Marketing Code-X

Designer Milk

Image for Designer Milk

Oatly website

The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of source codes (aka “signs”) extracted from past audits.

The object of study in semiotics is not the signs but rather a general theory of signification; the goal of each “audit” is to build a model demonstrating how meaning is produced and received within a category or cultural territory. Signs on their own, therefore, only become truly revelatory and useful once we’ve sorted them into thematic complexes, and the complexes into codes, and the codes into a meaning map. We call this process “thick description”; the Code-X series is thin description.

Milkadamia ad

DESIGNER MILK” NORM: Tailor-made for your precise wants and needs.

Califia social

DESIGNER MILK” FORMS: Cornucopia of choices: Packages showing variety within the portfolio lines up next to one another. Specially made for frothing: Barista-specific sub-brands shown frothed, foamed, poured into lattes. Millennial-friendly: Note use of Millennial/Gen Z matte pastel pinks and blues, barista with dyed pink hair. Milk by design: “50% more protein” (Fairlife), “It’s real milk, just without that annoying lactose” (Lactaid). Cornucopia of choices: “The lineup” (Chobani), “Pick your perfect sip!” (Califia). Technological breakthrough — tonality of a new iPhone being introduced: “Our milkadamia Latte Da unites the best of dairy-free creamy goodness with a frothable new formula that steams and foams like a dream.” (Milkadamia) “The race to grow the world’s greatest oat.” (Oatly)

From a 2022 study of the MAKING PROGRESS territory — associating milk with improved, science-driven farming/production techniques — within the Dairy & Non-Dairy Milk category.

Tags: CODE-X, Making Progress, Milk