the ISFC39 Proceedings - International Systemic-Functional ...

Papers from the 39th ISFCSFL and language brandingSusana Murcia BielsaUniversidad Autónoma de MadridSpainsusana.murcia@uam.esAbstractSystemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) has many applications, but its application to language branding is notvery well known. When we talk about how brands are represented, we normally think about the images thatprovide the brand’s visual identity: generally through ads, logos, colour scheme, or simply the look of theproduct. However, brand identity is also conveyed through language. Language branding refers to how languageis used in corporate communications to provide or reinforce a particular brand identity (e.g. adventurous, safe,innovative, prestigious, modern). Language branding is especially interesting in the case of companies whichprovide services, rather than material products, because the relationship with the customer is mainly establishedthrough regular communications. This paper will show how, following the techniques proposed in Delin (2005),SFL is successfully used in language branding work carried out for some Spanish companies, namely a bank anda health insurance company. Various aspects of SFL have been found useful in language branding, includingtransitivity, reference, formality vs. informality, and appraisal stance. In addition to providing a general overviewof language branding, I will provide specific examples extracted from Spanish language audits and from brandedlanguage recommendations – which are generally known in the field as Tone of Voice manuals.1 IntroductionThe ways companies interface with their customers have evolved greatly in the past century,from a focus on just the product in the first half of the 20 th century, through a focus on brandfrom the 1950’s onwards, to a focus in the early 21 st century on how a brand is createdthrough the series of experiences that consumers undergo involving the brand (Diller et al.,2005: 6-7). The practice of branding as we know it today is intimately related to the notion ofbrand identity or brand personality and is widely used in the world:most brands – at least to their owners – are motivated by some explicit statement of their position: aset of characteristics, traits, or behaviours that expresses what is unique or distinctive about thebrand. (my bold) (Delin, 2005:8)It is, therefore, this identity - which is associated with particular brand values - thatdifferentiates one company from its competitors; for example, a company’s identity might beassociated to the values ‘new and innovative’ while its competitors might choose to be ‘safeand secure’.Brand identity has traditionally been conveyed through what is known in the field as thebrand’s visual identity – all the mechanisms that allow a brand to express its brand valuesvisually, e.g. logo, colour scheme, typography, images and also layout. In fact, up to quiterecently, most companies only developed their visual identity. The last few years, however,have seen an increase in the interest and development of what has been termed verbal identity(Simmons, 2000; Allen and Simmons, 2009) – the expression of brand values throughlanguage, or what is known in the field as a brand tone of voice (ToV). Other works (e.g.Delin 2005) prefer using the term language branding to refer to how language is used incorporate communications in order to provide or reinforce a particular brand identity (e.g.adventurous, safe, innovative, prestigious, modern). Obviously, linguistics and, as Delin(2005) shows, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) in particular can make a greatcontribution to the development of branded language. This application of SFL to language147