Market Psychology: The Words That Brands Use to Get Our Attention

There’s no denying that we all live in a material world. While our purchases and consumption habits are far from the most important and meaningful components of our lives, they sure do take up a huge amount of our time.

According to Forbes, the average person now sees more than 10,000 advertisements every single day. This means that it is more than like that you have already seen thousands of advertisements today before reading this and that you probably don’t remember most (or any) of them.

In order to cut through all of this noise, many brands will resort to the basic principles of psychology to capture our attention and attempt to make a real connection with the view. The most powerful way that they do this is not with images, but with words.

Understanding the words that brands commonly use to influence consumer psychology is important, as it tells us a lot about what we value and what drives us. Let’s take a closer look at some of the main words brands use to get our attention, with some real-world examples thrown in.

Imagine

“Imagine” is an incredibly powerful word in brand psychology. It opens up the viewer’s mind to new possibilities and new scenarios that a product could bring into their life. Telling the viewer to “imagine” is inviting them to conceive of a better future, or a problem being solved. “Imagine” is used every day in marketing, but one particularly illustrative example comes from the travel booking company Expedia, which invites the audience to “imagine the places we’ll go – together”.

Now

“Now” conjures up an instant sense of urgency and immediacy. It tells you that, whatever problem you might be dealing with, the solution is at hand. “Now” might also be used in marketing psychology to ground the product or service within your current daily life, so that you can see it as applicable to your needs.

The word “now” can also be used to imply quick gratification with delayed costs, with the platform Klarna using its “buy now, pay later” marketing to great effect.

Believe

To “believe” in something is to hope for something truly better. It is to summon upon your reserves of optimism and make something you want to materialise through sheer force of will. In marketing “believe” is used to invite customers to take a leap of faith in a brand, with promises that they will not be disappointed. One of the most well-known examples of this is the TV broadcaster Sky’s “believe in better” slogan, which conflates its services with an aspiration to have the very best in life.

You

Probably the oldest and most powerful word in marketing psychology ever. When a brand is referring to “you”, it is making things personal. This word is used to illustrate that a brand has done its research and knows what you want, and why you want it.

Every brand uses this to some extent, but a great example can be found at the casino games platform Betway. On its homepage, Betway uses the word “you” 25 times in total, connecting all of its slots and card games to its target audience to emphasise that Betway knows exactly what they want.

Help

“Help” is a particularly interesting word in marketing psychology, because it flips our common understanding of consumerism on its head and premises a different kind of relationship between the brand and the customer. “Help” is an invitation. It implies that a brand is here to assist you, rather than to simply sell you something and that they are invested in your needs.

“Help” is used everywhere in marketing, but nowhere more so than in the real estate industry. Go on any real estates website, such as Rightmove, Zillow, or Hoxtons, and you will see slogans such as “we can help you get moving”, or “let us help you move”.

Together

“Together” has a similar psychological implication to the world “help”. It implies a levelling of the relationship between the brand and the customer. It suggests that the act of making a purchase with a brand is a collaborative one, one that marks the beginning of an ongoing relationship between the two.

One great example of this in action comes from the beer company Heineken, which launched its own “better together” campaign back in 2020. This campaign, which is aimed at the social aspects of coming together to watch the football, positions Heinekin beer as the glue which brings people together. By buying this product, you are “together” with the brand and, by extension, your friends.

Words are incredibly powerful tools that influence how we think and perceive the world at every level. As these brand psychology examples show, all it takes is the right combination of letters to convince people to make a purchase.