The economic results of standard financial industry practices involving derivatives and sub-prime loans suggest it’s good to question widely-held beliefs. Too bad more people didn’t do it.

Just as new models are being formed in how we manage our nation’s finances, this is also a good time for financial leaders to rethink (if they aren’t already) how they communicate their brand to a skeptical and demoralized public.

Begin by considering that the world of investments, banking, and insurance is fraught with, even dominated by, emotions. These emotions include fear, distress, anger and yes, shame. The rational model of homo-economicus, upon which the financial strategy of corporations is based, would appear to have been undermined by the panic currently gripping individuals.

This suggests that any appeal to consumers must succeed at both an emotional, or unconscious, level as well as at a rational one. Without such an approach, your message is "lost in the clutter."

First Steps

So how do you do that? Begin by exploring the "emotional scripts" that guide your customers’ decision making. This is usually done through lengthy, one-on-one, deep-dive interviews that peel back the layers of consciousness to reveal consumer perceptions and motivations, and unarticulated needs.

Once that’s understood, step two is to align your brand accordingly, accentuating brand equities that resonate emotionally with consumers, and shedding those which do not. A full understanding of the role of semiotics plays a critical role, and leads to major competitive advantages.

Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols, of how meaning is constructed, and understood. Applying semiotics allows companies to integrate their "meaning" or message into everything they do.

Consider the TV ads for Travelers Insurance. The ‘brand’ is literally embedded throughout the ad as a red umbrella helps people navigate through a fairy tale world of innocence. Consider the effectiveness of this approach as opposed to a TV ad where the identity of the advertiser is only revealed at the very end, and then forgotten.

It illustrates the proper goal of all branding: to integrate a company’s identity with its product or service.

Cattle Call

After all what is a brand? By its most basic definition, a brand is a mark to identify the owner of livestock. This steer’s mine, it isn’t yours.

But the concept has evolved. It’s attaching an idea to a product. This steer’s mine, and it has certain qualities, and it’s better than yours.

As businesses in the financial services sector look for new strategies to succeed, they would be well advised to enhance their communication strategies too. Understanding the emotional value of existing brand equities, and the normally unarticulated needs of consumers, and aligning those brand equities using efficient semiotic strategies is a good place to start.

To succeed, business leaders must understand how their companies are perceived by the public, that is, what their meaning is. If you don’t know, you likely don’t have a semiotic strategy. The question then becomes, why not?

Douglas Karlson is an executive at Applied Iconology, a Yarmouth Port-based consulting company.