It happens almost every time I finish a focus group or in-depth interview with Brazilians, I catch myself saying the same thing to our clients: “Brazilians talk a lot!” And that’s because, well, it’s this simple: we love to talk!
I am from Brazil, so I can say this with confidence - we do talk more than your average “chatty Kathy”.
As a trilingual moderator speaking fluent English, Spanish and Portuguese, I am constantly reminded of the power of language as a cultural pillar for self-expression and identity. Communicating in your own language opens the door to emotional expressions that don’t travel across borders, and those are the priceless nuances we can unveil for brands when it comes to multi-country research studies.
That love for talking is common all over Latin America, but seems a bit more prominent in Brazil. For those Brazilians who “talk a lot”, this emotional dialect is almost more important than the actual words they are using to communicate.
According to the second edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary, there are 171,476 words in current use for the English Language. The latest edition of the equivalent dictionary in Brazil, The Aurelio Dictionary, lists approximately 437,000 words in Portuguese. The main difference? Expressions are added to the Brazilian dictionary to accomodate all those emotions and multi-ways to say the same things.
Latin America was built on the romantic languages of Spanish and Portuguese, where emotion plays such an important role in communication that it could have its own dialect to go hand in hand with spoken words. For those Brazilians who “talk a lot”, this emotional dialect is almost more important than the actual words they are using to communicate. Words are like the wheels for emotions; and conversations are like the vehicles that move people around in all areas of their lives.
We can see this clearly when we translate any market research instrument from English to Portuguese. For example, if I have a discussion guide designed for a 60-minute interview in English, I know that the same interview, no questions added, no edits made, will be at least 70-minutes long in Portuguese. The difference is in those words that carry all that extra emotion; expressions that in English are quick to communicate require more words and interjections to say the same thing in Portuguese. Asking the right questions is “ground zero” in market research, so understanding those nuances goes a long way.
Information paralysis, or word overload, takes a Latin American expert to really sort out the key elements. We can uncover a wealth of valuable information for brands, identify tactical feedback, and shine a light on powerful stories to express relevancy, engagement and relatability. All these are key insights for brands to succeed in a market like Brazil.
According to business data platform Statista, Brazil ranks #4 worldwide for number of users of Facebook with 116 million users, and when it comes to WhatsApp (where the real talking happens online) Brazil ranks #2 worldwide with 118.5 million users, behind only India.
This is just a glimpse at the power of communication in Brazil - all that talking, it happens every day, all the time, with pretty much everyone.
More data from Statistica shows staggering numbers of social media usage for Brazil, with about two-third of the population active on social media today (2022), and a projection of 84% of the country being active on social media by the year 2026 - that’s about 180 million people, talking online, all at the same time!
Now, it’s not just about talking, it’s about connecting. All that talking works as the most powerful communication channel for a brand in Brazil.
Brazilians connect to brands by the way they communicate. The closer a brand gets to the emotional drivers behind Brazilians’ behaviors, the better it will perform. When that connection is successful, engagement can skyrocket, awareness can grow, increased credibility and brands can find precious spaces in the hearts and minds of these consumers.
YouTube music channel Canal KondZilla is the most subscribed channel in Brazil, with approximately 65 million subscribers. The number two YouTube channel is called “Whinderssonnunes”, with nearly 44 million subscribers. After these, there are two other channels featured amongst the top 5 most subscribed to in Brazil that are run by none other than two siblings, amassing roughly another 75 million subscribers between the two of them.
When companies hit that right tone within their communication in Brazil and all over Latin America, they will garner a good understanding of the consumer and the digital localization and local marketing. This is where brands will see real growth.
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