This Is Marketing: You Cant Be Seen Until You Learn to See

 CHAPTER THIRTEEN 
Semiotics, Symbols, and Vernacular
Can you hear me now?
We communicate with symbols. The letters “C-A-R” aren’t an icon of a car,
or a picture of a car. They’re a stand-in, a symbol that, if you know English,
brings to mind a car.
Nike spent billions of dollars to teach millions of people that the swoosh
is a symbol of human possibility and achievement, as well as status and
performance.
And, if you’re a designer, the typeface comic sans is a symbol of bad
taste, low status, and laziness.
Marketers have the humility to understand that not everyone sees a
symbol the same way, the awareness to use the right symbol for the right
audience, and the guts to invent new symbols to be placed on top of old
ones.
A hundred years ago, semiotics was in its infancy. It wasn’t something
done by a billion people a day, every day, as we market to each other online.
Now, our ability to do this with intent (or with naïve intuition) can make the
difference between success and failure.
What does this remind you of?
Busy people (you know, the kind of people you seek to change) don’t care
about your work as much as you do. They’re not as up to date as you are, or
as aware of the competitive landscape or the drama behind the scenes.
We scan instead of study.
And when we scan, we’re asking, “What does this remind me of?”

---

This means that the logo you use, the stories you tell, and the appearance
of your work all matter. Your words resonate with us, not only because of
what they mean, but because of how they sound and how you use them.
It’s not just the stuff. It’s even the way you set up the room for your
company off-site.
If it reminds us of a high school cafeteria, we know how to act. If it’s a
bunch of round tables set for a chicken dinner, we know how to act. And if
there are row upon row of hotel-type chairs in straight lines, we know how
to sit and act glazed.
We don’t care about you, or how hard you worked on it. We want to
know if it’s for us, and if you’re the real deal.
This is semiotics. Flags and symbols, shortcuts and shorthand.
Do the flashing lights at an arena rock concert change the way the music
sounds? Perhaps they do, because they remind us we’re at an arena rock
concert.
When we hold a newspaper, it feels different than a tablet, or a comic
book, or a Bible. The form changes the way the words sound.
A chocolate bar presents itself differently than a chemotherapy drug.
When we walk into a medical office that feels like a surgeon’s office, we
remember how that surgeon helped us . . . even if this office belongs to a
chiropractor.
When we pick up a book that feels self-published, we treat it differently
than the book that reminds us of a classic we read in high school.
When we get a phone call and hear the telltale clicks and pauses before
the stranger begins to speak, we remember all the robocalls and phone spam
we’ve gotten and hang up before the caller even utters a word.
And when the website is designed with GeoCities and flashing GIFs . . .
If you remind me of a scam, it will take a long time to undo that initial
impression. That’s precisely why so many logos of big companies look the
same. It’s not laziness. The designers are trying to remind you of a solid
company.
That’s the work of “reminds me of.” You can do it with intent.