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This research aims to examine how credence, search and experience attributes compete with suggestive brand names that are incongruent with the attributes they cue (e.g. expensive EconoLodge Motel, short-lasting Duracell battery and joint-stiffening JointFlex pill).

This study relies on experimental studies, together with analyses of variance, t-tests and logistic regressions.

Incongruent suggestive brand names can distort product evaluations and alter perceptions of product performance in joint product judgments involving contradictory credence attributes; they can misdirect product evaluations even if the search attributes conflict with competitor brands. Furthermore, they are more likely to backfire if contradictory experience attributes are readily available to consumers.

This test of the role of incongruence between suggestive brand names and actual product features includes key concepts that can inform continued studies, such as search attributes that consumers can readily observe, experience attributes that can be observed only after product use and credence attributes that might not be observed even after use.

This study provides applicable guidelines for managers, consumers and policymakers.

The findings expand beyond prior literature that focuses on memory-based, separate evaluations of advertised benefits and inferences or expectations of unavailable attributes. Specifically, this study details the implications of congruence between the suggestive brand names and different types of attributes observable at different consumption stages.

Researchers agree that the choice of brand name for a product can alter the consumers ' judgment about the product and their purchase decision-making process. With competition getting fiercer and product quality becoming more homogenous, a “better” brand name can be decisive in product choice if the consumers compare several products. The purpose of this research is to offer new physiological insights about how brand names are processed in the consumer ' s brain in order to identify potential determinants of “better” brand names.

Using valence and activation ratings, reaction time, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the authors show the interaction of key brand name dimensions with the consumer purchase decision-making process, as well as the neurophysiological basis of consumer preference for certain types of brand names.

The authors ' research shows that it has a positive effect on consumer choice to include in the brand name hints at the key benefits of the underlying product.

The authors ' results demonstrate that fMRI is able to provide important insights for brand practitioners.

Current research has neither focused on the interaction of brand name dimensions with the consumer purchase decision-making process nor provided insight about the physiological drivers of brand perception. In their research, the authors applied for the first time neurophysiological methodologies and fMRI to questions related to brand names, resolving questions that have not been answered due to the methodological limitations of social sciences.

The purpose of this paper is to design a model for selecting brand names on the basis of the perceptions of enterprises.

First, the proposed model adopts the modified Delphi method to identify suitable criteria for evaluating a brand name. Next, the model applies the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to determine the relative weights of evaluation criteria, then ranks the alternatives and selects the brand name. Finally, the model adopts sensitivity analysis to examine how other evaluative criteria would change with any changes in the weightings of the evaluation criteria.

The analytical results indicated that enterprises rank criteria in terms of importance as follows: emotional appeal, linguistics appeal, marketing appeal and legal appeal. In addition, the example of a renowned Taiwanese beverage company is used to demonstrate the process of brand name selection based on this model.

The proposed model helps enterprises effectively select a brand name, making it highly applicable in academia and commerce.

This paper aims to examine how olfactory imagery, triggered by scent brand names prior to smelling, influences scented-product purchase intention.

Five studies were conducted. Logistic regression analysis was used to predict likelihood of olfactory imagery formation. ANOVA and t-test analyses were used for scent brand name group comparisons, and serial mediation analysis was used to test how scent brand names impact purchase intention through olfactory imagery vividness and the (dis)confirmation between imagined (i.e. expected) and experienced scents.

Scent name familiarity stimulates olfactory imagery formation. Scent brand name specificity (e.g. “Lavender Bouquet” vs. “Floral Bouquet”) influences purchase intention, with specific names leading to lower purchase intention, because they generate vivid olfactory imagery and induce a disconfirmation between imagined and experienced scents.

Branding scents on products should be a strategic product design decision. Surprisingly, although specific scent brand names trigger vivid olfactory imagery and precise scent expectations, they mitigate purchase intention and thus are riskier. General scent brand names are safer.

This research contributes by extending the literature on the effect of verbal cues on scent perception by considering the role of scent brand name specificity on purchase intent. It also adds to work on how olfactory imagery influences purchase intention by incorporating olfactory imagery vividness. Finally, it proposes and tests an underlying cognitive mechanism to explain the relationship between scent brand names and purchase intention.

Consumers often use various cues such as health stars and nutrition claims on product packaging to draw inferences regarding healthfulness. However, much less is known regarding the role of brand names in consumer decisions around healthfulness. The purpose of this study is to introduce angelic branding as a brand naming strategy that may act as a supernatural agent benevolence (i.e. loving, kind and merciful) prime that leads consumers to perceive that the brand’s products are healthful.

Study 1 examines the effect of angelic brand names on brand healthfulness perceptions. Study 2 investigates the mediating role of brand virtuousness perceptions on the relationship between angelic branding and brand healthfulness perceptions and the downstream consequences on purchase intention. Study 3 explores the moderating role of authoritarian supernatural agent belief (i.e. angry, vindictive and punishing) on the relationship between angelic branding and brand virtuousness perceptions, and subsequent brand healthfulness perceptions and purchase intention.

The results of this study demonstrate that angelic branding results in healthfulness perceptions for a healthy product (i.e. vitamins; Study 1a), an unhealthy product (i.e. cookies; Study 1b; eliminating perceptual fluency as a potential alternative explanation for the phenomenon) and across different product categories (i.e. surface spray; Study 1c). The results from Study 2 find that angelic brand names prime brand healthfulness perceptions because of the activation of brand virtuousness perceptions (not brand quality perceptions; eliminating a general halo effect as a potential alternative explanation for the phenomenon). The results of Study 3 show that strong belief in authoritarian supernatural agents attenuates the angelic brand name–brand healthfulness priming effect.

This research is limited, as it only considers angelic brand naming and not any other benevolence cues in brand logos, such as halos and angel wings. This research is also limited in that it only considers healthfulness perceptions drawn from English angelic brand name cues and from participants within the USA and the UK.

This study has important implications for brand managers in the development of new brand names. Angelic brand naming is suggested as a strategy for brand managers to prime perceptions of brand virtuousness and brand healthfulness and to influence consumer behavior. However, brand managers are cautioned against the use of this brand naming strategy if it is intended to mislead or deceive consumers, resulting in detrimental effects on their health.

This research makes a unique and novel contribution to the literature in brand names on consumer decision-making. Angelic branding is introduced as a brand naming strategy that can act as a supernatural agent religious prime to influence perceptions of brand virtuousness, brand healthfulness and consumer behavioral intentions (i.e. purchase intention).

This paper aims to introduce pseudohomophone phonological priming effects (non-words that sound like real words with a single semantic representation, such as Whyte primes white) on consumers’ product attribute and benefit-based judgments.

Four studies were conducted. Study 1 examines whether pseudohomophone brand names (e.g. Whyte) prime associative meaning (i.e. the perception of light bread; target: white). Study 2 investigates the pseudohomophone priming process. In Study 3, the authors examine the influence of brand knowledge of pseudohomophone priming effects.

The findings indicate that pseudohomophone brand names prime associative meaning, due to retrieval of phonology (sound) of the word during processing. Pseudohomophone priming effects for a semantically (meaningful) incongruent brand name manifest only when consumers do not have knowledge of the brand, with cognitive capacity constraints rendering consumers with strong brand knowledge unable to mitigate the pseudohomophone priming effect.

This research has implications for brand managers considering the creation of a name for a new brand that connotes product attributes and benefits. However, this research is limited, as it only examines pseudohomophone brand names with a single semantic representation.

This research shows that sounds activated by pseudohomophones in brand names can influence product judgments. This research also identifies limitations of the applicability of pseudohomophone brand names by identifying a condition under which priming effects are attenuated.

Consumer racism (CR) is a highly relevant issue to societies such as Australia and one which has, up until now, been somewhat neglected by marketers. This paper aims to investigate this relatively “new” construct and its impact on product evaluation and subsequent willingness to buy cross‐ethnic products amongst Australian consumers.

This paper uses a quasi‐experiment method. Data were collected from an intercept sample of 212 Australian consumers via personal interviews. Data were analysed with descriptive statistics, and hypotheses were tested using regression analysis and two‐way between groups ANOVA.

The results provide evidence that higher levels of CR translate into more negative evaluations of product quality which, in turn, decrease willingness to buy products perceived as originating from the ethnic minority. Further, regardless of the importance of product outcome, CR has a consistent negative effect on product evaluation and willingness to buy amongst Australian consumers.

Future research could be expanded into other ethnic groups and other countries, and could include other moderators such as level of interaction. CR construct can also be examined in service contexts.

The major contributions of the study are the validation of the CR construct and the findings about the impact of it on consumers' willingness to buy cross‐ethnic products via product evaluations in the Australian context.

Given the growing preference for internet celebrity restaurants, it is crucial to explore how internet celebrity restaurants can maintain customer loyalty. Therefore, this study aims to examine the connections between brand cognition [emotion value, brand symbol (BS) and brand experience (BE)], brand resonance (BR) and revisit intention.

In this paper, the authors use a theoretical model to test the relationship between cognition and intention. A total of 366 volunteers were recruited to participate in this research. Hypothesis testing and a moderated mediation model were used to measure the results.

BR acts as a mediator in the interaction between emotion value, BS, experience and repurchase intention (RI). Surprisingly, the authors also discover that electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) acceptance negatively modifies the relationship between brand cognition and BR. Internet exposure (IE) helps consumers perceive BE and BSs more favorably.

Managers should be aware of how internet celebrity BR is built. Specifically, they can use cultural or emotional elements to maintain relationships with consumers. Furthermore, to lessen the negative consequences of e-WOM, managers should work to maintain positive WOM consistency.

The research advances our knowledge of RI in internet celebrity restaurants settings. This study pioneers an investigation of how brand cognition is related to RI through BR’s mediating effect. It enriches this research perspective of the emerging restaurant literature. By analyzing the boundary impact of internet transmission on resonance, it also advances the literature.

This study aims to explore how brands use brand personification techniques in real-time marketing on social media, particularly Twitter, and examine how these techniques impact consumer engagement, moderated by brand-event congruence levels.

Data included 464 tweets posted by 95 brands around three large events in 2019. The types of brand personification techniques and the level of brand-event congruence applied by the tweets were content-analyzed, and regression analyses were conducted to examine their linkages to consumer engagement metrics.

Results confirmed the use of diverse personification techniques in brands’ real-time marketing tweets as in the previous literature. The study also revealed a new personification technique, tacit expression, not reported in previous literature. The study also showed that the overall effectiveness of multimedia-based (vs caption-based) personification techniques in increasing consumer engagement on social media was greater, but their relative effectiveness varied depending on whether or not the event was functionally congruent with the brand.

The findings offer valuable suggestions to brand managers regarding prioritizing brand personification techniques and aligning brands’ social media marketing with real-time events to maximize the effectiveness of real-time marketing in boosting consumer engagement.

This research offers insights into the dynamic effects of different brand personification techniques in the new context of real-time marketing, extending the scope of literature on brand personification and anthropomorphism. The revelation of a new type of brand personification not captured in the extant literature is also a significant contribution.