Keep Positive Words Near Brands and Actions

Customers group nearby objects.

Two nearby objects can fuse into a single object.

Same with words.

Customers translate clusters of words, not individual words. A small $5 fee seems cheaper than a $5 fee because smallness infuses with the price (Rick et al., 2008).

Or compare these descriptions:

• Customers find that the chair is comfortable.
• Customers find the chair comfortable.

The second version conveys more comfort because chair and comfortable are closer together (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980).

Embrace Assurances

You can depict actions to be more desirable by including positive words nearby.

See a purchase button? A positive statement (e.g., Instant Access, 100% Secure) can infiltrate this mental imagery, depicting this behavior as more pleasant.

Which assurance is best? Try to validate the purchase.

Researchers tested different types of assurances at the largest fashion retailer in China.

Pressure Messages

• Supply - Only X products left
• Time - Deal ends in X hours
• Social - X people bought this item in the last 24 hours

Assurances

• Choice - Won't it be your best choice?
• Style - This item especially fits your casual style
• Fit - Check out the perfect size for you

Pressure messages boosted short-term sales, but they reduced long-term profit due to a sharp increase in returns:

Pressure-driven nudges slightly outcompete the assurance-initiated equivalents, as the former increase sales by 2.2 times, and the latter do so by 1.9 times… However, assurance nudges reduce product returns by more than 69.3% relative to the levels achieved with the former (Ghose et al., 2024, p. 519).

Avoid Negative Frames

In addition to keeping positive words near brands and actions, you should also push away negative images.

Sometimes copy will depict the absence of something harmful. Our product:

• Doesn’t leak.
• Has no BPA.
• Won’t scratch your car.

Yet customers need to imagine these negative events to understand the meaning (see Béna et al., 2023). Replace any negative images (e.g., won't damage skin) with a pleasant image (e.g., soft and gentle on skin) to maintain positive emotions.

Even healthy food should probably relocate fat free or low sodium to be further away because of these negative connotations (Mai & Hoffmann, 2015).

Or try morphing negative words into positive frames:

• Leak-proof
• BPA-free
• Scratch-free

Doesn’t leak implicitly conveys something leaking, but leak-proof conveys durable material.

But you can still include regular negations:

• Nike: There is no finish line.
• Coke: Can't beat the feeling.
• Google: Do no evil.

Brands get more social engagement with negations because these statements seem powerful and truthful (Pezzuti & Leonhardt, 2023).

• Béna, J., Mauclet, A., & Corneille, O. (2023). Does co-occurrence information influence evaluations beyond relational meaning?. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 152(4), 968.
• Coulter, K. S., & Coulter, R. A. (2005). Size does matter: The effects of magnitude representation congruency on price perceptions and purchase likelihood. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 15(1), 64-76.
• Ghose, A., Lee, H. A., Nam, K., & Oh, W. (2024). The effects of pressure and Self-Assurance nudges on product purchases and returns in online retailing: evidence from a randomized field experiment. Journal of Marketing Research, 61(3), 517-535.
• Rick, S. I., Cryder, C. E., & Loewenstein, G. (2008). Tightwads and spendthrifts. Journal of consumer research, 34(6), 767-782.
• Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). The metaphorical structure of the human conceptual system. Cognitive science, 4(2), 195-208.
• Mai, R., & Hoffmann, S. (2015). How to combat the unhealthy= tasty intuition: The influencing role of health consciousness. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 34(1), 63-83.