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Advertising and marketing are the traditional ways that businesses have utilized in their effort to expand their markets. They are the methods through which they communicate to their target market segments about the existence of a certain product in the market. When a product has been introduced to the market, then it follows that there must be ways that the target market segment have to be made aware of the new products. The same is used when trying to expand the market of a product. These two methods only change on the way they are conducted, but have been there since the development of business. They range from word of mouth, print media, radio advertisement, and currently there is the internet advertising that is threatening other modes doing advertisements..
Sign can be defined as a symbol that is established to be used in illustrating or defining a certain situation. Different signs have meanings behind them. In the day to day life, there are signs that are meant to define a certain situation or communicate a certain message. For example, there are road signs with meanings that every professional driver should know. But signs in a business environment go further than the day to day signs; they include photographs, drawings, and painting. Semiotics is the science that entails the study of signs; it is a unit that makes sense from signs. As companies advertise for their good, there is an increasing association of tools of advertising with the signs that they use (Chandler, 2007). This paper discusses the meaning of advertising is a sign and how semiotics can be helpful in the analysis of advertising texts and why.
Advertising as a sign
People use signs without a second thought. There are signs that possess universal meanings. When someone sees such signs, he or she has to associate them with specific issues. This is the heart of advertising; it should get the attention of the target group so that they can associate it with something. For instance, danger signs, wet paint , beware of dog and No smoking signs. It is argued that signs are peoples street communication system (Advertising Association, 2010).
Equality has for long been sought for, but it has not been forth coming; in advertising, one of the tools that have attained equality is signs. This is because despite the status of a person they have the same meaning. It is an advertising tool in which literate and illiterate people are treated as equally important for trade. Human beings are driven by the desire to derive meaning and associate the meanings with circumstances. When we see something, there must be something we relate it to. This can be well demonstrated by the way weather meteorologists operate; they look at the sky and according to what they see they associate it with a certain weather pattern. This drive to associate signs with meaning is the heart of advertising. In most cases and in situations that a certain company has built a strong brand name, there is a sign that is associated with it. To associate a sign with a certain product is after an advertising campaign that conditions the minds of people to associate that thing with the company. This theory is seen to have emanated from social conditioning theories to explain behavioral traits. It says that human beings molded to associate a certain instance with something. Lets take an example, in the early 1990; Nike Company associated itself more with sports. They are manufacturers of shoes and other sports wear. The company embarked on having a strong sign that was associated with it. This sign is a tick. Today, the sign has gotten in the minds of people all over the world and when one sees the sign he or she associates it with Nike. How about the sign of Olympics? It has gotten in the minds of people in a way that that its sound is enough to focus the mind and think about Olympics.
Signs in most cases do not go alone, but they are used alongside a certain statement; however they are the ones that capture the eyes of a target customer. Some companies has made a certain writing to be their signs, for example Coca-Cola, the way they write this name is kind of a signs that attracts the attention of a target market but it has the name of the company (King 2007).
How semiotics can be helpful in the analysis of advertising texts
Business signs and adverting signs are strong marketing tools that give a first impression to a potential customer about what a business is all about. Before a customer makes the decision to come to ones business, there must have been something that attracted his interest and make a certain mind picture about the business that he or she is going to get involved in. Sign is one of the tools that a customer makes sense out of. The impact of sign is different from other forms of advertising since no attention is called but, but by just a look at a sign, a certain feeling is created. This feeling is the one that a customer uses to grudge a certain business. For example in a sign that advertises a hotel which is some food on the sign, a customer does not need to get closer to the food to know which food it is but will get the feeling that there is a hotel that offers some delicious food somewhere, he is more likely to go to this hotel than another that just advertises its presence without a plate of food posted on the advert. The reason here is that the food has created a certain feeling that credits this hotel. It has associated itself with the needs of the customer (Chandler 2007).
Why signs are important advertising tools
Human personality
Human beings are guided by their attitudes and feeling about something. This means that they have a rather predictable kind of lifestyle if one can understand the attitude that one holds about something. Attitude is a resultant of what we associate something with. If the sign that a certain company employ is that that I associated with a good moral aspect then the success of such advertising is likely to be successful. An example is the association of peace with dove if a company that, for instance, deals with making mattresses use much signs in it advertising then the people are more likely to accept it than when they use a crow.
Nearly all people read and understand signs
As we had stated earlier, signs are universally accepted means of communication that do not recognize class, age or religion. When used for advertising, the message that they are putting across is more likely to be reaching a large population. This is a strong aspect in advertising. The more the number of people a message gets to, the higher the chances that a large number will be persuaded. They have been referred to as public communicator.
A sign is a less costly way of advertising, when compared to other forms of advertising it is less costly by far. If a sign board that has a certain sign is fixed at a point it continues to communicate to new and old customers. This ensures there is a continued business process. To create a sign, it does not call for high education but all that it needs is creativity. It is an advertising mode that tries to associate the people with a company. This reduces the cost even further. However, before one decides to take up a certain sign, there are things that must be considered, they are;
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Who are your customers?
The target customers have certain aspects that are common with them. These common aspects may be brought by the locality or the culture of a people. Understanding the people will assist in choosing that sign that gives a positive image to the business. Other than the universally accepted meanings of association, different people associate different signs to different things; it should be understood not to create a dissonance when making a sign. For example, a sign of a pig may have a different meaning to a Christian than it may mean to a Muslim. Muslims would not like to be associated with pigs; it is against their religious beliefs; if one was to use a pig in such an area let it be for a warning case.
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How do you get information on potential customers?
This boils down to where one is going to place his or her sign. This is after understanding the location of your target customer. If the target customer is found in a certain area, then one should put signs in such an area. For example, if a Mercedes Benz wants to advertise for a new model of Benz, and the target customer are high class people, there is no point of putting such a sign of advertisement in a slum area, it will not be effective.
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 How are you going to communicate with the customers?
Advertising is all about putting a certain message across. If one advertises and the target customers are not caught by the message that is being put across, then the advertisement has failed. In a sign advertisement then the sign must be:
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Noticeable
The notice board or the tool that is used to convey a message using a sign must be noticeable. It should be placed in a way that a passerby will get attracted to it. This is the way to convey a certain message home.
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A business sign must be legible
From a distance, a sign should be readable. To effectively associate a sign with the intended meaning, it must be well read by the target customer. This is the point that calls for uniqueness of the particular sign. A sign should be as unique as possible. For example if one compares the sign of a Mercedes Benz and that of Toyota, there is a clear distinction and it is not likely to be confused. The design that a sign is made with should be good and appealing. This is in terms of color, message, graphics, lettering, shape, harmony, and daytime versus nighttime lighting. All of them must be put together depending on the message that we are trying to put across. Different signs should be customer to give the desired information. For example, if the information that one want to give is a warning message, red acts as a good color to how danger. On the other hand if a certain shops sells wedding gowns, using a color like black will do harm than good to the company (Marketing Resources n.d).
Conclusion
Advertisement is a strong marketing tool that all businesses use in one way or another. An effective advertising must capture the attention of the target customers and be able to establish links with the existing ones. Signs are an old way of advertising. It success is based on the way that people associate signs with meaning. On the other hand people are easily conditioned by repeated message to associate certain aspects with a certain meaning. It is a strong marketing tool. Semiotics is the study of signs. It is concerned on the meaning that a certain sign is associated with. It generally says that for a successful advertisement using signs, the most important thing is to establish the meaning that the target customers have on the chosen sign.
Reference List
Advertising Association 2010, Advertising Industry Statistics [Online].
Chandler, D. 2007, Semiotics: the basics. New York. Routledge.
King, A. 2007, The Importance of Outdoor Signs.
Marketing Resources. n.d, Business Signs and Advertising Signs as Marketing Tools.
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