Big semiotics: Beyond signs and symbols

This article is for marketers who use semiotics. It argues that semiotic analysis is not complete until signs and symbols are meaningfully connected to society, culture, and ideology. The unique qualities of top-down semiotics are explained. The implications for semiotics of structuralism and post-structuralism are discussed. Research questions are suggested and various kinds of analysis are demonstrated: diachronic, synchronic, and ideological analysis. Key concepts in analysis are explored such as power, simulation, and reading against the grain. Readers are directed to Foucault, Baudrillard, and Derrida as leaders in postmodern and post-structuralist thought. Theory is applied to examples likely to be of interest to marketers such as celebrity merchandise, smartphone accessories, and the TV advertising of a British department store