Decoding Symbols to Communicate with Youth

First published in RW May 2010

Rosalba Olivella & Carlos Gustavo Hernandez

How a study in Columbia uncovered the key semiotic and symbolic patterns to reach young people.

There are codes and symbols which are inherent to the world of adolescents and these are connected with their search for identity, their reality and how they interact with the world and with brands around them.

When does the semiotic function begin to develop? It appears to be associated with the stage in which children start to free themselves from physical conditioning and to connect with the world in terms of meaning. The social world of adolescents is probably the most favourable time for this function to develop since this is when they consolidate their relationships with signs, objects and interpretations, creating their identity languages and the aesthetics that are accompanied by symbolic consumption.

We conducted a research study in the four main cities of Colombia (Bogotá, Cali, Medellín and Barranquilla), with the objective of revealing the codes and symbols that have the greatest affinity with adolescents aged between 14 and 17 years in the fourth and fifth socio-economic group levels. The study aimed to provide key lessons for developing image, positioning and communication strategies.

There are two large code groups for Colombian adolescents: one including what is contemporary and binding; the other referring to what is residual that no longer speaks to them.

The study demonstrated that to be able to communicate with adolescents, it is important to know the meaning that their world of signs, codes and symbols holds for them, and the different ways they symbolise their reality, conflicts and consumption habits.

The study focused on codes associated with five broad media and consumer categories: advertising on TV, print and the internet; TV programmes; food, beverage and personal care products; radio and music; and magazines.

We implemented the study in two stages. In an initial phase, we analysed the ciphered codes of these categories through studying communications, packages, logos and internet sites by decoding signs and using narrative analysis techniques. Anthropologists and psychologists certified in semiotics by Semiotic Solutions in the UK, participated in this first phase which aimed to generate hypotheses which we confirmed and validated in the second phase to evaluate our findings with young people in the segment.

The key codes
The study showed us that there are 14 major codes associated with adolescent identity and reality. These include:

• Darkness which symbolises the night, life, possibilities, being yourself, movement, energy, conquest, fun, freedom, territory and challenge
• Urban. This represents meeting spots, union, group, socialisation, freedom and breaking away from the norm and routine.
• Underground. This has the connotation of introspection and conversations about the transition between childhood and adulthood which imply feelings of isolation and marginality.
• Energy, a category that includes several codes (Big Bang, ray, laser and vortex). These can be associated with personality, the integration between good and evil, what is accepted and what is rejected and adolescent duality.
• Making faces. This signifies irreverence or challenge, making fun of the world, acceptance, freedom, breaking the rules, fun, making one’s own rules.
• Home video. This expresses hyper-reality, the search for emotional sincerity, being the main character, reaffirming identity and being who you really are.
• Cohesion, manifesting the type of bond within the female group, togetherness.
• Functional, signifying the type of bond within a male group, being together for a reason.
• Retro. This is connected with an idealisation of the past; the most modern, kitsch, being in fashion and a meeting place with parents.

Residual codes
Residual codes on the other hand, account for a reality to which adolescents no longer belong. The symbols are codes that once addressed the segment, but now generate doubts if they are employed in communication and consumption processes.  Residual codes that we identified included:

• X. This is an outdated code as it makes semantic reference to something ‘extreme’ which adolescents try to represent through metaphors and images.
• Psychedelic. This code used to belong to their parents in recreating sensory alterations but nowadays, the psychedelic experience is more of a cliché attached to subcultures that do not connect with the majority of young people.
• Double entendre. Adolescents do not bond or identify with messages that have a hidden or masked sexual content. They want people to talk to them clearly and to call things by their real name.

Understanding
What do we need to do to participate in the world of young people and to ensure our communications and strategies are in line with what they accept?

To communicate effectively with adolescents, one should understand that they do not want to be the same as or to look like everyone else; they want to be themselves and expect brands and products to recognise and understand their reality.

Rather than being seen as a stereotype of 100% good or bad, they prefer to see themselves reflected in the duality of their reality, where there are good and bad moments, feelings and reactions, and where they simultaneously oscillate between experience and inexperience in many areas of their lives.

Young people want to be told about things the way they are, not through double messages or concealed reality.

This is where spaces become relevant, because of what they offer rather than the spaces themselves. Urban locations, the streets, the most popular corners and shopping malls are relevant as places to meet their meaningful peers, and the night and underground venues are relevant because they allow them to show themselves as they really are.

Codes, such as the ones were deciphered, help us to understand population segments at a deeper level, and are the passport that brands require to enter the dynamics and the contradictions of adolescents.

This opens up the possibility of accessing a fascinating environment of creative opportunities to approach adolescents as a target group. It requires using specific language and metaphors, and means that marketing, advertising and market research must be committed to elaborating and reaffirming their discourse of identity instead of replicating conventions that do not speak to them.

Rosalba Olivella is general manager and Carlos Gustavo Hernandez project director at FeedBack Profile S.A.

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