PHILADELPHIA – Add one more thing that marketers might want to think about when they pick a product name: egotism.
For years, researchers have been studying the bizarre relationship people have with their names and how that affects decision-making. It turns out that most people really like their names, so much so that they prefer the letters in their names to other letters. Men are particularly partial to their last initial, women to their first.
There’s evidence that this preference affects the career we choose, where we live, even whom we marry, said C. Miguel Brendl, director of the INSEAD Social Science Research Center in Fountainebleau, France.
His new study, published in the December issue of the Journal of Consumer Research, found that it’s possible to boost the “name letter effect” when consumers are deciding on a brand. People were more likely to pick a product whose name shared letters with their own when their egos were threatened or when their need was high, such as when they were hungry and had to choose a candy bar.
Brendl said these preferences have implications for people choosing names for products aimed at narrow markets or well-defined “early adopters.” It could also be useful for direct mailers who can create names used to sign their pitches.
“The name letter effect, of course, is not a very strong effect,” he said. “You can imagine it’s very subtle.”
Nonetheless, he said, marketers should consider it, along with other factors that may unconsciously affect consumer choice such as mood, the temperature in a room, or packaging.
The broader question, Brendl said, is: “When are people’s choices influenced by gut feel? … If you add all of these up, the result can be quite substantial.”
Intrigued by his own reaction to a plea from someone with a similar name at the Red Cross, Randy Garner, a professor of behavioral science at Sam Houston State University, has been studying the impact of similar names – Robert Greer and Bob Gregar, for example, or Cynthia Johnston and Cindy Johanson. He found that people are more likely to respond positively to characters in a story or to people asking them to complete a survey if their names are similar.
He fears marketers will abuse this power, and says consumers should protect themselves by understanding “that these sorts of influences are out there.”
Two men who make a living creating product and company names were skeptical of the value of Brendl’s research.
“I think statistically it’s useless,” said David Burd, owner of The Naming Company in Stroudsburg, Pa. He said his biggest problem is coming up with a distinctive name that hasn’t already been taken.
“I can’t imagine trying to create a product or company name based on an analysis of names … in the target audience,” said Michael Barr, president and owner of NameLab in San Francisco.
Obviously, Burd said, there’s a lot more to naming than picking the letters.
“If I found out that a lot of people have H in their name, and I call my product Hitler, would it sell well?” he asked.
But S.B. Master, founder and president of Master-McNeil Inc., a naming company in Berkeley, Calif., said the name letter effect makes intuitive sense. At first glance, she said, “people overwhelmingly respond more positively to names that look and feel familiar to them. What could be more familiar than their own name?”
(EDITORS: STORY CAN END HERE)
It’s been 20 years since people’s special feeling for the letters in their names was discovered, Brendl said. Since then, researchers have learned that Dennises are overrepresented among dentists and women named Louise are disproportionately likely to move to Louisiana. Although no one knows whether the name letter effect is the cause, we’re more likely to marry people whose surname begins with the same letter as our own.
Brendl wanted to measure the effect in a controlled environment and see if it could be strengthened. In his team’s experiments, the effect was not statistically significant until they made test subjects a little uncomfortable, either physically or psychologically.
In one experiment, they asked people to write about an aspect of themselves they would like to change. Brendl hypothesizes that this threatened their self-esteem. Contrary to what you might expect, he says most people compensate for this kind of threat by feeling more positive about themselves. These positive feelings transfer to the letters in their name and, ultimately, to products that use the letters.
After this challenge, 64 percent of testers preferred a tea with a name like their own. Jonathans, for example, liked Jonoki better than Elioki. Normally, you would expect a 50-50 split.
Hunger had a similar effect. Brendl theorizes that need for the product can boost the impact of unconscious preferences.
Whatever the reason, he said the end result is that, without having any idea why, Marks and Marshas may prefer a Mars bar to a Snickers when they’re stressed or hungry.
—
(c) 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Visit Philadelphia Online, the Inquirer’s World Wide Web site, at http://www.philly.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-12-08-05 0619EST
Comments are no longer available on this story