Semiotics, Marketing and Communication: Beneath the Signs, the Strategies (International Marketing Series)

Semiotics is concerned with the signs and meanings that are attached to linguistic and non-linguistic things and events. As such it plays an increasingly important role within marketing as marketing is seen in terms of exchange relationships that entail psychological and social, as well as physical and financial meanings. Products therefore become 'symbols for sale'. In studying semiotics, marketers can better understand consumer behaviour and how to be effective in their marketing communications. Jean-Marie Floch provides an excellent introduction to the potential offered by a semiotic approach to a variety of marketing and communication problems or situations. This book will be of great value to anyone interested in knowing how to build meaning for a target audience. Key semiotic concepts and principles are gradually introduced using real life studies to ease the presentation of the terminology and to show the managerial relevance of each research step.

JEAN-MARIE FLOCH is acknowledged as one of the world's foremost authorities on the application of semiotics to marketing and communication. He obtained his Ph.D. under the supervision of A.J. Greimas, the founder of the Paris School of Semiotics and taught at the University of Louvain, ESSEC, ESCP, EM Lyon, IAE Aix-en-Provence, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris and the Ecole d'Architecture of Versailles.

He worked as a consultant applying semiotics to marketing and communication issues in a wide variety of industries including pharmaceuticals and health care, banks, luxury goods, cosmetics, food, transportation, media, catering, retailing, clothing and textiles, and office furniture. While at Ipsos he created the consulting firm's influential applied semiotic research unit. He later worked for the Design Strategy Minale Tatersfield Group and Creative Business International.

In addition to these activities, Jean-Marie Floch continued to develop his first passionfor visual semiotics. Today he is generally recognised as one of the most influential scholars in the field of the semiotics of photography and plastic arts.

Jean-Marie Floch died in Paris on April 10, 2001 at the age of 53.