Brand response analysis: a Peircean semiotic approach

ISSN： 1470-1219

Source： Social Semiotics, Vol.23, Iss.4, 2013-09, pp. : 489-506

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Abstract

The purpose of this article is to organise and simplify the concept of brand response. It is a development of the authors' semiotic approach to the concept of brand, which uses a triadic model based on the Peircean levels of analysis of the sign. The original model distinguishes three levels: identity, object and response. This article briefly describes the first two levels and goes into more depth with regard to brand response. From the theoretical point of view, the authors' approach inverts the survey method used to ascertain positioning, image and value of the brand. Firstly, brand response is associations occurring in the minds of the reporting agent. Associations create awareness, and not the other way round, which is the concept underlying the current theory of brand equity. From the point of view of practice, it is the authors' belief that the main contribution made by the triadic semiotic model applied to brand response is that of the importance of “firstness, i.e. the most immediate response possible. It is with a concern for ease of application that this article hopes to contribute by making brand analysis and assessment more intelligible. This article should be seen as an exploration into the possibility of simplifying the analysis of brand response. Its originality lies in the effort to return to the very reason for the existence of branding. The authors are convinced that by choosing differentiation as the guiding principle of their approach they have valorised what is essential, which is sometimes lost in more complex modelling.