Brands, Don’t Try Too Hard: How Internet Slang Impacts Evaluations of Brand Messages
(A2024-119555)

AUTHORS

Matilde Rapezzi, University of Bologna; Gabriele Pizzi, University of Bologna; Peeter Verlegh, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, School of business and Economics

ABSTRACT

Brands can strive for relevance by incorporating internet slang into their social media messages, but how much internet slang should they use? Building on identity signaling and persuasion knowledge, the current research combines text analysis of thousands of Twitter data with controlled experiments to study the effect of internet slang on consumers’ evaluations of brand messages. The findings illustrate an inverted U-shaped relationship between internet slang intensity and message evaluations. This relationship is flattened by higher brand trust and non-promotional message intent. Furthermore, the studies demonstrate that the negative effect of high internet slang intensity on message evaluations is driven by consumers’ heightened persuasion knowledge. That is, high internet slang intensity increases the salience of brands’ manipulative intent. These results assist marketers in crafting successful marketing messages while leveraging internet language trends such as internet slang.