Its logo communicates the same kind of image or signification system
three touching circles encased in a square with round wertices given
that circles stand for groups of people sharing an interest, activity, or
achievement (Figure 3.1)
It uses a slogan/jingle ("Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there")
that enunciates and reinforces the same signification system. It also
creates ads and commercials that portray State Farm employees an
wholesome, neighborly individuals ready to help out in time of need.
The State Farm brand promises that the insurance company will "live up
to its name."
The connotative index
The State Farm signification system is comonly referred to as "brand
image" in the relevant marketing literature. To the semiotician, this term
needs furher refinement, since the "image" in it refers not to ther denotative
value of the brand, but to its connotative one. As mentioned in
ther previous chaper, signs possess two levers of meaning in tandem.
The denotative level is the constant (or basic) meaning that a sign bears.
Thes allows us basically to identfy the product (or service) a brand stands
for. Note that denotation mplies that hte referent (product) is generic
one, not a specific one. For example, it is irrelenabt whether th ucci
brand of shoes is for women or men, whether they are a size 9 or 10,
or whether they are brown or black, etc. as long as the shoe is a Gucci
shoe. At a different, and emotionallyote powerfule level, the Gucci
shoe evokes and array of different, culturally relevant meanings. As
mentioned in the previous chaper, thse are the connotation the the
brand evokes Shoes are protective gear. However, at the connotative
level, the Gucci brand is linked tot the culturally shaped sysbolism of
elegance and artistry
The higher the number of connotations a brand generates, the greater its psychological forcee. The greater the number, the greater its "connotative index" (CIX) , as it may be called. This is not a mathematical concept; rather, its refers to the relative number of connotations ---high, average, low that a brand tends to produce.
These can be measured in relative
Way simply by asking subjects what a certain brand (or ad) means.
Counting the different interpreatations is tantamount to counting the
Number of different connotations built into it. This is what Beasle
Et al. (2000) did in deriving and testing the viablility of the concept of CI.
The researchers showed 10 subjects 30 ads and asked them to identify
Which of the ads they thought produced the most thoughts and meanings
In their minds. The authors of the study had themselves rated 10 beforehand
As having a hight CI, 10 as having an average CI, and 10 as having a
Low CI. The 10 with the pre-rated high CI (mainly perfume/cologne ads)
Were, in fact, identified by all the subjects as being highly suggestive
And appealing. On Average, these produced 12-20 different
Interpretations. The subjects rated the remaining 20 ads as less suggestive
Of which they considered 8 to be relatively mote suggestive. These
Were ads fore home porducts and services (insurance, detergents, etc.)
That were also rated beforehand as having average Cis. The remaining 12
Were indentified as being the least suggestive by the subjects. Of these,
Only 2 were rated beforehand as having average Cis: the others were prerateds
As having low Cis. They were all taden from trade magazines
Announcing products and sevices in straightforward “classified ad”
Manner, although pictured and various sysbols were nevertheless used.
The CI can thus be conceived to be a continuum, with zero connotation
(pure denotative of informational content) at one end and a maximum
Connotation point (poen-ended, ambivalent, ambiguous content) at the
Other. Classified ads, ads in trade manuals, and the like tend to fall in
The sector of the continuum nearest tot the zero end-point, whereas lifestyle
ads rend to fall in the sector that becomes progressively more
connotative the on point.
Subsequent research on the validity of the CI conducted by the
Toronto-Lugano research team has corroborated the general fidings.
One of the most interesting byproducts of the research is that the highest
Cis are produced by brands that utilize sysbolic signifation systems.
Mythical sysbolism in particular tends to produce very high Cis. Thus,
The picture of a perfume bottle in an ad tells us, at a denotative level,
That it contains a fragrance of a specific type. But this is really a “semiotic
Trigger” for a higher-level signification system that is imbued with
Layers of sysbolic meanings – i.e. although we perceive the bottle at a
Surface level as perfume container, at a connotative level its shape, its
Name ect. Activates our knowledge of the culture-specific connotations
Thae these features evoke.
The foregoing discussion is, in effect, a version of Barthes’s (19570
Idea of second-order meaning.