The importance of language: A comparison of consumer and academic definitions of mindfulness

Abstract

This article created a consumer and an academic mindfulness dictionary to better understand consumers', academics', and marketers' perceptions of mindfulness. A consumer survey and text mining methods were used to create the consumer dictionary, and an extensive review of mindfulness definitions was used for the academic dictionary. The consumer dictionary described mindfulness more in terms of affect and resulting outcomes, while the academic dictionary was more cognitive and process-oriented. The dictionaries were then applied to marketers' communications from a database of 883 company descriptions that were classified as mindful. The results showed that marketers used more terms from the consumer dictionary than the academic dictionary. The article discusses the potential for consumers to be vulnerable to marketers' communication strategies, characterized as McMindfulness and mindful washing, that can impact consumers' well-being and brand relationships.