The models we have studied so far are of great importance when planning marketing activities, different types of campaigns and to increase the understanding of how communication between different media takes place. Now we come to an interpretation of the concept of communication that is remarkably interesting when you want to convey something such as a graphic profile or a brand.
People who work with marketing planning and campaign design where you are mainly interested in communication as a transmission of messages are usually not that interested in the art of Semiotics. Instead, Semiotics is important in when creating the exchange of meanings, important to those designing the actual campaigns, company communication and advertising.
It is a view of communication based on semiotics. Semiotics stands for sign theory where semion comes from the Greek word for sign. Semiotics is basically a theoretical way of treating communication if its goal is to establish applicable principles.
I started study Semiotics at Stockholm University 1999 and the subject really caught me and I early understood that the semiotic approach is unbeatable when you are basically working on exploring which messages to use to reach your market and how these messages should be designed. I already worked with symbols and pictogram and a designer of many Bliss and dingbat’s fonts for many years as a UX and UI designer, but it wasn’t until I started to study semiotics I really could see how signs are created by interpreting them by adding an expression and a content.
If you are to succeed in your work of creating good communication with your recipients, it is important to use signs and codes in your message so that you achieve a "social interaction with the help of messages."
Does that sound complicated?
I will try to explain the importance of such a view of communication and how one can use it in their daily work.
Communication is an understanding of meanings and signs.
Signs are a prerequisite for communication, regardless of whether it concerns the verbal language or the imagery.
Signs are our means of expression to be able to:
1. Communicate and share knowledge with us.
2. Exchange ideas
3. Ask questions.
We need signs to be able to document and avoid keeping everything in mind, systematizing theories logically and abstractly.
The message is a construction of characters:
By collaborating with the recipients, it creates meanings.
Good communication with the recipient is obtained when the message uses signs so that "social interaction" is achieved
The difficulty of reaching all the way forward is often one of the reasons why in marketing you work with different types of market research before designing advertising campaigns and other communicative activities. The survey wishes to receive answers to several different questions. It can be about how to graphically design the message and what symbols and signs this must contain for communication to take place.
The more common experiences two people (organizations) have or the more they know about each other, the greater opportunities they must communicate. When you as a sender exercise communication, you want the message to stimulate the recipient to create a meaning on their own that is in some way related to the meaning that you had from the beginning in the created message.
We develop the above example with the watch.
What if the receiver were to interpret the transmitter's question "Excuse me, what time is it?" as if the transmitter wanted to know what a clock really is for something and what its purpose and function is while the transmitter wanted to know the time and asked for the time.
Here we see a clear example of the lack of communication, is there really any use in driving the communication further?
They both talk about and think about different things, they give things (time, time, and time) different signs and code. Imagine if the transmitter in this case would have asked "Excuse me, do you have time?". Given the existing reasoning, there is a great risk that the receiver can interpret the question as the sender wanted to occupy his time. Time is something most of us have a bit of my wonder is what would you yourself answer to such a question?
Would you have stated the time to the transmitter at the time?
It is all about signs, symbols, and coding. It is about applying the knowledge about these and being clear in their communication with other people. The more we use the same sign system, the more our "meanings" of the message will approach each other. We can read more about this in the section "Drawing via Semiotics."
Denotation
Denotation is about the core meaning of the sign, i.e. the direct and obvious meaning we get when we see the sign in front of us. An example of denotation if we look at the clock, the dial would be interpreted as the denotative in what we see - that is, exactly what the dial shows without any connotations included.
Connotation
Connotation is about the interaction that occurs when the sign meets the person's perceptions and values that the same has about a certain sign. Connotations can furthermore be of a private or collective perceived nature and can give the associations and thoughts we get when we look at a picture, the connotation is thus nothing that exists concretely presented in the image without meaning arises subjectively externally in the viewer.
Denotative and Connotative meaning
Based on the above examples, we come to two concepts that are talked about in pedagogy and communication, denotative and connotative meaning.
By denotative meaning of a word is meant what the word denotes (which is often the same for all people). The connotative meaning of a sentence is instead linked to and dependent on what a given person has for experiences of the word and the feelings, values, and associations the word expresses.
We take a closer look at the word’s car and cart. The denotative meaning of the word "car" is a four-wheel motor vehicle. The word "Wheels" may have the same denotative meaning, but it probably has a different connotative meaning, it expresses or evokes other feelings, values, and associations.
When you have this clear to you, you become more careful in which way you express yourself in your communication and this makes it easier to transfer the actual content of thought.
Culture is our interpreter of communication.
The requirement for communication is that we share the same cultural background and agree on the meanings of the signs. Culture is shared by people in the same country, continent but also in different subcultures for ideologies, youth cultures, business world and more. The more common experiences you share (individuals or organizations), the greater the opportunities you have to communicate.
It is important that the message stimulates the recipient to create a meaning on their own, which is in relation to the meaning you had from the beginning in the created message.
The recipient's own cultural experience of the different characters that make up the text is essential for this to be possible.
A certain common understanding of what the message is about is required.
The transmitter that transmits the message has a less important role here, compared to the previous models where the transmitter has an important role. The emphasis is instead shifted to the text and how it is "read". The text can in this case be a profile program, an advertisement, or a message in a campaign. Reading or interpretation is the process of discovering different meanings that takes place when the reader (recipient) interacts with or "negotiates" with the text.
The way in which the negotiation takes place is linked to the recipient's own cultural experience of the various codes and characters that the text consists of. For the negotiation to be possible, a certain common understanding of what the text is about is required.
A Semiotic basic model
In previous models, we have described the message as something that is sent from A to B. Here the view is different. The message is an object among several which together create a structured relationship with each other. One thing that must be clear is that the structured relationship between the various objects is not static but highly dynamic.
The figure shows that the person who produces the "text" and to "read" it are parallel processes and therefore they occupy the same place in the structured relationship. The arrows show that there is constant interaction between the different objects.
Shared understanding - shared knowledge
When we design communication, whether it is internal or external - verbal or graphic, the goal is for the message to be conveyed, the message we want to communicate must be understood by the recipients. The goal is for us to succeed in conveying the true meaning of the message. For that to be possible, we must use some form of sign.
We must stimulate the recipients to create meanings on their own that are in close agreement with what we have intended for meaning from the beginning. For us to succeed, it is important that our codes are common and that our character systems are equivalent. The more our understanding is shared, the more our meanings will approach each other, and we can share our knowledge.
Does that sound complicated?
Let us study this in more detail in what is called Semiotics.
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