What’s in a name?

The science of sounds in advertising

Advertisers know when we hear a name that works. We just feel it deep down in our bones.

“Bronco”? Now that’s a manly vehicle! “Maxim”? Definitely soft-core pornography!

We simply know when a name works. That’s what we say when pressed for an explanation: “I dunno. It just works.” Well, whether we realize it or not, there’s a reason behind these gut feelings. That reason is science.

According to my calculations… yes, there is some science in here.

According to people who study the noises we make with our mouths, the particular vowels in a word affect our perception of an object’s size and gender.

Linguists distinguish vowels based on the position that the tongue is in when the sound is made. A vowel is either front or back, high or low. For example, say “feet”. Your tongue is in a forward position. Now say “foot”. Your tongue is noticeably farther back.

Feel free to say all these out loud too, if you don’t mind strange looks.

It turns out that smaller, lighter things are more often represented with front vowels and larger, heavier things have back vowels. Stanford Linguistics professor Dan Jurafsky even noticed that this phenomenon can even be observed across languages:

“It’s not always true, but it’s a tendency that you can see in any of the stressed vowels in words like little, teeny or itsy-bitsy (all front vowels) versus humongous or gargantuan (back vowels). Or the i vowel in Spanish chico (front vowel meaning small) versus gordo (back vowel meaning fat). Or French petit (front vowel) versus grand (back vowel).”

Not only does this apply across languages, but it applies to made-up names as well. Richard Klink, a marketing professor at Loyola College in Maryland created a test using sets or randomly-generated names and then asked these questions:

•Which brand of laptop seems bigger; Detal or Dutal?

•Which brand of vacuum cleaner seems heavier, Keffi or Kuffi?

•Which brand of ketchup seems thicker, Nellen or Nullen?

•Which brand of beer seems darker, Esab or Usab?

Which name seems more appropriate, GOROG THE DESTROYER or Stephanie?

Any guesses to what he found?

“In each case the participants in the study tended to choose the product named by back vowels (dutal, nodax) as the larger, heavier, thicker, darker product. Similar studies have been conducted in various other languages.”

The lesson seems pretty clear, if you want a product to sound big and powerful, give it big, powerful vowels. For example, which car sounds larger, Dodge or Kia? Our gut tells us Dodge feels bigger, and science tells us why.

For the most part, advertisers have figured this out. That’s why some people get paid huge wads of cash in brown paper bags to come up with made-up words.

“As you can see, since we changed the name from ‘Boner Juice’ to “Viagra’ sales are up 1 million percent.”

However, while they may know when a brand or product name sounds right, they often cannot explain why. We need to always remember that there is a force out there dedicated to explaining things like this: it’s called science. Science is that guy that always interrupts the stories your fun friend tells by pushing up his glasses and saying, “Well, actually…”.

Science got picked on a lot in high school

But now you've matured and realized that science is a pretty cool, mellow guy. He’s not overly opinionated and normally thinks before he blurts shit out. And the more you listen to him, the more you realize he has some good advice.

So, advertisers, next time you want a car to seem manly, call it a “Gorg”.

…wait, does this mean some advertiser started calling the Volkswagen Beetle a “Slug Bug” to make men buy it?