earticle

영어

This paper argues that consonantal sound symbolism in brand names affect customers’ perception toward merchandise. To support this argument, we conducted three surveys that potential customers chose the words which better matched the theme of the offered merchandise. The survey choices were the words that embed the comparing consonants among /b, f, k, l, s, and t/. The results showed that most consonants, especially fricatives, demonstrated stronger symbolicity when they are positioned in the beginning of the brand name. By contrast, the stop consonant /k/ had stronger symbolicity at the end of the brand name. The results indicate that brand names using sound symbolism earn customers’ unconscious, positive attention as an effective marketing tool, as claimed by Yorkston(2004)