The Linguistic Construction of Trust and Credibility in Product Taglines

Abstract

Language serves as a powerful of persuasion and establishing credibility in day to day communication In contemporary saturated markets, product taglines serve as critical linguistic instruments for establishing brand credibility and consumer trust but despite their crucial importance, limited research is available examining the specific linguistic mechanisms through which taglines construct trust across different industry contexts. This gap necessitates a comprehensive investigation of how linguistic features correlate with perceived credibility in commercial communications. This study employed quantitative content analysis to examine 100 taglines from internationally recognised brands across six industry categories (Technology, Automotive, Food & Beverage, Sports & Apparel, Financial Services, and Beauty & Personal Care). Each tagline was systematically coded across 19 linguistic, rhetorical, and trust-related variables, including linguistic devices, trust strategies, modal verbs, temporal reference, pronoun usage, and credibility scores. Findings reveal that imperative constructions dominate (31%), with action imperatives and superlative claims achieving the highest credibility scores (8.12 and 8.51, respectively). Automotive brands demonstrated superior credibility (7.91), while taglines projecting "Very High" certainty significantly outperformed moderate certainty expressions. Industry-specific patterns emerged, with Financial Services emphasising partnership language and Technology brands favouring abstract, aspirational constructions. Practitioners should prioritise confident, assertive language while strategically calibrating linguistic features to industry-specific trust-building requirements.

Keywords: Tagline Linguistics; Brand Credibility; Trust Construction; Advertising Discourse