Brand language in the social media marketplace

Language is one of the core elements of branding. While marketing scholars have investigated brand language in various traditional marketing contexts such as advertising, little is known about the social media realm. With the present monographic dissertation, the author aims to offer new insights in this regard. This work focuses on internet slang, a form of language often used by both consumers and brands in the social media marketplace. Should brands use internet slang in an attempt to enhance brand relevance, or should they avoid it to reduce consumer inferences of co-optation? Bridging classic theories on impression management with the study of language, this dissertation starts by proposing a new conceptualization of internet slang. Most importantly, it studies the consequences of brands’ adoption of this language using a multi-method investigation that combines text analysis of thousands of field data, statistical modeling, and controlled preregistered experiments. The findings illustrate an inverted U-shaped relationship between internet slang intensity and consumer responses. The curve is flattened by higher brand trust, higher brand coolness, and non-promotional message goal. Furthermore, the studies demonstrate that the curvilinear effect of internet slang intensity on consumer responses is driven by two simultaneous underlying mechanisms: On one hand, increasing internet slang intensity elicits perceptions of message playfulness; on the other hand, high internet slang intensity heightens consumers’ persuasion knowledge. These results offer new insights into brand language and the debate concerning brands capitalizing on or opposing trends. Additionally, this dissertation represents the first work to offer actionable insights regarding the optimal internet slang intensity to be used in marketing messages, thus assisting marketers in crafting successful communications.