Reframing Brand Meanings: How Redefining Core Messages Transforms Brands and Industries

Discover how reframing the core meaning of your brand can unlock innovation, create social impact, and redefine your message for diverse audiences.

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In a world where innovation and sustainability are driving forces, rethinking the core meaning of your brand is not just a creative exercise—it’s essential for future-proofing your business. This newsletter explores how revisiting traditional meanings and semiotic codes can lead to transformative product design, messaging, and brand identity shifts. By learning from examples across industries, we’ll dive into how rethinking core meanings can help brands evolve, from skincare being "food for the skin" to the repositioning of veganism, the auto industry, and telecom companies.

Credit: lookfantastic.com

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You might want to read previous free newsletters on a similar thread:

• Shaping Realities: The Power of Language and Choice of Words

• Unlocking Future Potential: Decoding Emerging Narratives

• The Semiotics of Narratives: Shaping Perceptions, Decisions, and the Future

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The Rise of "Food for the Skin"

Let’s begin by looking at how the skincare industry has creatively borrowed language from food culture, particularly in China, where we conducted significant research into sensory and cultural codes.

Skincare is traditionally viewed as maintenance for the skin—keeping it hydrated, smooth, and youthful. But the narrative is shifting. Brands now position skincare products as "food for the skin," borrowing not only semiotic codes from food culture but also using food as their ingredients.

Ingredients are no longer framed as chemicals but as nutrients, with terms like ‘feeding’ and ‘nourishing’ replacing ‘maintaining’ or ‘hydrating.’ This shift from cosmetics to nutrition signifies a deeper connection between product and body, aligning with a growing consumer desire for holistic, sustainable, health-oriented beauty routines.

Skincare products increasingly use metaphors, terms, and descriptors from food culture. For example, the image depicts the Elemis brand referring to its products as ‘superfood.’ Food-related terms like mousse, souffle, and broth are also becoming more common in describing product formats.