LANGUAGE

To slang or not to slang? That is the question for marketers

By our African Marketing Confederation News Team | 2025

Using slang identifies a social affiliation or particular relationship. Brands should beware of using it inappropriately.

How effective are slang words when used in marketing? A University of Texas at Dallas marketing professor and her colleagues recently discovered that the answer is not clear-cut.

The research is published in the October issue of the Journal of Marketing Research and authored by Dr Ying Xie, Professor of Marketing in the Naveen Jindal School of Management at the university, and several of her academic colleagues.

“We looked at slang as a linguistic element, as well as its social function,” Xie explains. “Slang identifies your social affiliation. It’s an identity that tells you who is in the group versus who is not in the group.

“For someone with whom you don’t have this relationship, slang might be considered inappropriate. We think that’s valuable insight in a marketing context.”

Two of Xie’s colleagues conducted several lab experiments to see how consumers reacted to slang use in social media brand campaigns.

Photo: Eze Joshua from Pexels

Based on those observations, Xie gathered and analysed ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ from the social platform X to study the phenomenon. The researchers also explored how brands used slang in their marketing efforts.

They found that slang words appeared in nearly 20% of brands’ social media posts, and 57% of brand managers for national and international campaigns said they had used slang in their campaigns.

Effectiveness of slang use depends on expectations and perceptions

Xie and her colleagues concluded that the effectiveness of slang use depends on consumer expectations and perceptions of a brand.

For example, when brands that are considered more formal or family oriented use slang in marketing, consumers react negatively and engage less with a social media post, the researchers found.

“Using slang can lower the consumer engagement with social media posts,” Xie observes. “A brand does not have that social relationship with you. Consumers who are not familiar with the brand don’t engage with it as a friend.

“Everybody knows a brand is a commercial entity with monetary motives. When they start using slang, consumers think, ‘Why are they talking to me like that? That is not my expectation. That’s not very authentic’.”

On the other hand, consumers who perceived entities or brands as more fun, trendy, edgy or quirky reacted less negatively to slang in marketing campaigns.

For example, researchers found that among energy drinks, Monster Energy, a more exciting brand, experienced less negative impact from slang use than a more formal brand.

The researchers also analysed how consumers perceived slang when influencers were involved. Because influencers tend to be social media personalities, they aren’t expected to be as formal as an official brand ambassador.

For example, for fitness equipment brand Peloton, consumers’ responsiveness to slang depended on the messenger.

“When the brand’s social media post used slang, the impact was insignificant, but when the influencer used it, engagement was boosted,” Xie says.

Other contributors to the research include Dr Bryce Pyrah, Assistant Professor of Marketing at the University of Minnesota; Dr Jing Wang, Professor of Marketing at the University of Iowa; and Yiyi Li, Assistant Professor of Marketing at UT Arlington.

You can find out more about the research here.