The use of commercial, semantic, semiotic and branding objects requires their integration according to the characteristics of the segments they aim at.

Semiotic objects guide the buying processes, semantic objects build the necessary information in the mind of the prospective customers or clients and commercial objects propose the specific ideas that need to be bought. Branding objects sustain the credibility of the value propositions and work as a catalyst in the commercial system accelerating buying decisions.

The Functionality of the Method

The unicist marketing technology has been developed to include the use of objects in the buying process in order to ensure the critical mass of the processes.

These objects produce basically three noticeable effects:

1. They allow having the necessary critical mass to trigger the buying process
2. They accelerate the marketing process to shorten the time between the marketing stimuli and the buying action
3. These objects allow saving energy in the marketing processes which makes them more efficient

Functional Types of Marketing Objects

Unicist marketing objects are encapsulated adaptive systems that produce predefined results that can be inserted in work processes to increase productivity and quality and to save energy. From a functional point of view there are different types of objects:

• Driving Objects
  To drive marketing process to generate buying decisions
• Catalyzing Objects
  To accelerate buying processes by generating the need of a solution and making it accessible.
• Entropy Inhibiting Objects
  To inhibit the entropy of marketing process and build customer loyalty
• Inhibiting Objects
  To inhibit dysfunctional aspects of marketing actions
• Gravitational Objects
  To integrate value propositions into existing trends.

From a marketing point of view there are four kinds of marketing objects:

• Commercial Objects
• Semantic Objects
• Semiotic Objects
• Branding Objects

The Commercial Objects

The purpose of a commercial object is to install “hope” in the mind of the potential customers. This means that there is an expectancy that they will find the solution of a latent need they have that is now arising driven by the commercial proposition that is being made.

The active function of a commercial object is to awaken interest in the value proposition that has been developed to satisfy latent needs.

This implies that the commercial objects have been designed based on a true knowledge of the segment that is being approached, its needs and beliefs.

In supply driven markets the knowledge of what the segments believe is basic because people need to believe in order to see a previously inexistent solution.

Demand driven markets are based on seeing to believe and the supply driven markets are organized for people who accept that they need to believe to see.

The materialization of the value propositions has to happen within the myths of a culture in order to be accepted.

The development of commercial objects needs to include an adequate use of semantic objects and semiotic signs in order to install the necessary ideas in the mind of the segments that allow them to perceive the solution that is being proposed.

The purpose to be achieved by the commercial objects is to install hope in the mind of the potential buyers in the sense that a new solution will satisfy a latent need they have. But in order to install hope, it is necessary that the segments discover that the solution proposed allows them to overcome adverse conditions in some environment.

The Functionality of Commercial Objects

There are four types of commercial objects that establish the steps that need to be followed in their use in the object driven marketing process:

• Step 1: Empathy building objects
• Step 2: Brand-power objects
• Step 3: Value adding objects
• Step 4: Value generation objects

Step 1: Establishing an Empathic Relationship

The first step is the use of objects that provide solutions to the latent needs of the potential customers. Solutions need to be aesthetic in order to foster the need to have them. The “what for” of the value proposition is the core of the empathy building object. They segment the market: they divide people separating those who feel they have been interpreted by the proposal from those who consider that the proposal is meaningless.

Step 2: Using the Power of the Brand

Once a potential interest has been achieved, it becomes necessary to confirm the reliability of the proposal. It requires confirming the added value that is included in the value proposal sustaining it with the corresponding attributes deposited on the brand. This object uses the pre-existing position of the brand and demonstrates the attributes by using the added value that is implicit in its promise.

Step 3: Adding Value to Customers

Value adding objects, that deliver the value included in a proposal that covers latent needs, are necessarily an innovation for the potential customer. Value adding objects have been designed to manage the authority conflicts produced by the innovations. They use conflict management semantic objects and are based on a mind opening figurative communication and on objective information.

Step 4: Generating Value for Customers

Value generation objects integrate complementation building semantic objects and value adding semiotic signs. They need to be based on a homology driven figurative communication and include a message that opens and expands the possibilities of the individual. Value generation objects imply building a true complementation with the potential customers in order to allow establishing a structural relationship that allows providing structural stable solutions.

Semantic Objects

Semantic objects are linguistics communications, in written or verbal format, that have the power to install meaningful knowledge in the long term memory of an individual.

Semantic objects are “adaptive systems” based on messages using figurative communication to build meaningful knowledge. These objects have a concept, an added value and a quality assurance in order to achieve their objective.

In order to build semantic objects it is necessary to manage the unicist ontogenetic map of messages and figurative communication.

They require no knowledge in order to be used. Users only need to know what they produce and how to manage their output.

Semantic objects are extremely segmented because they are driven by language that segments based on its implicit reasoning pattern and its ethical mask (see ontology of languages).

Semantic objects are the natural complementation for any communication that deals with human activity where results need to be achieved.

These objects are extremely useful to establish rituals and protocols to prepare an activity, to sustain the communication process of an activity and as drivers for conflict management.

They are applicable to politics, business or any personal activity that intends to generate value.

Semantic objects are also implicit in learning processes and in the building of learning objects.

They are meaningless in pastime activities.

Installing meaningful knowledge in the long term memory of an individual requires following a strict process.

The first step is providing information, the second is to make evident the added value that is being proposed, the third step is to solve and/or avoid the conflicts this new knowledge produces and the final stage is to ensure the complementation between the new knowledge and the knowledge the individual already has.

Types of Semantic Objects

There are different types of semantic objects to influence different aspects of the long term memory of an individual.

• Informative Objects: that deal with the approach to the semantic memory of individuals.
• Value Adding Objects: that allow installing the “know how” in the procedural memory.
• Conflict Management Objects: that integrate the knowledge as pleasant experience in the episodic memory.
• Complement Building Objects: that integrate the knowledge within the structure of the long term memory the individual uses to solve specific problems.

Semiotic Objects

The description of the building process of a unicist semiotic object will provide the understanding of unicist semiosis.

As an object, the semiotic object has a concept, an added value and a quality assurance. A Semiotic Object has the purpose of providing meaningful knowledge to its user, promotes a universal action and is based on essential foundations.

Unicist semiosis defines the functionality of signs at a universal level in order to provide an essential structure to design, produce and use signs.

This development is the result of a research that included the use of signs for more than 20 years, the development of a new logical language to apprehend reality as a unified field and the development of a unicist standard language with its corresponding signs. It included also the integration of signs with the ontology of language, figurative language and ambiguous language.

It is based on the integration of the semiotic approach of Charles Sanders Peirce and Ferdinand de Saussure who provided the basics in this field.

It was necessary to approach semiosis at its essential level to integrate them, to make the triadic approach of Peirce and the apparently dualistic approach of Saussure compatible.

The unicist approach defines the aspects of reality as a unified field using the logic of the ontogenetic intelligence of nature. This allows integrating the triadic model of Peirce and the dualistic model of Saussure validating both approaches.

Levels of Signs

The types and levels of signs are defined by their functionality. They are defined at an essential level that allows categorizing all the signs that are used by humans.

There are four levels of signs:

• Conventional Signs

• Guiding Signs

• Action Signs

• Ambiguous Signs

1) Conventional Signs

Conventional signs are the signs that allow individuals to live in their environment being able to survive and establish relationships with others. These signs are all the conventions individuals use to develop their actions.

The aesthetics of these signs needs to be functional in order facilitate their use.

2) Guiding Signs

They include the necessary conventional signs in order to be recognized. The goal of guiding signs is to install the necessary connotations to the conventional content they include in order to make them fit into the guiding myths of a culture.

To be accepted they need to be sustained by authoritative roles. The aesthetics of these signs needs to be harmonic in order to provide the perception of stability.

3) Action Signs

They include the necessary guiding signs in order to establish a safe starting point. The goal of these signs is to foster action to generate results.

Their aesthetics has to be harmonic and consistent with the transcendence through deeds they are provoking.

4) Ambiguous Signs

They include the necessary action signs in order to allow transforming ambiguity into concrete action.

Their aesthetics needs to be desirable and harmonic.

Branding Objects

The purpose of a branding object is to foster an unidentified buying intention (goodwill) in the mind of the potential buyer. Brand power is the catalyst of the drivers of the marketing mix (catalysts are not part of a system).

As a catalyst, the brand power has two possibilities:

• It has the necessary critical mass to generate a buying intention in the mind of a person.
• It cannot achieve the necessary critical mass. In this case, its use generates a paradoxical effect, because it either installs doubts in the mind of the potential buyer or it generates suspicion. Therefore, in this case, the potential catalyst transforms into an inhibitor.

Branding objects have two different functions.

• Install product/service brand attributes: When they install the necessary product/service brand attributes they are fostering concrete buying intentions.
• Install institutional image attributes: In order to be credible and work as branding objects, they need to install institutional image attributes.

Institutional Branding

Institutional branding is based on the institutional reliability, the consistency of its actions and the consistency of the implicit ideology of the institution.

There are two categories of institutional branding objects:

• Positioning Objects
• Participation Objects

Product / Service Branding

Product / Service branding is based on the attributes of the products or services. It is based on their unique technological aspects, their valuable uniqueness and their differentiated uniqueness that makes them “outstanding”.

There are two categories of product / service branding objects:

• Benchmarking Objects
• Influential Objects

The first active action in Object Driven Marketing, after the segments and the customer profiles have been defined, is the use of the Brand Power by using branding objects. Branding objects work as catalysts, which require using subliminal communication to avoid generating paradoxical results.

The purpose of the branding objects will have been achieved when the potential buyers enter a comfort zone where the commercial objects can work smoothly.

Annex

Expert Systems to Sustain Methods

The unicist expert systems are alternative tools for any method that deals with business problem solving or solution building.

They were developed to manage the fundamentals of business processes by managing the root causes of processes to develop solutions in adaptive environments.

With multiple specialized modules to solve specific problems, these systems manage the unified field of the business processes to manage their functionality, dynamics and adaptability. 

Note: The R&D work of this technology/methodology was led by Peter Belohlavek at The Unicist Research Institute.

The Unicist Research Institute