Abstract A large body of research has shown that the graphic design of a package influences the perception of the corresponding product and brand. Marketing as well as semiotics literature have therefore acknowledged for a long time that the graphic design of a package is a critical tool for managers to use to communicate about their brands. Yet, the concern remains for managers to understand how the visual aspect of a package does indeed produce the desired meanings among consumers. More research is still needed to provide concrete guidelines on this topic, despite the several studies that have recently contributed to fill this gap. The research presented in this article contributes to the existing body of knowledge by applying a semiotics-based approach to the Bordeaux wine category. The authors conducted content and semiotic analyses of the visual codes for Bordeaux wines. They then tested four labels representative of the Bordeaux wine category with a sample of 932 French respondents through a free-word-association task. The results confirm that semiotic studies can anticipate most of the idea associations that a package’s graphic design is likely to produce in consumers' minds. The results also demonstrate that the associations of ideas generated by package designs are stable across gender, generation, and product expertise. More important, semiotics provides an understanding of which visual attributes are likely to produce which idea associations and why. Therefore, a semiotic approach appears to be a reliable tool for managers to use to help them define their package designs according to the brand's meanings they seek to communicate to their clients.

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您的酒标对消费者意味着什么？波尔多葡萄酒视觉代码的符号学研究

摘要 大量研究表明，包装的图形设计会影响对相应产品和品牌的认知。因此，长期以来，市场营销和符号学文献都承认，包装的图形设计是管理者用来交流品牌的重要工具。然而，管理人员仍然需要了解包装的视觉方面如何确实在消费者中产生所需的含义。尽管最近有几项研究有助于填补这一空白，但仍需要更多的研究来提供有关该主题的具体指导方针。本文介绍的研究通过将基于符号学的方法应用于波尔多葡萄酒类别，为现有知识体系做出了贡献。作者对波尔多葡萄酒的视觉代码进行了内容和符号学分析。然后，他们通过自由词联想任务对 932 名法国受访者的样本测试了代表波尔多葡萄酒类别的四个标签。结果证实，符号学研究可以预测包装图形设计可能在消费者心中产生的大多数想法联想。结果还表明，由包装设计产生的创意联想在性别、世代和产品专业知识中是稳定的。更重要的是，符号学提供了对哪些视觉属性可能产生哪些想法联想以及为什么产生的理解。因此，符号学方法似乎是管理者用来帮助他们根据品牌定义包装设计的可靠工具。