Creating Brand Names With Meaning: The Use of Sound Symbolism

By Richard R. Klink. 2000

432 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Gender Studies, Marketing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/49935bff35033d736b89b6e816af80ae9699e88d

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Citations in the corpus

Gender differences in the meanings consumers infer from music and other aesthetic stimuli (2010, background): “Further, sound symbolism research (Klink 2000) suggests that the initial “v” sound of the brand name (a long vowel sound, like the sounds made by j, s, x, and z) should evoke a moderate level of stimulation.”
Creating brand personality with brand names (2012, background): “ Klink (2000) reported that products with brand names that contained relatively higher frequency vowel and consonant sounds were perceived as smaller, lighter (relative to darker), lighter (relative to heavier), milder, thinner, weaker, softer, faster, colder, prettier, more bitter, friendlier, and”
A Sound Idea: Phonetic Effects of Brand Names on Consumer Judgments (2004, methodology): “Makino, Seiichi, Seiichi Nakada, and Mieko Ohso (1999),Kodansha’s Basic English-Japanese Dictionary,Tokyo: Kodansha Int.”
Sound symbolism effects across languages: Implications for global brand names (2012, background): “Poor brand names can of course have the opposite effect, with the Ford Edsel as a case-in-point: The pervasive dislike for the brand name has been implicated as a major reason for the failure of the brand (Klink, 2000).”
Is Nike female? Exploring the role of sound symbolism in predicting brand name gender (2018, neutral): “Brand names with front vowels, such as “i,” and “ee,” seem more feminine than names with back vowels, such as “oh,” “oo” (Klink, 2000).”
Revisiting gender differences: What we know and what lies ahead☆ (2015, background): “Sound symbolism Sound symbolism research indicates that the sounds comprising a brand name can themselves convey meanings (Klink, 2000; Yorkston&Menon, 2004), with brand names that use front versus back vowel sounds imparting different meanings.”
The interactive effects of colors and products on perceptions of brand logo appropriateness (2006, background): “Color is only one element of a brand’s projection endowed with inherent meaning, previous studies attesting to the influence of name (Keller et al., 1998; Klink, 2000), non-alphabetic logos (Henderson and Cote, 1998), and typeface (Childers and Jass, 2002).”
Gender differences in new brand name response (2009, background): “For instance, Klink (2000) found that brand names are perceived to be more feminine if they contain fricatives (the letters f, s, v, and z), as opposed to stops (the letters p, t, b, d, g, and k).”
Sounds Big: The Effects of Acoustic Pitch on Product Perceptions (2017, background): “…shown a general preference for congruence among sensory inputs regarding a product (Krishna, Elder, and Caldara 2010), such as a preference for brand names with front vowels for physically small products and for brand names with back vowels for larger products (Klink 2000; Lowrey and Shrum 2007).”
That sounds sweet: using cross-modal correspondences to communicate gustatory attributes (2015, background): “Over recent years, marketers have become increasingly interested in the study of sound symbolism; that is, the question of the extent to which the acoustic parameters of various kinds of sounds can communicate meaning (Argo, Popa, & Smith, 2010; Coulter & Coulter, 2010; Doyle & Bottomley, 2011; Klin”
An integrative review of sensory marketing: Engaging the senses to affect perception, judgment and behavior (2012, background): “Yorkston and Menon (2004) show that Frosh brand ice cream sounds more creamy than a Frish brand ice cream (see also Klink, 2000).”
The Sound of Brands (2010, methodology): “An example would be the use of sound symbolism (also referred to as phonetic symbolism), which focuses on the impact of the linguistic structure of brand names on consumer perceptions (e.g., Prozac communicates efficacy through the letter z; Klink 2000, 2001).”