
m ent used by the ancient Greeks and Romans, and was later adopted by
the Anglo-Saxons. Criminals, slaves, army deserters, and "sinners" (s uch
as women alleged to be witches) have been branded in the past. The
practice declined around the middle of the nineteenth century.
The goal of this opening chapter is to unrave l the roots of branding
as a semiotic act that transforms products into mental phenomena. As
Alina Wheeler has observed : "Products are cr eated in the factory; brands
are created in the mind" (2003: 2). At what point in tim e, and for what
reasons, did products become brands? One simpl e m echanism cann ot be
responsibl e; it must be a matter of a number of differ ent semiotic strat-
egies . No doubt, without m odern -day advertising, this transformation
would never have occurred. The histories of advertising and branding
are in extricably intertwin ed. Thus, the point of departure fo r prob ing
this transformati on is an examinati on of the r e lation between advertising
and brands.

ADVERTISING AND BRANDS

The term "advertising" com es fr om the m edieval Latin verb advertere, "to
direct one's attention to ." Originally, it r eferred to any type or for m of
public announcement intended to direct people's attention to the avail-
ability , qualities , and cost of specific comm odities or services. With few
exceptions- e .g . the classified ads in a newspaper- this is hardl y what
is m eant by this term today . Today, advertising is m ore an art of persua-
sion than it is of information , design ed to showcase a product in the
marketplace in terms of how it can satisfy various em otional, social, and
other kinds of human needs.
 Given its pervasiveness, it should com e as little surprise to find studies
claiming that advertising has influ enced social "groupthink" in a profound
way. "Groupthink" is the term used by social scientists to designate the
set of assumed ideas , values, beliefs, and lifestyle modes that are shared
by a group of people _living in the sam e, or similar, social fram ework
based on a shared culture . Sales pitches for products fill the pages of
newspapers and magazines ; they are spread through poster s on buses ,
subways, trains, city walls , etc. N eon signs flash them throughout cities
and on billboards along the roadsides. Comm ercials interrupt TV and
radio programs, enticing us to buy products. In a phrase, the images
of advertisers have becom e part of the social landscape, influencing
what we per ceive to have value in personal and social terms . This is
no doubt why advertising has been adopted since at least the 1950s by
po liticians, social activists, health institutions, and virtually anyone who
wishes to gain the attention of differ ent publics and to prom ote their
perspectives or causes. Pressure groups of various kinds have even taken
to the practice of "branding" them selves , so as to make it easy for people
to recognize instantly their cause, be it anti-sm oking, anti-drug, etc.
Po liticians at all levels of government now communicate their p latforms
and their personal perspectives on social issues regularly through sleek
ad campaigns, with appurtenant slogans and other techniques deployed
by the world of business. The m odern w orld has becom e one large
"mega-advertising" universe in which dreams and aspirations are filtered
thro ugh the images of the advertiser's cam era. As the social commentator
E. B. White put it:

Advertisers are the interpreters of our dreams-Joseph interpreting for

Pha raoh . Like the movies, they infect the routine futility of our days with
purposeful adventure. Their weapons are our weaknesses: fear, ambition,
illness, pride, selfishness, desire, and ignorance. And these weapons must
be kept as bright as a sword .
(White 1991: 36)

Modern -day advertising is an art form that has forged a partnership

with marketing science, with the latter conducting extensive ethno-
graphic and quantitative surveys to help assess the likely efficacy of
specific advertising campaigns befor e they are m ounted. Like anthropol-
ogists and semioticians, marketers observe people in their ambiances as
they react to ads and to branded m essages.
Advertising has thus become a widespread type of persuasive discourse
that is now empl oyed by anyone wishing to make public statem ents.

FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND 9

10 FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND

It is the new grammar of propaganda, publicity, and public-relati ons

domains. What we m ean by thi s can be broken down into the fo ll owing .
Propaganda is the craft of spreading and entrenching doctrines, views,
and beliefs, r eflecting specific inter ests and ideologies (political, social,
phil osophical , etc.) by attempting to persuade people through em otional
appeal s. Publicity is the business of disseminating any inform ation that
concerns a particular stakeholder (a person, a group , etc .) through
some publi c medium, so as to garn er attenti on for the stakeholder. Public
r elati ons (PR) is the art that aims to establish fav orabl e attitudes an d
responses towards organizations, institutions, and individuals. Ad vertis-
ing serves the goals of these enterprises perfectly because its aim , like
that of a w ork of fi ction, is to appeal to the lingering after- effects in th e
individual' s mind. As such, it differs fr om, say , the goal of phil osophical
or scientific discourse , that r especti vely leave people in a pugnacious or
pensive m ood. It deals not so much with rati onal thought processes , but
with the r esidues of emotions that pervade thought.
The increasing success of brand advertising in promoting th e sales of
specific goods and services gave birth in 1914 to the A udi t Burea u
ef Circulations in the US, an independent organization found ed and sup-
ported by new spaper and magazine publishers who wanted to obtain
circulati on statistics and to standardi ze the ways of presenting them . In
19 36, the A dvertisi n9 Resea rch Fo undation w as established to conduct
research on the effectiveness of differ ent advertising techniques. Today,
the increasing sophistication of statistical information-gathering and
data-processing techniques makes it poss ibl e for many brands to direct
their advertising campaigns towards speci fi c "market segm ents"- i.e.
groups of people classified on the basis of wher e they live , what inco me
they m ake , what educational backgro unds they have , etc.- in order to
determine their susceptibility to , o r inclinati on towards, their id entiti es .
While the concept of brand as a nam e assigned to a product is
not m or e than 150 years old, the practi ce of differentiating products
and ser vices by some symboli c techniqu e is actuall y ver y old. The trade-
mark, fo r instance , is any visual symbol that identifi es a product or
ser vice; it has existed since the dawn of history. Archaeo logists haYe
discover ed outdoor signs with trademarks displayed on them above the
shop doors of ancient cities of the Middl e East. The ancient Greeks and
Romans hung similar signs outside their shops. Trademarks w ere used
because most of the population was not liter ate . Trademarks w ere such
that they could be deciphered by anyone, literate or not. They w er e
intended, literall y, as "marks" of the "trade" so that peopl e could easil y
identify specific products or ser vices , and distinguish them fr om t hose
made or sold by others. Among the best-known trademarks surv1vmg
from the m edieval period, for example, are the striped pole of the
barbershop and the three-ball sign of the pawnbroker shop. Some prod-
ucts , such as swords and pottery, were also marked with identifiabl e
visual marks so that buyers could trace their origin and determine their
quality.
Likewise, it should not be imagined that the advertising of goods is
solely a product of the modern world. The practice of announcing the
availability of goods and services was a common one in ancient Egypt,
for instance, where merchants hired "criers" to walk through the streets
broadcasting the arrival of ships and their cargo at the top of their voices.
Man y outdoor posters and mural inscriptions also contained advertising
messages. One of the oldest posters was found among the ruins of ancient
Rome. It offered property for r ent. Another early "ad" found painted
on a wall in Pompeii calls the attention of travelers to a tavern located
in a different town. Throughout the ancient world, poster and picture
ads in marketplaces and temples seem to have constituted a means of
disseminating information and of promoting the barter and sale of goods
and services.
Such practices continued uninterrupted right into the medieval period.
Their reach was, however, limited. All this changed with the invention
of the modern printing press by Johann Gutenberg (c. 1400- 68), which
introduced the kind of technology that was ne eded for mass advertising
to become practicable. Fliers and posters could be printed quickly and
cheaply, and put in many public places or inserted in books, pamphlets,
and newspapers. By the seventeenth century, print advertising was fast
becoming an intrinsic part of the "Gutenberg Galaxy," as the Canadian
co mmunications theorist Marshall McLuhan (1911 - 80) characterized
the new (and shrinking) world that ensued from the spread of print
technology (McLuhan 1962) . The London Gazette became the first news-
paper to reserve a section exclusively for advertising. So successful was
this venture that, by the end of the century, several agencies came into
existence for the specific purpose of creating newspaper ads for mer-
chants and artisans in Britain. The ads w ere more like modern classifi eds,
without illustrative support, than they were persuasive rhetorical
texts. But they clearly anticipated some of the rhetorical techniques of
their contemporary descendants. The ad makers of the era catered to
wealthy clients who bought and read newspap ers. They w ere designed
to promote the sale of such high-society products as tea, coffee, wigs,
books, theater tickets, and th e like. The following advertisement for
toothpaste was published in the Gazette in 1660. Its rhetorical slant clearly

FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND 11

12 FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND

foreshadows the kind of persuasive style used today for the promotion
of this type of product:

Most excellent and proved Dentifrice to scour and cleanse the Teeth,
making them white as ivory, preserves the Tooth-ach; so that being
constantly used, the Parties using it are never troubled with the Tooth-ach.
It fastens the Teeth, sweetens the Breath, and preserves the Gums and
Mouth from cankers and lmpothumes, and the right are only to be had at
Thomas Rookes, Stationer.
(Cited by Dyer 1982 : 16-17)

Note that the cr eator of the ad describes the dentifrice as being "excel-
lent" and "proved," implying that scientific testing has been conducted
on the product. For this reason, the product should allow its users to
make their teeth "white as ivory" and to overcome toothache, cankers,
and other buccal maladies. Most significantly, the ad suggests, by in-
nuend o, that the toothpaste w ill enhance the social life of its users
for the reason that it also "sweetens the Breath." By the eighteenth
century, this rhetorical style of advertising had become so commonplace
that lexicographer Samuel Johnson (1709- 84) felt impe ll ed to write the
fo ll owing discerning appraisal in The Idler: "Advertisements are now so
num erous that they are very negligently perused, and it is ther efore
become necessary to gain attention by magnificence of promise and by
eloquence sometimes sublim e and sometimes pathetic" (cited by Panati
1984: 168).
With the advent of industrialization in the nineteenth century, rhet-
orical advertising took on an increasingl y important role as a m eans
for manufacturers to coax people into buying their products in an in-
creas ingly competitive marketplace . Ad layouts were created more and
more to be eye-catching. The words were set out in attractive fonts;
compact sentences were employed to make a pitch sound more informal,
coll oquial, hum orous, and personal; illustrations were added to empha-
size the ad's message visuall y. Advertising copy was being designed more
and more, as Dyer notes, "to attract attention to a product" (1982: 32) .
Advertising was slowly evolving into an art of persuasion, surreptitiously
starting even to influence ever yday discourse, as more and more people
became exposed to ad messages in newspapers, magazines , and on
posters, using the particular phraseology of ad slogans to refer to all kinds
of topics. Advertising in the early stages of the mod ern industrial ized
world, then, was already ripe for the kinds of strategies that brand
management demanded- principally, the emphasis on the associations
of the product advertised.
NAMING PRODUCTS
The stage was set by the middl e part of the nineteenth century for
consumer products to evolve into much more than objects, culminating
in the 1880s with the radical new strategy on the part of a few manu -
facturers of assigning names to products. It is not known which product
was nam ed first, but the 1882 naming by Harley Proctor of his gener-
ically nam ed "White Soap" as "Ivory Soap"- an idea that apparently came
to him whil e reading a psalm in church- is considered to be the most
likely candidate by most historiographers of advertising. In D ecember of
that year, Proctor also introduced the slogan into advertising, referring
to Ivory Soap in all his promotional literature as "99 and 44/ 100% pure ."
As Proctor realized, a slogan is effective as a memory-aiding device
because it is an elaboration of the brand name- a kind of self-styled
definition of it. The concept of brand was thus born. There were many
soap products, but there was onl y one, nam ed Ivo ry, that was "99 and
44 / 100% pure." Ivory thus became a unique type of soap, not just any
other soap. By simply labeling products in grocery, dry goods, and
department stores with descriptive or colorful nam es , manufacturers
soon found that sales of the products increased significantly. In some
cases, the trademark was used as the brand nam e for the product. Such
was the case with the Parker Pen Company- one of the first trademarks
to be converted into a brand nam e in 1888 in Janesvill e, Wisconsin, by
George Safford Parker. Parker simply nam ed each pen produced by his
a company a "Parker pen." The strategy worked brilliantly- the Parker
Pen Company becam e the world's largest producer of fountain pens in
the latter part of the nineteenth century.
In Britain as well, the brand-named product had come into being by
the end of the nineteenth century. It was the food industry in that
country that provided the first brands with nam es such as Bovril , Hovis,
Nestle, Cadbury, Fry, and Kellogg . The brand name was then assigned
to products of new technologies, such as the sewing machine , camera,
bicycle, and typewriter. By the 1920s, brands became the fo cus of adver-
tising, linking the brand to a particular image, both rhetorical and visual.
The course of consum erist society changed drastically and has never been
the sam e si nce.
Why wo uld the act of naming products change the course of con-
sum erist society? The answer to this qu estion is, basically, the goal of
this book . For the present purposes , suffice it to say that the naming act
itself is semioticall y powerful. Across cultures, nam es are perceived as
fundam en tal to the identification and personality of the individual.
Without a name, a human being is often taken to have no true existence

FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND 13

14 FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND

psychologically and socially. Names are "life-givers" in psycho logical

terms. By naming a product, the manufacturer is, in effect, bestowing
upon it the same kinds of m eanings that are reserved for people. In a
basic psychological sense, a product that is nam ed is "humanized."
The naming of goods and services w ent into full swing in the 1880s
and 1890s, as firms began to market everyday household products that
were previously sold in neighborhood stores randomly from large bulk
contain er s as brands . The sales of products nam ed Pears', Sapolio,
Colgate, Kirk 's Am erican Family, Royal Baking Powder , Quaker Oats,
Baker's Chocolate, Hire's Root Beer, Regal Shoes, Parker Pens , Bo n
Ami, Wrigley, and Coca-Cola (to mention a few) incr eased noticeably
as people started asking for them by nam e . By the end of the century ,
the concept of brands had becom e part and parcel of a changing m arket-
place-a marketplace that was becoming incr easingly aware of the
power of symbolism in human psychology.
Above all else , naming a product makes it possibl e to r efer to it as if
it had a distinctive character or quality- "! don ' t trust Colgate products;
they' r e useless"; "I will only buy Quaker' s; it suits m e perfectly"; etc. It
is m eaningl ess to say something like "I don ' t trust the toothpaste that has
blue stripes in it"; or "I will buy only the cer eal that has an oat-like taste
to it ." Mor eover, a product with a nam e has the capaci ty, as a lexical
item, to tap into the brain 's mem ory reservoir. It is easier to re mem -
ber things as words than to r em ember the things them selves. A word
classifies something, keeps it distinct fr om other things, and, above all
else, bestows socially relevant m eanings to it. The nam e Ivory, fo r
example, evokes an image of som ething "ultra-white"; Royal Baking
Powder of som ething "regal" and "splendid"; Bon Ami of"a good friend,"
and so on. Such suggestive images stick in the mind , in th e same way
that the meanings of ordinary words do . They becom e a part of our
semantic m emory system.
Because of this semantic and cultural dimension of naming, it com es
as littl e surprise to find that the term "brand" is no longer used today just
to refer to a specific product line, but also to the co mpany that manu -
factures it and to the social image that the company wishes to impart
of itself and of its products. Thus, the nam e Coca-Cola novv refers not
only to the actual soft drink, but also to the company itself, the social
m eanings that drinking coke entails, etc. The drink was subsequently
promoted with such slogans as "Wonderful nerve and brain tonic and
r emarkabl e therapeutic agent" and "Its beneficial effects upon diseases of
the vocal cords are wonderful." In 1891, Atlanta pharmacist Asa G.
Candler acquired ownership of Coca-Cola, changing its image from a
"brain tonic" to that of a popular S<t soft drink that could be drunk
together with famil y and fri ends- an image that has persisted to this day
and is th e basis of Coca- Cola's continued commercial success .
That image was cr eated at first by imprinting the Coca-Cola name/
logo on drinking glasses, providing them to diners and other eateries that
featured "pop" and foods m eant to be eaten quickly and cheaply. Coca-
Cola became a fountain drink and eventually a bottled drink, deliver ed
by truck to hard-to -r each places (Hays 2004) . Since then, Coca-Cola
has becom e a brand that is sometim es closely associated with socially
relevant them es, as can be witnessed in its brotherly love and peace ad
campaign during the counter culture era of the late 1960s and early 1970s
with its "I' d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony" jingle
that becam e a hit song on its own.
Coca-Co la was also one of the first brands to carve out for itself a
"brand image," as it has come to be known. This can be defined as the
op ini on or concept of the product that is held by the public, especially
as filtered through the mass m edia . By 1900, advertising campaigns
designed to promote brand image w ere becoming the norm. In tand em,
consumption increased and corporati ons grew into mammoth structures
that transformed the workplace into an integrated economic system of
mass production. From the 1920s onwards, advertising and public rela-
tions agencies fl ourished, developing increasingly so phisticated image-
making techniques for building a bridge between brands and consumer
per ception. Everything from brand name , design, and packaging cam e
gradually within the purview of this new "im age- making" business sector .
Business and psycho logy had joined forces once and for all in the new
marketplace.
The advent of radi o in the 1920s gave the brands a new channe l to
spread their imagery- the radi o comm ercial m essage which was a mini-
narrative that revolved around a brand and its sociall y relevant fun ctions.
Since radio r eached masses of people, print literate or not, radio
comm ercials, which often included catchy tun es call ed "jingles ," becam e
highly influential as techniques for disseminating brand imagery
throughout society . With the advent of television in the late 1940s, the
comm ercial was adapted to the new visual m edium . For exampl e ,
Folger' s Coffee comm ercials, with their pseudoscientific sales pitches in
which statements were made using the style of scientific language
("proven," "shown to be," "by most people ," etc .), Mum Deodorant com-
m er cials, which w er e satires of spy movies, and Pepsodent Toothpaste
comm ercials with their snappy jingles, w er e given a visual and thus more
effective m odality by the new m edium. As households across North

FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND 15

16 FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND

Am erica started to acquire a TV set, such products becam e so familiar

that perception of the brand becam e inextri cab ly intertwin ed with the
style and content of the commercials cr eated to promote it .
It was clear from the outset that the m ed ium of television had great
persuasive power, and the brands exploited this full y. TV toy commer -
cials, for instance, started the trend of inducing parents to believe that
certain toys had educational value. Commercials designed to se ll insur-
ance, fir e alarms, cosmetics , and vitamin capsules were designed to
evoke fear (of sickn ess, crim e, loss of social standing, impending disaster,
etc .). TV gave visual form to fictitious radio cartoon characters- such
as Mr Clean, a brawny and bald "dirt fighter," and Speedy, a pers onified
tabl et who r epresented the Alka-Se ltzer brand of antacid tablet . TV also
helped to spread brand imagery by the use of jingles, such as the "Mr
Clean in a just a minute" jingle (for the Mr Clean detergent product) and
the "Plop, plop , fizz, fizz, oh what a relief it is" jingle (fo r the Atka-Seltzer
stomach pain reli ef product).
By the mid-1960s, the boundari es between TV programming in the
US and the brands that sponsored them became increasingl y blurred.
Advertising agencies produced nearl y all network programming. Stations
often so ld agencies full sponsorship, which included placing a product
nam e in a show's titl e- e.g. The Texaco Theater. The ratings system
used in broadcasting arose, in fact, from the sponsors ' desire to kn ow
how many peopl e they were reaching with their ''brand placem ent" strat-
egies . The A. C. Nielsen Company, which had been surveying audience
size in radio since the mid- 1930s in the US, eventually becam e the
dominant TV ratings service in that country. A similar situation obtained
in European broadcasting in those countries that had comm ercial televi -
sion (such as Britain from 1955) .
The partnership between the big brands and the nevv media was seen
from the outset as problem atic by social activists. In 1957, Vance Packard
wrote an indictment of this alliance in his widely read work Th e Hidden
Persuaders. A culture in wh ich products are sold as surrogates for human
emotional needs is, Packard argued , asking for troubl e. Since then, the
whole brand image- making enterprise has com e constantly under attack
from all ideological directions (Key 1972, 1976 , 198 0). Right-of-centre
groups attack the brand-m edia partn ership for prom oting secular human-
ism and promiscuity , and left-wing ones do so for the partn ership' s
deceitfully prom oting unabashed consum erism and thus damaging the
psychosocial fibe r of human society. But, to this day, no real, serious
evidence of negative effects fr om this partnership has com e forth.
Moreover, it is hard to accept the vi ews of many critics and anti -
Table 2.1 Taxonomy of human needs and motives (based on Straubhaar and
LaRose 2000)

Motives Needs

Achievement The need to achieve meaningful objectives in life

Affiliation The need to win acceptance
Consistency The need to ensure order and routine
Diversion The need to enjoy oneself
Dominance The need to exert influence in relations
Independence The need to be self-reliant
Novelty The need to have new things
Nurturing The need to care for others and be cared for by others
Popularity The need to win the attention of others
Recognition The need to be recognized
Security The need to be free from harm and threat
Sexuality The need to express sexuality
Stimulation The need to have one's senses stimulated
Support The need to receive support
Understanding The need to teach and instruct

consumerist groups for the reason that they themselves seem rather
willing to live comfortably within the consumerist lifestyle patterns of
the very social system they decry.
However, what is worrisome about our "branded culture" is the fact
that it taps into basic psychological needs to ensure that products are
bought, whether they are needed or not. As Straubhaar and LaRose
(2000: 371) point out, these are built directly into brand imagery. Since
brands are signs that stand for ideas with a strong emotional appeal, it
is worthwhile reproducing Straubhaar and LaRose's list of needs and
motives in Table 2.1.
In effect, the promotion of products in a modern consumerist culture
is based on the principle that people will buy things if they perceive them
as satisfying some basic emotion, desire, or social need. For example,
some brands exploit fear or shame constantly as their basic ploy in
promoting their ware. As a case in point, TV commercials on a variety
of lifestyle and cosmetic products shown on Italian television were
recorded and examined by the T oronto- Lugano research team 2002
(see Acknowledgments). Of the nearly 70 such commercials recorded,
52 were structured around a subtext of fear- fear of marginalization,
ostracism, etc. from a peer group. Table 2.2 is a sampling.

F ROM PRODUCT TO BRAND 17

18 FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND

Table 2.2 Sampling of Italian television commercials (20021 structured around

the subtext of fear

Brand Product Fear subtext

Axe Shower gel Fear of ostracism because of bad

body odor
Dove Deodorant Fear of social marginalization
Heineken Beer Fear of social marginalization
Impulse Women's Fear of having an unattractive body
deodorant image
Plasmon Biscuits Fear of not providing the best for
one's kids
Pop-up Condoms Fear of being labeled by peers as
reckless
Solero Algida Sorbet ice-cream Fear of social marginalization
Tim Daddy Cell phones Fear of being left out of peer group
Tissot Watches Fear of not being cool

It is estimated that the average citizen living in a consumerist culture

is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day and watches three years'
worth of television commercials over the course of a lifetime (Kilbourne
I 999). Everywhere one turns, one is bound to find some message
designed to persuade people to buy some product, to endorse a political
candidate, to support a cause, etc. Business firms, political candidates,
social organizations, special-interest groups, and governments alike
advertise routinely to create favorable images of themselves in the minds
of people. And these are being constantly updated and renewed, creating
a sense that they are evolving along with society generally. Budweiser
beer, for instance, is constantly creating new humorous images of its
brand which allow it to keep in step with the changing times and with
changing trends within its target market- young mal es . The humor used
is consistent with that used on TV sitcoms and in cinema. It is the kind
of humor that makes the brand appear contemporary and "relevant"-
from Budweiser's "Whassup" campaign in which a social expression taken
from hip-hop culture in the early 2000s to the use of sports celebrities
such as Tiger Woods by such brands as Nike shoes to create images that
have an instant appeal to sports fans and young people generally. As a
result, a dynamic interplay between the brand and lifestyle trends has
emerged, whereby one influences the other synergistically- the talk and
look of actors in popular commercials becomes the talk and look of
people in society; and fashions and idiomatic expressions that already
exist in society are adopted by advertisers to reinforce certain trends.
As Twitchell (2000: 1) aptly puts it, "language about products and
services has pretty much replaced language about all other subjects." The
"semiosphere," as the Estonian semiotician Yuri Lotman (1922- 93)
called the culture, has become alm ost comp letely branded (Lotman
1991). Brands are no longer perceived to be just "things" for consump-
tion, but mainly as vehicles for securing a better job, protecting oneself
against the hazards of old age and illness, attaining popularity and
personal prestige, obtaining praise from others, increasing pleasure,
advancing socially, and maintaining health.
As Twitchell (2004) has argued, there is little today that has not been
branded-i.e. given an identity akin to a brand product. Religions,
personalities, and even sports (the UEFA Champions League, NBA
brand, the Powergen Challenge Cup, etc.) are now branded. And it
is not just a metaphorical use of the word "brand" that is involved, but
a veritable process of using the brand product model in other (if
not most) domains of culture. There is now a constant dynamic inter-
play between cultural trends and the promotion of brand products
through ad campaigns. The "Whassup" campaign mentioned above is a
perfect case in point. Budweiser created scenes of African- American
single men, around 30 years of age, each greeting the other with a hip-
hop salutation, "Whassup?" As Holt (2004: 177) observes, this was a
"passkey into a shared worldview, a complete sign of brotherly solidar-
ity." The phrase "Whassup?" thus became branded (associated with
the Budweiser product), altl10ugh it was originally extracted from an
existing, but emotionally meaningful, subculture.
The r eason why branding has become such a pervasive force in culture
is, arguably, because the naming process is a cultural act. At a practical
social level, naming a product, like naming a human being, has an iden-
tification function- i.e. it allows consumers literally to name which
product they desire to purchase (or not). At another level, however, it
brings the product into the r ealm of cultural signification, where it links
up with a constellation of culture-specific m eanings that are associated
with the product. Consider a pair of shoes named after a "high-class"
manufacturer such as Gucci. At a literal level, the Gucci name allows us
to identify the actual type of shoe we may desire to buy. But this is not
all it does- it also assigns an aura of artistry, craftsmanship, fashion-
ability, and superior quality to the product. The shoes are perceived to
be the "work" of an Italian shoe artist- Gucci- not just an assembly-line
product for common folk to wear. This added meaning is the brand
image that the product name is designed to evoke in people. By psycho-
logical extension, therefore, the perception crystallizes that buying Gucci

FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND 19

20 FRO M PRO D U CT TO B RAN D

shoes is buying a work of shoe art. This is an unconscious process. In the

fashion industry, design er brands such as Gucci, Arm ani, and Calvin
Klein evoke similar images. They are felt to be obj ets d 'art, rather than
m er e clothing or cosmetic items; so too do nam es such as Ferrari ,
Lamborghini, and Maserati in the domain of autom obil es. The m anu -
facturer 's nam e , in such cases, extends the social and psychological
meanings of the product consid erably , by associating it with the tradi -
tions of artistic authorship. Th e artist is som eone who is perceived to
cr eate w orks of aesthetic value . An Armani suit is thus not perceived to
be m er ely "som ething to w ear ." It is som ething cr eated by a clothing
artist. The Armani brand can thus be said to summ on fo rth a "significa-
ti on system" for the product that has nothing to do with the liter al
function s of clothing.
In a phrase , buying an Armani o r a Gucci product provides the impres-
sion of buying a work of fashion art to be displayed on the body. Studying
the nature of this kind of cultural extension of meaning is the sum and
substance of cultural semi otics, as will be discussed shortl y. Like eYery
name , a brand is a sign. As such, it has both an identificati on fun cti on ,
known as its "denotative" fun ction, and a cultural fun cti on, kn own as its
"connotative" fun ction. The latter generally evokes unconscio us associa-
tions of meaning that are built into the nam e itself. Buying a perfum e
named Poison (by Christian Di or ) , for instance , imparts the implicit
feeling of buying a dangerous, but alluring, love potion ; buying Moon-
drops, Natural Wonder, Rainflower , Sunsilk, and Skin Dew cosm etic
items conveys the feeling that one is acquiring som e of nature's
beauty r esources ; buying Eterna 27, Cliniqu e, Endocil, or Equalia beauty
products conveys a vagu e sense that one is getting scientificall y tested
products, etc. Unnamed products do not enge nder such arrays of impli cit
meanings .
The phenomenon of name-giving in the hum an species is a fascinating
one on m any counts. In a sense, each person is a brand- an individual
with an identity that is largely a construction derived fr o m specific
cultural traditi ons. Across cultures, newborn children are not consider ed
full-fl edged m embers of their society until they are given an appropriate
name tying them to it. The act of naming infants is the first symbolic rite
of passage in a society- a rite that has the fun ction of assigning to them
a unique per sonality- a brand id entity, if you w ill. If the famil y does not
give the infant a nam e, then society will step in to do so. From child -
hood onward, the individual' s sense of self is felt som ehow to be
mirrored in his or her nam e . In Inuit cultures , an individual is per ceived
to have a body, a soul, and a nam e ; a person is not seen as complete
without all three . The Inuit also believe that a newborn baby cri es
because it wants its name, and will not be fulfilled spirituall y until it gets
it. Names are commonly believed across the world to have the power to
forete ll a person's destiny, or e lse to pass on to infants the spiritual qual-
ities of the individuals who have previously shared the name. In many
ative American cultures, for instance, an ancestral name is thought to
cast a magical, protective spell on the child given the name. This is why
many indigenous people will refus e to say their nam e out loud, fearing
that this "sense less" act could break the magical spell. But even in
Western culture , we give our children the nam es of ancestors with the
implicit beli ef that the character or the protection of the ancestor might
be passed on to the newborn. In 1968, a British television series called
The Prisoner, whi ch subsequently became a classic, featured as one of its
them es the perception that one's sense of self is wrapped up in one's
given nam e. It portrayed a captive community of ex-government officers
who were assigned numbers instead of traditional names- Number 1,
Number 2, etc. The specific idea here was, obvious ly, that people could
be made to conform to the will of the state if they did not have a name.
Th e use of numerical identification of prisoners and slaves is, in effect,
a negation of their humanity and, ultimately, their existence.

BRANDS AS MENTAL CONSTRUCTS

As Bedbury has perceptively remarked: "Every brand has a fundamental
essence that is not physical or defined exclusive ly or entirely by prod-
ucts or services" (2002: 12) . It is thus both a physical object and a mental
obj ect . In human life, there is virtually no object or artifact that is not
imbu ed with m eaning. Brands are, in effect, "mental constructs," or
"fundamental essences," as Bed bury characterizes them, that evoke a
broad range of meanings. The jewelry, clothes , furniture, ornaments,
tools, toys, etc. that the marketplace makes available would be perceived
as "sensel ess obj ects" without branding. Branding links them to cultural
traditions, values, rituals, etc. They thus provide valuable clues as to
what meanings are important to a culture.
In a phrase, the "essences" that constitute brands are powerful because
they have social and cu ltural relevance. Take beer as an example. Beer
is beer, with varying degrees of flavor and strength to it. But beer has
social relevance built into it. It is a drink that is common ly used in specific
social situations (and not others), especially among friends and peers
(but rarely at formal ce lebratory events), and thus has social symbolism
built into it- a fact that is exploited by advertising campaigns by
brand beers such as Budweiser and Corona. What kinds of people drink
Budweiser or Corona beer? Answers to this question would typically

FROM PRODUCT TO BRAND 21

22 F ROM PROD U CT TO BR AN D

include remarks about the educational level, class, social attitudes,

worldview, etc. of the consumer. The one who drinks Budweiser is
perceived by people as vastly different from the one who drinks Corona.
The former is portrayed in advertising campaigns as a youngish down -
to-earth male who simply wants to ''hang out with the guys"; the latter
as a more sophisticated type (male or female) who appreciates the finer
things of life. The two beer brands speak directly to different types of
individuals, so that they can see their own personalities mirrored in the
lifestyle images created by advertising campaigns, and thus identify with
one or the other beer brand.
Branding adds a dimension to products that was absent from the
marketplaces of the past- "cultural m eaning" which in semiotics is
known more specifically as "connotative meaning." And the more of such
meaning that can be built into a brand, the more likely it will become
itself socialized (spread into the social mindset). The cultural meanings
of brands can hardly be pinned down exactly. They can only be inferred.
They are, in a phrase, "mental constructs." These can be defined simply
as the culturally shaped images that come to mind in relation to a
specific brand. Take, as a case in point, the Amazon.com nam e- origin-
ally a Web-based bookstore with a database of millions of titles. The
Amazon part of the name suggests at least two connotative meaning
levels. At one level, it r everberates with mythic overtones. In Greek
mythology, the Amazons were a race of warlike women who excluded
men from their society. The suggestion of a bold new world of strong
women who possess secret knowledge and abilities is not a casual
one. There are few peopl e who will perceive in that name anything to
the contrary. This is why speakers of English use it m etaphorically to
describe females who are tall and gigantic (e.g. "She's an Amazon"). At
another connotative level, the Amazon name evokes an image of one of
tl1e earth's largest natural and still largely unexplored areas , the Brazilian
Amazon region, thus challenging computer users to enter by analogy into
its own unexplored world and navigate it.
The mental construction process is a largely unconscious one. We d o
not see in our mind the Amazon jungle or gigantic women controlling a
certain domain of cyberspace. We get, instead, a vague, nebulous feeling
of the power of the website to get us what we want. W e can, of course,
bring the "Amazon imagery" to consciousness by r eflecting upon it. But
such reflection is rare in the routine everyday use of signs. Brand nam es
suggest images; but these are never specific or clear-cut. They are under-
standable only within larger associations of cultural meaning.
Consider, as further examples, the Rev lon, Captain Morgan, and
Pepsi brand products. Rev lon was founded in 1932 by Charles Revson,
with his brother Joseph and chem ist Charles Lachman. The brand name
is a slight modification of Revson 's name. Revlon lipstick and nail enamel
becam e an instant market success story among female consumers ,
possibly because it was promoted with exotic names such as Tropic
Sky, rather than mere ly descriptive ones such dark red, medium red,
pink, etc. The images that the Revlon nam es evoke are abstract ones
associated with the exotic world of nature. The Captain Morgan rum
brand, on the one hand, is an examp le of a product eliciting a fictitious
image . Although no such personage has ever existed, one can easi ly
imagine a rum-drinking pirate with the name of "Captain Morgan."
Such images are those that r eproduce some sensory quality or property
in the mind. The Pepsi brand nam e , on the other hand, has an auditory
sensory quality to it that is imitative of the sound made by the soft drink
as it fizzes in a drinking glass or the r eaction we get by putting our face
near the fizz.
The type of image evoked by Amazon.com also r equ ires further
comm en tary , giYen that it is an image rooted in a mythic tradition,
rendering it psychologically powerful. The process by which such imag-
ery is evoked can be called, simply, "mythologization ." M ythologization
is a common feature in the advertising of lifestyle products . As a concrete
exampl e, consider a 2004 ad used by Gucci to promote a purse product.
In it, one is first struck by rather powerful visual signifiers- black snakes
compl etely surrounding a delicate, small purse, alm ost strangling it.
Clear ly, these suggest a chain of mythic meanings that are associated with
black snakes, including fear, darkness, and evil. Since ancient times,
snakes have been fear ed in many cultures because of their deadly venom.
They haYe been used as symbols with this meaning in narratives of all
kinds. They also evoke phallic symbol ism in the traditions of many
cultures . These two chains of meaning seem to be built into the visual
imager y of the ad, which shows slithering snakes in an embrace, thus
suggesting phallic copulation, since snakes on ly come into close proxim-
ity when they form "mating balls" in which they frantically try to mate
with a single fe male.
The chainlike handle of the purse and the metal handcuff-like clasp
in the center add ye t another mythic elem ent to the "implicit sexuality"
of the scene, given that chains and handcuffs evoke images of sexual
bondage. Conversely, the chain and handcuffs may also suggest an image
of the female protecting herse lf from the slithery males. Other Gucci
ads of the period (2004--5) were based on similar imagery. Mythic
constructs of this type are powerful because they bestow upon a brand
the tim e lessn ess and universality that we associate with primordial
mythic narration.

FRO M PRO D U CT T O B RA N D 23
24 FROM PRODUCT TO BR AND

At this stage , a few words about myth and mythologization are

needed. Both terms draw from the work of the French semiotician
Roland Barthes (1915- 80). Famously, in Mythologies ( 1957; English
translation 1973), Barthes drew together a series of bri ef articles he had
written for magazines in the period 1954- 6 to demonstrate different
aspects of the myth of French life and society. Central to his fo rmula-
tion of myth was the tracking down in the "decorative display of
what-goes-without-saying, the id eological abuse which, in my view, is
hidden" (1973: 11 ). For Barthes, it is not just heroic stories that qualify
for mythic status; anything is susceptible to myth, especially the m ost
everyday of phenomena. As he argues, "nothing can be safe from myth"
( 1973: 131 ) . For Barthes, myth is th e dom ain of stereotypes and other
m eans of fixing limits to representation.
Most importantly, though, is the way that myth is "spoken." As we
have seen, objects of everyday life take on "second-order" or "connota-
tive" m eanings. As such, th e semiotic act that such objects must embody
comprises a process of denotation (straightforward indicating) and
connotation (associations). Yet what Barthes makes clear in Mythologies
is that connotation, even though it is "second-order," generally happens
first in signs- i. e . connotations or associations are so strong because
they draw on the massive power of th e social and id eological worlds.
What denotation does is to "naturalize" them into a myth. Those co nn o-
tations that border on the outrageous or unbelievable are rendered
cr edibl e by virtue of being part of a system of denotation- such as the
starkly realistic photography in the Gucci ad. So when we proceed by
assuming that brands have second m eanings tagged on to them- as is
in evitabl e in the kinds of analyses carri ed out in this book which uncover
semiotic strategies- we should rem ember this point. The act of myth ol-
ogization is a harness ing of ideas with strong e moti onal appeal in a sign
( or sign system) which makes the representation credible or a seemingly
no rmal part of everyday life .
Mythologization is also commonly built into logo design, as will be
discussed furth er in subsequent chapters. The logo is the nonverbal
counterpart of the brand nam e. Take as an exampl e th e McDonald' s
golden arches logo. The arches r everberate with mythic symbolism,
beckoning good peopl e to march through them triumphantl y into a
paradise of order, cleanliness , fri endliness, hospitality, hard w o rk, self-
disciplin e , family valu es . From the menu to the uniforms, McDonald 's
exacts and imposes standardization. McDonald 's is a place that will "do
it all for you," as one of the company' s slogans of the pas t so aptly phrased
it. All we have to do is go through the arches.
 As the for egoing discussion has intended to argue, the differ ence
between a brand and a product is a strategic one that has rather profound
psychological implications . A product has no identity; a brand does. It
garn ers an identity through its name, its association with cultural
meaning, its dissemination through mass manufacturing and advertising
campaigns , and other strategies designed to give it what can be called
"cultural relevance." Brands now offer the same kinds of promises and
hopes to which religions once held exclusive rights- security against the
hazards of old age, better positions in life, popularity and per sonal pres-
tige , social advancement, better health, happin ess, etc. In a phrase , the
modern brand manufacturer str esses not the product, but the benefits
that may be expected to ensue from its purchase. And, as w e shall see
throughout this book, th e image-maker is becoming more and more
adept at setting foot into the sam e subconscious regions of psychic
exper ience that were once explored only by phi losophers, artists, and
religious thinkers.

SIGNIFICATION SYSTEMS
As mentioned above, a brand is a sign in the semi otic sense. It stands
for something other than itself in som e m eaningful or m eaning- bearing
way. Equivalent words used for "brand" in other languages bring this out
concretely. In Itali an, for instance, it is marca or marchio , "mark," which
is in actual fact the definition of the Greek word semeion. The sem iotic
stud y of brands is, fundamentally, a study of a particular kind of
"seme10n.
. ,,
As we have seen, Barthes was one of the first to emphasize the need
to study signs of this kind with the tools of semiotics. Barthes had argued
in Mythologies that contemporar y consum erist lifestyles prom oted an
unhealthy craving fo r new goods. He called this culture-gene rated
syndrome "neo mania," which he defined as an obsess ive desire fo r new
objects of consumption. Modern consumerist cultures, he claimed,
elevated shopping to much more than acquiring the essentials r equired
fo r daily living; they bestowed upon it the same kinds of m eanings that
we associate with myth and ritual.
The logic of Barthes' s per spective can be seen in the kinds of adver -
tising campaigns that involve mythologization. Take, as one particular
example, the advertising campaign used by Absolut Vodka in the mid -
1990s which played on r eligious them es : in one particular ad, the image
of a halo aro und the vodka bottl e can be seen with the caption "Absolut
Perfection"; in another, a bottle with wings and the caption "Absolut
Heaven" was shown; and in yet another , a bottle held by the hand of

FROM PRODUCT TO BR AND 25

26 FRO M PR OD U CT TO B RAN D

a m edieval knight with the capti on "Absolut Grail" was exposed (in
m edi eval legend the grail was the plate or cup from which Christ drank
at the Last Supper and which Jose ph of Arimathea used to rece ive the
blood fr om the wounds of the crucifi ed Christ) . The overall m essage
of the campaign was rather transparent- spirituality could be obtain ed
by imbibing the vodka. The ads effectively brought out the m eaning of
the brand nam e itself- th e "absolute" is oft en perce ived as des ignating
the "afterlife" and "truth."
Incidentally, Absolut Vodka' s advertising strategy has always been to
equate the drink with m yth and art. Its w ebsite has always contain ed
num er ous works of m odern art co mmiss ioned especially for it. In the
late 1990s, it sho wed Abso lut Panushka, a set of short film s by 24 con-
temporary experim ental animators, plus introductory pages by another
12 artists, all arranged by animator Christine Panushka . Those w orks ran
the gamut fr om images hand -painted directly onto film to high-tech
co mputer animati on by artists fr om around the world.
After the publicati on of Mytholo9i es , semi otic theory becam e wide ly
used within the fields of critical analysis, a branch of cultural studies that
examin es the r elationship between people and m edia genres , advertising,
consum er products, etc. , and fun ctio nal analysis, a branch of socio logy
that studies media instituti ons and their effects on individual and
group behavior. Scholars fr om both these fi elds w ere attracted par-
ticularl y to Barthes 's notion that the meaning structures built into
consum erist symbols and pop-culture spectacl es w er e r elated to those
that characterized the ancient m yths.
In the 1960s, another French semi otician , Jean Baudrill ard ( 1929- ) ,
continu ed wher e Barthes left off. Like his compatriot , Baudrill ard
scathingly attacked the consum erist world as one large di stracti on-
producing enterprise creating images of material obj ects for no oth er
purpose than to get peopl e to purchase them (e. g. Baudrillard 1973,
1978, 1981, 1988) . However, the critiqu es of Barthes and Baudrillard,
as well -m eaning as they were , may have unintentionally "overp o liticized"
semiotics. N evertheless , the interest in semiotics on the part of the
busin ess community itself in the last few years has been remarkable-
confirming in large part the notion that branding is a semiotic act . From
websites that overtly embrace semi otics as the basis for giving advice to
clients to sites that r efer to the disciplin e in som e way , there see ms
to be a growing awareness in th e busin ess world that the onl y trul y
in sightful approach to branding is to study how brands cr eate arrays of
m eanings.
To the se miotician, meanings do not exist in an y absolute sense,
but in re lation to other meanings . Th ey cohere, in other w ords , into
"systems" often called "codes," that can be defined simply as organiza-
tional m eaning grids that keep signs distinct by a series of r elations
among them. As a simple example, consider the alphabet letter "A."
At a denotative level, it is a sign whose function and meaning can only
be determined with respect to the other signs in the system known as
the English alphabet- a letter standing for a mid-vowel sound. It has
signifying "value," as Saussure (1916: 45) called it, because it can be
com pared, contrasted, and related to the other letter signs in the system.
In terms of the alphabet sequence, it can also be defined as the "first"
letter. Now, if we look at the uses of "A" outside the alphabet code, it
becomes obvious that it is involved in a host of other meaning-making
activities, related to the fact that it is the "first letter"- e .g. it is used in
Western schools and universities as the "top grade" assigned to student
achievement; it is found commonly in descriptions of products such as
"A-grade" types of oil; it is used as a variable in algebra, etc. In these and
other uses, the "A" cuts across codes of various kinds. In each case,
however, the initial "meaning imprint" of"first among letters" is implicit,
m·ertly or implicitly. As mentioned above, these are the connotative
meanings of this particular sign. Each sign in the alphabet "code" acquires
signifying value (denotative and connotative) in similar ways.
As is well known, modern-day semiotic method is based on the writ-
ings of the American logician Charles S. Peirce (1839- 1914) and the
French philologist Ferdinand de Saussure ( 1857- 1913). But the origin of
this science can be traced to the ancient world. The term "semiotics" was
used by the founder of W estern medical science, Hippocrates (460- 377
BCE), to indicate the study of symptoms, since these were signs that
stood for physical conditions and ailments of various kinds. Discovering
what they stand for, Hippocrates claim ed, is the crux of medical diag-
nosis. As a diagnostic science, semiotics was further developed by Galen
(AD 129- c. 199), perhaps the most outstanding physician of antiquity
after Hippocrates. Galen saw symptoms as forms with recurring and thus
predictable physical characteristics, allowing the practitioner to decipher
the connection between the forms and the conditions they suggested.
Semiotic analysis generally consists of the exact same procedure-
relating the physical form of signs to what they stand for. Take the
exam ple of the alphabet character "X." This has a noticeable physical
appearance that can be described in concrete terms- a letter of the
alphabet constructed by two intersecting lines. This physical part of the
sign is sometimes called the "signifier" by some semioticians (although its
relation to Saussure's idea of a signifier is tenuous) and "representamen"
by Peirce. Now, at a literal level, this signifier refers to the twenty-fourth
letter of the English alphabet. This is what some semioticians call the

F RO M P R O D U CT TO B RAN D 27
28 FR OM PR O DU CT TO B RA N D

signified

signifier tree

Figure 2.1 Saussu re's model of t he sign

"signified" (although not Saussure 's signified , which was a "m ental con-
cept") and Peirce the ob1ea. But the "di agnosis" of X does not sto p ther e.
In mathem atics , for example, it is used as the symbol fo r an unkno wn
quantity or variable and thus, by extension , an unkn own or unnam ed
factor, thing, or person . It is also used as a signature by anyo ne who is
unabl e to \-vrite one ' s nam e. It is also a sign designating a sexuall y explicit
movie. All these m eanings constitute m eanings that reach out beyond the
denotative and, as we have seen, Barthes call ed such m eanings "second -
order" and the whole process of conn otative extension "signi fica ti on ."
Peirce used the term "interpretant" instead to indi cate that all conste l-
lations of m eanings ar e ultim ately interpretations of so me type or
other- personal, social, historical, etc .
Perhaps the most important aspect to note about the sign is that the
conn ection between the sign as physical fo rm and its meaning, once
established, is bidirectional- one implies the other . As Saussure
observed, when w e use th e wo rd "tree ," which produces an aco ustic
image in the brain, the visual im age of the plant com es instantl y to mind
(Figure 2. 1).
The for egoing discussi on is a highly simplified on e, d oing sho rt shrift
to the richn ess of sign theor y, whether it be Saussure an or Peirccan .
However, the obj ective of this book is not to enter into the nature of
semioti c m odeling, nor d oes it intend to co mpare the two m odels
(Saussurean and Peircean), but rather simply to adopt the "diagnostic"
approach of semioti cs- medical or cultural- that sees signs as stand ing
fo r m eanings , conditi ons, id eas, etc . by virtu e of the relati ons they
have with other signs. Take , fo r exampl e , th e Tripl e XXX brand nam e
given to a Canadian beer. Th e associati on w ith som ething "forbidden but
des irable ," such as an XXX-rated m ovi e , is transparently obvi ous to tl1ose
who kn ow the semiotic code- the relati ons that X has to other do mains
of cultural meaning. In cultures where erotic m ovies d o not exist
(and may be unknown ) , it constitutes a signifier with no m eaning- it is
what Barthes called an "empty signifie r. " How ever, in W estern culture,
Table 2.3 Examples of signification systems built into certain brands

Brand Images it evokes Signification system

/interpretive key)

Camels "Cigarettes smoked in The camel suggests desert

cigarettes fashionable clubs" adventure, which has always had
a romantic allure in narrative
portrayals, as portrayed, for
example, in the 1942 movie
Casablanca
Gucci shoes "High fashion," "artistic," Because the brand is "signed"
etc . by the maker it is perceived as
having been made by an artist; it
constitutes a work of "shoe art"
Macintosh "User-friendly," "highly The "Apple" name and logo
computers functional," and suggest the biblical theme of
"attractive computer "forbidden knowledge" and
(prefe rred by artists, "temptation," and along with it
designers, etc.)" the Eve story
Marlboro "Cigarettes smoked by Smoking the cigarette suggests a
cigarettes rugged, male individuals," cowboy-type machismo that was
"the American loner" once a staple of Hollywood
movies

it summons forth images of such movi es. In this way, the nam e Triple
XXX evokes an un conscious array of connotations associated with such
movies. By th e way, it can also m ean "extra strong," thus expanding the
connotative range of th e brand. This "doubl e- m eaning" value has
been applied to th e name of a Hollywood personage- agent "Triple
XXX." It alludes not o nl y to th e act ivities that th e character can perform
physically, which are "forbidd en" to th e r est of humankind, but also to
his sup er- human strength.
In effect, the meanings evoked by the Tripl e XXX brand form a sig-
nification system- a constellation of (connotative) meanings suggested
by its name. The interpretive key to decipheri ng brand image is, in my
vi ew, the significati on system (or code) itself. To avoid th e non -semiotic
meanings that the term "code" entails in English- a co llection of laws,
a systematic collection of rul es (e.g. th e traffi c code) , etc.- 1 wi ll us e
that term "signification system" fr om now on. Tab le 2.3 gives some
examples of signification systems built into common brands.
A signification system can be defined, simply, as the set of culture-
specific meanings and attendant m ental constructs that are evoked by a

F R O M P R O D U C T T O B RA N D 29
30 F ROM P RO DUCT TO B RAN D

brand. These systems are established because a brand, being a sign, enters
into relations with other signs in a culture gaining its "value" fr om them.
These systems are created initially eith er by the brand nam e ( or logo)
itself or by the cultural symbolism its nam e evokes- as such they are
produced by iconic, symbolic, or index ical brand nam es.
As two concrete examples of iconicall y generated signification
system s, take the Acura brand of Japan ese automobiles and the Yahoo
search engine . The obvious suggestion of"accuracy" in autom obile design
and performance is evoked by the physical constitution of the nam e itse lf,
which not only imitates the English word "accuracy ," but also Japanese
word structure- e .g. tempura. The brand nam e thus reinfo rces, by
itself, its conn ection to Japanese culture and, thus, to the wid ely held
view that Japan is at the cutting edge of technology. But, in additi on, the
signifi er suggests the phonetic structure of Italian words. The "a" ending
of the nam e indicates the feminine gender in Italian gramm ar and thus,
by metaphorical extension, the allure of feminine beauty. These impli cit
meanings constitute the signification system built into the nam e Acura.
In the case of brand -naming practices , how ever , onomatopoeia and other
kinds of simulative strategies are m ore the rul e than the exception.
Similarly, the name Yahoo suggests, at one level, an expression of joy
and spontaneous excitem ent. The word was coined by Jonathan Swift
( 1667- 1745) in his novel Gulliver's Tra vels (1726) to refer to a member
of a race of brutes having human form. By its very sound, it continu es
to evoke images of "brute excitem ent."
The names Acura and Yah oo are exampl es of what Peirce call ed
"i conic" signs- i. e . signs that simulate som e property of the ir referents .
Iconic brand names tend to be more easily reme mbered- e.g. Sp las h
(detergent) evokes through sound imitati on what is done with the
product ("splashing"); the "Polo" logo , which represents the sport of polo
visually with a horse and a rider dressed in polo garb), etc.
As exampl es of symbolically based signification system consider,
again , the Apple brand of computer along with the Jeep and Saturn
motor vehicles. The purpose of computer s is, denotatively, to help us
carry out certain tasks (s uch as word process ing) efficiently, accurate ly,
and quickl y. But th e brand nam e, logo, and product design of Apple Mac
computers does much mor e , since they r each into the r ealm of cultural
symbo lism. The brand thus generates a symbolic signification system that
can be characteri zed as an "Eve code," whereby the appl e stands fo r
forbidden kn owl edge from which the mother of humanity took a fateful
bite. Mac computers are, in fact, not only user-fri endl y, but can also be
said to be suggestive of feminin e beauty. Although this is som ewhat
reductive, there is littl e doubt that an Eve code is, at the very least, a
latent factor in how we perceive the Appl e brand of computer.
The Jeep vehicle is a durable, general-purpose m otor vehicle with
four -whee l drive and a quarter -ton capacity; the Saturn is a small er auto-
mobile that is recognizable by the "curvy shape" of its fram e. The Jeep
was first mass-produced for the US armed forces in 1940. Combin-
ing the ruggedness of a truck with the mobility of a car, the original
Jee p carried six passengers and traveled about 105 km / h (about 65 mph) .
Its powerful engin e, two- and fo ur-whee l drive, and deep-treaded tires
all ow for easy maneuverability over difficult terrain. All these structural
features of its design are consistent with the "military code" that consti -
tutes the significati on system. The Saturn automobile, on the other hand,
ernkes a different kind of system . In Roman m ytho logy, Saturn was the
god of agriculture. In later legends he was identified with the Greek god
Cronus, who ruled during the Go lden Age, a tim e of perfect peace and
happiness. The Saturn brand produces a signification system that is based
on this mythical "Saturn code," and this would explain why the Saturn
Company is perceived as "customer-friendly" and sensitive to nature
(being designed as a highly "environmentally fri endl y" vehicle).
Indexica lly produced signification systems are those that are evoked
by brand names that constitute information on what a product can do-
e.g. Easy Off, Hand y Wipes, Renuzit (= "Renews it"). An index is a sign
that serves to guide, point o ut, or otherwise facilitate refer ence.
It should be m entioned, at this point, that there is another meaning
to the term "iconicity" that must be menti oned her e- given that busi -
ness peopl e often talk about "iconic brands"- namely, the obvious
relation that the term "icon" has to the religious icon, whose mystical
and narrative imagery imbu es it with a powerful emotional quality. The
word "icon" goes back, in fact, to the Byzantin e empire of the first
centuries CE, w hen the emperor dispatched portraits of himself to the
farthest corners of the em pire to ensure that he would not be forgotten.
The portraits depicted not onl y his likeness, but also his power, despite
his absence, and thus symbolized the unity of the empire under his
ru le . The early Christians adopted the icon tradition and applied it to the
domain of sacr edness, in ves ting their images with a mystical interpreta-
tion so as to convey the m essage of the new religion to the illiterate
masses.
Icons have thus always held a deeper symbolic meaning . In line with
the Platonic tradition of the era, the icon and the idea w ere thought
to be one and the same. They were perceived as mirrors of ideas and
truths. The original icons came to r epresent the indi visibility of church
and state, especially since the emperor occupied a special position as an

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32 FROM PROD U CT TO BR AND

intermediary between the faithful, the priest, and God . Icons wer e put
in churches everywhere and sold to the faithful in the medieval period.
In a sense, every brand is an icon. As with r eligious icons, people like
brand-nam ed products, want to have them, and read many meanings
into them. They are also elem ents of recruitm ent and communication,
based on a corporate identity (religious or commercial), in th e form of
a transmittable, consistent identity.
It can also be argued that the brand is a "fetish ." Fetishism is the
conviction that some objects, known as "fetishes" (fr o m Portuguese
feitiro, "artificial, charm," from Latin Jaaicius "artificial"), are imbued
with supernatural attributes . The fetish is typically a figure m odeled or
carved from clay, stone, wood, or some other material, r ese mbling a
deified animal or some sacred object. Sometimes it is the animal itself,
or a tree, river, rock, or place associated with it. In some societies, belief
in the powers of the fetish is so strong that fetishism develops into id ol-
atry. In such cases , the be lief system is r eferred to as an extreme fo rm
of animism- the view that spirits either inhabit or communi cate with
humans through material obj ects. The term "fetishism" has been ap plied
in our culture to describe sexual urges and fantasies that persistentl y
involve the use of objects by themselves or, at times, with a sexual
partn er. Common fetishes in our society are feet, shoes, and articl es of
intimate femal e apparel.
Fetishism is not limited to tribal or pre-modern cultures. On the
contrary, it is alive and w ell in modern cultures , in the form of prod-
ucts. In the 1970s, for exampl e, American society went m ad for "pet
rocks." Many considered the fad a ploy foisted o n a gullible public spoiled
by consum erism by a crafty m anufacturer, and thus simply a quick way
to make money. But to a semiotician, that cr aze could not have been
perpetrated in the first place , unl ess some signifying force was at work-
and that force was fetishism .
Ther e are several caveats that must be stated clearly when dealing
with the semioti c study of brands. First, the degree to which the sign i-
ficati on systems generated by certain brands will induce consum ers to
buy produ cts is an open qu estion . In any case, it is certainl y not the point
of semiotic anal ysis to determin e this, although it would seem logical to
assume that any branding strategy that is effective semiotica lly is probably
also going to be effective psychologically. Needless to say, if the results
of semiotic analysis expose the "hidden m eaning structures" that can be
deemed to be counterproductive to a culture's psychological well-being,
then so b e it (for a r eview of the relevant semiotic research, see Mick,
Burroughs, Hetzel, and Brannen 2004). In fact, the outcome of semiotic
analysis, like that of physics, can be an incenti ve for social activism.
Physicists provid e atomic theori es, not the means of making atomic
power stations; se mi oticians provide theories of meaning, not the m eans
of using meaning system s for profit.
It is re levan t to note that brand-naming and advertising are among th e
most stri ctly regulated enterprises in North America (and in other parts
of the world). This is a consequence of the "awareness-raising" that the
many critical social scientific studies on branding and advertising have
brought about in recent years. But legislati on is hardly the most effec-
tive way of protecting people against the brand' s persuasive power. Real
"immunization" com es fr om the signification systems that are triggered
by brands, not in regulating or censoring adve rtising .
Branding products is, ultimately, a social act. It "reifies" the product,
service, or company inserting it as an e lement in the web of m eanings
that constitute a culture-"r eification" is the term used in philoso phy
referring to th e actualizing of som ething that is conceptual in real
ways. It is equi valent to the process of bringing human beings into the
social ord er by giving them a nam e. That act reifies human beings as
individual s, transforming them into "persons." Brands have, in effect,
been anthropomorphically transformed into personalities with identities
that have becom e m erged with those of consumers. One feeds off the
other.
As we will see in Chapter 3, brand naming is an important strategy
of brand management but it r equires other strategies , too: slogans/
jingl es, package and product design, and the perennial work of adver-
tising.

F RO M P R O D U C T T O B RA N D 33