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Over recent years, brand semiotics have been gaining the marketing practitioners' attention for designing their brand strategy. Hence, to address this gap, the current study investigates the effect of semiotic product packaging on brand experience dimensions, brand trust and purchase intent of reputed major brands of fast-moving consumer good (FMCG) products.

The data for this study were collected by administering a questionnaire-based survey from 254 respondents from the Delhi National Capital Region (NCR) of India, using systematic sampling. Structural equation modeling has been used to test the conceptual model and examine the hypotheses developed in the study.

The results present evidence of the growing influence of semiotic product packaging upon consumer brand trust and purchase intentions. The study suggests that brand semiotics positively influence customer brand experience, brand trust and purchase intention of FMCG products.

The research findings will benefit FMCG companies to identify how to apply semiotics in packaging to improve consumers' brand experience and influence intent to purchase.

Research in brand semiotics on product packaging is limited, as most prior studies focus on brand semiotics in advertising, product design improvement and retail design. The present study has investigated the impact of semiotics on brand experience dimensions in product packaging, which is emerging as a critical concern for the FMCG sector particularly in the post-COVID period.

This article considers the attempted change to the image of an established brand by studying the semiotics within the brand’s historical advertising campaigns. The use of semiotics to study the interpretation of messages is discussed, and the link between interpretation of messages and advertising effectiveness in changing brand image is explored. The authors deconstruct advertisements of a brand to provide a model containing opposing dialectics that may aid managers by highlighting alternative symbolic messages contained in advertisements. Oncwe identified, these alternative symbolic messages may be used to help change brand image and influence advertising effectiveness. Although the study focuses upon a major brand of beer, this is an industry in which there are numerous small firms, and many of those have constrained marketing budgets, and thus need to make sure that their advertising is effective. Equally, entrepreneurial marketing is not to found only in the small firm, and the case study discusses a radical and imaginative brand repositioning of a well established product.

This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a brand imitation strategy for the package design of male-targeted, female-targeted and gender-neutral products.

Three (2 × 2 × 2) between-subjects factorial experiments were conducted with three independent variables, namely, visual shape, color and logo, each classified as relevant/divergent. The dependent variables were participants’ attitudes toward the brand, attitudes toward the product and purchase intention.

There were no significant main effects or interactions for the male-targeted product. The results for the female-targeted product revealed no significant main effect of visual shape, a significant main effect of color and significant two-way interactions between visual shape and color and between visual shape and logo. Significant main effects were found for visual shape and color for the gender-neutral product.

A color scheme similar to that of a leading brand in the same product category more powerfully influenced participants’ attitudes and purchase intention, while a more holistically similar design had greater impact than a less holistic design. Some “divergence” or distinctive design elements of the female-targeted product positively influenced participants’ attitudes and behavior. These findings suggest that a brand imitation strategy offers a means for competing in the marketplace, but should be used with caution.

A conceptual continuum of brand imitation is proposed, incorporating visual semiotics, creativity theory and gender differences in cognitive styles to provide a more systematic method for delineating brand imitation levels.

Berthon and Pitt (2018) recently highlighted the symbiotic relationship between fake news and brands. This paper aims to draw on semiotics to refine the fake/real news dichotomy to a fourfold typology.

First, the authors turn to semiotics and review Greimas’ (1966) semiotic square. Second, they use this framework to refine the fake/real news dichotomy into a four-fold typology. Third, they illustrate each type with a news report on the topic of climate change. Fourth, they apply this framework to reveal four types of brand: real, fake, empty and ironic.

Given that brand communications are heterogeneous, the authors suggest that the typology can be reconceptualized as dimensions and brands communications decoded accordingly. They conclude by exploring further opportunities offered by the semiotic square for interpretive investigation.

The value of the paper lies in the novel use of the semiotic square to shed light on both news and brand communications.

This paper aims to contribute to the augmenting literature on consumer brand engagement (CBE) in social media brand communities (SMBCs) by offering the model of the depth of brand engagement funnel (DOBEF). The model is intended to complement the multi-dimensional conceptualization of CBE in the extant consumer behaviour literature and to critically address some of its foundational tenets.

A computer-mediated discourse analytic (CMDA) approach is adopted while using a mixed methods research design whereby qualitative data are quantified with a view to enhancing the robustness of the interpretive procedure. The data comprise 170 UGC posts stemming from three fast-moving consumer goods brands’ SMBC threads. Additionally, a netnographic approach is adopted in data collection, while data analysis/synthesis proceeds with the application of the laddering technique with the aid of the computer-aided qualitative discourse analytic CAQDAS software atlas.ti.

The bulk of user-generated content (UGC) in the scrutinized brand initiated thematic threads were found to be relevant, albeit negatively valenced or lacking in relevance altogether. This behavioural response pattern to brand initiated themes poses significant constraints to the level and quality of CBE. Multi-dimensional engagement across the DOBEF’s strata was found to be scarce, while engagement diminishes gravely as the upper layers of the model are reached.

By conducting analyses on coded data alongside DOBEF’s strata, rather than treating consumer comments as raw data, the narrowing down of the semantic focus of posted comments in a thread-specific fashion is enabled, thus meeting the narrow contextualization criterion that is lacking from various studies in the extant literature.

By shifting focus in identifying CBE levels in SMBCs from attitudinal/behavioural antecedents/outcomes towards the content of the interaction, a nuanced perspective is offered as regards the depth of interaction, while addressing posted comments not only in terms of valencing, but even more importantly of valorization.

By attending closely to incidents of negative brand engagement, and by dimensionalizing engagement along the funnel’s strata, a more nuanced understanding of territories where brand communities contribute to the dilution, rather than the enhancement of brand equity was obtained.

This is the first paper that discusses engagement on the grounds of deeply-laden consumer axiologies and the degree to which these are congruent with specific brand initiated thematic threads in SMBCs. It is anticipated that the discourse analytic (DA) approach that is adopted here will instigate further research that attends to UGC in a small-data, highly context-specific, rather than a big-data vein.

Smart tourism is a destination management approach that requires the buy-in of a myriad of stakeholders. Its many audiences and complexity demand the creation of meaningful brands to effectively position and communicate smart tourism initiatives. The purpose of this paper is to explore how smart tourism branding strategies have been implemented to communicate relevant values, benefits and attributes to industry stakeholders through institutional websites.

Based on a semiotic analysis of two smart tourism-related sites (destinosinteligentes.es and smarttourismcapital.eu), the research interprets the brand-related visual and verbal signs.

The findings highlight how brand elements embedded in websites communicate a brand identity and facilitate particular interpretations of smart tourism. Both brands use similar signs to promote a techtopian vision of smart destinations but employ different strategies to motivate stakeholder buy-in.

Smart tourism is currently largely embedded in overall smart city initiatives and finding tourism-specific examples online is difficult. However, the two selected websites reflect the brands of multiple destinations and permit a detailed analysis of meaning making. Future research can focus on how brand-related signs are perceived by different stakeholders.

Identifying the strategies and shortcomings of current smart tourism brands informs future smart tourism branding efforts and effective communication with smart tourism stakeholders.

Semiotics is a relevant but underutilized method to understand how smart tourism initiatives conceptualize “smartness.”

Considering a long-term perspective and the discourse directly emitted by brands, the aim is to study how can brand extension potential be predicted through the analysis of brand contracts?

Considering a long-term perspective and the discourse directly emitted by brands, the aim is to study how can brand extension potential be predicted through the analysis of brand contracts?

Three groups of brands are identified: brands anchored in both determination and mastery contracts defined as open (high extendibility); brands anchored in a determination contract defined as open, as well as in a mastery contract defined as closed (low extendibility); brands anchored in a mastery contract defined as open as well as in a determination contract defined as not closed (high extendibility, but risks of diluting the brand value).

Compared with extensions actually developed by these brands, the results are discussed and strategies are proposed to maximize the long-term brand development when the brand extension potential is low. Only studied on products, it would be interesting to complete this analysis in services.

The main contribution is the focus on brand narratives and contracts to predict the brand extensibility of luxury brands. Structural semiotics provides another original insight.

The purpose of this paper is to identify how a city as a brand discursively conceives and articulates relevant meanings in order to build its identity.

The study follows a discursive semiotic approach using content from the Visit.Rio website and posts from its Facebook page.

It was possible to organize the values and meanings that structure the Rio de Janeiro brand in the semiotic square. Narrative schemes that concretize the value proposition guided mainly by contemplation and experimentation situations were identified. The discursive construction of the Rio de Janeiro brand is primarily marked by the relation between nature and culture, where contrasting meanings are explored by the City Hall managers.

This study is limited to the analysis of the enunciator (Rio de Janeiro brand managers) in their process of creating and articulating the city’s meanings. Future research could investigate the enunciate (public) perspective.

Managers should consider the discursive approach since it provides a more holistic perspective on the brand-building process. The findings may contribute to the understanding, selection and articulation of the correct meanings that should be communicated to the public in order to make the city a relevant and desirable place to visit.

This paper is based on the concept of a brand as a set of discourses grounded by meanings that are culturally conceived, which, thus, presents itself as a different approach from the traditional one, especially in research on place branding.