Beyond words: emoji patterns in cross-cultural branding

Abstract This study explores how brands and users communicate through emojis across culturally distinct markets, focusing on Turkish- and English-speaking users on social media platform X. It examines cross-cultural differences in emoji usage patterns, specifically their prevalence, diversity, preferences, and emotional meanings, by applying statistical and information theory methods to large-scale social media data collected over an extended period. Our analysis combines descriptive statistics with two empirical studies. The first examines differences in emoji frequency, richness, and preference between the two language groups. The second explores the emotional semantics of emojis by comparing their co-occurrence with emotion-related words, allowing us to assess cross-cultural variation in their emotional interpretation. The findings indicate that brands use more emojis in Turkish posts, whereas English-speaking users tend to use multiple emojis once they do. Although the most frequently used emojis show increasing convergence over time, the emotional meanings assigned to them vary, particularly for positive and neutral emojis, which display greater divergence than negative ones. These results suggest a shared but culturally distinct visual language of emotion in branding. This study enhances marketing communication theory by demonstrating that emoji usage embodies both universal and culturally specific trends in brand messaging. Unlike prior work that often contrasts Western and East Asian cultures, this research includes Turkey as an intermediary case, both as a moderately individualistic society and as an emerging market. By providing a comprehensive cross-cultural analysis of emoji use, the study offers evidence for the potential emergence of a global emoji language while emphasizing the importance of cultural context in interpretation. These insights are valuable for global brand managers seeking to tailor emoji strategies for culturally adaptive and emotionally compelling messaging.