Signs and semiotics. (Terries)

What is the different between advertising, marketing and promotion?

Advertising- Advertising is basically a way of getting your product out there. This would usually be in the form of television, posters, magazines, newspapers etc. The message is meant to stand out against other things and makes sure that your people know about your product.

Promotion- Promotion is a way of persuasion in a way. Basically, using sales and offers will help to get your product sold and could also help to get your product heard by other people because they will hear good things about the product.

Marketing- Marketing is basically where the plans come from for the advertising and the promotion. They will be able to choose the target audiences, researching the market and being able to set prices etc for the products.

So, although these three things sound similar the big difference between them all is that none of them would be very successful without the other. Marketing is used to start building the product, advertising is used to help get the product know and finally promotion is used to get people to actually buy the product.

This is a poster advert, promoting a lipstick by Coco Chanel.
The lady in this image looks very comfortable with herself and her facial expression looks confident by the way she's smiling but with also a hint of mischief in her eyes. This entices people, women in particular, into the poster because they will want to look and feel like that and then they will realise that it's the lipstick that's making this lady feel that way (well, at least that's what the poster is trying to make people feel).
As a product as lifestyle, this poster will call out to mostly women and people within the make-up industry because they will be the people using this product. It will also call out to those who just genuinely like Coco Chanel as well.
Finally the lady in the poster is Vanessa Paradis, a french singer, model and actress. The importance of using Vanessa for this poster is very high because she is a beautiful woman and is well-known by a lot of people as well as loved by a lot of people, helping the product to then get sold more by people who not only love the product but also love the singer, actress and model.

This poster advert is promoting a new pair of football boots by nike. The man on the poster is looking very serious but happy to show off the fact that he supposedly wears these boots. This will help sales rise because people, mostly men, will look at this poster and want the shoes to help them in football etc because of how seriously Wayne looks with them.
As a product of lifestyle, this poster will entice mostly men and young boys in who love football and sports. Young boys will want the newest and best football boots to show off not heir football team.
Finally the man in the poster is Wayne Rooney, an english footballer who plays for manchester united and England. He is a huge icon for young aspiring footballers and will definitely want a pair of these boots if they are believed to be owned by Wayne Rooney as well (As insinuated by the poster).

Brands such as nike and adidas will seek to identify with their audiences by producing posters that have famous footballers and athletes on them when trying to promote a new pair or trainers or clothing because this will make the audience want them if they are worn by their idol.
Brands such as new look and tiptop will have to research into the latest run walk fashion styles to dictate what lines will be added to theirs and to understand what type of fashion their target audience will like the most to buy.
Others brands such as Warner Bros and Pixel, will need to make posters to promote their films by using colours and illustrations which catch peoples eyes the most and decide what ones they should use which will be sold the most to their target audiences.

Semiotics/Semiology: The study of signs and symbols and how they effect the audience and how the meaning of something is made and then understood. Without signs we wouldn't be able to communicate in the way we do toady and anything from facial expressions to rituals are known as semiotics.
So a sign is something we actually see (denotation) like a word, colour or image. A signification is the meaning behind that word, colour or image (Connotation). Therefore if we had the colour red on a poster, the denotation would be that it's red and the connotation would be that it represents danger, death, love or romance depending on what the poster was on.

Signs and semiotics are used everyday within the print media industry and it is such an important aspect which makes the print media work so well. When creating a poster or advert, there is a word that every person will use to make this perfect. This word is TEASA, the T is for Technique, the E is for Effect, the A is for Audience, the S is for Symbolise and the A is for Alternative.

What is the Technique?
Juxtaposition, two totally different sides of the young boy.

What is the Effect?
Shock factor as well as happiness where he is a survivor.

What is the effect on the audience?
Eye opener and emotive. It's an eye opener to that this actually happens to people day by day and emotive because not everyone survives.

What else could it symbolise?
Not everybody will always survive this horrible disease and that he is happy now.

Consider an alternative viewpoint?
You could help to possibly stop this from happening.