Simplicity and Ease of Pronunciation and Spelling. Simplicity reduces the effort consumers have to make to comprehend and process the brand name. Short names often facilitate recall because they are easy to encode and store in memory—consider Aim toothpaste, Raid pest spray, Bold laundry detergent, Suave shampoo, Off insect repellent, Jif peanut butter, Ban deodorant, and Bic pens. Marketers can shorten longer names to make them easier to recall. For example, over the years Chevrolet cars have also become known as “Chevy,” Budweiser beer has become “Bud,” and Coca-Cola is also “Coke.”8
Surname
Dell, Siemens, Gillette
Descriptive
American Online, Pizza Hut, General Motors
Invented
Häagen-Dazs, Kodak, Xerox
Connotative
Duracell, Humana, Infiniti
Bridge
Westin, DaimlerChrysler, ExxonMobil
Arbitrary
Apple, Yahoo!, Infiniti
To encourage word-of-mouth exposure that helps build strong memory links, marketers should also make brand names easy to pronounce. Also keep in mind that rather than risk the embarrassment of mispronouncing a difficult name like Hyundai automobiles, Shiseido cosmet¬ics, or Fagonnable clothing, consumers may just avoid pronouncing it altogether.
Brands with difficult-to-pronounce names have an uphill battle because the firm has to devote so much of its initial marketing effort to teaching consumers how to pronounce the name. Polish vodka Wyborowa (pronounced VEE-ba-ro-va) was supported by a print ad to help consumers pronounce the brand name—a key factor for success in the distilled spirits category, where little self-service exists and consumers usually need to ask for the brand in the store.9
Ideally, the brand name should have a clear, understandable, and unambiguous pronuncia¬tion and meaning. However, the way a brand is pronounced can affect its meaning, so consumers may take away different perceptions if ambiguous pronunciation results in different meanings. One research study showed that certain hypothetical products with brand names that were acceptable in both English and French, such as Vaner, Randal, and Massin, were perceived as more “hedonic” (providing pleasure) and were better liked when pronounced in French than in English.10
Pronunciation problems may arise from not conforming to linguistic rules. Although Honda chose the name “Acura” because it was associated with words connoting precision in several languages, it initially had some trouble with consumer pronunciation of the name (AK-yur-a) in the U.S. market, perhaps in part because the company chose not to use the phonetically simpler English spelling of Accura (with a double c).
To improve pronounceability and recallability, many marketers seek a desirable ca¬dence and pleasant sound in their brand names.11 For example, brand names may use al¬literation (repetition of consonants, such as in Coleco), assonance (repetition of vowel sounds, such as in Ramada Inn), consonance (repetition of consonants with intervening vowel change, such as in Hamburger Helper), or rhythm (repetition of pattern of syllable stress, such as in Better Business Bureau). Some words employ onomatopoeia—words composed of syllables that when pronounced generate a sound strongly suggestive of the word’s meaning, like Sizzler restaurants, Cap’n Crunch cereal, Ping golf clubs, and Schweppes carbonated beverages.
Familiarity and Meaningfulness. The brand name should be familiar and meaningful so it can tap into existing knowledge structures. It can be concrete or abstract in meaning. Because the names of people, objects, birds, animals, and inanimate objects already exist in memory, con¬sumers have to do less learning to understand their meanings as brand names.12 Links form more easily, increasing memorability.13 Thus, when a consumer sees an ad for the first time for a car called “Fiesta,” the fact that the consumer already has the word stored in memory should make it easier to encode the product name and thus improve its recallability.
To help create strong brand-category links and aid brand recall, the brand name may also suggest the product or service category, as do JuicyJuice 100 percent fruit juices, Ticketron ticket selling service, and Newsweek weekly news magazine. Brand elements that are highly descriptive of the product category or its attribute and benefits can be quite restrictive, however.14 For example, it may be difficult to introduce a soft drink extension for a brand called JuicyJuice!
Differentiated, Distinctive, and Unique. Although choosing a simple, easy-to-pronounce, familiar, and meaningful brand name can improve recallability, to improve brand recognition, on the other hand, brand names should be different, distinctive, and unusual. As Chapter 2 noted, recognition depends on consumers’ ability to discriminate between brands, and more complex brand names are more easily distinguished. Distinctive brand names can also make it easier for consumers to learn intrinsic product information.15
A brand name can be distinctive because it is inherently unique, or because it is unique in the context of other brands in the category.16 Distinctive words may be seldom-used or atypi¬cal words for the product category, like Apple computers; unusual combinations of real words, like Toys“R”Us; or completely made-up words, like Cognos or Luxottica. Even made-up brand names, however, have to satisfy prevailing linguistic rules and conventions—for example, try to pronounce names without vowels such as Blfft, Xgpr, or Msdy!
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