/ How can we retain CULTURAL RELEVANCE?

/ How can we evolve CATEGORY NORMS?

/ How to optimise our distinctive BRAND ASSETS?

At Meaning Agency, we go beyond traditional research to reveal deeper forces impacting on consumer behaviour. We use semiotic enquiry to help you leverage cultural change.

We help our clients understand what makes them meaningful and create relevance in a rapidly changing world.

/ UNLOCKING Untapped Potential.

Brands are more than the sum of their parts – even in the most commoditised categories, they hold an emotional significance that is often untapped. We believe in brands as ‘meaning makers’ - and we unlock their symbolic richness. We believe that your brand story and narrative is the foundation of your business and should shine through every single consumer touchpoint.

/ PROVIDING Clearer Direction on Consumer & Cultural Change.

Asking consumers for answers is a bit like looking in the rear-view mirror when you’re driving. Instead you need to bypass consumers’ conscious post-rationalisations and look at the cultural forces (and underlying cultural tensions) that influence their beliefs and behaviours.

/ DEVELOPING Fresh Perspectives on Growth.

Data and ‘quant’ thinking (alone) is not sufficient to making sense of the change around us. We need interpretive techniques, borrowed from the human and social sciences - combined with an expert point of view - to unlock fresh growth opportunities.

Our Offer: Decoding + Encoding.

We work with a range of client functions and agency partners helping them to unpack (decode) meaning and articulate (encode) it in culturally relevant ways.

Our engagement process is built around four key stages:

1. Discover

What is the future of my category?

Human & Cultural Foresight. Unlocking the wider cultural forces and drivers of change in inspiring and actionable ways – so you can operate at the leading edge of culture.

Unconscious Consumer Drivers. Revealing what’s really going on for consumers – at the deepest emotional level, beneath observed behaviour – so you can connect with them more meaningfully.

2. Define

How can I unpack the meaning & stories behind my brand?

Brand Codes. Strengthening your brand assets – its ‘symbolic currency’ – by releasing its deeper meaning.   We help you leverage the most compelling available narratives and codes, differentiating your brand from the competition at a fundamental level.  We help you close the gap between intention (what your brand aims to communicate) and reception (the consumer take out).

Discourse Analysis. Scanning ongoing cultural conversations (incl. digital) on the lookout for meaningful patterns – both explicit and implicit, both dominant and more emergent – to ensure cultural relevance.

Cross-Cultural Decoding. Navigating the challenges of global branding vis-à-vis deep-rooted local cultural meanings, behaviours and rituals.

3. Develop

What are the emergent narratives & codes my brand can tap into?

Category Mapping. Mapping the landscape for category alignment or disruption – connecting the present to the future to inform roadmaps for growth.

Innovation/NPD. Unlocking growth opportunities and R&D potential, helping you prioritise your pipeline by unearthing cultural ‘truths’ and identifying culturally relevant ‘hot spots’.

4. Deliver

What tangible changes should I implement to keep my brand relevant going forward?

Brand Identity Development. Working with agencies in the design development process – embedding differentiating visual & verbal cues in the brand toolkit/playbook to create deeper-desired meaning. Identifying and optimising distinctive brand assets.

Pack Development. Informing pack design – ensuring structure, materials and visual & verbal cues operate as powerfully as they can to exceed consumer expectations.

Sensorial Branding. Ensuring all elements of the product formulation and its expression contribute to creating a delightful consumer experience – such as colour, smell, textural appearance, mouthfeel – by understanding the cultural significance of these elements, and the semiotic cues that best express them.