Selling apparel is not enough to make people look stylish and stunning—showing how to wear footwear and clothing items is essential for any apparel brand, which cares about their consumers. The best way to deliver great style solutions is to display lookbooks, created by the brand’s fans. Amazon-owned retailer Zappos has collaborated with new social fashion site Chicisimo to launch a microsite, where fashionistas may post their looks, vote for the coolest ones and then purchase them from the retailer’s online store. The project will be launched soon, says the official page of the initiative.

Johnnie Walker launches the My Label is Black program aimed to support celebrate Hispanic men and help them realize their true potential and become more successful in life. The company partnered with top Latino celebrity influencers as well as with leading charitable organizations in New York, Miami and Los Angelesto participate in the ad campaign.

Chanel reveals it secrets online—the brand, which has become the epitome of style, is telling its story on a dedicated website, Inside.Chanel.com. Yesterday, on October 4, the brand released a teaser video on its YouTube channel, where it focuses on its iconic fragrance, Chanel No.5 over ninety years ago, inviting the audience to visit the major destination and watch the full version of the movie.

Nokia joins Samsung in attacking Apple’s iPhone5 model. Two weeks after the S-brand released its video mocking the latest product from Apple’s portfolio and poking fun at iPhone-addicts, the Finnish mobile phones manufacturer launched a less ironic video, which focuses on colour. While Samsung video is referring to the technical characteristics of the Galaxy and iPhone devices, Nokia highlights the colour options available with its new Lumia 920 and the dull colour palette of the new iPhone.

Social networks have become one of the most preferred platforms for launching new campaigns, but marketers do want to know how effective their promotions in such media are. To help brands measure the impact of their promotions  through Twitter Promoted Products, the micro-blogging service has teamed up with Nielsen—together, they have developed a “newest tool for our advertising partners, brand impact measurement for Twitter.”

The article is written by Cheryl Swanson, Principal at Toniq, USA

Here at Toniq, we are heavily rooted in the ongoing study of semiotics. Semiotics is a study of the elements of communication in our culture that we create, evolve and interact with on a daily basis. This includes symbols and signs, linguistics and semantics, and the effects of how these codes come to define trends and shape cultures.  With methodologies stemming from anthropology and social sciences, we are able to uncover the semiotics that defines current generational trends. Here are a few examples.