Being Brand –

Define yourself or you will be defined

Semiotic Summer School

Imatra 2012

What is this about?

• Who is KMB?

• Using brands in our lives

• Brands defining personalities

• Semiotic theses

Who is KMB?

KMB|Dr. Klaus M. Bernsau – scientific

• Dr. Klaus M. Bernsau: Studies of Communication Science, German Literature, Marketing, Physics, Sociology and Information Management

• Magister (M.A.) degree in Communication Science about “Signs for Sale – Coca-Cola-Marketing looked upon in a semiotic way”

• Dr. phil. degree about “Changing the economic structure is changing the social meaning – Regional-marketing of the Ruhrgebiet”

• For almost 20 years teacher and researcher at University Duisburg Essen and recently Brand academy Hamburg, University of applied science.

• Main subjects: Corporate Communication, Communication Theory, and Applied Semiotics

• Different presentations and publications about the theory of corporate communication in nowadays globalizing media society

• Frequent visitor of Imatra’s Semiotic Summer School

• Member of the advisory board of the German Semiotic Association (DGS) – topic: economy and management

KMB|Dr. Klaus M. Bernsau – professional

• Dr. Klaus M. Bernsau: over 20 years experience as

consultant and conceptionist in advertising and marketing

• Founder and owner of the consultancy “KMB |

Konzept • Management • Beratung für Unternehmenskommunikation”

(i.e. Concept Management Consulting for Corporate Communication C4)

• Clients: Coca-Cola, ContiTech, Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Post, L’Oréal, Opel,

Rewe, but also many small and middle seized companies

• Branches: automotive, energy, finance, retail/FMCG, industry, IT/telecom, logistics,

pharma, fashion

• Four employees: graduated media and communication managers

• Focus: Optimizing communication by applying semiotic and communication

theories

• More under: www.kommunikation-kmb.de

Applied Semiotics by KMB

• The big sign-history to understand

• The (automatic) controlling tool to manage

• The semiotic experiment to decide

• The semiotic workshop to innovate

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Digging in the dirty of semiotic live

Digging in the dirty: an empiric study

Others

Drinks

Fruit and Vegetables

Meat and Sausage Products

Ready Meals

Milk Products

Cleaning Products

Body Care

Snacks and Sweets

Wheat Products

www.seissmo.com/

In these areas the brand seems to be

important to our live Product category Brand No-name

Yoghurt drinks 73% 27%

Desserts from the fridge 71% 29%

Sweets (except chocolate) 91% 9%

Chocolate/ pralines 76% 24%

Soft drinks 71% 29%

Beer 91% 9%

Ready-made sauces 78% 22%

Ready meals 68% 32%

Cigarettes 82% 18%

Body-, face- and hair care

products 75% 25%

Here everyday live is good without a brand

Product category Brand No-Name

Tin-food 28% 72%

Milk 19% 81%

Juices and Nectars 25% 75%

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Defining a personality thru branding

Immortality made by brands

We are all projection screens

Yes we can – be whatever …

Semiotic conclusions to discuss

Back to semiotic basics

A simple

personal

sign process

A brand being used =

sign carrier (R)

A branded person =

Interpretatant (I)

A human being =

sign object (O)

Identity

Identity, Personality und Individuality

Personality

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A semiotic proposal to personal branding

Personality

Identity

Brands

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Personal

semiotic live A simple

personal

sign process

A brand being used =

sign carrier (R)

A branded person =

Interpretatant (I)

A human being =

sign object (O)

Most valuable brands –

Top risers = Top individualizers

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Being Brand –

Define yourself or you will be defined

individual

mass

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Importance

of interpretation

Visibility

syntactic

semantic

pragmatic

sigmatic

Importance

of interpretation

Visibility

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Thank you very much,

and hope to see you soon:

facebook.com/KMB.Kommunikation!

KMB|We are looking forward to you

Contact details

KMB | Dr. Klaus M. Bernsau

Konzept ▪ Management ▪ Beratung für

Unternehmenskommunikation

Parkstraße 91

D-65191 Wiesbaden / Germany

Phone +49-611-8804 3675

Fax +49-611-8804 3678

Mobil +49-178-2376728

(+49-178-Bernsau)

E-mail kmb@kommunikation-kmb.de

Web www.kommunikation-kmb.de

Service offering

Concept: Development of all future activities in

consideration of all relevant and promising instruments and media (effect full, networked, intermedia, contemporary)

Management: Taking over of the communication projects as virtual "full-service-agency" via the KMB network of competent service providers; management of the tasks with corporate intern resources and with existing extern partners of the client (e.g. temporary management of advertising or projects); accompanying project leader (quick, flexible, good value, experienced)

Consulting: Analysis of weakness in existing concepts, activities, structures and teams; optimization consulting, goal development incl. buildup of quality- and controlling-processes; accompanying consulting of all relevant steps in corporate communication activities (open in results, critical, competent, goal-orientated)

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