The linguistic business of marketing

A concern with language (in terms of discourse and how things are said) and languages (in terms of the choices between different languages and varieties) is at the heart of marketing functions and processes. For example, two core activities, segmentation of the mass market into targetable, manageable sub-markets, and differentiation, creating a specialist, loyal or niche market for a product or service by distinguishing it from other products or services, both involve large amounts of language work. In addition, a number of contemporary trends, e.g. fetishization and the rise of visuality; individualisation and customization; and co-construction and working consumers have actually served to heighten and intensify the role of language in marketing. The contemporary shift to the production and consumption of knowledge about goods means that the narration of purchases and experiences - before, during and after consumption - has come to be as important and valuable for consumers and for marketers as the product or experience itself, if not more so. This added-value in the current marketing era is largely dependent on consumers gifting their linguistic work.