The emergence of coworking spaces have disrupted conventional working lifestyle and built a new trend: shared office space which highlights community-based services. Our paper looks at how this new business promotes their service through advertising language in online media. Advertising language in previous studies have mainly focused on slogans found in printed advertisements, but we focus on headlines in internet advertisements, particularly websites. The headlines were analyzed descriptively using linguistic feature theories in four levels: phonological, lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels. The analysis discusses the linguistic features used in the coworking spaces’ home page, the use of the linguistic features in the content, and the effectiveness in attracting readers. Data of the study include 59 selected websites from a total of 185 Indonesian coworking spaces, and interviews with three people involved in the industry. Results of the study show that headlines in coworking space websites prominently use alliteration, noun phrases, and hyperbole. Unlike headlines of printed media, digital media has to comply with search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines so that search engines will index the website properly.
The new generation of workers develops a new workplace phenomenon—coworking spaces. It disrupts the concept of 9-to-5 office cubicles and accommodates the digitized economy. The coworking space industry grew internationally by more than 1,000% in a decade as in 2008 there were only 160 coworking spaces worldwide, and the quantity jumped to 18,700 in 2018. This new working lifestyle trend, which in Indonesia rapidly increased 400%, answers the challenge of growing start-ups (
The consumer market is saturated with brands and companies that take up consumers’ attention every day. In fact, there are more than 62 million small and medium- sized enterprises in Indonesia (Tirta & Sarli, 2021). To stand out from the crowd, businesses need to have unique selling points (
In marketing, advertising language can be found in an advertising writing also named as copy (
Talking about the industries and media used in most previous studies, they focused on tourism (Pratiwi et al., 2019;
While previous studies mainly discuss advertisements on commercials and printed media, including brochures and magazines, limited attention was paid to digital media, like websites. Today, digital channels have become an important factor in people’s buying journey.
Therefore, we are interested to conduct this study about the headlines found in coworking spaces’ websites. In this study, we also incorporated member checking by interviewing three people in the related industries to understand the impact of headlines with linguistic features on readers and avoiding speculative findings. This study aims to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the linguistic features used in coworking spaces headlines on the selected websites? (2) How do the linguistic features appear in the headlines? (3) How effective are the linguistic features in attracting readers?
There are two data sources in this research: coworking space websites and interviews. The first data source contains 59 selected Indonesia-based coworking spaces websites found on www.coworker.com. The idea of this website is similar to Traveloka or Tiket.com, platforms where we can prearrange hotels, flight tickets, or other traveling-related, but the website here provides coworking spaces reservations. Coworker was selected because it has larger numbers of registered coworking spaces than other sites like regus.co.id. It has collected 14.000+ coworking spaces data in 172 countries around the world.
We first collected 185 coworking spaces in Indonesia (as of February 2021) found in Coworker. We made sure that the selected coworking spaces must have a website and its headline by checking on the search engine one by one. The website must be in English or has an English option on the website. From the list, we found 59 coworking spaces that met the criteria. Following related research in headlines (Develotte & Rechniewski, 2001), all the listed headlines also need to be considerably short and represent the product, coworking space. Next, we took notes on the headline of each website and categorized them into different language features.
The second source of data is from interviews. It aims to answer the third question on how effective the linguistic features are in attracting readers. The interviewees are a convenient sampling consisting of a copywriter ( Doddy Dwi Wahyuwono ), a coworking staff ( Ani Wulansari ), and a coworking space member ( Dayinta Annisa Syaiful ) in the hope of obtaining well-rounded opinions about the attractiveness of the selected coworking space headlines.
Each of the interviewees has a different role in expanding the perspective. The coworking space member described the characteristics of coworking spaces that encourage her to become a member. Meanwhile, the coworking space staff added information about the values of a coworking space in relation to the most-used words in the lexical level. The copywriter was asked to give opinions about the criteria of a good headline. In addition, all of the interviewees were asked about their opinions related to several headlines with the most frequent and least used linguistic features in each level.
We use descriptive analysis to describe the facts and characteristics of an area of interest and discover relationships between selected variables (Dulock, 1993) in this case coworking spaces’ headlines. We also analyze the variables quantitatively using frequencies and percentages to determine relationships and involve interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the field.
To obtain quality research, we started the data analysis process by identifying the words, phrases, and sentences used in those headlines. After that, we grouped them into each language feature according to four levels we previously mentioned, which are phonological, lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels. We then counted the linguistics features that appear in the headlines and put them in percentage. The quantitative data are presented in the form of tables.
The next step of the analysis is validation. We applied member checking by interviewing the three people related to the industry. Member checking has been used in qualitative research as a quality control process (
The two interviews were conducted via call because it helps concentrate on the people’s voice and what their emphases are, rather than face-to-face communication (
Coworking spaces are a shared working environment. According to
Furthermore, the users of coworking spaces might search not only for professional work, even though it has the term ‘work’, but also the leisure and social-cultural desires (Bouncken & Reuschl, 2018). They try to combine the social and economic targets, or also mentioned as work-life balance, to enhance their creativity. It completely supports nomadism for the creative sector specifically and freelancers as coworking spaces offer a location-independent style of working and living. The coworking environments blur the boundary between leisure and work.
With the remote working trends during the Covid-19 pandemic, (Mungkasa, 2020), the city planner of the Indonesian Ministry of National Development Planning, predicts that there will be a growth in the number of remote workers. He believes that the concept of telecommuting or flexible working will be our new normal, particularly when the pandemic might happen for a quite long time. This mobile work will not only take place at home – in association with the term ‘working from home (WFH)’– but also in telework centers, of which coworking spaces can be one of them.
Linguistic features are classified into several levels: phonological, lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels.
Lexical features deal with the diction used, including repetition, familiar language, and other items (Niken et al., 2013). Pronouns, coined words, numerals, adjectives, and verbs are classified into the lexical level. According to
Coworking Space in Bali (Bali Bustle). The only headline (14.3%) using a rhyme is Connect, Create, Collaborate (Concrete Coworking Space). Yet, there are no coworking space headlines found using assonance.
The fact of alliteration on the phonological level being the most-used feature is similar to previous studies.
| Sound Patterning | Frequency | Percentage | Example |
| Alliteration | 6 | 85.7% | Community, Coworking, Coliving |
| Rhyme | 1 | 14.3% | Connect, Create, Collaborate |
| Total | 7 | 100% |
To classify words used in the headlines, we use eight categories: Work (Noun), Work (Verb), Coworking, Space, Community, Business, Life, and Name of the coworking space itself. It aims to understand the kinds of words that the copywriter emphasizes when creating headlines for coworking spaces, whether it is the value of the product (in Community, Business, Life, and Work categories) or the product itself which is represented by the categories Coworking, Space, and Name of the coworking space itself.
Community also appears to be one of the highlighted categories on coworking space headlines. It is similar to what Ani Wulansari, coworking space staff from CoHive, explains. She says member engagement is one of the significant features of coworking spaces. In CoHive, particularly, they hold events collaborating with the members to strengthen the social network between them and promote the idea of continuous learning. Those events can be seminars or products launches and often invite people outside the coworking space members. Also, the coworking space regularly gathers feedback from the members to understand what they need and tweak the facilities or regulations. As their target market and members are still in their 20s and 30s with a role as startup founders and freelancers, they still strive to learn about the industry and network with other people.
There are also superlative and comparative degrees in this level. The 59 coworking space headlines use three comparative words: healthier, better (2), and more productive. Meanwhile, there are two superlative words: best (2) and coolest. In this level, it is also worth mentioning that six out of 59 coworking spaces use headlines related to their brand names. Welcome to Soma Co-Working and Cafe (Soma Co-Working Cafe) and We Are Eduplex (EduPlex) even mention their names on the headline. Meanwhile, three coworking spaces creatively implement relevant words to their names. For example, Kembali’s headline is Welcome to Ke{M}Bali, which refers to its location and asks the website visitors to go to Bali (‘ke Bali’ in Indonesian). The word ‘Kembali’' also relates to the brand name, which is translated into ‘coming back’ in Indonesian. Another example relating to the coworking space is Greenhouse’s A Healthier Way to Work to represent their space that has plenty of plants. Next is Reinventing Work as a full form of the coworking space name, Rework.
With the huge popularity of social media channels like Instagram, two coworking spaces also use hashtags (#) on their headlines. They are #coworkingonthebeach (Genius Cafe Sanur) and #districtcanggu (district canggu). According to
| Lexical category | The words used | Frequency | Percentage | Example |
| Work (Noun) | Work | 3 | 4.4% | Reinventing Work |
| Work (Verb) | Work | 9 | 13.4% | We Work Things Out |
| Coworking | Coworking, Coliving (2) | 3 | 4.4% | Community, Coworking, Coliving |
| Space | Spaces, Space (3), Coworking Space (5) Office Space (3), Office, Workplace, Workspace (2), Workspaces, Place, Hub | 19 | 27.9% | The Future of Office Space |
| Community | Communities (2), Community (3), Collaborate (3), Collaboration, Collaborative, Connect, Network | 12 | 17.6% | Connecting You, Connecting Communities |
| Business | Business (5), Entrepreneurs | 6 | 8.8% | Smart Way to do Business |
| Life | Life (2), Love, Peace, Happiness, Health, Work-life balance, Live, Productive, Enjoy, Play | 10 | 14.7% | Work-life balance starts here |
| Name of the coworking space itself | Soma Co-working and Café, Ke{M}Bali, Eduplex, #districtcanggu, 88Office, Collective Space | 6 | 8.8% | Welcome to Soma Co-Working and Cafe |
| Total | 68 | 100% | ||
In
The most-used feature is noun phrases with 22 headlines (36.7%). Some of the examples are A Healthier Way to Work (Greenhouse), A New Way of Working (Hubud), and Your Casual Workspace Solution (Epica Lifestyle Offices). These headlines use nouns (Way and Solution) as the head, and other words as the modifier and infinitive (to Work).
Then, there are imperative sentences with 23.3%. The examples include Work Better (Vamonos), Shape the way you work. (SUB Co), and Let's collaborate with us! (WU HUB). They are formed by the bare infinitive form of the verb and understood as being the second person ‘you’ although the word is omitted. Syntactic parallelism (20%), a repetition of grammatical elements, appears in the third place. Some of the headlines using this feature are Connect, Create, Collaborate (Concrete Coworking Space) and Create, Collaborate, Exhibit (Genesis Creative Space), and Collective, Connectivity, Collaboration (Ngalup Coworking Space).
At this level, almost all of the headlines use present tense, except Gowork’s that applies present continuous tense showing an ongoing condition and Genius Idea using past participle Born Genius Idea Here. The latter is grammatically incorrect since the word ‘Born’ is supposed to be ‘Bring’ (Bring Genius Ideas Here) or can be changed into Genius Ideas Were Born Here. In our opinion, the
creator might intend to say “Lahirkan Ide Jenius di Sini” in Indonesian, then roughly translate it into Born Genius Idea Here because the word ‘Born’ sounds more familiar.
With the noun phrases rank first on the frequency and syntactic repetitions appear last, it reflects what previous studies say.
| Syntactic Features | Frequency | Percentage | Example |
| Verb phrase | 1 | 1.7% | Reinventing Work |
| Noun phrase | 22 | 36.7% | A place to grow and become the best version of yourself |
| Imperative sentence | 14 | 23.3% | Live Your Dream |
| Short sentence | 11 | 18.3% | We Are Eduplex |
| Syntactic parallelism | 12 | 20% | Connect, Create, Collaborate |
| Total | 60 | 100% |
The results at the semantic level are quite similar to previous studies (Niken et al., 2013;
In conclusion, results on phonological, syntactic, and semantic levels on digital media’s headlines are similar to printed advertisement in previous studies. We believe this happens because the process of producing copies on printed and digital media is quite the same. Doddy Dwi Wahyuwono, an Indonesian copywriter, explains that the process of creating copies, in any kinds of platforms such as emails, websites, and newspapers ads, include considering brand personality, taste or preference, and buyer persona, fictional characters representing a group of target markets with their special needs, except that copies on digital requires additional step which is considering SEO strategies. Therefore, as long as a headline meets those elements, it can be used for both platforms.
Furthermore, the traditional techniques are still applicable as they scientifically relate to fundamental human memory. For instance,
| Semantic Features | Frequency | Presentage | Example |
| Hyperbole | 6 | 50% | First Choice For Global Workplace |
| Metonymy | 1 | 8.3% | Cowork in Paradise |
| Personification | 4 | 33.4% | A Shared Office Space That Makes You Feel At Home |
| Antithesis | 1 | 8.3% | Less Hassle, More Productive |
| Total | 12 | 100% |
As a headline will be read first, it is no surprise that it often appears in larger typeface than other parts of the ad and is combined with interesting visuals. Many advertisers will create headlines as eye-catching as possible to lead the readers to continue reading the body copy. This is particularly true because, for example in the newspaper, people glance at the front-page headline to consider whether they will buy it or not. Therefore, writing a great home page headline is important because it is prominent to readers and becomes the key to convert them into a buyer.
Findings of the websites and interviews reveal that coworking space headlines have slight differences from previous studies that mostly focused on printed media. The key distinction of headlines in digital media is the use of search engine optimization (SEO). Applying SEO helps websites get indexed by search engines, rank higher on the search result page, and eventually attract traffic. According to Doddy Dwi Wahyuwono, some of the requirements are the number of characters used in the headlines, the right keywords, and where to place them.
In business websites, headlines do not stand alone. There are other elements supporting the explanation and optimization efforts, such as hook, call to action buttons, and product descriptions. They are also not the only things a copywriter must focus on. Every copywriter needs to consider the consistency of tone, diction, and character quantity. The more effective a copywriter uses words and phrases, the better the SEO quality will be. Shorter phrases, with the right messaging, give a more pleasant look on screens as the words do not occupy all of the space. This is similar to the traditional notion that short headlines with one line are the best and a second line is acceptable (Arens et al., 2008).
During the interviews, we asked all of the interviewees to choose several headlines according to the least and most used features in coworking space headlines.
They rarely pinpoint specific linguistic features on whether a headline sounds pleasing and forms sentence or phrase when they favor certain headlines. Only the coworking space member, Dayinta Annisa Syaiful, notices that Connecting You, Connecting Communities has a good rhyme. Two interviewees avoid choices of words that are not closely related to the values, which has a prominent semantic linguistic feature on it. For example, the word ‘paradise’ in Cowork in Paradise (Biliq Bali). They think that it exaggerates the ‘playful’ value of coworking spaces.
When we asked the reasons why they chose a certain headline, all of them refer to the features and values of coworking spaces, such as a sense of community and a fun working environment (see the lexical level on
It heavily relates to the argument of
Each interviewee also perceives the headlines based on their existing knowledge. For instance, the copywriter chooses Work-life balance starts here (Hub Bali) because he recalls that the term ‘work-life balance’ is popular and Internet users are less likely to type the word 'work’ alongside ‘enjoy’ or ‘play’ on HUB2U Coworking Space’s headline We Work, We Play, We Enjoy. It also happens to coworking space staff choosing Less Hassle, More Productive (Cradle Event & Co-working Space). She relates coworking space members only need to bring their laptops to work in the area and do not think about cleaning service or pantry access, so they can focus on the work.
| Coworking Space Member (Dayinta Annisa Syaiful) | Copywriter (Doddy Dwi Wahyuwono) | Coworking Space Staff (Ani Wulansari) | |
| Phonological Level | We Work, We Play, We Enjoy (Alliteration - Most Used) | V | |
| Work-life balance starts here (No rhetorical device) | V | V | |
| Lexical Level | Your Casual Workspace Solution(Space Category) | ||
| Connecting You, Connecting Communities(Community Category) | V | V | |
| Find Your New Network, Office Space, and Community (Space and Community Category) | V | ||
| Syntactic Level | A New Way of Working (Noun Phrase - Most Used) | V | V |
| Work Reinvented (Verb Phrase - Least Used) | V |
Still, there is a positive relation between the most used features with the number of interviewees choosing those headlines in syntactic, semantic, and lexical levels. Even though they directly connect the headlines and coworking space benefits, the copywriter and coworking space member mention that headlines with the most used linguistic features are catchy, like Connecting You, Connecting Communities and First Choice for Global Workspace. It proves that applying linguistic features on headlines can still be effective for memorability as
By looking at their answers, we believe that their professional and educational backgrounds influence the way they notice headlines. For example, Doddy Dwi Wahyuwono has an English degree working as a copywriter and Dayinta Annisa Syaiful , a public health graduate, works as a social media manager. Both may be familiar with the way advertising language works.
Meanwhile, Ani Wulansari , a secretary diploma, works in CoHive in the member relation department. As a result, she may more focus on delivering benefits to the members in a practical way, like price and facilities, rather than think about the implicit meaning of headlines.
As the marketing trend is moving toward digital, it is essential to understand the way advertising language works in online media. Compared to slogans and utterances in previous studies, which focus on printed advertisement, headlines in digital media are more tricky since the creators need to adjust them with search engine optimization (SEO) guidelines.
As a part of the advertising language, the headlines show significant use of linguistic features at phonological, lexical, syntactic, and semantic levels. At the phonological level, alliteration becomes the most common device than rhyme and assonance. There are specific qualities in the lexical level as well. The dominant category is talking about spaces such as ‘ coworking space', ‘workplace’, and ‘hub’. It is followed by words highlighting the community value of coworking spaces, like ‘network’ and ‘collaboration.’ Similar to previous studies, noun phrases appear to be the most used device at the syntactic level. At the semantic level, hyperbole has the highest frequency among other devices: metonymy, personification, and antithesis. Similar results may be affected by a similar ad creation process and traditional persuasion techniques that are still applicable.
Interviews with a coworking space staff and member and copywriter show that there is a positive connection between the most used linguistic features and their preferences. However, they always connect them with coworking space values or facilities. They were not concerned whether the headline sounds pleasant with certain devices. Based on the research interview, this study can be expanded to study other elements in a website. They include product descriptions and language consistency that may influence the audience more.
We thank the interviewees for their willingness to participate in the research. We also thank our colleagues at the Department of English, Universitas Negeri Malang for their valuable feedback.
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