Marketing Language Index: 'Better' Tops 13 Major Brands

Everything-PR's original Marketing Language Index pilot found that "better" is the most common of 19 tracked words in the introductory copy of 13 major consumer brands, appearing in 4 of them (30.8%). The October 27, 2026 audit also found that "good" appeared 5 times, and that "authentic," "premium" and "quality" appeared in none of the introductions reviewed.

Last updated: October 27, 2026

What are the key findings?

The Marketing Language Index pilot shows which broad, positive words some of the biggest consumer brands use first, and brand introductions are a core PR and marketing messaging choice.

• "Better" led with 4 of 13 brands and 6 total uses.
• "Good" was used 5 times, the second-highest total, including 3 uses in a single 28-word Nestlé excerpt.
• Authentic, premium and quality appeared in none of the 13 introductions.
• Across 485 words of excerpts, the 19 tracked words appeared 37 times, roughly one in every 13 words.

This is a verified 13-brand pilot, not a representative study of American marketing. A larger sample with documented inclusion rules is the next step for the Everything-PR Marketing Language Index.

What did the pilot find?

Every one of the 13 brands used at least one of the 19 tracked words, and "better" was the most widely shared. IKEA, Allbirds, TOMS and Coca-Cola each used it, for 4 of 13 brands (30.8%) and 6 total uses. Allbirds alone accounted for 3 of those uses in a 45-word excerpt.

"Good" appeared in 3 brands (LEGO, TOMS and Nestlé) for 5 total uses, while "global" and "world" each appeared in 3 brands (23.1%). Together they point to a shared vocabulary of progress, scale and optimism.

That shared vocabulary is a useful benchmark for PR and marketing teams. These are the words audiences are most likely to have already heard from other brands, which makes the proof points placed next to them a bigger part of the story.

Usage was not uniform. Coca-Cola used tracked words 6 times and LEGO 5 times, while Dove, Unilever and McDonald's each used just one tracked word in their excerpts.

Which words appeared most often?

"Better" ranked first among the 19 tracked words, ahead of "good," "global" and "world." The table ranks every word by the number of brands using it, then by total uses.

Total uses count every repeat inside an excerpt. Six words tie at 2 brands each: mission, people, best, future, inspired and purpose.

Which words did no brand use?

None of the 13 introductions used "authentic," "premium" or "quality." All three were on the tracked list, so a zero means the word did not appear in the excerpts reviewed.

Six more words appeared in just one brand each: trust (Dove), leading (McDonald's), innovation (Apple), sustainable (Coca-Cola), impact (LEGO) and community (Sephora).

The pilot tracked 19 preselected words, so it cannot say what else these brands wrote. It does show that the three product-focused words on the list went unused while broader words like "better" and "world" repeated. A brand that pairs a specific product fact with its mission has room to stand out.

How do the 13 brands compare?

Coca-Cola and LEGO used the most tracked words among the 13 brands, while Dove, McDonald's and Unilever used the fewest. The table lists each brand's category, excerpt length, tracked-word uses and the words found.

Two page notes matter for fair reading. The Nestlé and Unilever pages are global company pages rather than US pages, which may favor words like "global." Apple's page is its environment page, not a general company introduction.

Which pages were audited and when?

Everything-PR audited the 13 brand pages listed below on October 27, 2026, and recorded the excerpt length for each. The pages are live and may change after that date.

What can marketers take from it?

The pilot does not show that common words are ineffective, and using a familiar word is not a sign of weak marketing. It does give PR and marketing teams a practical checklist.

1. Put a number, date, product or place beside any broad word such as "better" or "good" in a headline.
2. Audit the first 30 to 50 words of the brand introduction. The excerpts in this pilot ran from 27 to 52 words.
3. Read competitors' introductions before rewriting your own, because the most common words are the ones audiences have likely heard from others.
4. Treat unused words as open ground. No pilot brand used "authentic," "premium" or "quality," but each needs a proof point to land. Everything-PR's look at the Rimowa brand marketing strategy shows how one brand built a premium position with sourced detail.
5. Pair a mission statement with a concrete description of what the brand makes or does. "Mission" appeared in 2 of 13 introductions.

Academic research adds useful context. A peer-reviewed corpus study by Bixi Jin in the journal Iberica (2022) analyzed 30 corporate social responsibility reports from 10 cosmetics companies and found that vague language in corporate reports serves communicative purposes such as persuasion and self-protection. That study looked at CSR reports, not website introductions, so it is context rather than confirmation of this pilot.

For wider context on how brands build distinct positions, see Everything-PR's guide to brand marketing in the AI era and its roundup of coffee brand marketing campaigns, which covers Starbucks.

How was the pilot run?

Everything-PR audited 13 purposefully selected major brands on October 27, 2026. The unit was each brand's introductory headline plus the first publicly rendered brand-description paragraph or paragraphs, manually transcribed for internal counting.

The 13 brands were chosen on purpose, not as a random sample. The 19 terms were preselected and include broad positioning language, not only negative "buzzwords." Matching was case-insensitive and used exact whole words, with no stemming or synonyms, and repeated uses within an excerpt were counted. A brand's share is the number of brands using a term at least once, divided by 13.

The audit used US English pages where accessible, except the Nestlé and Unilever pages, which are global company pages. The pilot cannot support claims about all US marketing, about which words are most used across full websites, or about industry-wide rankings. It audits short excerpts, not body text or entire sites. A defensible 100-brand study requires uniform extraction and documented inclusion rules before publication.