Mission Meaning Motivation Open Laboratory on Commercial Semiotics

Seite 1 www.bessere-kommunikation.com

„Mission – Meaning – Motivation“ Communication and signs of sites and places

in the context of international brand communication"

Inputs for the Open Laboratory on Corporate Signs, Brands and Communication


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 as changing the social

meaning – Regional-marketing of the Ruhrgebiet”

• For almost 20 years teacher and researcher at University Duisburg Essen

• 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

• Three 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


I HH

A little piece of commercial and cultural semiotics

• Brand Academy

• Brand Designers & Managers

• Located in Hamburg/Germany

• Designers & Managers of

Meaning, Mission, Motivation

• I HH • What (Meaning)

• Why (Mission)

• To what respect (Motivation)


I HH means „I“ English

In which language (except German) are you able to talk freely?

English

French

Russian

Other

languages

No other language

Englisch

Spanish

Turkish

Italian


I HH means „I“ English Bavarian

time: 0:03

In which language (except German) are you able to talk freely?

English

French

Russian

Other

languages

No other language

Englisch

Spanish

Turkish

Italian

Sheldon Cooper - Waschechter Bayer.mp4


I HH means „heart“ or „have a heart for“ or „love“

anatomical


I HH means „heart “ or „have a heart for“ or „love “

Stylized ivy as a sign of

affection during the

time of Minne

In Pop-Art alive until

now

Holy Teresa

of Avila


I HH means „Hansestadt Hamburg“ Good German adminstrative logic Enriched by local knowledge

Spots_Bilder/Stadion-Sequenz.wmv


Transition from semantic to pragmatic

Have a look into the dictionary or

“the book of signs“ can be valuable, but

• does „I HH“ sell more sticker?

• does „I HH“ lures more investors

or new residents

And this question raises 1.000 times:

http://www.investlithuania.com/ http://lietuva.lt

Newly published campaign

in my hometown

Wiesbaden/Germany:


Transition from semantic to pragmatic

Have a look into the dictionary or

“the book of signs“ can be valuable, but

• does „I HH“ sell more sticker?

• does „I HH“ lures more investors

or new residents

• And this question raises

1.000 times:

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 – 1951)

„A word‘s meaning follows is its

actual use.“ (Translation KMB*)

(Philosophische Untersuchungen)

*the meaning of a word is its use

in the language game. L.W. P.I. §43

http://www.investlithuania.com/ http://lietuva.lt


sender receiver

Short story of communication theory in graphics

Shannon/Weaver (1948)



sender receiver

content

relationship

Watzlawick/Beavin/Jackson (1969)



sender receiver Zeichen

content

relationship

text

meta text

Jakobson (1960)



home

home

Rusch (1994)

HH HH


sender receiver

content

relationship

text

context

sender receiver

content

relationship

text

context


sign

sign

Bernsau (1997 ff.)


Pragmatic

"Consider what effects, that might

conceivably have practical

bearings, we conceive the object

of our conception to have. Then

our conception of these effects is

the whole of our conception of

the object" (CP 5.2).

Peirce‘s Pragmatical Maxim

Charles S. Peirce (1839 – 1914)


External

sources

valuation

material

structure

interpretation

Formal language

language of the forms

Product cluster

brand-/

product-

stories

Key elements

SWOT

recommendation

Yes we can! A open-minded and solution-oriented method in the theory of communications and signs

19

Empirically communication science

Neuroscience

Humanities

Bernsau (1997 ff.)

Image science

Media science

Cultural studies


Places as international brands

• Tourism- und site-advertising

– „War for Visitors“

– „War for Talents“

– „War for Investors“

• Places as signs with

– original internal interpreters (residents)

– external interpreters (target group)

• The international aspect as fundamental challenge

– for consumer brands partially still new


Places as international brands


Two interpretations compete – the global and the local

More

than

50 %

20 % till

50 %

10 % till

20 %

4 % till

10 %

1 % till

4 %

Less

than 1 % No data

Immigrant share:

Seite 23 www.bessere-kommunikation.com www.bessere-kommunikation.com

Sign flows in the Global Village


Sucess knows how to read the signs


The signs of the Global Village


Back to places as international brands

I HH


What works?

• Emotional images

• Fixed shape archetypes

• Medially 1000 times learned

shortcuts

• Sometimes a creative idea

• The mere life experience with:

famous / popular / most livable

cities

But it‘s always good for a bigger

semiotic research project


Lessons learned (1)

• Origin of the sign „I HH“

• Places are (brand-)signs

• Different interpretations compete

(local – global) for companies as well

• We have at least14 determining factors

of signs and communications

• Communications sciencs as open-minded

and solution-orientied system


Lessons learned (2)

• We can work out,

– What a sign can mean

– From whom it could be understood

– Under which circumstands or

– For whatever reasons

– With which effects

• That helps!

– Designers

– Enterpreneurships

– Scientist & Researches




Kontaktdaten

KMB | Dr. Klaus M. Bernsau

Konzept | Management | Beratung

für Unternehmenskommunikation

Biebricher Allee 29 D-65187Wiesbaden

Germany

Tel. +49-611- 88 40 3675 Fax +49-611- 88 40 3678 Mobil +49-178-2376728 (0178-Bernsau)

E-Mail [email protected] Web www.kommunikation-kmb.de

Bilder: KM

B, Ioa

nna Terharn, p

hotocase.co

m, istockp

hoto.co

m, ph

otolia bzw

. Die

untersuchten U

nterne

hmen

und

Marken

KMB|We look forward to you!