Episode Five: Sign Value Part IThis episode discusses one of the most important concepts in marketing and branding: sign value. This is the first of a two-part series on this topic. In so many ways, sign value fuels our economy; the phrase is synonymous with branding; and cuts to the heart of marketing. I have always defined marketing as the discovery and management of meaning. Well, the meaning we work to discover, the meaning that has value, and the meaning that we struggle to manage, is symbolic in nature.