Psycholinguistics: The Art of Making Brands Feel Good.

 

Words mean things. Each one has an emotion attached. You may not recognize those feelings. But your subconscious does. (For more on how the subconscious works in advertising, please see June 26 blog entry Queen Mother of Key Market )

That’s why there’s psycholinguistics. By textbook definition, psycholinguistics is the study of the relationships between linguistic behavior and psychological processes, including the process of language acquisition.

For you and me, this is a tool used in making brands feel good.

The use of psycholinguistics is prevalent in advertising. Large ad agencies that rep accounts with huge budgets spend a ransom on psychographic and psycholinguistic research. Great attention is paid to subjects’ reaction to the brand; how well was it received and did it evoke the desired reaction.

This is especially key in redirecting a brand’s perception.

Here’s a classic example of how psycholinguistics was applied in making a brand seem more user friendly:

Seat belts.

Until the early 1960’s, seat belts were an option on most automobiles. Having them already installed was not a selling point. Studebaker learned that lesson. It wasn’t until 1968 that auto manufacturers were federally mandated to install them on all new cars from that point forward.

Car builders were fearful of the market’s potential backlash. The average car buyer not only grew up without them, being forced to wear them went against their sense of independence and self-reliance. The National Transportation Safety Board invested millions in ad campaigns to help consumers better embrace seat belts.

The attempt was a huge failure.

Television ads showed car crashes in test labs. They depicted dismembered mannequins flying through windshields and out windows. Research later showed that using fear as a motivator caused an even greater backlash than the seat belts themselves.

It was in 1972 that the automotive industry made a discovery based on their own market research.

Women were becoming a greater force in the car buying market. Even in the cases where they were not the purchaser, their influence was just as strong. Most female car purchasers were married and had children. Therefore, it only made sense to appeal to their wants, needs, and desires. The largest of those demands was a need for safety.

That’s when psycholinguistics was applied and saved the day.

Seat belts were rebranded. From that point forward, they became safety restraints.

During psycholinguistic studies, researchers discovered that just the word safety evoked a sense of comfort with women. They liked safety restraints. It helped protect their kids in the backseat.

How can that multi-billion-dollar lesson by the auto industry apply to us in local market radio?

We don’t have those sized budgets for that level of intense research.

We don’t need it. There’s a simplified version of psycholinguistics we can all apply.

My explanation is through this example. Recently, I helped develop a campaign for a local entertainment establishment, The Jasper Axe House.

Axe houses are a growing trend across the country. If you’re not familiar, they are places that allow customers to throw axes at targets.

The feel part of the brand wasn’t in the establishment’s name. It was creating brands for their Thursday and Weekend specials. Utilizing simplified psycholinguistics, those names -or brands -should accomplish three main things.

        

            1 The name must feel good to the listener. In this case, create a feeling of fun.

            2 The name must imply that brand usage is for the listener’s benefit.

            3 The name must evoke entertaining the idea of trying the brand, then adopting it.

 

Here are two 30 second ads I came up with. As you read, see if you can discern why we chose this strategy.

 

(ANNCR:) GOT AN AXE TO GRIND? 

 

(WOMAN: screaming from a distance) MY EX WON'T LEAVE ME ALONE!

 

(ANNCR:) IS THERE SOMETHING THAT HACKS YOU OFF?

 

(MAN:) MY NEIGHBORS DOG KEEPS POOPING IN MY YARD!

 

(ANNCR:) THIS THURSDAY, GIVE YOUR PROBLEMS A FEW WHACKS AT THE JASPER AXE HOUSE. EVERY THURSDAY FROM 5 TILL 10 IS THROWDOWN THURSDAY. BLOW OFF SOME STEAM TOSSING AXES AT YOUR FRUSTRATIONS. DURING THROWDOWN THURSDAYS, JASPER AXE HOUSE CUTS TEN PERCENT OFF ---UH, THE PRICE, THAT IS. OR YOU CAN ALWAYS GO CRAZY THROWING PAINT AT YOUR FRIENDS IN THE SPLATTER ROOM. THE JASPER AXE HOUSE, LOCATED IN THE JASPER ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT.  

 

And….

 

(ANNCR:) SO, YOU'RE READY TO SEVER EMOTIONAL TIES.

 

(ANGRY WOMAN:) I HATE HIM!

 

(ANNCR:) DON'T SPLIT HAIRS

 

(ANGRY WOMAN:) AND HE SNORES!

 

(ANNCR:) THIS WEEKEND, GIVE YOUR FRUSTRATIONS THE AXE AT THE JASPER AXE HOUSE. EVERY FRIDAY AND SATURDAY IT'S "GIVE-A-WHACK-WEEKENDS." GIVE ALL YOUR FRUSTRATIONS THE AXE. OR, BRING A FEW FRIENDS AND ENTER THE SPLATTER ROOM AND TOSS PAINT AT EACH OTHER. IT'S A GREAT WAY TO RID YOURSELF OF WEEKDAY FRUSTRATION.

 

(ANGRY WOMAN:) AND HIS DIRTY SOCKS ARE EVERYWHERE!

 

(ANNCR:) "GIVE-A-WHACK-WEEKENDS: ONLY AT THE JASPER AXE HOUSE. OPEN FRIDAYS 5 TILL MIDNIGHT AND FOUR-TILL MIDNIGHT SATURDAYS. IN THE JASPER ENTERTAINMENT DISTRICT

 

By our assessment, Throwdown Thursday and Give-a-Whack Weekends fit that three-point criteria.

As stated in previous posts; what we do isn’t rocket science. It’s people science. The key to applying simplified psycholinguistics is putting yourself in the mind of your target. It's simple. Don't be afraid to be human.

Thank you again for your precious time.

Mike –The Reel Architect.