What makes a semiotician tick? SEMIOVOX’s Josh Glenn has invited his fellow practitioners in the field of commercial semiotics, from around the world, to answer a few revealing questions.

Sofia (Bulgaria)…

SEMIOVOX

When you were a child/teen, how did your future fascination with symbols, cultural patterns, interpreting “texts,” and getting beneath the surface of daily life manifest itself?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

I am a philologist on a genetic level — the same as my parents. In my school years, I was good at languages and literature. I studied philology at university, which is when semiotics became the most important thing in my scientific life. Since then it’s been more than 40 years of reading and writing semiotic articles and books, and teaching marketing semiotics.

SEMIOVOX

Describe your first encounter(s) with the theory and practice of semiotics.

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

As a student of philology, the subjects I found the most interesting were linguistics and literature theory. Because I also actively read actively books on film, architecture, and art theory, I saw that the concept of composition is quite similar across literature, painting, photography, film, etc. Linguistics helps a lot in this respect; every philologist can easily transfer her/his linguistic knowledge into semiotics. Thus, she or he can easily analyse, for example, the sign system of colours with the help of basic linguistic concepts.

SEMIOVOX

How did you find your own way to doing semiotics?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

I did my Master’s thesis on advertising. Advertising and other marketing communications are semiotic — i.e., made up of many sign systems that are perfectly integrated (syntacted). My knowledge of linguistics, literature theory, and semiotics came very much in handy. I earned two doctorates in marketing semiotics — and became an associate professor and a professor of the same topics. I immediately developed a course on marketing semiotics and started teaching it not only in universities, business conferences, trade expos, and advertising festivals across Europe and Asia. Thus far, I’ve conducted successful seminars on marketing semiotics at about 150 international business conferences.

SEMIOVOX

What are the most important attributes of a good semiotician?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

In my experience, a good semiotician must primarily be a good philologist. However, she or he must read books in other fields all the time — painting, film and music theory, architecture theory, psychology, marketing, etc. Marketing and consumer psychology are some of the most important areas of stufy for semioticians which work in marketing communications.

SEMIOVOX

What three books about semiotics have you found the most useful and enlightening in your own work?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

Impossible to limit myself to three books, but I’ll name just four authors.

• Umberto Eco very elegantly translated linguistics into a general theory of semiotics.
• Yurij Lotman made brilliant semiotic analyses of the language of cinema, painting, architecture, etc.
• Roland Barthes explored in the best possible way from a semiotic point of view the language of fashion, and our mythological thinking.
• Arthur Asa Berger did many sophisticated academic analyses of one and the same phenomenon from the perspective of semiotics, postmodernism, feminism, Marxism, etc.

SEMIOVOX

When someone asks you to describe what you do, what is your “elevator pitch”? How do you persuade a skeptical client to take a chance on using this tool?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

“Every project in mass and marketing communications is semiotics-driven, since we cannot create communication without signs. Companies that practice semiotics effectively in their marketing communications are quite effective and profitable.”

My pitch depends on the type of client, and clients are very different. Some business people, even now, do not know the word “semiotics” at all — and they are quite skeptical about its utility. As a university professor, of course I am most concerned with persuading skeptical students of the value of this precious knowledge for them — something that I’ve done over and over again, for years now.

SEMIOVOX

What specific sorts of semiotics-driven projects do you find to be the most enjoyable and rewarding?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

I often work with companies as a consultant on their marketing communications, and I stress the importance of the creative strategy of metaphor in brand communications. Metaphor is a key concept in stylistics, linguistics, literature theory, and semiotics. Probably more than 90 percent of creative approaches in advertising and other marketing communications are based on visual (iconic) metaphors. I demonstrated to the clients how Absolut created an effective global campaign based on metaphor. Thanks to these communications and other successful marketing actions, the company went from an unknown business to a global leader. In my marketing semiotics textbook Absolut Semiotics in an Absolut World, I analyze all semiotic concepts (e.g., alphabetics, semantics, syntax, pragmatics) and show how Absolut’s marketers deploy semiotic concepts in their communicative strategy and tactics.

SEMIOVOX

What frustrates you about how semiotics is practiced and/or perceived, right now?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

As a professor, I am very worried about the fact that semiotics is rarely studied in Linguistics and other Liberal Arts departments. We study semiotics in my Journalism and Mass Communications department only thanks to my personal initiative; after I retire, my colleagues may decide to erase this discipline. Semiotics isn’t taught in Marketing departments and MBA programs, either. As a result, a significant number of brand managers, marketers, etc., have almost no idea of its great benefit for their profession.

SEMIOVOX

Peirce or Saussure?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

This is a typically American question — i.e., privileging dichotomous (irreconcilable) opposition over continuum opposition (in which there are various transitions between two oppositions)! I prefer Peirce because he interprets semiotics in terms of philosophy and logic, and Saussure because he is a philologist. Depending on the situation, philosophy or linguistics may be the more relevant approach. Semioticians should study many semiotic approaches, as you never know which one you may need.

SEMIOVOX

What advice would you give to a young person interested in this sort of work?

CHRISTO KAFTANDJIEV

Read semiotics thoroughly, and apply it actively not only to professional aspects of your life, but also to personal ones.

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