Sparkles of Textese in Marketing

Now what is this “Textese”?!!

It is also known as txt-speak, txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto, texting language, txt lingo, SMSish, txtslang,or txt talk.

‘Textese’ is also commonly known as the Gen Y language. We are the inventors and the sellers. To write a huge paragraph in a small line is something worth appreciating. ‘Textese’ has become an integral part of our communicating. It not only makes a gruesome conversation more fun but revealing too! That is what the marketing motto is. “Revealing, sellable, attractive and catchable”. To sell a product or to establish a business the first step to the customer or establishment in the market is through the human senses and to do so if the same mode of communication is amplified then that becomes more convenient.

Therefore the “AD” world is using it to make it more catchy, cost and space saving. For example, an advertisement of a book uses the SMS language: EAT RIGHT 4 YOUR TYPE.

Companies believe that to speak the language of your customer is the easiest way to capture the market. Unilever’s advertisement for their novel range of deodorant for teenage girls uses the phrase “OMG!  Moments. “David Lang, president of the team who created the advertisement commented that they desired to bring across the impression that they identify with youth culture and discourse.

Many other companies like McDonald’s have also attempted to pursue the teenage market by using SMS language abbreviations in their commercials. McDonald’s in Korea has an online video commercial which concludes with: “r u ready?”

Remember: “You can have brilliant ideas, but if you cannot get them across, your ideas will not get you anywhere”-Lee Iacocca

Contributed by Trishagni Sen ( Class of 2014, IBS Hyderabad)

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