The application of social semiotic theory to visual elements within corporate positioning material with a view to the development of methodologies for commercial use

Abstract

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyThis worl< employs a variety of social semiotic and critical discourse techniques to develop methodologies that will assess the extent to which external positioning requirements of commercial organisations are expressed accurately in the visual imagery of their corporate artefacts. The automotive manufacturer The Rover Group was chosen to test the assessment through visual analysis of three brochures published by the company during the period 1995-97. The meanings expressed visually in the brochures were compared with the communications requirements of the Board of Directors of the Group. For the enquiry a series of templates were developed which were informed, inter alia, by concepts expressed by Kress and van Leeuwen in their work Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design (1996). My analysis suggests significant discrepancies occur between the positioning messages intended by the board of directors for projection externally and their expression in visual terms within the company's corporate literature. The thesis identifies where these disjunctures occur and suggests methodological templates for use by communications practitioners not trained in semiotic theory or critical discourse analysis to reduce the level of subjectivity in their analysis. The Rover Group was chosen for testing the templates because changes in ownership and structure of the company enabled me to use what would have been commercially sensitive material if the company had remained unchanged