Love in language or love as a language? We all love the word, the feeling, the idea, but how does “love” appear in language when it comes to advertising? Brands have used the word love for decades to convey emotions or trigger engagement. But how has that changed with the pandemic? Do we love the word love more this year than in years past?
Alexandra Mondalek, a reporter for Business of Fashion, tweeted that the word love has been appearing more this season, and many Twitter users seem to agree. “I’ve seen it everywhere,” one person commented. “Gap has been doing it for 20 years [minimum],” another person responded.
So, is Mondalek correct? Are fashion and apparel brands really using the word love more in the past year than others preceding it? We raise you a follow-up question: Did people also respond to the word love more in 2021 than in prior years?
The details are in the data
We decided to do the digging for you. And turns out, we happen to have just the right details to answer this question from this past year’s data.
We examined data from more than 10 retailers in the fashion and apparel industry spanning from fast fashion to luxury fashion across the U.S., Europe and Canada, for the months October through December 2021 compared to the same period in 2020.
Persado data shows 4% of all fashion and apparel messages dispatched between Oct. 2021 through Dec. 2021 contained the word love in 2021 and 4% for the same time period in 2020. So, year over year, we have not seen an increase in frequency of the word.
That said, the way the word love gets used in messaging is different this year than in years past in fashion and apparel. Rather than using love to point to a product (i.e., “you’ll love these new jeans”), we are using love in the context of intimacy more this year than ever before (i.e., “a little love from us” or “to our beloved customers”).
See the difference? Of all messages sent using the word love during Oct.-Nov. 2021, 33% used the word in the context of intimacy rather than to describe a product, compared to 8% for the same time period in 2020.
This suggests that perhaps the word love is getting noticed more this year because of the new context in which it is used. Are your spidey senses tingling from all the subliminal messaging? Brands are using this to convey the sentiment: We care about you.
Love in “context”
The conversation is valid—it does appear that retail marketing campaigns are leaning on more intimate messaging to connect with their audiences than in prior years. So, really, it’s not about the word, but how you use it. Go figure. Love would be complicated, right?
So, let’s talk about context. When love is used in its usual context, it’s in relation to a product, and would be classified with the emotion of excitement or language that denotes positive news with enthusiastic delivery. Examples of love in the context of excitement would be:
- Cozy sweaters you will absolutely LOVE
- Our most loved gift sets are here
- You’ll love wearing these boots *everywhere*
Has the pandemic made us mushy? Maybe. In this newer framing, brands are using love in the context of the emotion, intimacy or emotional language that implies a familiar relationship with the customer. Some examples of love in the context of intimacy are:
- Share the love with your loved ones
- A timeless piece they will love forever
- We love cheering you on
Love in the month of February
It’s highly expected that this reliance on the use of love with the context of intimacy will bleed into Valentine’s Day communications. Last year, retailers relied more heavily on intimacy than in the past and given how important intimacy was during the holiday season, we don’t anticipate this trend stopping. This Valentine’s Day, expect language such as:
- Sent with lots of love
- A little love goes a long way
- Love, Us
We also expect to see love surface in the context of gratitude:
- Because we love you
- You deserve a little love
- Just showing you some love
Gratitude language, or the expression of appreciation and affection in a personal way, delivered incredible value to retailers over the holidays. It goes hand in hand with intimacy, focusing the love on people rather than products.
Who knew personal messages could be so effective? We expect “love” to be all over marketing this month, and it might just catch your eye because it’s a different type of love language than we’re used to.
What your customers love about love
The data shows that during the holiday season, intimacy was a top three performing emotion garnering the most responses from customers, while excitement fell below in performance.
So, what does this mean? When brands frame campaigns with the word love used in the context of intimacy, customers resonated with the brand more. Retailers be warned. Your customers are noticing and responding to this shift in language—and Mondalek’s tweet is the perfect example of this.
