DOI: 10.24308/iass-2014-063

Henaff Marketing Office, France

jkhenaff@yahoo.fr

Abstract

Dans le domaine de la communication publicitaire, le modèle d’analyse souvent utilisé est celui de la sémiotique narrative faisant appel à la jonction. Dans le monde réel, tout d’abord, l’objectif du fabricant (énonciateur publicitaire et destinateur) est de manipuler le consommateur (destinataire qui se constitue en sujet) pour qu’il achète le produit (se conjoigne au produit). Dans un film publicitaire, la transposition fictionnelle du schéma ci-dessus conduit à représenter un consommateur (destinataire qui devient sujet) qui se « conjoint » à un produit (une voiture, un shampooing, un rouge à lèvre….), et à l’ensemble de « valeurs de consommations » (pratiques, ludiques, utopiques, critiques, pour reprendre la terminologie de JM Floch) que concentre ce produit.

L’observation de nombreuses publicités dans le domaine de la beauté montre cependant une grande variété de types de récits. Certains films ne présentent que le produit, le destinataire n’étant que suggéré : le récit principal est dans ce cas celui d’un produit-sujet qui se « conjoint » à des valeurs (bénéfices) destinées à une consomma­trice-destinataire. D’autres présentent la consommatrice-destinataire comme un personnage majeur, qui se cons­titue en sujet d’une transformation (un embellissement), et le produit est lui-même évoqué seulement comme un adjuvant. D’autres enfin donnent aux deux types de récits une importance assez similaire. De plus, on observe suivant les publicités deux types de destinateurs : la marque qui fixe les bénéfices beauté valorisés, ou la con­sommatrice qui fixe elle-même les objectifs beauté à atteindre. Nous présenterons différentes publicités pour illustrer ces points. Un des enjeux plus généraux est finalement la représentation de la femme dans ces publici­tés : sujet actif de leur embellissement (maître de sa beauté), ou destinataire passif d’une forme de beauté fixée par la marque et apportée par le produit (et à qui on impose une forme de beauté)

Ensuite nous aimerions voir si le modèle interactionnel et le concept d’union (au lieu de la jonction) de E Lan­dowski pourrait permettre de rendre compte d’une manière plus subtile des enjeux de communication publici­taire dans le domaine de la beauté et d’ouvrir des possibilités d’évolution de cette communication. A ce propos, nous présenterons une récente communication de marque qui a pris le parti de proposer la « beauté idéale » (et non la « beauté parfaite ») comme valeur de marque. La beauté idéale se définit en effet comme ce qui est « la perfection pour soi-même » (à chacune sa beauté idéale): les finalités de l’interaction entre la marque et la con­sommatrice ne sont pas décidées par la marque a priori mais se définissent dans l’évolution des rapports entre la marque et chaque consommatrice. Il s’agirait ici d’un régime d’ajustement qui permettrait un véritable accomplissement des deux partenaires, et donc également de la consommatrice.

The intention of a beauty product brand is that its consumers will feel more beautiful, and this accession to beauty is largely depicted in advertising. The purpose of this communication is to share some thoughts on how this accession to beauty can be semiotically described. To do so, we will consider two levels, and the way they relate to each other.

· The access to beauty as it is represented in advertisements

· The access to beauty as the interactions between the brand, the consumer and the beauty product in everyday life

In a first part, we will present the greimassian narrative theory and the concept of manipulation as a type of interaction, and how it can be applied to the analysis of traditional beauty product advertising. In a second part, we will present the post greimassian model of interactions as it has been developed by Eric Landowski and show how it can be used to analyze the different types of access to beauty in everyday life, since this model can describe a larger set of situations, including the ones that can be described by the concept of adjustment. Finally, we will show the example of an innovative beauty brand slogan that is implying a relationship between brand and consumer that goes beyond the situations that can be described by the greimassian model and how the concept of adjustment is useful to semiotically describe this type of interaction and consequently to inspire the development of an innovative brand communication.

1. The greimassian narrative model as it can be applied to the analysis of traditional beauty product advertising

The base of a narration can be described as an elementary narrative program implying a subject of doing, a subject of being and an object. An action consists of a temporal succession from one state to another state, effected by the subject of doing. A state can be described as the conjunction or the disjunction of the subject of being with an object (Courtés, 1991).

For example, many beauty advertisements can be described as showing a beauty product (subject of doing) acting in order that a woman-consumer (subject of being) is transformed from a state where she is not beautiful to a state where she is beautiful: the transformation is the conjunction of the woman-consumer (subject of being) with beauty (object).

We can complete this elementary narrative program by the introduction of two additional actants: addresser (“destinateur” in French) and addressee (“destinataire” in French). The addresser is the one that is interacting with the subject of doing in order that it acts as above. The interaction is called manipulation. The addressee is the one that is the beneficiary of the action.

If we go back to the example of a typical beauty advertisement, the addresser can be the brand that defines the “beauty” that is the goal and gives to the product (the subject of doing) the mission to bring it and the capacity to act (as with a technology that reduces the formation of wrinkles). The addressee is the represented woman-consumer who is benefitting from the effects of the beauty transformation.

Across the beauty advertisements that we have had the occasion to analyze, the actualization of two of the actants, addresser and subject of doing, covers also other cases. There are in fact four major types of narratives that could be distinguished according to who is implied in the manipulation phase and the action phase (table 1).

Table 1: Different actualizations of addresser and subject of doing in beauty advertising.

Case 1 can be illustrated by a recent skin care advertisement: “Lancôme's new vision for the perfect skin. Advanced Skin Corrector Visionnaire LR 2412 supports wrinkles, pores, and skin texture improvements to change the skin towards perfection. Visionnaire Lancôme”

The brand (“Lancôme”) is setting (“new vision”) what is the goal (beauty, defined here as “the perfect skin”). The product (subject of doing) is like a hero whose mission is to bring perfect skin and who is empowered by the Lancôme technology (“LR 2412”) and therefore able to eliminate defects and change the skin. The women represented in the advertisement are the addressee and the passive subject of transformation (subject of being), transformed by the product into a perfect skin state.

Case 2 is when the woman-consumer (represented woman in the advertisement) is acting as the addresser setting what is the beauty goal and launching the product action. It can be illustrated by another skin care television advertisement where the woman-consumer is represented in the first scene as aiming at a target with a bow and arrow and saying: “what I am aiming at: less wrinkles, more firmness”. She then launches the arrow, as a symbol of the product action released by the woman. The second scene is showing the arrow transforming into a schematic representation of active ingredients penetrating into a skin close up section and visibly improving the surface of the woman’s facial skin. The represented woman is also in this advertisement the addressee and the passive subject of transformation (subject of being). In the end of the advertisement she is also validating the performance (“objective is reached!”).

Case 3 can be illustrated by a Japanese magazine advertisement for a make-up removing product that “instantly resets into a bare skin beauty”. The advertisements is showing two photos of the same woman: on the left she is perfectly made up, on the right she is represented without any make up, “bare skin”, and she is looking much  happier than on the left. The advertisement is introduced by the sentence: “and you, can you become a bare skin beauty too?” In this advertisement the brand is the addresser setting the desirable beauty goal as “bare skin beauty” and manipulating the consumer (subject of doing) by challenging her to transform herself from artificial “made up beauty” into “bare skin” (natural) beauty thanks to the help of the product. The woman-consumer is in this case the subject of doing, the subject of being and the addressee.

Case 4 is when the represented woman-consumer is acting as four of the key actants: addresser, subject of doing, subject of being and addressee. In a Revlon lipstick television advertisement for example, the woman-consumer is represented by the celebrity Emma Stone who is speaking throughout the commercial. The advertisement is starting by Emma Stone saying “don’t hide behind your lipstick, use it to share with the world how you feel”. Then she selects a lipstick color among many and applies it on her lips. In the end she leaves her home saying: “today I feel daring”. The represented consumer is acting as the addresser as she is setting up the goal and the challenge to accomplish for herself (and for the women who are watching the advertisement): to use lipstick to create an expressive beauty. It is a case of self-manipulation into acting for the beauty transformation (the addresser manipulating the subject of doing and the subject of doing are represented by the same person).

The greimassian approach is efficient in describing and categorizing the different types of narratives of beauty advertising. However, this model can also appear as a simplification of phenomena that are in fact more subtle. This can be felt already when we consider beauty advertising, but it is even more so when we consider the way women relate to beauty brands and products in real life to beautify themselves.

For example, one could consider that the setting of the beauty goal is in fact not done by the brand or the woman-consumer alone. It could be considered as the result of an interaction between two addressers: the beauty a woman wants to achieve can be influenced by the models promoted by the brand but fine-tuned also by herself to her own taste. Furthermore, one could also consider that when the woman-consumer is using a lipstick for example, the beauty result that is achieved is the result of the interaction of two subjects of doing: the woman who is using the lipstick with more or less dexterity and the lipstick itself that is transforming the color of the woman’s lips. Also, there is also a possible interaction between the beauty object and the consumer: beauty is not only a standard object that one can put on one’s face like a mask, it is something that is changing the woman's appearance, experience and identity.

These limitations of the greimassian model have been pointed out by Eric Landowski who has developed a model of interactions between actants that could help to describe those different types of interactive situations as we are going to see in the next section.

2. Eric Landowski’s model of interactions and its application to analyze the different types of access to beauty in everyday life

Eric Landowski (2005) has developed a model of four types of interactions, where the manipulation (defined as the cognitive manipulation of the other’s will) is only one specific case among the four. The four types of interactions are the following:

· Programming (“programmation” in French) is based on physical rules for physical objects or behavioral rules for humans: a certain type of action will necessarily lead to a certain type of reaction. It is a deterministic interaction.

· Manipulation (“manipulation” in French) is based on the cognitive manipulation of the other’s will (through challenge or flattery, temptation or threat to make the other act).

· Adjustment (“ajustement” in French) is describing the interactions between two partners that coordinate themselves in order to act together. The exchange is not by cognitive manipulation but by the feeling: perceptual sensitivity for humans, reactive sensitivity for physical objects.

· Accident (“accident” in French) is the hazard, or chance (defined as the opposite of programming) based on the irruption of something that is not expected (positive or negative).

The first three interactions are illustrated by Eric Landowski with the case of a waltz where the two dancers are interacting. If the waltz is danced as a social ritual, a program to follow for the two persons with no variations, the interaction could be considered as programming. If one of the partners makes the other follow one’s lead and will, it could be considered as manipulation. And if there is a constant adjustment of the two dancers for a mutual accomplishment through the dance, it is, of course, the case of adjustment.

The first three interactions of this model open up much more possibilities for the description in the field of beauty of the interactions between an addresser (brand or consumer) and a subject of doing (consumer or product), but also between the subject of doing and the subject of being.

If the addresser is a brand and the subject of doing the woman-consumer, the interaction could be imagined as a programming, a manipulation or an adjustment. With programming, the brand enforces a beauty stereotype that is supposed to be followed automatically by the consumer, as a result of a behavioral rule that is supposed to be followed with no exceptions.  With the manipulation, we can have for example the presentation of a valuable beauty objective that consumers are challenged to follow as seen before (“can you be a bare skin beauty?”). The case of adjustment adds a new dimension since it allows the possibility to describe a situation where the beauty objective is constantly negotiated as a common goal between the brand and the consumer: it implies that the brand has to feel the consumer needs and the consumers have also to feel where the brand wants to go.

Similarly, we can also consider programming, manipulation or adjustment in the case where the woman-consumer is both the addresser and the subject of doing. The woman-consumer can program herself by adopting a beauty routine to follow, a succession of products to apply mechanically in precise quantity and order, whatever the situation and the way her skin reacts to the treatment. Or she can set a beauty goal and motivate herself to do what is necessary to achieve this goal (self-manipulation) or she can constantly redefine her beauty objectives and actions according to the beauty results on herself as felt personally (adjustment).

In the case  where  the brand or the consumer is the addresser and the product the subject of doing, the brand or the consumer can be considered as programming the product in order that it acts in a perfectly predictable way: the brand can put in the product active ingredients that are scientifically determined to change the skin in a precise way, or the consumer can also program the product, for example by selecting different settings on the pack, as in dial mascaras, where a part of the product body can be rotated and set in different positions (position 1 for a light and natural finish, position 2 for a more heavy and dramatic finish…). One could also consider the concept of adjustment between the woman-consumer and the product (the beauty objective is constantly redefined according to the product action as it is felt by the consumer) or even between the brand and the product (the beauty objective that the product is supposed to reach is constantly redefined by the brand according to what is felt of its results). One could even consider a particular case where a consumer (or a brand) is acting as if she (or it) is trying to cognitively manipulate the product: doing some special “rituals” in order that the product has the “will” to act properly (magic thinking).

The different patterns can be summarized in table 2.

Table 2: Interaction addresser/subject of doing.

The interactions between the subject of doing and the subject of being can cover the interactions between product and consumer and those between the consumer and herself. The different interactions are summarized in table 3.

In the case of product/consumer interaction, a programming interaction is when the product operates on a consumer’s body that is supposed to react in a completely, or at least statistically predictable way. It is like a perfectly programmed medical treatment. But if we consider this interaction as a manipulation that means that we think that the consumer’s body is an entity with its own will that needs to be motivated. We can see some advertisements that are following this way of thinking, for example those which explain that the active ingredients will stimulate the skin mother cells in order that they produce more new cells. If the interaction between product and consumer is an adjustment, which means that the product has to continuously adapt its action to the situation of each consumer and to the reactions of the body. For example, some moisturizing cream advertisement claims that “may your age be 18, 30 or 45, may your skin be dry, normal or oily, this cream adapts its effectiveness”. We can also imagine a product which action is adapting day after day to the changes in the skin needs.

In the second case, the interaction between the consumer and herself, programming is the situation where the consumer considers her own body as a passive object that can be repaired, decorated, sculpted… Manipulation is when the consumer considers that she can motivate her own body to do the transformation, for example when she is using massages to wake up her inner energy in order that new fresh cells are produced and her skin tone is improved. Adjustment is when the consumer thinks that she has to continuously adapt her actions to the reactions of her body, for example by fine tuning the quantity of cream applied according to the variations of the observed absorption speed of cream in order to keep an optimal level of moisture.

Table 3: Interaction subject of doing/subject of being.

With the concepts of programming, manipulation and adjustment, we have been able to describe in a much more complete way the interactions between addresser and subject of doing and the interactions between subject of doing and subject of being in the representations of everyday life.The interactions between the subject of being and the object have also been studied by Eric Landowski, with the introduction of the distinction between conjunction and union (Landowski, 2004), and this is also opening up ways to describe those types of interactions more in details:

· The conjunction (“conjonction” in French) is when the subject is coming in possession of an object that is rather abstract, that can be acquired or discarded, exchanged. Its value is standard and fixed. The object stays in fact exterior to the subject and the very identity of the subject is not changed by its possession. The key word relating to the concept of conjunction is “to have”.

· The union (“union” in French) is when the subject and the object are considered in their materiality that allows experiencing the sensorial characteristics of the object.  Its value is coming from the personal and existential experience that the subject can have with it. The experience of the object is able to alter the very identity of the subject. The key word relating to the concept of union is “to be”.

The two concepts are also of high interest to describe the interactions between the subject of being (consumer) and the object (beauty) in the field of beauty. Conjunction is when beauty is considered as something quite standardized that has a social fixed value and can be acquired and possessed mainly for its functional properties (the seduction power that it brings): beauty is like a standard mask that one can buy and apply on one’s face. Union is when beauty is considered as a concrete object (the embellished body) that can be experienced by the subject through her senses: the experience of her embellished body is creating the unique value of it for the woman-consumer and transforming her identity in depth.

In the last section, we will see through an example how these concepts can help to better understand the values promoted by a beauty brand and help to develop concretely the way the brand has to interact with its customers.

3. Implications for a beauty brand that is promising to reach “your ideal skin” in its slogan

A skin care brand introduced a few years ago “your ideal skin” as a brand slogan in all its advertisements. If we refer to the definitions of “ideal” in the dictionary we can find:

1. Satisfying one’s conception of what is perfect; most suitable.

2. Existing only in the imagination; desirable or perfect but not likely to become a reality.

That means that “ideal” is close to perfect, but the two words are not completely the same. Perfect means “the best” and is universal, while ideal focuses on “the most suitable”, that is to say, it is “the best” on a personal level, it has to reflect each woman's personal aspirations at any moment and it has therefore to be changing, flexible, adjustable.

This means that to be able to provide “your ideal skin” to each woman-consumer, the brand will have to consider the various interactions as adjustments. The promise of beauty is not an imposed program, nor a dream that women are seduced (manipulated) into pursuing. This has implications in the way the brand is considering its interactions with consumers (interaction between addresser and subject of doing) and the way the product is supposed to interact with the consumer (interaction between subject of doing and subject of being). Furthermore, the beauty transformation is not to be considered as a conjunction with a standardized beauty object but as a union between consumer and beauty that could be able to transform the identity of the consumer.

If we consider the interaction between brand and consumer as an adjustment, this means, as seen in the previous section (table 2) that the beauty objective will have to be constantly negotiated as a common goal between the brand and the consumer. The brand will have to go beyond the traditional approach of consumer understanding, that is usually based on a cognitive perception of the consumer needs mainly by statistically gathering facts and figures. The brand will have to develop a real feeling for the consumer: the points of contacts between the brand and the consumer will need to be personal and human (for example, through beauty advisors in stores who are trained to interact with consumers in a way that goes beyond rationality and will allow them to really feel and not only understand what each consumer needs, without using standardized diagnostic methods).

If we consider the interaction between product and consumer as an adjustment, that means that the product will have to be adjustable to each woman’s skin, whatever its reactions and changes through time. The different products proposed by the brand will have to provide an action that will change according to the situation of the skin and the way the skin reacts.

Finally if the beauty transformation is considered as a union that changes the identity of each consumer, this will have radical implications in the way the brand is communicating through advertising: presenting a photo of an attractive woman as a standard beauty model will not be enough.

The way to represent adjustment and union in brand advertising is a challenge that will need further investigations.

References

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FONTANILLE, Jacques. 2008. Pratiques sémiotiques, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.

GREIMAS, Algirdas Julien. 1993. Sémiotique, dictionnaire raisonné de la théorie du langage, Paris, Hachette.

GREIMAS, Algirdas Julien. 1966. Sémantique structurale, Paris, Larousse.

LANDOWSKI, Eric. 2004 Passions sans nom, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France.

LANDOWSKI, Eric. 2005. Les interactions risquées, Limoges, Nouveaux Actes Sémiotiques, Presses Universitaires de Limoges.

LANDOWSKI, Eric 2013. Pour une sémiotique du goût, Sao Paulo, Centro de Pesquisas Sociossemioticas.