The Surprising Consumer Psychology of Product Names
In August 2020, a small Canadian Brewery made global headlines. Hell's Basement Brew of Alberta gave one of their beers an unconventional name. It was a word from Maori, the language spoken by an indigenous group of New Zealanders. Their new beer was very light, so the brewery selected the word “Huruhuru”, which literally translates to “light as a feather” in Maori.
What the brew makers were not aware of is that the beer has another, more colloquial meaning: “pubic hair”. Not exactly the optimal image you want in your head as you try and enjoy a refreshing summer beer.
It’s easy to point fun at Hell's Basement Brewery, but they’re far from alone. Many products have fallen victim to poor naming. The product is one thing, but its name plays a massive role in shaping its perception and driving consumer behavior. To understand this, let’s dive into the consumer psychology of names.
The Consumer Psychology of Names
Imagine you’re a restaurant owner, and you’re trying to boost the sale of a specific fish on the menu. How do you do it? You could change how you season it, or prepare it. You could change the price point to make it more accessible. You could even have a famous seafood influencer sing its praises.
But there’s another, much easier solution: change its name.
As Rory Sutherland illustrated in his book, Alchemy, this is exactly what happened to the fish formerly known as the Patagonian Toothfish. Lee Lantz, a fish wholesaler saw great potential in this fish for the American market, but found little success selling it. In 1977, he made a simple change. He started calling it by “Chilean Sea Bass” instead. Demand immediately increased.
People were indifferent to Patagonian Toothfish, but enthusiastic for Chilean Sea Bass.
A similar fate was found for the poor Goosefish. Under that name, the reception was indifferent. But when the fishing industry called it Monkfish, it became a highly sought delicacy—the “Foie Gras of the Sea”, some would say.
Effects like this are not reserved to fish. In 1952, the small fledgling town of Davis, Alaska was desperate to spur their local economy. Their solution was to try a very specific industry to their town: toymakers. Despite sitting over 100 miles south of the Arctic Circle, they renamed their town “North Pole”, Alaska.
In the end, it did not end up attracting toymakers. Instead, it brings in a wealth of tourists who get a kick out of “going to the North Pole”. To play along, the 2,000 residents of North Pole respond in kind by having their Christmas lights up year round. They may spend a bit more on electricity now, but the name change and influx of tourists it created single-handedly saved the town.
All in all, names make a massive difference. But is there a deeper method to the naming madness?
How Naming Influences Consumer Psychology: Bouba, Kiki, and the Fluency Effect
Clearly, giving something an appealing name makes it more attractive. But beyond word meaning, the pronounceability of a name can determine how much you like what it’s naming. Research has found that people prefer things with names that are easy to bring to mind, and easy to pronounce. This is known as the fluency effect: the easier a name is to bring to mind, the more we like it. When it comes to product naming, its an underappreciated element of consumer psychology.
And this fluency effect can have a big impact. People prefer politicians with simpler names, and lawyers with fluent names are promoted to partner more quickly than their non-fluently named counterparts. Along similar lines, names with less common, and more jarring spellings (e.g. Zakk vs. Zach), are typically rated as being less attractive.
These effects can even move financial markets. A 2006 investigation by Adam Alter and Daniel Oppenheimer examined how the fluency of stock tickers influenced the stock’s popularity. They looked specifically at the performance of over 300 stocks immediately after they went public. They found that companies with simple, easy to pronounce names (e.g. ADA) far much better than newly listed companies with complex names (e.g. IZX).
This is just the beginning. The actual sound of a word carries meaning with it as well. Take a look at the following objects. Imagine one of them is named Bouba and the other is named Kiki. Which one do you think is which?
These images are from a classic test of what’s called the Bouba Kiki effect. If you’re like most people, you naturally assume that the spiky-looking object on the left is called Kiki, and the bulbous-looking one on the right is called Bouba. Kiki “sounds” sharp and spiky; Bouba sounds round and bulbous.
You might be thinking that this effect is linguistic and therefore cultural, given the similarities in sound between the names and adjectives that describe them (spiky = kiki; bulbous = bouba). But the Bouba/Kiki effect shows amazing cross-linguistic consistency, suggesting that these sounds carry meaning in and of themselves. The effects have also replicated with a number of different “sharp” and “bulbous” sounding words, such as “maluma” and “takete”.
The Bouba/Kiki effect suggests that the effect of names goes even deeper than their meaning: The actual sound of a name influences our impression of it.
How Product Naming Influences Consumer Choice
Within the consumer world, product names can be the difference between success and failure. It’s such a crucial practice that a specialized industry of consulting firms have emerged to help brands get it right.
In 2008, one such firm, Lexicon, was hired by Nestle to rename a poorly performing line of treats. These were small nuggets of ice cream dipped in chocolate which they called Snack-a-Bites. Employing the fluency effect here, they changed the name to what they still go by today: Dibs. Sales turned around dramatically, and the product continues to be a success.
Naming practices are also crucial for what they prevent. Would you consider reading a novel called “Trimalchio in West Egg”? This was actually F. Scott Fitzgerald’s preferred title for “The Great Gatsby”. We’ll never know whether “Trimalchio in West Egg” would have become a literary classic in its own right, but thanks to the foresight of his overbearing publisher, we’ll never have to wonder.
But for all of the benefits of a rigorous approach to naming, there’s still the role of flat out luck. Several businesses have suffered because of these unpreventable associations. A once prominent candy maker, which dated back to the 1930s, abruptly went out of business in the 1990s. Their sudden collapse was completely due to the phonetic associations to their name: “Ayds”. Similarly, an Arizona-based electronic maker has had an intense name battle on their hands ever since the start of 2020. They had the unfortunate luck of having named their company “Covid”.
These unwanted associations are often beyond anyone’s control. There’s a certain amount of inevitable ambiguity when it comes to marketing psychology and branding psychology. They illustrate that when it comes to a successful name, luck can be as important as anything. At the end of the day, all we can do is choose the best name we can, and hope for the best.
And however the name turns out, one can rest assured that it’ll be better than “Huruhuru”.
Photo by Anomoly via UnSplash
About the author
Matt Johnson, PhD is a researcher, writer, and consumer neuroscientist focusing on the application of psychology to branding. He is the author of the best-selling consumer psychology book Blindsight, and Branding That Means Business (Economist Books, Fall 2022). Contact Matt for speaking engagements, opportunities to collaborate, or just to say hello
References for The Consumer Psychology of Product Naming
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