Creating brand personality with brand names

As the elemental building block of the brand, the brand name represents a potential starting point for creating brand personality. Drawing on theory and research from sound symbolism, this study investigates how brand names can be formed to create brand personality, as defined by Aaker's (1997) Brand Personality Scale. Results indicate that brand names with back vowels better create a Ruggedness personality, while brand names with front vowels better create Sophistication and Sincerity personalities.     

How competitor brand names affect within-brand choices

This research shows that consumers’ intra-brand choices (e.g., Mercedes C330 vs. C340) can be affected by exposure to a competitor alphanumeric brand name that forms an incidental trend with the numbers in the focal brand names (e.g., BMW320i or BMW350i). We propose and test two mechanisms. First, when no attribute information is available, the competitor brand can make the numerical trends formed by brand names salient and meaningful, and increase the preference for higher brands (e.g., Mercedes C340). Second, when attribute values are negatively correlated with brands, exposure to the competitor brand name can trigger brand-attribute magnitude tradeoffs. In five experiments, we demonstrate that our predictions hold when there are no intrinsic brand-attribute associations, and even when the competitor brand is not available for choice. We identify competitive categorization as a boundary condition and demonstrate that the effect diminishes when consumers do not categorize the nonfocal option as a competitor.     

Using linguistics for creating better international brand names

International product sales are increasingly important for most companies. As a result, cross-border brand naming is becoming a significant marketing issue. This article describes linguistic assets such as phonetics (sounds), etymology (roots of words) and rhetoric (persuasive discourse) and proposes a comprehensive framework for analysing how these linguistic assets transfer (or do not transfer) to a number of target linguistic contexts. Using this analysis, managers should follow the ‘Joyce principle’ and attempt to build meaningful brand names across languages, thus adding value to their global brand names.     

Consumer brand confusion: A conceptual framework

A definition and theoretical framework for consumer brand confusion are developed. Brand confusion is distinguished from related terms, such as uncertainty, miscomprehension, infringement, and deception. The factors affecting the likelihood of brand confusion are extended beyond stimulus similarity to include individual and situational factors, and propositions regarding the effects of individual and situational factors are developed. The value of a better understanding of consumer brand confusion to managers and policy makers is discussed.     

Empirical investigation of channel reactions to brand introductions

We investigate how incumbent manufacturers and retailers alter their pricing behavior in response to new product introduction. In performing our analysis, we need to be cognizant of the fact that the observed price changes can be due to entry-induced changes in a) demand conditions or b) costs or, on the other hand, to the competitive behavior of c) manufacturers and/or d) the retailer. In order to separate these four changes, we posit that manufacturer and retailer pricing is an outcome of maximizing a combination of shares and profits. This enhanced objective function allows us to measure competitive conduct benchmarked as less or more competitive than under the Bertrand-Nash framework. Our empirical analysis is based on the toothpaste category for the time period January 1993–February 1995. During this period, there were three brand introductions in two rounds of entry. Using the estimates from the demand and the supply model, we compute the changes in the retail and wholesale prices that are attributable to changes in demand conditions, manufacturer and retailer competitive conduct, and cost changes. These results support our conjecture that inferring the change in conduct solely based on a change in observed prices is likely to be erroneous. For the first new brand entry, we find that the brand introduction did not significantly increase competition between manufacturers. As a result, the balance of channel power between the manufacturers and the retailers remained unaltered. Both retailer and manufacturer profit margins increased after the first entry. However, subsequent to the second entry, retailer share of channel profits increased at the expense of the manufacturers; manufacturers even saw a decline in their absolute profit margins. We believe that this research will provide insight for manufacturers and retailers regarding how the various channel participants are likely to react to new product introduction. Furthermore, policymakers interested in understanding competitive reactions to new product introduction should find this research useful.     

顾客视角下的电视媒体品牌价值解构——基于中央电视台的研究

中国的电视媒体已经进入品牌化竞争阶段，这既是对以互联网为代表的新媒体挑战做出的回应，又是行业内竞争与发展的主流趋势。信息获取渠道的拓展以及视觉欣赏品位的转变正在使观众慢慢地偏移对电视这一昔日第一媒体的选择；电视媒体收入的主要来源——广告经营也日渐感受到新媒体时代广告变革带来的挑战。[第一段]     

Consumer confusion from own brand lookalikes: An exploratory investigation

Lookalikes are a new generation of own brand products that have similar packaging and labelling characteristics to leading branded products. Their current success and proliferation (in Britain) has raised ethical and legal issues about whether they confuse consumers. A set of factors that foster or inhibit consumer confusion adapted from a framework on consumer confusion, were tested on a sample of 50 shoppers at the end of their shopping visit. No incidents of consumers having falsely bought a lookalike product were identified. However, low‐price products subject to impulse buying were found to be more likely to confuse shoppers. Additionally, elderly and impulsive shoppers appear to be more susceptible to confusion. Thus, effective brand identification or confusion‐protection strategies are more important for the above sets of products and shoppers. However, future research should concentrate on what extent consumers infer “misleading” that the original brand attributes are similar to the lookalike brand attributes and how this is linked to their choice.     

Consumer reactions to female and male cosmetic surgery beauty in Asian advertisements

Existing research shows that the attractiveness of advertising models enhances the effectiveness of firms’ commercial messages. However, it is unclear how consumers react to models who have enhanced their physical attractiveness through cosmetic surgery. We report on three empirical studies and show that when female or male advertising models have undergone cosmetic surgery procedures, both female and male consumers are likely to notice these changes. These perceptions of cosmetic surgery result in lower evaluations of model attractiveness, particularly when the consumers assess female models, which in turn affects other advertising outcomes. However, cosmetic surgery does not reduce consumers’ perceptions of models’ pride in their own identity, which are also relevant to consumers’ evaluations of model attractiveness.

     

Examining children's preference for phonetically manipulated brand names across two English accent groups

Replicating Shrum et al. (2012), we demonstrate that individuals display a preference for brand names that contain vowel sounds that connote product attributes. We also illustrate the impact of accent and phonological development on the nature and presence of phonetic symbolism respectively. With no known studies examining the role of accent, it is suggested that this research makes a unique contribution, offering an alternative perspective on current global phonetic symbolism research.     

The Korean versus American marketplace: Consumer reactions to foreign products

The Republic of Korea recently became one of the member countries of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Such developed-nation status requires Korea to open its consumer goods and financial markets. As a more open Korean market becomes increasingly attractive to foreign manufacturers and investors, it is critical for foreign marketers to understand how Korean consumers perceive and evaluate imported goods. This study examines how Koreans in comparison with Americans react to foreign-made products. The results of the study show that both Korean and U.S. consumers, in general, relied heavily on specific intrinsic attributes of products as the basis for their evaluations of the product quality. Interestingly, Koreans considered country-of-manufacture information as equally important in this situation. However, when they determined their purchase intentions, neither Koreans nor Americans valued country labels of the products; they again used product attribute information. The implications of the results for foreign marketers in Korea are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

消费者自主品牌信念:概念、维度及量表开发

信念是人们对特定事物确信不疑的观念,是态度、意向和行为的基石,是当前社会学、健康医学、体育学、教育学的研究热点。但在营销学领域,有关自主品牌信念或国货信念却鲜有涉及。本文借鉴相关领域的研究成果,结合消费实际,对中国消费者自主品牌信念的概念进行界定;通过深度访谈和专家评审,提炼出自主品牌信念的结构维度,并对设计的自主品牌信念量表进行了信效度检验,得到了一个具有较高可靠性和有效性的测量量表。     

将自主品牌打造为世界知名品牌-2005中国企业商标人物马纯济侧记

2005年12月9日，中国重型汽车集团有限公司董事长马纯济当选年度中国企业商标人物，中国重汽斯太尔重卡系列商标成为国内最具影响力的著名商标。     

The role of position,type, and combination of sound symbolism imbeds in brand names

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.     

Consumer reactions to corporate tax strategies: The role of political ideology

This study contributes to research on how stakeholders react to corporate tax strategies (CTSs). In two experiments we show that consumers are more likely to react negatively to ‘aggressive’ rather than to reward ‘conservative’ CTSs. The impact of CTSs on consumer reactions is mediated by the perceived ethicality of the firm and moderated by individuals' political identification. Right-leaning consumers are less likely than left-leaning consumers to punish companies engaging in tax avoidance. This moderation depends on the personal connection customers have with a particular brand: both left-leaning and right-leaning consumers punish firms they feel close to when such firms engage in aggressive CTSs. The study extends our understanding of the benefits and risks associated with different CTSs. It contributes to debates on the morality of CTSs, showing that political ideology shapes individuals' perceived ethicality of corporations engaged in aggressive tax avoidance.     

Consumer reactions to technology in general and to a specific technological innovation: Supermarket checkout scanners

Intellectuals have been concerned with technology's impact on society. Many, if not most, viewed the results of technology as being more negative than positive. It has been supposed that consumers also held these negative views. Research in one major United States city indicates that this may not be the case. Generally consumers gave positive evaluations of technological change. However this did not mean they evaluated one result of technological change, checkout scanners, positively. Views of technology were related to demographic characteristics. Generally the older, non-employed, poorer respondent had a more negative view.

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Verbraucher-Reaktionen auf generelle und spezifische technologische Entwicklungen: das Beispiel Checkout Scanner (automatische Lesegeräte) in Supermärkten

Zusammenfassung Zahlreiche Veröffentlichungen befassen sich skeptisch mit der Geschwindigkeit und den Ergebnissen des technischen Fortschritts. Einige Autoren nehmen an, daß es auch bei Konsumenten Vorbehalte gegenüber technologischen Veränderungen gibt, und vermuten, daß diese Vorbehalte Auswirkungen auf das Anbieterverhalten haben, wenn es um die Einführung von für den Kunden sichtbaren neuen Technologien geht. Ein Beispiel für solche Technologien sind automatische Code-Leser an Supermarkt-Kassen.Der Lebensmittelhandel hat lange gezögert, solche automatischen Lesegeräte einzuführen; er befürchtete negative Reaktionen der Kunden auf diese Geräte und auf die damit verbundene Aufhebung der Preisauszeichnung am einzelnen Produkt. Diese Geräte können die computergespeicherten Produktpreise abrufen, sodaß der Handel keine Preisauszeichnung mehr an der Ware vornehmen muß. Einige Untersuchungen zeigten, daß Konsumenten mit dem Wegfall der Preisauszeichnung nicht einverstanden waren, und vermuteten als Ursache eine allgemeine Abwehrhaltung der Konsumenten gegenüber Technologie. Der vorliegende Beitrag berichtet über eine im Jahre 1982 in Milwaukee, USA, durchgeführte Untersuchung zur Überprüfung dieser Vermutung.Die Ergebnisse dieser Untersuchung deuten insgesamt daraufhin, daß die meisten Befragten dem technologischen Fortschritt positiv gegenüberstehen. Die überwiegende Meinung ist, daß Technologie das tägliche Leben beeinflußt, aber auch, daß das Tempo der technologischen Entwicklung angemessen ist und ihre Ergebnisse nützlich sind. Was speziell die Checkout Scanner betrifft, so gibt es nur sehr wenige Befragte, die sie grundsätzlich für eine schlechte Einrichtung halten. Anders sieht es aus, wenn nach dem Wegfall der Preisauszeichnung gefragt wird. Die überwiegende Mehrheit spricht sich gegen diesen Wegfall aus, zugleich sind aber nur sehr wenige Befragte der Meinung, daß die Preisauszeichnung an der Ware gesetzlich vorgeschrieben werden sollte. Die Einstellung zur Technologie hängt von demografischen Eigenschaften ab. Negative Einstellungen finden sich vor allem bei älteren, arbeitslosen und einkommensschwachen Befragten.Die Studie zeigt also, daß Konsumenten die technologische Entwicklung insgesamt auch dann positiv einschätzen, wenn sie mit einzelnen Ergebnissen dieser Entwicklung unzufrieden sind. Unzufriedenheit mit einzelnen Ergebnissen führt nicht notwendigerweise zu der Meinung, der Status quo müsse mit gesetzlichen Mitteln erhalten bleiben.

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Frederick W. Langrehr is a Visiting Associate Professor, Institute of Business Management, and Virginia B. Langrehr is an Associate Professor, School of Family, Home and Social Sciences, both at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah 84602, USA.     

Consumer evaluation of self-service innovation failure: the effect of brand equity and attribution

The purpose of this study is to examine how, when a self-service innovation fails, customers evaluate different levels of brand equity and how the brand equity effect is moderated by consumer attribution and service recovery. Based on two experimental studies, the results indicate that high-equity brands suffer less from the adverse effects of self-service innovation failures when compared with low-equity brands. However, self-service innovation failures are more detrimental to high-equity brands if they are caused by service providers' internal factors as well as low service recovery.     

The role of scale-induced round numbers and goal specificity on goal accomplishment perceptions

Marketing Letters - Goal progress can be measured using different scales (e.g., lbs., kg, oz., inches lost in weight loss domain). Despite considerable research on perceived goal progress, little...