Re-positioning Mexico: How semiotic analysis helped break through cultural clichés and provide inspiring regional symbolism for three Campari brands

Room 3 | 9:30 am - 10:00 am | Thursday, February 23, 2023

Few countries have as much cultural richness as Mexico, and this was both an opportunity and a challenge for Gruppo Campari. With a unique portfolio of authentic Mexican brands, Campari needed to create distinct brand positioning that would resonate across international markets with very different levels of familiarity with Mexican culture. The challenge was to create universally appealing branding without evoking the usual national clichés. How better to burst the clichés than to go straight to the most emergent people in Mexico: young, avant-garde Mexicans in the three regions associated with Campari’s brands, Peubla, Oaxaca and Jalisco? We layered what they told us about their lives and their regions with an in-depth semiotic analysis of Mexico as a whole and their regions in particular. Then Campari used these finding to create agency briefing guidelines that in turn became international promotional material, for events, social media and more.

Key takeaways:

1. It is critical to stay on top of emergent culture in order to ensure your brand avoids dangerously irrelevant clichés.
2. Using mixed methods in research allows for a richer, more nuanced perspective.
3. Semiotics is an extremely valuable tool for helping to identify brand positioning cues that will resonate across cultures.

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