From a “Use Value” to “Signed Value”

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Introduction

The world has changed due to changes brought about by the emerging technologies in our postmodern society. We have moved from use-value centered past to a more sign-value centered present. According to Chandler (78), the society has used the emerging technologies positively to make the world a better place for all of us. However, it is important to note that the elite class has used the new found power in postmodernism for selfish personal gains. They use it to sell false ideas in order to manipulate the public with the aim of selling their products. They use it to create a world of illusions in order to achieve personal gains. Firms rely on logo to promote their products in the market. Williamson (54) says that it is strange that every firm will always strive to use items or animals that are highly valued in the society to represent its logo. Car manufacturers are using animals, such as jaguar, to represent the strength and speed of their products. None of them would want to use a tortoise as their logo, even those that manufacture slow moving automobiles that resemble tortoise such as the old model of Volkswagen. In this paper, the researcher will critically assess the argument that we have moved from a use-value centered past to a sign-value centered present.

Part One: Signs, Semiotics, and Analysing Promotional Texts

According to Grenz (98), the business fraternity is doing its best to reap maximum benefits that come with the new found power of postmodernism. In the world of business today, promotional advertisement is of critical importance, and firms are keen to ensure that they present themselves to their customers in the best way possible. Signs, semiotics and promotional texts have become critically important in the business world. These sections will look at how the use of promotional texts, signs, symbols, icons are used to achieve invested interests among the consumers.

Analysing Promotional Texts – Semiotics

Communication is very critical in the business world. Promotional texts offer a unique opportunity to the producers to communicate with their consumers. According to Heartney (112), the texts offer the producer an opportunity to tell the customers what makes a particular product superior compared to other rival products. At this stage, it will be necessary to critically analyse a sample promotional text of one of the leading electronic firms in the world.

Figure 1: Apple Inc Brand Logo. Source (Jamieson 47).

According to Jamieson (49), Apple Inc has managed to stand out among the electronic manufacturers as a firm that cherishes quality. In the global market, many customers believe that when looking for a quality electronic product, then Apple brand should be given priority over the rest. However, it does not mean that other rival firms do not offer similar quality to its customers. The firm has managed to create this impression in the minds of its customers. This can be seen in the promotional text above. It simply says that the customers should think differently when making their purchase. This promotional text brings out important attributes that such texts should entail. The first important factor is that the text should be as short and simple to read as possible. O’Donnell (58) says that customers are tired of the constant promotional information they are subjected to every time in almost all the spheres of their lives.

When a promotional text is long or too complex to comprehend, then they will easily ignore it and continue their activities. Every company wants the message reach the audience. For this reason, the first factor is to make the text simple and short, such as the one shown above. Beville (118) says that the text should consist of two or three words. Apple Inc has just used two words in this text, ‘think’ and ‘different’. These two words have clear meaning. It means that the audience will not be forced into a complex process of decoding the message. Another important attribute of a promotional text as shown in the sample provided above is that it should have a lot of sense and, probably, it should leave the audience thinking in the line the company’s desires. When one is planning to buy a phone and comes across this message from Apple Inc, that he should think different, then the customer will actually think different. The desire to buy any phone will be changed to a desire to buy a specific phone that meets his or her needs. According to Nicholson (27), the short statement or clause should contain all the messages and explanation a firm may want to give to the client. The aim is to ensure that the customer develops a positive attitude desire to know more about the product or brand. The text should link the product and its symbol so that the desired value of the symbol is brought out. Apple is one of the most nutritious fruits in the world. The promotional text should clearly bring a relationship between the high value of apple fruit and the products offered by Apple Inc.

Signs, Signifiers and Signified

Using of signs is very common among the postmodern companies when communicating to their target audience. The science of signs, also known as semiotics, emphasizes on three things that one must understand when using signs. Before critically analysing these three signs, one should understand the fact that a sign is a combination of the signifier and the signified.

Signifier

The signifier is the image or a picture that symbolizes the real product. The figure below can be used to explain the signifier.

Figure 2: Roland Wines Advertisement. Source (Gutleben 43).

The above is an advertisement of Roland Wines. Our historic books, including the Bible, record that the best wines are made from grape fruits. Many companies around the world that manufacture wine try to ensure that they use grape fruits. However, they use other additives because of the high quality of grape fruits. The juice from this fruit may make a very small percentage of the drink. However, knowing that the society cherishes wine made from grapes, they will ignore the major components of their wines and only focus on grapes. It is clearly demonstrated in the above picture. The beautifully ripen grape fruits next to the bottle of Roland Barthes is ment to convince the customer. In fact, the picture is speaking for itself. It does not need to be supported by a promotional text. It shows that when the grapes are harvested, they are processed in their purest form and packed in the bottles such as the one on the picture. Once this happens, a customer is served with the wine glass. Nothing is added to the wine. It remains as pure as it was when it was harvested. This is the message that this sign is passing to the target audience. It talks about the purity and high quality of this wine.

The signified

The signified is the exact thing that is referred to in a given signifier. In the above given example, the signified is the high quality of the product. What the producers are telling consumers is that the quality of Roland Barthes is good as the grape fruit itself. The cultural value that is associated with the fruit is what the producer is transferring to the product. This means that if these consumers trust the value offered by the grape fruit, then they should trust the wine made out of it. Never mind the fact, that sometimes wine may be made from completely different ingredients than grape fruits. That is why Docherty (84) says that the elite businesspeople are using postmodernism to deceive the society and gain personal interests instead of giving the society what they promise to offer.

Signification

Signification is the process of linking the signifier and the product of the company to bring out the meaning. For instance, Apple Inc uses apple fruit in order to promote its brand. Under normal circumstances, it will be expected that a company that specialises on food products would use this brand. It is so because an apple is a nutritious fruit. A company may want to advertise its product to be as nutritious as an apple. However, Apple Inc is a manufacturer of electronic products. Linking this nutritious fruit to an inedible electronic product is not easy. However, Apple Inc has been able to bring out this meaning. It is telling its customers that this product offers numerous functions making it the best in the market, just like an apple is considered to be the best because of its nutritious content. The functionality of the Apple Inc’s products is compared with the nutritional value of apple fruit.

According to Chandler (31), when bringing out the meaning, care should be taken to ensure that the meaning is as sensible as possible. When the meaning portrayed does not match the attributes of a product, then the audience will easily detect that the advert is fake. This negative attitude will be transferred to the product. The aim of a promotional campaign is to convince the customers that what they are being offered through the advert is what the real product offers. Sometimes the offer may be a fallacy, but it should be presented in a way that will convince the customers. The moment the customers detect any sign of deceit, the mistrust will be transferred to the brand and all its products. Ahmed (75) says that if this happens, then instead of creating a base of loyal customers, such promotional campaigns may create a deeply rooted mistrust between the clients and the brand. If such a firm operates in a highly competitive industry, such as the electronic market, then the competitors may seize the opportunity to launch an attack against the brand. This can be suicidal if such attacks win the trust of the market.

The Symbolic, Iconic and Indexical

According to Murphy (73), analysis of symbolic, iconic and indexical meaning is important when analysing the use of signs for a given brand or a product. This can be explained using the figure below.

Figure 3: Indexical, Iconic, and Symbolic Images of Apple. Source (Murphy 53).

The indexical image refers to the most natural thing that a given product or brand is associating itself with in the market. For Instance, Apple Inc associates itself with apple fruit. The first figure shows an apple fruit that Apple Inc relates to when offering its products to its customers. The second figure is the iconic figure that, as McGowan (90) says, brings close resemblance between the image used by a brand or a product and the real object that the brand mimics. The third is now the symbol. According to Barthes (117), an apple fruit has been in existence for a very long time. It is grown all over the world and no one can claim exclusive ownership to it. However, when developing a brand, a firm must take patent rights to ensure that no one else can use it in their own products. Apple brand is one of the most popular and very valuable brands in the world. It has been voted the most valuable brand in the world several times. It is trusted by many, not only in the United States but also in the rest of the world (Barthes 88).

Taking patent rights means that no one can misuse the brand in any part of the world. The logo must, therefore, be an image that can be patented. The indexical and iconic figures cannot be patented. They are the actual images of an apple fruit. Anyone selling an apple can use these images to attract customers. To them, this is not a brand image, but just a figure that shows the world what they sell. This makes it necessary to come up with a symbolic image, which is the third image on the figure above.

Modality

The modality in this context involves understanding how representations are used in the simulation of reality. It is a fact that there is a difference between the symbolic image and the image of the real item. Such an image can be used in commercials only after developing a symbolic image of a real object. The modality used in transforming an indexical image to a symbolic image is purely based on technology.

Denotative and Connotative

According to Stierstorfer (54), there are two ways of understanding sign relationships. The first one is the denotative meaning. The denotative meaning is the literal or natural meaning that does not require any critical thinking. Jaguar Cars is one of the best examples that can be used in this case. The figure below shows the logo used by Jaguar Cars.

Figure 4: Jaguar Cars Brand Logo. Source (Stierstorfer 43).

In this figure, the literal meaning that is derived from this image is a fierce, strong, and very swift jaguar that is ready for a fight. In fact, this image shows that the animal is attacking something. It is beautiful, it earns admiration and a sense of curiosity among the targeted audience. The second meaning is the connotative meaning. This is the socio-cultural, emotional or ideological meaning of the image. Jaguar brand offers cars as their main products. They do not sell jaguars (animals). These are wild animals found in our forests and no entity can lay exclusive claim on them. It is, therefore, important to understand why the image of jaguar is used in this brand. It is done because of a number of reasons. The first reason is the socio-cultural connotations. Every member of the society knows that jaguar is an animal that is strong and very combative. It also has high speed capacity. This brand has earned a special position within the society. The company is only taking advantage of this admiration in order to win the trust of the consumers in the market. Sometimes the image is meant to evoke emotions. A look at how jaguar hunts for its prey or defends its territory evokes a lot of emotions. This firm seeks to capitalise on such emotions. Finally, the image may be used to present an ideology of the car manufacturer. For instance, this company may want to push for an ideology that Jaguar cars are bullish on the road because of their speed, strength, and even size as compared to other brands. Using the image of a jaguar at its best presents this ideology in the best way possible.

Part Two: Semiotic Analysis from the Structural-Critical to the Poststructural-Postmodern

Capitalism currently dominates in the world. This ideology was sold to the world as the best one because everybody would decide to have the life to lead. The lazy individuals who do not want to work hard will not be forced to work. They will have their freedom to do what they want and act the way they want. However, they must be ready to deal with the poverty that comes with it. On the other hand, individuals, who are willing to dirty their hands through hard work, get to benefit from the fruits of their commitments. They are under no obligation to share their earnings with those who are poor. This is an ideal world, a free world just as it was intended to be even in our religious books. As capitalism takes over the world, it brings with it a number of social evils. According to Heim (45), in the purest form of capitalism, one should earn his/her wealth in an honest manner. No dubious means should be used to amass wealth at the expense of others.

However, this ideology has no water-tight mechanisms that can be used to stop the individuals from earning wealth through illegal means. That is why it promotes illegal practices. It has facilitated the move from the use-value centered past to a more sign-value centered present. People use signs because they want to create illusions in the minds of their audience. Given that, they cannot use direct methods to cheat and steal from their audience, they create one of the most dangerous tools used by the capitalists: a willing buyer and a willing seller. As willing sellers, these large companies have done extensive research and know what customers value in their life. Given that, some of these valuable things desired by the customers cannot be offered by these companies, they create illusions in the mind of the customers. They make them feel that they have the capacity to offer what the clients need. This facilitates the creation of a willing buyer. They would then sell their products, but claim that they offer a completely deferent thing. For example, there is no commercial market that can meet the world’s demand for the wild jaguar. In fact, even if one were to be given this wild animal, it may not be easy to manage it. So instead of selling their cars as it is, this company creates an illusion among the customers that they are selling jaguar as a strong and wild animal.

Modernist-Structuralist Approaches

According to Sherman and Craig (143), the modernist was interested in doing things differently with the help of the emerging technology. There was a systematic shift from nature to technology-based things. People no longer preferred walking because of the invention of bicycles and cars. People wanted to stay in urban centers associated with white collar jobs because they believed the rural setting had an oppressive life of tilling the land. Throughout the Stone Age, one had been forced to live as per the prevailing natural conditions. One had to live in nature because of lack of the options. When the options came, then it was time to make a radical shift in an attempt to defy nature.

Modernist-Structuralist-Marxist Approaches

The Marxist’s approaches still supported modernism, only criticising capitalism. Vince (56) says that modernism opened the doors to capitalism. People started realising the benefits that wealth can give a person. It started to become clear why one needed to have more wealth than the other members of the society. Modernist-structuealist-Marxist approaches argue that it was at this time that members of the society should have been taught the principles of the equality. However, the contrary happened. People started to appreciate the need to be above the rest in terms of wealth. Among the superrich, there was always a race to become the richest. To the poor, there was always an attempt to be the richest poor person.

In every social class, there always existed the competition to be the best in terms of accumulated wealth. Even the lazy individuals always made attempts to become rich. That is why stealing and robbery gained shape in the society. Only those who had despaired and given up in life bowed out of the race to amass wealth. These are social evils brought about by capitalism that we are still dealing with even today. It was at this time that the use-value was the centre of life. If it was about apple, it would be a fruit to be enjoyed. If it was a jaguar, it would remain a wild animal that is to be admired, but from afar. The use of signs when selling the products was unheard of at this time. Bread remained bread even when it came to persuading the customers to buy it.

Breaking the Links, Active Decoding and Poststructuralism

Post-modernism brought a radical shift, but one thing remained unchanged. In fact, Goldman (57) says that it got worse. Capitalism did not change. The only thing that changed was that the capitalists learnt how to increase their wealth faster than before. The business society realised that the increasing competition needed an absolutely new approach of attracting the customers, especially when offering a similar product. Creativity became the only way of remaining in the business. This meant a massive shift from modernism to postmodernism. According to Vince (38), postmodernism brought new desires among the populations. They were better educated than the people in the previous era. Industrialisation had taken shape in major urban centres, and pollution was a real threat to the world’s humanity. The elites realised that it is better to be close to nature than to be close to the technology-facilitated world. This meant that people were making a u-turn to move back to nature that they had run away from in the previous era. However, one thing stood out clearly during post-modernism. It was apparent that the need to amass more wealth exceeded the desire to get back to the nature. After all, technology promised the rich an access to the nature even in the middle of the large urban centres. The rich also realised that they could only continue being rich if the rest of the population remained in the urban centres. For this reason, they did everything possible to ensure that the poor remained in the urban centres to help them in making more wealth.

The need for creativity in deceiving the larger population also emerged, the rich realised that using deceptive messages when selling their products would give them huge benefits. From their own research, they realised that the urban dwellers, which make their major target market, were in love with nature. This made it necessary for the rich to bring nature to them without allowing them to leave the cities. According to Stierstorfer (54), this was when the art of creating illusions in the minds of the public emerged. It was at this moment that we shifted from the use-value cetered past to a sign-value centred present. Instead of picking a beautiful apple from the garden and enjoying its sweetness, the majority are given a phone or a laptop and told it is an apple. Instead of watching from a distant how a fierce jaguar defends its territory from the intruders or how it hunts, we are given a car and told it is a jaguar. In fact, these companies no longer use similes. They no longer say that the car is as strong as a jaguar. They now use metaphors. They insist that the car is a jaguar. Out of the desire to own and control a jaguar, many people find themselves buying these products. What they are actually buying are signs of what they really desire, not the actual object. And the beneficiaries of such a distorted society are the large companies that have learnt the art of distortion.

Postmodernist Readings, Sign Saturation and Breaking up the Sign

The postmodernist have become very creative when it comes to the use of signs. The art of marketing relies on creativity. It no longer matters what the customers will get out of such communications. It is always what the owners of a firm stand to get from a given advertisement process. Signs are all over, and they have now reached the level of saturation. The society relies on signs to do almost everything as long as it involves convincing the public. The politicians have become very effective in the art of sign language. They promise the world during their campaigns, and deliver nothing when they get to the office. In their campaign adverts, it is common to see beautiful images of nature when it is protected from destruction. These are images that are computer generated. They know that they cannot deliver such promises unless there is a goodwill from the rest of the public, especially the elites. However, knowing the power of imagery, they use this trick to have their way. Once they have achieved what they wanted from people, such beautiful images used in the campaigns forever remain illusions.

Postmodern Identities and Relations

In the postmodern society, the issue of identity and relations took a new shift. It changed from the traditional self identities to use of many identities as the virtual world transformed the way people relate. According to Murphy (28), technology has created a world of possibilities. People can assume different identities that suit them. Although this new inventions can be put to positive use, some people have been misusing the new possibilities. The use of social media has facilitated these possibilities. It is unfortunate that this new possibility is put into use in a selfish manner. People are taking advantage of the ability to disguise their real identities to take advantage of other people. Some cybercriminals are using these technologies to assume new identities that can allow them to develop relationships with others in the aim of stealing from them.

Part Three: The Larger Shifts Brought by Postmodernism and Promotional Culture

According to Nicholson (90), postmodernism and promotional culture have brought a larger shift in the way people view things in the society. This has been facilitated by the advanced technologies that are eliminating the world of impossibilities. Imagination in postmodernism is power. Whatever one imagines, technology makes it possible. This has been specifically the case in the new promotional culture that we are witnessing in the current society. The sections below look at these factors and how they have redefined the society from a use value to a sign value.

The Rise of the Symbolic/Cultural Over the Material

The rise of the symbolism over material things is one of the fundamental features of postmodernism. We live in a world full of fallacies. Chandler (82) gives a brief history of the use of symbolism that has become entrenched in the business fraternity in the current society. It all started with the oral literature. In each society, there has been a need to preserve history in some form in order to remind the current and future generations of what the ancestors went through to develop the society. Given that, in the past, there were no books or materials to be used to store such a valuable information, the use of tales became the norm. Some of these stories were true accounts of what actually took place. However, in most of the cases such accounts would include some fiction to make the historical accounts more convincing to the young generation.

The past warriors were given immense power. They were portrayed as supernormal beings that did not fear death. Then pure fiction was introduced. In such tales, inanimate beings were given animate features. This was even before the postmodernism. An animal like a lion was given the features of a human being, able to speak and rule a kingdom. Hare was given the power to speak words full of wisdom. Fox was portrayed as a canning animal that would cheat other animals for personal gains. During the modernism, use of symbolism had been deeply entrenched into the society in the form of literature. For instance, out of their observation, the people of these generation started associating tortoise with the elderly population, slow but very wise. Williamson (76) says that there are no clear characteristics of a tortoise that may make it be seen as a wise animal other than the ability to hide in its shell when it is under attack. This is a reaction that is exhibited by all the animals as they seek to protect themselves. However, the shape and speed of a tortoise made it be associated with the elderly. It is, therefore, inaccurate to state that symbolism arose during the postmodernism era. It was there before and people did like the relationship given between human beings and animals.

Postmodernism only went a step further to use symbolism in the business arena. In the past, symbolism and issues about signs were not common in the business fraternity despite its popularity in literatures. Competition was not stiff and people did not need convincing to buy a given brand of a product. Issues about branding were non-existence. However, things changed as we entered postmodernism. Large companies emerged with specific brands in the market. Competition started getting stiff as the number of players increased. It became necessary to be creative in order to win the customers’ loyalty.

According to Jamieson (35), promotional campaigns started in a simple straightforward manner. It involved the producers explaining the use of a product and its benefits over other existing brands. However, this changed as the competition became stiffer. Many producers realised that they had to go beyond explaining what a given product offers. After all, some of the products from different producers offer the same value. The use of branding and emotional marketing became necessary. It was at this moment that symbolism became entrenched in promotional campaigns. Companies realised that people had sentimental values towards some animals or objects. Docherty (78) notes that animals, such as lions, were among the first symbols to be used in advertising. Its shear strength and fearlessness even before larger animals like elephants earned admiration in the society. The cultural value that the society attached to the lion was seen as an effective tool that a firm can use to reach out to the audience and appeal to the emotions of the customers. The figure below shows Peugeot brand.

Figure 5: Peugeot Brand. Source (Docherty 45).

By using this brand image, the automaker is telling its audience that the car they produce offers more than transportation from one place to the other. The image tells the audience that the car is strong and just like a lion protects its territory; the car protects its occupants from any harm along the road. This is not something new based on what has been discussed above. The only new thing is the way it is related to the products.

Use Value and Exchange Value Subordinated to Symbolic Value

According to Murphy (89), every product that is taken to the market has an exchange value. When one goes to the market to purchase a product, he is looking for a use value. He will be looking for a product that can meet his needs. He goes to the market with the exchange value to be offered to the producer. This is how the market used to work. However, things have changed because instead of getting a use value, customers are now getting the symbolic value. A customer buying a car is promised to get features of a lion in that car. One thing that should remain clear is that this product has no relationship at all with a lion. Even its shape is not something close to the image of the lion. However, it is sold in the market as a lion. McGowan (28) says that our past experiences in the world of literatures introduced us to the world of illusions and symbolism. It made us believe that lions can behave as men, and men can behave like lions. When a car manufacturer tells us that a car can behave like a lion, then we find it easy to accept such fallacies.

End of Meta-Narratives of Modernism

The modernism theories have been subjected to radical changes in the postmodernism era. Some of the theories that were established in this past era have been found to be ineffective in dealing with some of the real world problems. In fact, Nicholson (43) says that some of the major problems that we face in the society today, such as pollution, emanated from the concepts developed during modernism era. The society has come to appreciate that some of these theories and concepts have weaknesses that need to be addressed. That is why there is a general acceptance of the radical changes from modernism to postmodernism despite some of the criticism levelled against postmodernism.

Simulations and the Hyperreal

According to Murphy (124), simulation as used in postmodernism involves creation of a virtual reality to make it look just like the reality. The advanced technology has facilitated a society where people suffer from hyperreality without their knowledge. Hyperreality is a situation where consciousness is unable to distinguish simulated reality from reality. As Barthes (93) argues, human beings of today are more intelligent than they were a millennium ago. They have created objects that can carry them from one part of the world to the other in air. They have developed systems that enable them to communicate in real time when they are world apart. They have developed more sophisticated weapons than those the world had witnessed before. They have invented machines that can help them detect diseases within the body among many other beautiful inventions. Technology seems to be doing everything that men used to do in the past. This beautiful world, where men command machines to do almost everything to them, seems to be the real cause of this problem.

The more intelligent we get, the more we seem to be retarded in mind in terms of being able to differentiate reality from simulated reality. The virtual world has become so real that convincing the members of the society otherwise is almost impossible. Heim (95) says that the Hollywood movies have helped so much in this distortion. They use technology to give a virtual man immense power in a virtual world. They present to us a superman who is able to withstand gunshots, explosions, and all other odds to come out a winner in a given storyline. What makes the whole thing even more complex is that they use real people and sometimes real environment that people know about. It may be the Oval Office in the White House, the court chambers in New York or such other places that are frequented by people.

They use technology to create a virtual environment where supernatural things take place using background settings of things that are real. Constant exposure to such materials has created the problem of hyperreality in our society today. People cannot just discern where the reality has ended and simulated reality begins. To them, these events are real, and probably possible with practice. The virtual reality has mingled with the physical reality to an extent that it is almost impossible to separate the two. Given that, we live in a physical world, it then becomes easier to consider both virtual reality and physical reality to be one and same. It is at such moments that rational reasoning and ethics lose its meaning as one tries to seek life seen in the virtual world. Capitalism gets the best of the members of the society as they try to have the immense power of the virtual person seen in the virtual world.

Critics of Postmodernism

Critics of postmodernism have come out to clearly state why they feel that the society has been negatively affected by some of the concepts of postmodernism. It is important to note that these critics have not condemned the entire concept of postmodernism and what it has created in our postmodern world. However, they have singled out specific issues they feel are affecting the society. One such issue that has been discussed extensively in this paper is that it takes away the ability of people to make right judgment. It makes it impossible for them to discern reality from simulated reality.

Conclusion

This paper focused on critical assessing of the argument that we have moved from a use-value centered past to a sign-value centered present. It is clear that postmodernism has brought many changes in our society that has redefined our way of life. Electronic manufactures firms are using valued fruits such as apple among others. The paper reveals that sign value has become much more important in the postmodern society.

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