Semiotics and Marketing

In this episode of The Persuaders, a feature interview with Dr. Alex Gordon, founder of Sign Salad, an agency specialising in semiotic analysis. Alex Gordon has worked as a semiotician for 20 years and has led cultural insight projects across five continents for global blue-chip brands such as Unilever, PepsiCo, Airbnb, Ritz-Carlton, Diageo, Kraft Heinz, HSBC, Danone, Pfizer, Colgate Palmolive, Kellogg's, Nestlé. Prior to founding Sign Salad in 2007, he established the semiotics & cultural insight division at Flamingo, a strategic brand consultancy and qualitative research agency. We began the interview by tracing Alex's career pathway which culminated in his establishing Sign Salad, before discussing how semiotics fits into the broader market research landscape today. Alex discusses how cultural change impacts on unconscious consumer behaviour and attitude to brands, and how marketers can gain greater control over brand meaning by using the right visuals and language across touchpoints. Several practical insights are drawn from examples in the tea, coffee and fast-fashion markets.