Brand identity in the digital age : complexity and contradiction

The exponential speed at which markets are invaded by the trend towards digitalisation (with the advent of social media in particular), together with other influences such as globalisation, all-out diversification, and the race to innovate, have made brand management a perilous exercise. The need for brands to communicate constantly with their multiple audiences has led them to prioritise impact over content. In doing so, they often blatantly contradict themselves. The semi-symbolic model of brand identity, as adopted by semioticians following J.-M. Floch, no longer functions in its symmetrical purity. This article therefore discusses its possible adaptation to current developments and, on this basis, proposes to consider the introduction of the notion of “included middle” into the corpus of the fundamental syntax of the generative trajectory of meaning.