title: Brand Suicide? Memory and Liking of Negative Brand Names.
abstract: Negative brand names are surprisingly common in the marketplace (e.g., Poison perfume; Hell pizza, and Monster energy drink), yet their effects on consumer behavior are currently unknown. Three studies investigated the effects of negative brand name valence on brand name memory and liking of a branded product. Study 1 demonstrates that relative to non-negative brand names, negative brand names and their associated logos are better recognised. Studies 2 and 3 demonstrate that negative valence of a brand name tends to have a detrimental influence on product evaluation with evaluations worsening as negative valence increases. However, evaluation is also dependent on brand name arousal, with high arousal brand names resulting in more positive evaluations, such that moderately negative brand names are equally as attractive as some non-negative brand names. Study 3 shows evidence for affective habituation, whereby the effects of negative valence reduce with repeated exposures to some classes of negative brand name.
authors.affiliation: Psychology Division, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Duncan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guest
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, Bocconi University, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Zachary
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Estes
authors.affiliation: Institute of Marketing and Communication, University of Lugano, Lugano, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gibbert
authors.affiliation: The Jerusalem School of Business Administration, The Hebrew University Of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.|The Centre for Academic Studies, Or Yehuda, Israel.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mazursky
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory; D009275:Names; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult