Better branding: brand names can influence consumer choice Philipp Hillenbrand Faculty of Business Administration and Accounting, Universidad Nacional Auto ´ noma de Me ´xico, Mexico City, Mexico Sarael Alcauter National Institute of Psychiatry “Ramo ´ n de la Fuente Mun ˜ iz”/Institute for Neurobiology, Universidad Nacional Auto ´noma de Me ´ xico, Juriquilla, Quere ´ taro, Mexico Javier Cervantes Faculty of Business Administration and Accounting, Universidad Nacional Auto ´ noma de Me ´xico, Mexico City, Mexico, and Fernando Barrios Institute for Neurobiology, Universidad Nacional Auto ´ noma de Me ´ xico, Juriquilla, Quere ´ taro, Mexico Abstract Purpose – Researchers agree that the choice of brand name for a product can alter the consumers’ judgment about the product and their purchase decision-making process. With competition getting fiercer and product quality becoming more homogenous, a “better” brand name can be decisive in product choice if the consumers compare several products. The purpose of this research is to offer new physiological insights about how brand names are processed in the consumer’s brain in order to identify potential determinants of “better” brand names. Design/methodology/approach – Using valence and activation ratings, reaction time, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the authors show the interaction of key brand name dimensions with the consumer purchase decision-making process, as well as the neurophysiological basis of consumer preference for certain types of brand names. Findings – The authors’ research shows that it has a positive effect on consumer choice to include in the brand name hints at the key benefits of the underlying product. Practical implications – The authors’ results demonstrate that fMRI is able to provide important insights for brand practitioners. Originality/value – Current research has neither focused on the interaction of brand name dimensions with the consumer purchase decision-making process nor provided insight about the physiological drivers of brand perception. In their research, the authors applied for the first time neurophysiological methodologies and fMRI to questions related to brand names, resolving questions that have not been answered due to the methodological limitations of social sciences. Keywords Marketing, Neurosciences, Branding, Brand names, Brand name processing, Consumer behaviour, fMRI research, Neural systems, Neuromarketing Paper type Research paper An executive summary for managers and executive readers can be found at the end of this article. 1. Introduction – only limited insights available on how to name a product In today’s proliferating marketing space, an increasing number of companies are competing for consumers that are well informed and knowledgeable about their options. In this “brand war”, competition is getting fiercer and product quality is getting more homogenous (Court et al., 2006). As a consequence, small advantages in the consumer’s judgment about a product can translate into an important competitive advantage in the marketplace. The product name is often the first point of interaction between a consumer and a product, later becoming the placeholder under which the consumer memorizes the characteristics he has perceived of the corresponding product. If a marketer is knowledgeable about the determinants of brand name design, it would be less expensive and less complex to focus on what an “adequate” brand name might look like right from the beginning than to later smooth away the impact of a poorly chosen brand name by image campaigns or even a relaunch. Consequently, a brand name design should be carefully evaluated as it results in an important competitive element in the interaction between a company and the consumers. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1061-0421.htm Journal of Product & Brand Management 22/4 (2013) 300–308 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 1061-0421] [DOI 10.1108/JPBM-04-2012-0120] The authors would like to thank D. Pless for the careful revision of the manuscript, Javier Cervantes of Psyma Latina SA de CV for his help as a tutor, the funding and the National Institute of Psychiatry “Ramo ´n de la Fuente Mun ˜ iz” and the Institute of Neurobiology for all the support. 300