NAME LETTER BRANDING, MIGUEL BRENDLMiguel Brendl professor of Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management is intrigued by the fact that “your liking for the letters of your name, which is really driven by your liking for yourself, might spill over to objects and influence your choices. Put simply, if a brand name shares our initials, we tend to like it more. “

His research elucidates how and under what conditions this curious phenomenon, which Brendl calls “name-letter branding,” can be expected to appear, influencing consumers’ consumption choices. In particular, name-letter branding influences choices through two stages based on processes known as implicit egotism and attribute-specific valence transfer. “We propose,” explains Brendl, “that during a first stage, a liking for oneself increases the positive valence attached to letters contained in people’s names. Subsequently, this positive valence transfers to product-specific attributes—for example, the taste of a beverage—and increases the attractiveness of the product.”

When asked to rate their liking for letters of the alphabet, people consistently chose letters in their own names more than other letters and more than other people chose these same letters. This is commonly referred to as the “name-letter effect” and scientists argue that it can be significant enough to induce people to choose name-resembling objects, life outcomes, and partners.

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Chiudo accettando questi risultati con apertura, dal momento che sono validati da verifiche e da studi che sembrano seri, ma aggiungo che le lettere dell’alfabeto sono tante (21-26 negli alfabeti occidentali) e che per quanto alcune siano più frequenti (A, E, C, T … ) tutte sono presenti tanto nei nomi personali quanto nei brand names, pertanto la correlazione tra il successo di un prodotto e la risonanza delle sue lettere nel nome di tutti quello che lo percepiscono (abbiamo tutti nomi diversi!) appare debole. Per ringraziare Miguel Brendl sottolineo che il suo cognome ricorda molto da vicino Brand!

Nomen est omen!