We cannot mention Semiotics as an important part of the design of communication without following up with the Rhetoric's significance of it. Rhetoric is a doctrine that was developed already in ancient Greece and is about how to convince the listener in a communication, sounds like everything I talked about so far, right?
Rhetoric was used by lawyers and politicians, as a method of preparing speeches so that they could reach and influence their listeners, to convince the judges at trials and their countrymen at political debates.
Although rhetoric initially stood for the art of speaking, the philosopher Aristotle developed the rhetoric into the art of persuasion. The rhetoric is thus generally described, a solid doctrine that contains a many terms and principles on how the persuasive process in different contexts should proceed and which is also important in our communication process.
Rhetoric today also differs from the ancient form when the doctrine was applied only in speech and writing. Today it appears in several different media such as. in images, music, writing and verbal communication and if you put the rhetoric in relation to the semiotics' three concepts Icon, Index and Symbol, you see what strength these two together form.
Because the point of advertising is to influence people buying habits and try to convince them to buy the advertised product, that advertising is just a form of rhetoric combined with semiotics. A combination of these expressions is often applied when defining the way in which you want to communicate your message precisely in advertising contexts, where often image motifs and text work together to create a convincing feeling in the viewer.
Find your Ethos, Pathos and Logos
During my years as an innovator, developer, and entrepreneur, I have had the good fortune to be at the heart of my own research, development, and application. Working with research and development in smaller companies means that we must shrink the scope of our research to be able to get a result as soon as possible. This is a way to be able to see in the past if you must reject your idea or if it is possible to apply in order to move forward.
My results and the research I have conducted as well as the inventions we have developed based on the results have given me the privilege of speaking and lecturing at a wide range of universities and colleges, at conventions and conferences in Europe, North America, and Asia.
It was because of the active R&D at my company that I got frequent renewed results, which allowed me to add new elements to the speeches and lectures. My goal has always been that if one and the same person went to two of my lectures, you would leave with new insights. In order for this to be possible, I have always leaned towards my Ethos, Pathos and Logos in my speeches and lectures.
Ethos, Pathos and Logos
According to the rhetorical theory, there are e.g. Three different types of means or strategies to use when someone is to be persuaded or convinced of something, these are ethos, pathos, and logos.
When I stand in front of an audience, I use Ethos to inspire trust and confidence in the audience. Ethos can also be used to entertain its audience. As an innovator and entrepreneur, you usually have a huge drive and believe in what you do. By using Pathos, you can engage the audience and the goal is to arouse emotions. Finally, the goal is to inform and enlighten the audience through Logos and connect the speech to what was described in Ethos.
To become a good speaker who masters the various tricks of rhetoric requires practice. The aim of the speech is to create trust in the recipient by applying this knowledge and creating a coherent argumentation from the different rhetorical strategies. This, as the different strategies are interconnected, especially when it comes to ethos and logos.
Just as I have found my ethos and Logos, you should find yours before to be able to communicate with the desired effect you want to achieve. You create your ethos and logos based on your opinions and outlook on life, which is important for creating credibility. A coherent argumentation gives an impression of credibility, which in turn creates an ethos of logos.
The five parts of the rhetoric method
With Ethos, Pathos and Logos, we have the basic structure for our communication, however, there is an in-depth recipe and a method for using your rhetoric to prepare your convincing speech. This method includes five different parts.
Each speech should be based on the five parts of rhetoric:
I. Inventio: Here you should clarify your argument for the message.
II. Disposition: In this step, the focus is on the outline of the speech and structures the arguments.
The traditional disposition is divided as follows:
Exordium: The introductory part of the speech that should
Create interest,
Gain goodwill and credibility
Indicate the subject
Narratio: Case presentation. The background, should be short and clear, factual and credible. The audience must be convinced of the speaker's honesty and truthful presentation of facts.
Propositio: Statement or thesis to be "sold".
Probatio: Present the evidence for their claims or theses i.e. arguments. The strongest should come last and the weakest in the middle.
Refutatio: Reject and reject any objections that have pronounced or as an opponent may be pronounced.
Peroratio / Conclusio: The conclusion. Now it is time to summarize the main arguments or theses and that you can end with an emotional call.
III. Elocutio: In this step you try to find the right language, so it is important to know who you are speaking to. There are four stylistic virtues one can follow, that is, speech should be:
1. Clear
2. Correct
3. Ornate and vibrant
4. Appropriate and appropriate
IV. Memoria: Because you should multiply memorize the speech because you then speak with a better fluency and more captivating than if you read from a manuscript.
V. Actio: The actual performance of the speech which concerns how the body language is applied by the speaker.
Ethos, Pathos and Logos in market communication
When we at Groveflow collaborate with our customers, the goal is for us to provide the tools the customer needs to be able to communicate trust to their customers. By loading brands and the company logo with the values that the company stands for, we can also apply ethos, pathos and logo arguments in the communication material that is produced to convince customers.
You can get ethos by integrating your company's own brand and logo as they should stand for much of the credibility. It is one of the big goals when we work with our customers' brands, that it should give trust.
If one's own brand is not enough to gain trust, advertising often uses famous people such as movie or sports stars, doctors and experts to strengthen the ethos argument.
Logo arguments can be detailed descriptions of the product that should serve as arguments to evoke a sense of security, trust, and competence of the sender. Unfortunately, in advertising, it is often difficult to highlight the use of the logo argument.
Advertising most of all plays on our emotions, i.e., the rhetorical part - pathos. Through Pathos, you can create group affiliation at the same time as you want to make the customer feel special.
One of the most common reasons for emotional arguments in advertising is that you want to develop confidence in something or someone you can emotionally engage in or with.
In communication, you often want to give the impression that there is an exchange between seller and customer, that both parties receive an exchange from each other so that the recipient makes an active choice and buys the advertised product.
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