Creating Meaningful New Brand Names: A Study of Semantics and Sound Symbolism

AbstractLittle academic research has been directed to developing new brand names. While guidelines for creating effective new brand names have been proposed (e.g. the name should be distinctive, easy to pronounce, meaningful, etc), results of following such prescriptions are largely unknown. The purpose of this study is to examine customer response to products introduced with "meaningful" new brand names. Specifically, this research proposes and empirically tests two methods for creating meaningful new brand names. Results of the study indicate that products with brand names using sound symbolism to convey product-related information are liked better by consumers and positioned more strongly in their minds. Supplementing sound symbolism imbeds with semantic imbeds in a brand name further enhances both product liking and positioning.