How sentence structure affects consumer behaviour

New research reveals we are better off talking about a product’s users than the product itself when sharing a statistic. Here’s why.

Let’s say you are marketing a (fictitious) face cream called Oils of Soils.

You can either say:

• “Oils of Soils face cream improved the skin of nine out of 10 people”; or
• “Nine out of 10 people improved their skin by using Oils of Soils face cream”.

The nine out of 10 stat is the same, but how we talk about it is different.

In the first case, we make the product the subject of the statement, emphasising that Oils of Soils improved the skin of nine out of 10 people. 

In the second, we instead make the users the subject of the statement, sharing that “nine out of 10 people improved their skin”.

Does varying the subject of the statement make a difference in how persuasive the message is?

Turns out, yes.