Abstract
Sound symbolism research provides considerable support for the relationship between sound and meaning. What is not well understood is how best to imbed sound symbolism to create meaningful brand names. This research investigates three basic decisions or issues that marketers face when embedding sound symbolism in brand names—i.e., (a) where to position the imbed, (b) what type of imbed to use, and (c) what is the effect of combining imbeds. Results of study 1 indicate that imbeds placed after the first syllable of a brand name communicate branding meaning. Also, brand meaning is better conveyed by vowels than consonants in a brand name. Combining consistent vowel and consonant imbeds in a brand name provides an additive effect with respect to communicating brand meaning. Results of study 2 show that combining consistent imbeds in a brand name can have a favorable impact on product choice.
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Notes
The authors test what they term hard consonants (i.e., k and hard g) vs soft consonants (i.e., f and s).
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Richard R. Klink and Lan Wu contributed equally to this work.
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Klink, R.R., Wu, L. The role of position, type, and combination of sound symbolism imbeds in brand names. Mark Lett 25, 13–24 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-013-9236-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11002-013-9236-3