Marketing Code-X

Creative Rebel

Image for Creative Rebel

Stumptown commercial with Iggy Pop

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.

1850 commercial “Make It Happen”

CREATIVE REBEL” NORM: Coffee helps me resist the status quo.

High Brew social

CREATIVE REBEL” FORMS: Cultural creative types — architects, designers, etc. Creative entrepreneur in stylish urban loft home/workspace. Creative scenes like Austin, TX. Entrepreneurial language: “Embrace the Bold”; “Our purpose is to empower individuals who, like us, challenge the status quo”; “The boldest of us blaze a trail that’s ours alone.”

From a 2021 study of the WELL-GROUNDED territory (connecting, reprioritizing, savoring life) within the US Coffee category.

Tags: CODE-X, Coffee, Well-Grounded