Recall and recognition of brand names: A comparison of word and nonword name types

Despite the common recommendation that brand names be memorable, little is known about the effect of brand name type on various forms of memory processing such as recall and recognition. As such, this article extends prior research by comparing recall and recognition for three sets of brand names: words versus nonwords, relevant (i.e., related to a product attribute) words versus irrelevant (i.e., unrelated to a product attribute) words, and relevant words cuing an advertised attribute versus relevant words cuing an unadvertised attribute. The results of an experimental study indicate that memory for these brand name types depends on whether it is accessed via recall or recognition. Based on these results, implications for naming new products are discussed. (C) 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.