Metaphors and imagery in brand language
What happens in the reader's head when they encounter a metaphor
Studies show four stable effects of metaphor in text. It facilitates understanding through multiple associations — the reader completes the meaning themselves, without waiting for a direct explanation. It increases trust in the speaker: figurative speech is perceived as a person's speech, not a document. It reduces counter-arguments: it is harder to argue with an image than with a thesis. And it creates a sense of social proximity, because a metaphor requires a shared cultural code between the author and the reader.
But the effect is non-linear, and this is where the divergence between theory and practice in copywriting begins. Let us imagine a scale from simple to complex:
Too simple (stereotype) → Optimal zone → Too complex (loss of meaning)
"Our team is a family" — this is the left edge of the scale: the image is read in a fraction of a second, but there is no pleasure from the puzzle, the brain marks the phrase as advertising trash. "We are patching holes where there used to be gaps" — the middle: the reader spends half a second decoding and gets slight satisfaction. "Our product is a quantum superposition of possibilities for your business" — the right edge: the effort to decode exceeds the benefit, and the thought is lost together with the interest in the text. At the same time, the audience with high engagement in the topic has a narrower optimal zone — it is more harmful to offer even successful but excessive images to experts than to newcomers.
How to incorporate a metaphor into the text so that it does not stick out
The main mistake of a copywriter is to insert a metaphor as a ready-made formula instead of unfolding it with verbs and actions. 'Our service is a bridge between the client and the bank' sounds like a slogan from a presentation. 'We build bridges where there was once a cliff' works better because the metaphor is embedded in the action, not named directly.
- One metaphor for the entire text. Mixing images (such as 'bridge', 'engine', 'compass' in one paragraph) is the most common technical error, and it confuses the reader more than the absence of a metaphor altogether.
- The metaphor is introduced gradually, not from the first line. The reader needs time to accept the image before the text begins to use it as a basis.
- The metaphor works through verbs, not through noun-labels. A label is easy to read as an advertising stamp, while action is more difficult.
- A text with a metaphor must always be checked by ear. What looks beautiful on paper often sounds false when read aloud — and this is the first signal of stiffness.
Where the metaphor begins to hide the meaning instead of revealing it
There is a simple diagnostic question: does the metaphor require separate explanation. If yes — it is already overloading the text, because a good metaphor works without a footnote. The second signal is when, after reading, the reader cannot answer what they are being asked to do: the image has taken attention away from the call to action.
A telling example is the metaphor with the hummingbird as a symbol of fast service. The idea seemed logical at the briefing level: a small, fast, agile bird is a metaphor for instant service. But in reality, the hummingbird can hover in air almost motionless, feeding from one flower for hours, and in mass perception, the bird is associated more with fragility and grace than with transaction speed. The audience found the image 'beautiful, but unclear what it's about' — the metaphor required decoding through an advertising video, meaning it failed the basic test: without a footnote, it didn't work. The conclusion is simple: a metaphor must rely on the most obvious, stereotypical property of the image in the audience's culture, not on a fact from an ornithology handbook known to only a few.
When a metaphor works differently for different segments
The same image can be interpreted diametrically opposite in different audience groups — and this is not a rarity, but a systemic risk for any brand with a wide audience. 'Jump' for startups is about risk and growth, for 55+ audience — about trauma and recklessness. 'Predator' in B2B-context sounds like a compliment for the sales department, but as a toxic culture for the HR brand.
A working algorithm of alignment looks like this:
- Conduct an analysis of the cultural code of each key segment: what associations does the image carry in this group, is there a historical or linguistic context that changes the valence of perception.
- Test the metaphor separately on each segment — through focus groups, short surveys or A/B on real traffic, if segments intersect with different landing pages.
- If perception diverges by plus or minus one side (the image is neutral or slightly positive everywhere) — the metaphor can be kept, slightly adapting the formulation for each channel.
- If perception diverges diametrically — select a priority segment by revenue volume or strategic importance and adjust the image to it, or abandon the metaphor in favor of literal text where the risk of misinterpretation is higher than the benefit of imagery.
Approach to metaphors by formats
Format dictates not only the length of the text but also the acceptable density of imagery. What works in a blog post falls apart on a billboard by the road.
| Format | Conditions for success | Frequency of metaphors | Type | Example of an error |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The metaphor should be readable within 1–2 seconds, without caption | 1 for the entire post | Explicit | The metaphor requires reading three paragraphs of caption to 'unfurl' | |
| The audience is older and values a detailed explanation of the image | 1 on text, can be expanded in a comment | Hidden, with partial explanation | Too youth-oriented slang image, not understandable to the main audience of the platform | |
| Blog | There is time to develop the metaphor through several paragraphs and examples | 1–2 related metaphors for the article | Hidden | The metaphor is introduced in the headline but not used in the body of the text |
| A sales page | The metaphor should not compete with CTA for attention | 1, and only in the block with an emotional message | Explicit but brief | The image occupies the first screen entirely, and the action button is on the third |
| The metaphor works in the subject line and the first line of the email, otherwise the email will not be opened | 1 on the letter | Explicit | The metaphor in the letter's theme is not related to its content — the reader feels deceived | |
| OOH (outdoor advertising) | Reads in 2–3 seconds at speed, without text hint | 1, as simple as possible | Explicit, literal | The metaphor requires knowledge of a rare cultural fact — like with the hummingbird |
How to measure the effectiveness of a metaphor
A metaphor cannot be evaluated by eye — 'liking' and 'working' are different categories. An A/B test is needed: one version of the text with a metaphor, another — literal, with an identical message and call to action. The difference should be only in one element, otherwise the result cannot be explained solely by imagery.
- CTR — if the metaphorical headline increases clicks by 10-15% relative to the literal one, the image reduces resistance to the text, as the theory suggests.
- Time spent on the page — an increase in the indicator indicates that the reader engaged in decoding the image and continued reading; a decrease — the metaphor pushed the reader away at the start.
- Conversion to the target action — the ultimate judge. A metaphor that is liked but does not convert better than the literal text does not justify the risk: beauty does not replace results.
- Shares and reposts — a metaphor that works like a story is more often shared: the indicator well captures the effect of 'social proximity' from the first section.
- Comments in social networks — a quality signal: if people in the comments ask 'but what did you mean?', the metaphor has failed the test of self-sufficiency.
Example of interpretation: CTR increased, but conversion dropped — a typical scenario when the metaphor lures with a click, but not
What happens in the reader's head when they encounter a metaphor
Studies show four stable effects of metaphor in text. It facilitates understanding through multiple associations — the reader completes the meaning themselves, without waiting for a direct explanation. It increases trust in the speaker: figurative speech is perceived as a person's speech, not a document. It reduces counter-arguments: it is harder to argue with an image than with a thesis. And it creates a sense of social proximity, because a metaphor requires a shared cultural code between the author and the reader.
But the effect is non-linear, and this is where the divergence between theory and practice in copywriting begins. Let us imagine a scale from simple to complex:
Too simple (stereotype) → Optimal zone → Too complex (loss of meaning)
"Our team is a family" — this is the left edge of the scale: the image is read in a fraction of a second, but there is no pleasure from the puzzle, the brain marks the phrase as advertising trash. "We are patching holes where there used to be gaps" — the middle: the reader spends half a second decoding and gets slight satisfaction. "Our product is a quantum superposition of possibilities for your business" — the right edge: the effort to decode exceeds the benefit, and the thought is lost together with the interest in the text. At the same time, the audience with high engagement in the topic has a narrower optimal zone — it is more harmful to offer even successful but excessive images to experts than to newcomers.
How to incorporate a metaphor into the text so that it does not stick out
The main mistake of a copywriter is to insert a metaphor as a ready-made formula instead of unfolding it with verbs and actions. 'Our service is a bridge between the client and the bank' sounds like a slogan from a presentation. 'We build bridges where there was once a cliff' works better because the metaphor is embedded in the action, not named directly.
- One metaphor for the entire text. Mixing images (such as 'bridge', 'engine', 'compass' in one paragraph) is the most common technical error, and it confuses the reader more than the absence of a metaphor altogether.
- The metaphor is introduced gradually, not from the first line. The reader needs time to accept the image before the text begins to use it as a basis.
- The metaphor works through verbs, not through noun-labels. A label is easy to read as an advertising stamp, while action is more difficult.
- A text with a metaphor must always be checked by ear. What looks beautiful on paper often sounds false when read aloud — and this is the first signal of stiffness.
Where the metaphor begins to hide the meaning instead of revealing it
There is a simple diagnostic question: does the metaphor require separate explanation. If yes — it is already overloading the text, because a good metaphor works without a footnote. The second signal is when, after reading, the reader cannot answer what they are being asked to do: the image has taken attention away from the call to action.
A telling example is the metaphor with the hummingbird as a symbol of fast service. The idea seemed logical at the briefing level: a small, fast, agile bird is a metaphor for instant service. But in reality, the hummingbird can hover in air almost motionless, feeding from one flower for hours, and in mass perception, the bird is associated more with fragility and grace than with transaction speed. The audience found the image 'beautiful, but unclear what it's about' — the metaphor required decoding through an advertising video, meaning it failed the basic test: without a footnote, it didn't work. The conclusion is simple: a metaphor must rely on the most obvious, stereotypical property of the image in the audience's culture, not on a fact from an ornithology handbook known to only a few.
When a metaphor works differently for different segments
The same image can be interpreted diametrically opposite in different audience groups — and this is not a rarity, but a systemic risk for any brand with a wide audience. 'Jump' for startups is about risk and growth, for 55+ audience — about trauma and recklessness. 'Predator' in B2B-context sounds like a compliment for the sales department, but as a toxic culture for the HR brand.
A working algorithm of alignment looks like this:
- Conduct an analysis of the cultural code of each key segment: what associations does the image carry in this group, is there a historical or linguistic context that changes the valence of perception.
- Test the metaphor separately on each segment — through focus groups, short surveys or A/B on real traffic, if segments intersect with different landing pages.
- If perception diverges by plus or minus one side (the image is neutral or slightly positive everywhere) — the metaphor can be kept, slightly adapting the formulation for each channel.
- If perception diverges diametrically — select a priority segment by revenue volume or strategic importance and adjust the image to it, or abandon the metaphor in favor of literal text where the risk of misinterpretation is higher than the benefit of imagery.
Approach to metaphors by formats
Format dictates not only the length of the text but also the acceptable density of imagery. What works in a blog post falls apart on a billboard by the road.
| Format | Conditions for success | Frequency of metaphors | Type | Example of an error |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The metaphor should be readable within 1–2 seconds, without caption | 1 for the entire post | Explicit | The metaphor requires reading three paragraphs of caption to 'unfurl' | |
| The audience is older and values a detailed explanation of the image | 1 on text, can be expanded in a comment | Hidden, with partial explanation | Too youth-oriented slang image, not understandable to the main audience of the platform | |
| Blog | There is time to develop the metaphor through several paragraphs and examples | 1–2 related metaphors for the article | Hidden | The metaphor is introduced in the headline but not used in the body of the text |
| A sales page | The metaphor should not compete with CTA for attention | 1, and only in the block with an emotional message | Explicit but brief | The image occupies the first screen entirely, and the action button is on the third |
| The metaphor works in the subject line and the first line of the email, otherwise the email will not be opened | 1 on the letter | Explicit | The metaphor in the letter's theme is not related to its content — the reader feels deceived | |
| OOH (outdoor advertising) | Reads in 2–3 seconds at speed, without text hint | 1, as simple as possible | Explicit, literal | The metaphor requires knowledge of a rare cultural fact — like with the hummingbird |
How to measure the effectiveness of a metaphor
A metaphor cannot be evaluated by eye — 'liking' and 'working' are different categories. An A/B test is needed: one version of the text with a metaphor, another — literal, with an identical message and call to action. The difference should be only in one element, otherwise the result cannot be explained solely by imagery.
- CTR — if the metaphorical headline increases clicks by 10-15% relative to the literal one, the image reduces resistance to the text, as the theory suggests.
- Time spent on the page — an increase in the indicator indicates that the reader engaged in decoding the image and continued reading; a decrease — the metaphor pushed the reader away at the start.
- Conversion to the target action — the ultimate judge. A metaphor that is liked but does not convert better than the literal text does not justify the risk: beauty does not replace results.
- Shares and reposts — a metaphor that works like a story is more often shared: the indicator well captures the effect of 'social proximity' from the first section.
- Comments in social networks — a quality signal: if people in the comments ask 'but what did you mean?', the metaphor has failed the test of self-sufficiency.
Example of interpretation: CTR increased, but conversion dropped — a typical scenario when the metaphor lures with a click, but not
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