Good Words. And Great Names. 2008 Qtr 1
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Good Words.
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A scholarly case for letting your ears decide.
The next time you’re in need of bestowing a name — be it upon a pet, person, company, product or service — you’d be well advised to consider the recent research on the subject. Specifically, some experiment–based findings that give you scholarly backing for statements such as, “Well, I just like the way it sounds.”
In the paper Phonetic Symbolism and Brand Name Preference,* researchers extend a growing body of work on the subject of how marketers can use the sounds of words (and within words) to their best effect.
The layman’s notion is this: The mere sounds of a word, and not just the definition of the whole word itself, convey meaning. These smallest units of sound, called phonemes, are symbolic. When we as humans hear these symbolic sounds, we intrinsically associate them with specific concepts and connotations (like fast, slow, big, strong, bright, fresh, etc.).
Here are a few examples:
Naming a sports car? Letter sounds s, f and z are associated with smaller, faster things.
A cleaning product? Words with gl (glimmer, glow, gleam) have a visual connotation.
A lineup of new color choices? Letter sounds f, s and z are more associated with lighter hues than are p, k and b.
It turns out that this is actually an age-old field of inquiry. However, these recent experiments give marketers a fresh way to build and enhance brands through well-liked and well-remembered names. It was Socrates who suggested the notion of “good words,” words that have a fit between their sound and meaning. It follows, then, that great brand names likely have this same relationship.
Bear in mind there are many ways to attack a naming project, from blue-skying it to thinking strategically in terms of categories (such as Latin and Greek roots, hybrid words, acronyms, foreign words, geographical associations and so on). But no matter where your explorations take you, give strong consideration to the emotional punch of a name whose very sound itself carries the meaning you desire.
*Source: Lowrey, Tina M. and Shrum, L.J. Phonetic Symbolism and Brand Name Preference. Department of Marketing, University of Texas at San Antonio.
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