Do words speak louder than actions?

Language is all around us. It’s the name you pick for your new product, the vocabulary you use in your latest advertising campaign, and the way your consumers talk about your brand on social media. The words we use matter. They influence the way we think about all aspects of society, how people relate to one another and to brands. At Magenta, we know that understanding the language people use can provide in-depth insight into how even the smallest change in language can have big implications.

We draw on discourse analysis, which is a method that has been used for a long time in academic disciplines such as psychology, media and communications. It seeks to analyse the language we use, how it might differ according to the context, and what implications this might have at a broader societal level. Magenta has developed this approach for market research, to allow us to provide more in-depth insight into consumer behaviour and their relationship with brands.

To illustrate the usefulness of this approach, we will discuss three potential opportunities to use discourse analysis to give additional insight into consumers and brands.

---

1.     WHAT CAN DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TELL US ABOUT BRANDS?

Discourse analysis enables us to examine the key words used about a product or a brand. However, it is more than simply ‘spotting’ frequently used words, it’s thinking about the types, associations and context.

Types of words: for example, are they emotional or practical, scientific or free-thinking?

Associations: do they associate scientific words with trustworthiness, or emotional words with caring?

Context: are they only using words around emotion when talking about awareness of a product compared to using scientific words when they talk about actually buying a product?

We can then consider the core categories (or discourses) these words fit into. What we particularly love about this approach is that it allows us to look for any potential differences between cohorts in the language used: do men or women use more emotional words about your brand, or do different age groups associate your brand with trustworthiness for example?  We can then offer recommendations for the types of language to use depending on the different cohorts.

When exploring caffeine-based drinks we found differences in the words frequent and infrequent consumers use to describe the same category of products. For example, frequent users are more likely to use words such as routine, need, pick-me-up, and craving compared with infrequent users who describe it as a treat, boost, energy, last resort and a buzz. This understanding allows us to make recommendations that will increase category appeal to infrequent users, such as through emphasising it as a treat, without alienating frequent users.

---

2.     USING DISCOURSE ANALYSIS TO UNDERSTAND CONSUMERS

We know that individuals talk about themselves and others in certain ways, whether that’s about a contentious societal issue or their relationship to a brand. Discourse analysis allows us to construct a picture of your consumers based on the language they use. So rather than looking at the language used by pre-existing groups (such as men and women), we develop typologies of consumers based on how they talk about themselves and how others talk about them. This method is great for building pictures of different consumers, and we’re able to provide advice on what language different consumer groups are more likely to respond positively to.

A breastfeeding advocacy organisation wanted to know how to improve breastfeeding rates amongst mothers who might be reluctant to do so. Analysis of online comments by new mothers enabled the construction of typologies of different mothers. As a result, we were able to advise the organisation that the language used to appeal to mothers who were already likely to breastfeed was off-putting to other types of mothers and should be avoided to encourage other mothers to breastfeed.

---

3.     TRANSFORMING CONVERSATIONS WITH CONSUMERS

In some situations, it may be necessary to understand the broader societal context of a message or brand. Using discourse analysis, we can examine the language used by consumers to uncover the underlying norms or expectations around an issue, product or brand. When we’re doing this type of analysis, we look to see what the dominant discourse is, the one that most consumers use. But the beauty of this approach is that we’re also looking to see if there are one or more competing discourses – those which either might seek to challenge the dominant discourse, or challenge each other. By mapping out the different discourses we can provide advice for clients on how to transform the conversations they have with consumers and that consumers have about them.

A board game designer wanted to understand whether the language used around board gaming might be putting people off taking up the hobby Interviews with users and non-users found a dominant discourse of board gaming not being seen as ‘cool’. However, there are two strong competing discourses, that board gaming is a very social activity, and that it teaches a variety of skills. There is a minority discourse that board gaming is simply for children. For board game designers to increase acceptability of the hobby they could: 1) use brand influencers to enhance credibility; 2) use language that emphasises the sociability of gaming; 3) highlight the range of games available for all ages.

At Magenta, we’re aiming to start the conversation about discourse analysis in market research. So, if you would like to hear more or if you do have a research question you think might benefit from this approach, please get in contact for a chat with sarah@magentaresearch.co.uk.