Marketing Code-X

Home & Hearth

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Bulleit social media

The CODE-X series catalogs a vast codex of source codes (aka “signs”) extracted from past audits.

The object of study in semiotics is not the signs but rather a general theory of signification; the goal of each “audit” is to build a model demonstrating how meaning is produced and received within a category or cultural territory. Signs on their own, therefore, only become truly revelatory and useful once we’ve sorted them into thematic complexes, and the complexes into codes, and the codes into a meaning map. We call this process “thick description”; the Code-X series is thin description.

Maker’s Mark billboard

HOME & HEARTH” NORM: Brown spirits associated not with nightlife, but with cozying up by the fire, snuggling with a loved one, gathering with friends, hosting and being hosted. A ritual, a tradition, perhaps something you saw your parents do… and now you want to do it, too.

Early Times social media

HOME & HEARTH” FORMS: Winter, curling up by the fire, cozy, comfortable: “Give cozy. Get cozy” (Marker’s Mark). “Nothing says winter like curling up by the fire with a glass of Crown” (Crown Royal). Life’s simple pleasures, mellow light, warmth, coziness — a “hygge” feeling that no matter what it’s like outside, inside is convivial. Handmade, well-loved, “homely,” perhaps eccentric and quirky household objects.

From a 2016 study of the PRIDE IN TRADITION space — within the Brown Spirits category.

Tags: CODE-X, Spirits, Whiskey