Consonants in brand names influence brand gender perceptions

Abstract

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by 405387 [] For AuthorsIf you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This paper examines to what extent consonants in brand names influence consumers' perceptions of feminine and masculine brand personality. Design/methodology/approach -Four experiments empirically test the influence of consonants on feminine and masculine brand personality. The experiments involve different sets of new brand names, variations regarding the consonants tested (the stops k and t, the fricatives f and s), as well as different locations of the focal consonant in the brand name. Findings -Consonants influence consumers' brand perceptions: brand masculinity is enhanced by stops (rather than fricatives), and brand femininity is enhanced by fricatives (rather than stops). Consonants specifically affect feminine and masculine brand personality, but not other brand personality dimensions. Consumers' responses to brand names and resulting brand gender perceptions (i.e. likelihood to recommend) were moderated by salience of masculinity or femininity as a desirable brand attribute. Practical implications -This research has implications for brand name selection: consonants are effective in creating a specifically masculine or a feminine brand personality. Originality/value -This research is the first to specifically link consonants and feminine/masculine brand personality. By specifically examining consonants, this research extends the marketing literature on sound symbolism that is characterized by a focus on vowels effects. This research is also the first to address whether the position of the focal phoneme in the brand name matters.

Pazarlamada Ses Semboli̇zmi̇: Ses Semboli̇zmi̇ni̇ Araştiran Pazarlama Çalişmalarinin Üzeri̇ne Bütüncül Bi̇r İnceleme

“…Consonant sounds were frequently employed with the vowels (47.83%) (e.g., Athaide and Klink, 2012;Klink, 2000;Kuehnl and Mantau, 2013). In these studies, consonant sounds were generally Athaide and Klink, 2012;Guevremont and Grohmann, 2015;Klink, 2000). Additionally, among these studies, a few studies utilized the voiceless/voiced distinction with respect to fricatives and stops (e.g., Athaide and Klink, 2012;Klink, 2000).…”

The Effects of Linguistic Devices on Consumer Information Processing and Persuasion: A Language Complexity × Processing Mode Framework

“…Consumer research has applied these basic findings to marketing communications. For example, the sounds of brand names have been shown to relate to product perceptions (Klink, ), brand name preferences (Lowrey & Shrum, ; Shrum, Lowrey, Luna, Lerman, & Liu, ), product attitudes (Yorkston & Menon, ), product recommendations (Guèvremont & Grohmann, ), and willingness to pay (Maglio, Rabaglia, Feder, Krehm, & Trope, ). More specifically, across all of the research just noted, the effects on persuasion are more positive when the fit (congruence) between the sound‐symbolic perceptions and expected or preferred attributes of the products is maximized.…”

“…Consistent with this reasoning, we have reviewed a number of instances in which the effects of linguistic devices are stronger when congruence is maximized (high congruity). For example, the effects of phonetic symbolism on brand name preference are maximized when the sound symbolic (Guèvremont & Grohmann, ; Lowrey & Shrum, ; Yorkston & Menon, ) or motor movement (Topolinski et al., ) connotations of the brand name are congruent with expected or preferred attributes of the product. Similarly, the positive effects of assertive language are greater when the use of assertive language is congruent with expectations regarding product category (Kronrod et al., ).…”

Untangling the brand name from the branded entity

“…Research has specifically shown that new brand names differing in suggestiveness and meaningfulness lead to branded entities holding different associations (Moore and Lehmann, 1982;Sen, 1999). Linguistic focused research has highlighted how the sound of brand names impacts the associations that consumers can have with the brand (Robertson, 1989;Argo et al, 2010;Klink and Athaide, 2012;Guèvremont and Grohmann, 2015).…”