Psychological Distance in German and English Brand Language of Eight International Brands

Abstract

Language offers additional insights to sentiment and content. The same content can be described with psychologically close or distant language. According to the Construal-Level Theory (Trope & Liberman, 2010), psychological distance influences decision-making. Seven of the eight examined brands psychologically approach customers with their English brand language but psychologically distance themselves from customers with their German brand language on Twitter. Only one brand shows no psychological distance difference between their English and German brand language on Twitter. Implications on decision-making and brand positioning are discussed.