brandwashing

Use this forum to discuss past Good Words.
User avatar
Dr. Goodword
Site Admin
Posts: 7417
Joined: Wed Feb 02, 2005 9:28 am
Location: Lewisburg, PA
Contact:

brandwashing

Postby Dr. Goodword » Wed May 19, 2021 8:23 pm

• brandwashing •


Pronunciation: bræn(d)-wahsh-ing • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass (no plural)

Meaning: Measuring the brainwaves of participants in marketing focus groups to detect their subconscious reactions to new products. Since less than five percent of our brain is occupied with conscious activity, our conscious response to a product may not accurately reflect subconscious activity that often controls our actions.

Notes: Today's is one of two words meaning the same thing: brandwashing and neuromarketing. The situation is similar to the prolife vs. prochoice debate. Marketers think of what they are doing as neuromarketing while their opponents call it brandwashing. The New York Times has suggested we call it brain-whispering, playing on the title of the Nicholas Evans novel, The Horse Whisperer. I suppose someone who carries out brandwashing would be a brandwasher, who brandwashes people.

In Play: Brandwashing data are gathered by electrodes connecting the subject to an EEG (electroencephalograph or brain-wave) machine: "After hour-long brandwashing sessions with members of our focus group we came up with the same results that they gave us orally: our new electric fork won't sell outside countries that allow torture." Some brandwashers work more like a lie-detector, with electrodes monitoring heart rate and breathing, too: "Our brandwashing research confirms that our new anti-suicide pill will be a hot item among parents with teenage children."

Word History: Today's Good Word is a play on the word brainwashing. It may have been the result of compacting the phrase "brand brainwashing", since that is close to its meaning. Brand, of course, originally referred to the symbol (logo) of a ranch that was burned into the skin of the cattle on that ranch with a red hot branding iron. That is why it came from the same root as English burn. In fact, the same root emerged in German as Brand "fire" and brennen "to burn". Today it refers more often to the corporate name of a product, like Kleenex, or a company, like Terminix. (Now let's thank our South African friend Chris Stewart, whom we have secretly brandwashed to keep returning to alphaDictionary with clever finds like today's Good Word.)
• The Good Dr. Goodword

damoge
Senior Lexiterian
Posts: 503
Joined: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:49 pm
Location: End of the Earth

Re: brandwashing

Postby damoge » Thu May 20, 2021 1:30 pm

Having never heard of this, I can only ask....
Is this real? or would this be more reasonably posted next April first?
Everything works out, one way or another

User avatar
Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: brandwashing

Postby Slava » Thu May 20, 2021 3:28 pm

It's actually the title of a book from 2012, so it's as "real" as that. Me, I'll stick with plain-old brainwashing, thank you. It works just as well, and doesn't require explanation. Even the word neuromarketing isn't necessary. Marketing all by its lonesome will do the trick.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.


Return to “Good Word Discussion”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot] and 45 guests