Word choice in marketing and advertising is absolutely critical. When advertisers spend millions of dollars every year, you can bet they’ve tested every word they’re going to use. They want their word choices to psychologically lead you to believe that their product is the best, that it will change your life. Skillful advertisers can make us unconsciously absorb their message. They might even package an identical product with different words and phrases to reach a broader segment of the public.
Daryl Benn conducted a study on how advertisers use catchy word choices and phrases to sell different, but identical in effectiveness, brands of aspirin. He considers the following:
Brand A: Proclaims 100 percent pure, claims nothing is stronger. Benn notes that government testing also showed that no brand was weaker or less effective than the others.
Brand B: Advertises “speed that’s second to none; no other brand works faster.” The same government tests showed that “B” does not work faster than any of the others.
Brand C: Declares that it used an ingredient “that doctors recommend.” Government tests revealed that the “special ingredient” is nothing more than regular aspirin.
The word choice in these ads works because the positive connotations make us assume that each advertised brand is the best. Advertisers know that changing just one word in your ad can dramatically increase your response rate. One advertiser changed the word “repair” to “fix” and saw a 20 percent increase in response.
There are other words that advertisers use, which are known as “weasel words.” These words confuse your audience and don’t allow you to put an exact number in the advertiser’s claim. They let you justify and believe what you want. They are called “weasel words” because weasels are notorious for breaking into the chicken coop and sucking up the insides of the eggs without breaking the shell. The eggs look good but they are actually hollow and empty, like these words. Be careful with these words:
* Help
* May
* Possibly
*Improved
* Until
* Almost
* About
*Approximately
Probably the biggest challenge with word choice in marketing arises when multi-billion dollar corporations want to translate the right English word into the perfect equivalent in another language. The most famous translation-based marketing fiasco was the Chevy Nova. Translated into Spanish, Nova meant “No va”.
“Come Alive, You’re the Pepsi Generation” translated into Chinese means “Pepsi, bring your ancestors back from the grave.” When American Airlines wanted to advertise their new first-class leather seats in the Mexican market, they translated their “Fly In Leather” campaign literally, which meant “Fly Naked” in Spanish! Coors put their slogan, “Turn It Loose,” in Spanish, where it read as “Suffer from diarrhea.” The great success of the Association of Dairy Products with the program “Tienes leche?” campaign prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico City. It soon caught their attention that the Spanish translation read: “Are you lactating?”
An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed T-shirts for the Spanish market promoting the Pope’s visit. Instead of “Vi al Papa” (the Pope), the shirts read “Vi la papa” (the potato). Frank Perdue’s chicken catchphrase, “It takes a strong man to make a chicken tender”, was translated into Spanish as “It takes a horny man to make a chicken loving.” Coca-Cola’s name in China was first read as “Kekoukela”, meaning “bite the wax tadpole” or “wax-stuffed horse”, depending on the dialect. Scandinavian vacuum cleaner manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: “Nothing stinks like an Electrolux.”
