NAME CHARACTERISTICS
Kim Robertson
Inherent brand name characteristics leading marketing executives have to follow regarding
to memorable names which support the the choice of a "good" name?
desired product image are presented for the
manager. This exposition of strategically desir- The management team responsible for such
able brand name characteristics is based upon naming decisions has available a voluminous
a review of relevant psychological, linguistic, amount of literature advising what a "good" or
and marketing literature. "poor" name might be. However, the great bulk
of this literature is anecdotal in nature. That is,
what are usually presented are examples of
Introduction names associated with successful and unsuc-
A naming decision is made hundreds of cessful product launches. The assumption
times each year by marketing executives in often made is that a successful product must
association with new product launches, newly have had a "good" name. This view of course
formed companies, and renamed existing com- ignores any effects caused by a variety of other
panies. In the opinion of some, such a naming marketing mix variables. Rarely is the execu-
decision-may well be "the most important mar- tive provided with objective, theoretically
keting decision you can make."27 If such a deci- based criteria upon which a brand or company
sion is indeed so critical, what guidelines do name can be judged as "good" or "bad."
Kim R. Robertson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Business Administration at Trinity University in San
Antonio, Texas. He received a BS and an MBA degree from the University of California at Riverside and the Ph.D. degree
from the University of Oregon. Prior to joining Trinity University, Dr. Robertson was a Senior Lecturer at the University
of Auckland, New Zealand.
Dr. Robertson's articles have appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Psychology & Marketing, and the
International Journal of Advertising. His current research interests center upon the cognitive processes of consumers and
applications in the areas of promotion and branding. In addition to his academic background, Dr. Robertson has served as a
marketing consultant to several government and private sector organizations in the areas of marketing planning, promotion
and product strategy and marketing research.
At best, the manager is presented with a list name is thought to be the result of two basic
such as: the name should be memorable, legal- cognitive processes. First, the consumer has
ly protectable, easy to say, and so on. Such limited attentional capacity. Since less of this
lists are reflective of collective common wis- limited capacity is required for simple infor-
dom but are not usually supported by objective mation, there is a higher probability of both
research studies. Sometimes managers are attracting and maintaining consumer attention
given good and bad name characteristics based with a simple brand name. 3 Attraction of atten-
upon a particular author's experiences and tion, in turn, increases the probability of high-
opinions. While such opinions are valuable, er-order information processing occurring, and
especially if based upon extensive experience, memory for the name is thus e n h a n c e d .
they are not necessarily objective. Second, once attended to, a simple bit of infor-
mation is more easily encoded into memory
What do we know, in a more objective or systems, again enhancing memory. When con-
theoretical sense, about good brand name char- sumers process information under conditions
acteristics? To answer this question, one must of low involvement, there is very little motiva-
first determine exactly what a brand name is tion to engage in the extensive memory encod-
supposed to accomplish within the overall ing and elaboration necessary to learn complex
marketing objectives set for a product. It is sug- information. Under such incidental learning
gested here that there are two basic dimensions conditions, a simple brand name is more likely
upon which the strategic desirability of a to be learned.
brand name should be judged: (1) the inherent
ability of the name to be easily encoded into,
retained in, and retrieved from memory, and Anytime a morpheme combination
(2) the extent to which the name supports or approach is used to build a brand
enhances the planned strategic positioning or name, it is critical to establish the
image of the product. A third important 'char- target market's perceived meaning
acteristic of a name (its ability to be legally of the new name.
protected) has been reviewed elsewhere.6, 11
Often, because of legal or brand positioning
Characteristics Related to reasons, a "nonword" is desired as a brand
Memory name. Such names also vary with respect to
simplicity (e.g., Bic versus Minoxidil). To be
The Brand Name Should Be Simple considered a simple name, a nonword should
at least match the natural structure of lan-
The desirable brand name characteristic of guage. Linguists have extensively studied such
simplicity is frequently cited in the marketing natural structures and have developed numer-
literature. 8, 10, 26 Relevant characteristics often ous "rules of construction." For example, in
listed in such literature include short: easy to English there are phonotactic rules which
say, easy to spell, easy to read, and easy to would not permit new words such as "mlit,"
understand. Often consumers themselves will "lpang," or "wmelt." 16 It is unlikely that a
simplify a more complex brand name. For native speaker would violate such rules in con-
example, a Chevrolet becomes a Chevy, a structing new words. The created word would
Corvette becomes a Vette, Coca-Cola becomes probably be unpronounceable or sound odd.
Coke and Pan American Airlines becomes Pan However, when one is developing internation-
Am. Justification for the desirability of sim- al names, attention must be given to natural
plicity in a brand name is directly related to linguistic rules.*
the basic psychological principle that a simple
bit of information is more easily learned and The Brand Name Should Be Distinctive
recalled. Examples of simple brand names are
Aim, Raid, Edge, Bold, Sure, Off, Jif, Ban, Bic, Distinctiveness as a desirable characteristic
and Tide, in a brand name is also frequently mentioned
The memory advantage of a simple brand interested readers are referred to End Note 16 for a more
extensive review of these linguistic rules.
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STRATEGICALLY DESIRABLE BRAND NAME CHARACTERISTICS
in the marketing literature.5, 15, 23 In fact, some The second way in which the characteristic
consider this the single most important charac- of distinctiveness enhances memory for a
teristic because of memory, legal, and brand brand name is related to the aroused curiosity
positioning advantages.5 Examples of distinc- generated by the novel name. This curiosity
tive brand names often cited are Apple, provides the conscious motivation necessary
Mustang, Xerox, Kodak, and Exxon. for the more extensive mental elaboration and
depth of processing found to be positively
In terms of enhanced memory for distinctive associated with memory.
names, there are again two basic cognitive pro-
cesses which seem to come into play. First is
the increased attention attraction power of the Unusual, distinctive, contrasting, or
novel, unusual, or unique brand name. The novel stimuli easily capture
second underlying cause of memory enhance- attention.
ment is related to a motivational component
triggered by curiosity.
With respect to attention attraction, it has As a final note regarding the characteristic of
long been recognized that unusual, distinctive, distinctiveness, it is worthwhile to consider
contrasting, or novel stimuli easily capture the potential danger that an extremely novel
attention. 19 Note that the brand name itself stimulus may produce a "response uncertain-
need not be inherently unique to capture atten- ty" effect resulting in an unpleasant feeling
tion as long as it is distinctive within the con- and a screening out of that stimulus. 3 For
text of the particular product category in example, most vodka brands have a Russian-
which it appears. In a field of similar brands sounding name Smirnoff, Skol, Popov,
and brand names, the name that is different Wolfschmidt, etc A vodka branded Timberline
attracts attention and thus increases the proba- would certainly be distinctive within this
bility of further cognitive processes which lead product class and gain a memory advantage
to long-term memory. For example, the very due to this distinctiveness. However, the name
common word "apple" became quite distinc- might be so unique that a consumer may be
tive when it was first applied to the product unsure whether to categorize it with other
category of personal computers. vodka brands, or whether or not it really is
vodka. Thus, the Timberline brand may be
excluded from the consumer's brand-choice-set
The marketer must identify the con- even though it is more easily remembered and
n o t a t i v e m e a n i n g of n a m e s a n d within the consumer's evoked set.
match this meaning with the desired
brand positioning. The Brand Name Should Be Meaningful
Other things being equal, a brand name that
One apparent way to create a distinctive has some meaning to the consumer will be
brand name and attract attention is through the more easily recalled. 1 3 Marketers have
use of what linguists call plosives. Researchers expressed this desirable characteristic in the
have noted that a large number of the top 200 sense of rules, such as that the name should be
brands listed by Marketing and Media easily understood and easily used,18 or that it
Decisions begin with a plosive sound 3 1 , 35. should be a real word rather than a "coined"
Plosives are consonants such as b, c, d, g, k, p, word, initials, or personal surname.27 A widely
and t, which, when pronounced, produce an cited desirable characteristic also related to
explosive, popping sound. Brand names begin- meaningfulness is that the name be reflective
ning with plosives were found to produce signif- of product benefits. 10 To the extent that the
icantly better recall and recognition. Although product benefit is actually sought by the con-
theoretical reasons for the enhanced recall were sumer, a name reflecting that benefit would
not specifically addressed, researchers imply certainly become meaningful. Thus, brand
that the cause was related to the distinctive, names such as Slender (versus Metrecal) Die-
"funny" sound created by plosives. Hard (versus Delco), Budget (versus Avis), and
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STRATEGICALLY DESIRABLE BRAND NAME CHARACTERISTICS
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STRATEGICALLY DESIRABLE BRAND NAME CHARACTERISTICS
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STRATEGICALLY DESIRABLE BRAND NAME CHARACTERISTICS
End Notes
1. Bock, Michael, and Eric Klinger, "Interaction of Emotion and Cognition in Word Recall,"
Psychological Research, 48 (1986), 99-106.
2. Bower, G. H., "Mood and Memory," American Psychologist, 36 (1981), 129-148.
3. Britt, Stuart Henderson, Psychological Principles of Marketing and Consumer Behavior.
Lexington, Mass.: Lexington Books, 1978.
4. Chaffin, Tom, "What's In a Name," Madison Avenue, January, 1985, pp. 66-70.
5. Charmasson, Henri, The Name Is the Game. Homewood, Ill.: Dow Jones-Irwin, 1988.
6. Cohen, Dorothy, "Trademark Strategy," Journal of Marketing, 50 (January 1986), 61-74.
7. Collins, Leslie, "A Name to Conjure With," European Journal of Marketing, 11, no. 5 (1977),
337-363.
8. Doeden, Daniel L., "How to Select a Brand Name,"Marketing Communications, November
1981, pp. 58-61.
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THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING
9. D o g a n a , F e r n a n d o , " P s y c h o l i n g u i s t i c C o n t r i b u t i o n s to t h e P r o b l e m of B r a n d
Names, "European Marketing Research Review," 2, no. 1, (1967), 50-58.
10. Gershman, Michael, "The New Product Name Game," Management Review," October 1986,
pp. 20-21.
11. H e m n e s , T h o m a s M. S., " P e r s p e c t i v e s of a Trademark A t t o r n e y o n the B r a n d i n g of
Innovative Products," Journal of Product Innovation Management, 4 (1987), 217-224.
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Product Utility, "Journal of Applied Psychology, 52, no. 4, (1968), 290-295.
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Psychology, 8 (January 1968), 63-68.
15. Katze, Helen M., "Get Tough When Choosing a Name for Your Product," Marketing News, 20
(November 7, 1986), 26-27.
16. Langacker, R. W., Fundamentals of Linguistic Analysis. N e w York: H a r c o u r t Brace
Jovanovich, 1972.
17. Lass, N. J., G. A. DiCola, A. S. Beverly, C. Barbera, K. G. Henry, and M. K. Badali, "The Effect
of P h o n e t i c Complexity on Speaker Height and Weight Identification, "Language and
Speech, 22 (1979), 297-309.
18. Leff, S u z a n n e , "Checklist: 10 Dos a n d Don'ts of N a m i n g , " Public Relations Journal,
December 1987, pp. 37-38.
19. Mandler, George, George O. Goodman and Deanna L. Wilkes-Gibbs, "The Word-Frequency
Paradox in Recognition," Memory and Cognition, 10 (1982), 33-42.
20. Martineau, Pierre, Motivation in Advertising. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1957.
21. McGuire, William J., "Some Internal Psychological Factors Influencing Consumer Choice,"
Journal of Consumer Research, 2 (March 1976), 302-319.
22. Mehrabian, Albert, and Robert deWetter, "Experimental Test of an Emotion-Based Approach
to Fitting Brand Names to Products," Journal of Applied Psychology, 72 (1987), 125-130.
23. Oliver, Brian, "Hungry for Names," Marketing, July 2, 1987, p p . 39-40.
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Research, 12 (December 1972), 29-34.
26. Pope, Jeffrey L., Practical Marketing Research. New York: AMACOM, 1981.
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28. Robertson, Kim R., "Cognitive Processing of Brand N a m e s , " Dissertation Abstracts
International, 43 (June 1983), 4022A.
29. Robertson, Kim R., "Recall and Recognition Effects of Brand Name Imagery," Psychology
and Marketing, 4 (Spring 1987), 3-15.
30. Sapir, E., "A Study in Phonetic Symbolism," Journal of Experimental Psychology, 12 (1929),
225-239.
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31. Schloss, Ira, "Chickens and Pickles: Choosing a Brand Name," Journal of Advertising
Research, 21 (December 1981), 47-49.
32. Tarte, R. D., and L. S. Barritt, "Phonetic Symbolism in Adult Native Speakers of English:
Three Studies," Language and Speech, 14 (1971), 158-168.
33. Trachtenberg, Jeffrey A., "Name That Brand," Forbes, April 8, 1985, pp. 128, 130.
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Brand Names," Journalism Quarterly, 61 (Winter 1984), 835-840.
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Brand Names," Journal of Advertising Research, 1987, pp. 39-44.
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