Presentation prepared for a talk on the Cultural Value of Brands and Use of Semiotics in Creating a Lasting and Meaningful Brand Value and Retail Experience at the Customer Service Week in Jersey, UK in October 2015

1. How to Create Meaningful Brand Value:
The Jersey Experience
PhDr. Martina Olbertová
Customer Service Week
Pomme d’Or, Jersey, UK
October 7, 2015
@MartinaOlb

2. My name is Martina Olbertova.
I am a strategic consultant focused on semiotics & culture
working with businesses to unlock their hidden potential and
create meaningful brands and experiences.
I help brands consciously see and understand what constitutes
the world around them and find their own place in it.
I have 10 years of experience in marketing and branding from
USA, UK, Ireland and Czech Republic and have worked with
many local brands and global blue chip companies such as
Vodafone, IBM, KBC, Heineken, Visa, Carlsberg or Pernod
Ricard.
I am a member of ESOMAR and Signum and creator & editor of
the Semiotic Series with ESOMAR’s Research World magazine.
Hello.

3. What is
this talk
about?
1. Context
Background on semiotics, brands and meaning
2. Best retail experience examples
Showcases of global & UK-based retail brands
3. Jersey retail experience
Creating a Unique Jersey Brand Identity

4. What is
Semiotics?
• “The study of signs”.
• It is a social science, but also an unconscious mechanism we all use every day.
• Originally an academic method studying meaning and patterns in culture and society.
• Taken on commercially as a discipline studying meaning behind brands, marketing and
communication to understand how it’s produced, organized and re-produced in culture and
society and on the market.
• We study patterns in culture, marketing and brands and help brands better understand the codes
they convey in their communication and experience to make sure meaning is aligned.
• Used for naming, packaging, brand relevance, brand experience, brand meaning, cultural
resonance, re-positioning, aligning company values…

5. Why is this
important?
• Brands are in the meaning management business today.
• Meaning is one of the hardest things a business can try to do, but inevitably the most important one.
• We are increasingly moving in the age of symbolic consumption, where people consume brands to
create and enhance their own personal identity or identities.
• When we consume brands, we don’t actually consume goods and services (the tangibles), but the
symbols and meanings (what they represent).
• This is why creating a meaningful and consistent brand experience is absolutely critical.
• Brands need to be managed on a symbolic level, as much as through channels and touch points.

6. (Oct 6, 2015)
Here’s a
story that
proves it
People crave meaning.

7. The need for meaning gets
stimulated by the ubiquitous clutter.
Clutter displaces
meaning.
The more cluttered and
homogenized the market is….
…the more pressing becomes
the need to clearly define the
brand value and its meaning.

12. Value of
Semiotics
in Brand
& Retail
Experience
Retail Brand Experience (Case studies)
What makes Apple Stores the Modern Temples?
What makes Abercrombie & Fitch pornographic?
How do you create a genderless brand experience?
How do you communicate freshness or utility?
How to create a sensual luxury experience?
What codes make Lush so intensely sensual?

13. Apple Stores: The Modern Temples of Technology
What is the experience here? What do you feel?
How does the brand and the logo shape / structure the desired customer experience?
What are the key codes driving this brand experience? What are are they actually selling?
What is the promoted image of the ideal world by Apple?
BRAND / RETAIL / TECHNOLOGY
visionary - holis<c - leadership – individuality – ecosystem - religiousness

14. Selfridges Agender concept store: The Meaning of Absence
What is the experience here? What do you feel?
What are the key codes driving this brand experience? What are are they actually selling?
What is the promoted image of the ideal Agender world by Selfridges?
BRAND / RETAIL / FASHION
fluid – genderless – harsh – poli<cal – progressive – absence / void

15. Brown Thomas: The Luxurious Experience for Everyday Life
What is the experience here? What are the key codes driving luxury in this brand experience?
What is the semiotic architecture behind the luxury experience?
BRAND / RETAIL / LUXURY
spacious – clear – luxurious – aspira<onal – soothing – minimalis<c

16. Abercrombie & Fitch: The Oppression of Sensual Tensions
What is the experience here? What do you feel? What do they want to trigger? Who is the desired customer?
What are the key codes driving this brand experience? What are are they actually selling?
What is the cultural relevance? What is the promoted ideal of beauty by A & B?
BRAND / RETAIL / FASHION
hedonis<c – self-indulgent - fe<shized – sensual – pornographic - sacred

17. Lush: The Ultimate Sensory Marketing Experience
What is the experience here? How does explosion of senses relate to the brand?
What are the key codes driving this brand experience?
What’s in the font? How meaning does it create with the overall sensual experience?
BRAND / RETAIL / COSMETICS
sensual – overwhelming – suffoca<ng – self-indulgent – colorful - fun - playful

18. Waitrose: The World of Premium Quality
How do codes like minimalism, cleanliness and great quality product say about Waitrose experience?
How is Waitrose building product and brand relevance on codes of luxury?
What is the promoted ideal world by Waitrose? What’s the life like in Waitrose world?
BRAND / RETAIL / FOOD
fresh – light – clean - minimalis<c – premium quality - personalized

19. Tiger Store: The Danish World of Minimal Structure
What is the experience here? What is the desired / anticipated shoppers behavior?
What are the key codes driving this brand experience? What makes it so appealing?
BRAND / RETAIL / HOME&DECOR
structured flow – low price – good quality - clean & color-coded - dubbed the ‘IKEA for small stuff'

20. Jersey
Brand
& Retail
Experience
Jersey Experience (Case study)
What do you see as a visitor of retail / shops / hotels /
restaurants / hospitality in Jersey?
What is the Jersey retail experience like?
What is the atmosphere like?
What is the customer service like?
What is great and where is the room for improvement?
What can Jersey build on as a brand?

21. Jersey: The Outsider’s Perspective
There is a great potential!
However, there are almost two different sides to Jersey:
Jersey needs a strong & clearly defined identity that would build on its tradition
and legacy, but make it compact and culturally relevant for the 21st century.
1. A lot of disparity in Jersey experience -
places of excellence, as well as places of
an average or poor quality
2. Lack of consistency in quality and service
3. Smaller range of products and offerings
4. Need for a high quality service
5. Unclear identity of Jersey in terms of
destination marketing and national brand
1. Rich cultural background with diverse
influences
2. Offshore market attracts capital
3. Lower taxation (some branded
products are less expensive)
4. High level of hospitality (high quality
hotels, Michelin star restaurants)
5. Great quality local produce (seafood),
French patisseries (mixture of tastes)

22. Jersey Brand: The Meaning of National Identity
What does Jersey stand for as a brand? What does it want to say? What is it actually saying?
What is the Jersey identity / experience? Who is Jersey aiming to attract?

23. de Gruchy: The Meaning of Forever Inspired
What does de Gruchy stand for as a brand? What does ‘the island’s store of choice’ really mean?
What does Forever Inspired mean in context of de Gruchy world? What does it mean to its customers?
What is the experience here? What are the key codes driving this brand experience?

24. Voisins: The Meaning of Traditional Luxury in Today’s World
What does Voisins stand for as a brand? What is distinctive about it?
How can we translate the meaning of tradition & legacy to create a unique and memorable value today?
What is the 21st century value equivalent of the oldest family-run department store in Britain?

25. Barannes Juice Bar: The Meaning of Freshness
What’s the experience here? How do you feel? What could be done better?
What codes can we use to deliver the branded experience of freshness to our customers?

26. JT: The Meaning of Utility
What is the experience here? What do we feel?
What is the meaning of open space in relation to technology and connectedness?
How does green and white color scheme work to create perception of utility?

27. Jersey Silver: Meaning of Cultural Relevance
What are the cultural cues Jersey Silver uses to create a culturally relevant customer experience?
Consistent and culturally relevant experiences are more memorable.

28. M&S: The Meaning of Brand Expectations
What is the experience here? What do we feel? What meanings does this clutter project onto M&S brand?
Clutter displaces meaning and clogs our ability to create a significant experience.

29. Cultural codes behind des<na<on brands
Every place has a buzzword: its top of mind association creating expectations - what is yours?
San Francisco – techy & green (geeky, fresh, vegan, expensive housing)
London – creativity meets finances (quirky, edgy, cool, urban, multicultural, pragmatic)
Prague - architecture, cheap beer & nice girls
Paris – romance, architecture, nostalgia
…and so on.
Every experience must inevitably work with semiotics, be it consciously or unconsciously –
because it’s coded in a way that conveys a distinctive cultural meaning.
What is your identity? What do you want people to remember you for? What are you trying to say?

30. We need to start asking the right kind of questions:
What is distinctive about Jersey and the experience it can offer?
What is the Jersey national identity?
What are the people like? What are their aspirations? What are their hopes and dreams?
How do people in Jersey spend their free time? What’s the pace of life here?
What are the people of Jersey proud of? What would you say is typical of Jersey?
Population, demography, nature, climate, people, habits, business …all this can help us get
an in-depth insight into local culture and should be reflected in building of the Jersey Brand.
How to make Jersey more
culturally rooted as a brand?

31. When building a meaningful brand / retail / customer experience, you need to be looking at –
from macro to micro level:
• Trends evolution to understand where the future of consumption is going (segment of one)
• Global marketplace (shapes consumer expectations, benchmarks to international standards)
• Cultural context (shapes the context of retail experience)
• Brand experience (consistency at all touch points)
• Retail experience (store layout / shopping experience / desired behavior / customer service)
• Customers (loyalty, incentives, messages – who do we want to attract?)
Strategic recommenda<ons

32. The Holy Grail of Brand Experience
(purpose – coherence – meaning)
Brand
Purpose
(‘Why’)
Brand
Message &
Architecture
Use of
Relevant
Codes
Consistent
Brand
Perception
Meaningful
Consumption
Memorable
Experiences
Customer
Loyalty
Retention
& Growth

33. Thank you!
Any questions?
@MartinaOlb
www.martinaolbertova.com