What’s in a Brand Name? The Effect of Phonetic Symbolism on Memory

Abstract

The present study examined phonetic symbolism in the context of a marketing study. Researchers have found that front vowels (e.g. the “ee” sound in flea) convey smallness in size whereas back vowels (e.g. the “oo” sound in boot) convey largeness in size, and that congruent brand names (e.g. front vowel brand names paired with small items, back vowel brand names paired with large items) are preferred (Lowrey & Shrum, 2007; Yorkston & Menon, 2004). We extend this research and propose that congruency will enhance recall of both the brand names and associated products and that incongruency will enhance recognition performance. To this end, participants were exposed to 12 brand name and product pairs and then participated in several recall and recognition tasks. Results indicated that congruency influences product recall, but only in regards to large brand names and large products, and that it leads to faster and more efficient performance on cued recognition tasks. There is insufficient data to support the prediction for small brand name/small product pairings or the effect of incongruency on recognition. Explanations for the results and future areas of research are discussed.