How to make brand names more memorable

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📝 Intro

Want to know how brand names like WD-40, Post-its, and Coca-Cola have stuck in the collective imagination so well that the brand is a byword for the category itself?

Science Says a few key rules can make a name stick in customers’ minds.

Want to access hundreds more insights like these? Explore Science Says insights here.

Brand names with strong consonants, wordplays, puns, or alliterations are more memorable

Topics: Brand & Strategy
For: Both B2C and B2B 
Research date: September 2003
Universities: HEC Paris

📈 Recommendation

When choosing a brand or product name, you can make it more memorable by:

• Starting it with a strong consonant like P (e.g., Pepsi), T (e.g., Tudor), or K (e.g., KitKat)

• Use alliterations (e.g. Dunkin’ Donuts, PayPal) 

• Adding a clever (but clear) twist or pun (e.g., Groupon, Lord of the Fries)

Avoid blending words together (e.g. Intellivision or Clarivate) to make your name, as that can confuse people. 

🎓 Findings

• People are more likely to remember brand names that have certain characteristics.

• In an analysis of TV ads from 480 national brands, researchers found people were more likely to recall brand names that:

  • Start with a strong consonant that involves suddenly closing and then opening one’s mouth (k, g, b, p, t, and d)

  • Include an alliteration (e.g. Coca-Cola or Pepsi)

  • Use puns or wordplay (e.g. Arrid deodorant, a wordplay on “arid” meaning dry, Durex condoms highlighting their durability, or Sunsilk shampoo playing on silky hair)

  • Fit with a product’s identity (e.g. WD-40 for a chemical-based product or Clean and Clear face wash)

  • Had an unusual spelling (e.g. Kool-Aid)

• The effect

  • Is stronger for new or less familiar brands, where the features of the name can help overcome the lack of brand recognition

  • Disappears for brand names that combine two separate words into a single word for their name (e.g. Duracell combining durability and cell or Aspergum combining Aspirin and gum), making the name less memorable

🧠 Why it works

• Names that start with the letters p, t, k, b, d, and g (whose sound comes from a sudden closing and then opening of the mouth) grab our attention because of the sharp, distinctive sound on the first letter, helping the name stand out and be remembered.

• When we see a pun, wordplay, or a clever name that fits with a product’s purpose (e.g. Energizer for batteries), it creates a mental link between the brand and its function, making it easier for us to remember the name.

• When we see an unusual spelling of a word (e.g. Kool-Aid), the name makes us think twice, improving our memory retention, especially for new or unfamiliar brands.

• In contrast, blended names (e.g. Netflix) can be harder to remember as they confuse or complicate our mental association with the product.

✋ Limitations

• The findings show a link between the type of name and how memorable it is (that brands with different types of names are more or less memorable), but not beyond doubt a direct cause-effect relationship (that the names alone cause better or worse memory), making them useful as guidelines, not guarantees. Since the study did not include controlled experiments, other factors such as the frequency of ads, emotional content, or visuals, could have influenced recall but weren’t measured.

• New research has emerged since the publication of this study, finding that people dislike misspelled brand names - unless there’s a clear reason for it.

• The TV ads analyzed were mostly for products targeting women - the effect might not work entirely the same for men.

🏢 Companies using this

• Our own brand name Science Says uses wordplay (with the game “Simon Says”) and alliteration to improve memorability.

• Letters that cause sharper, strong sounds (like p, t, k, b, d, and g) are frequently combined with alliteration to create attention-grabbing names including Kit Kat, PayPal, and Dunkin Donuts.

• Wordplay linking to a function or characteristic is used relatively commonly by successful products and brands, including:

  • Dropbox

  • LinkedIn

  • Froot Loops

  • Fitbit

  • Post-its

Restaurant Pita Pan uses the strong “P” sound paired with alliteration and wordplay highlighting its Greek food and children’s character Peter Pan.

⚡ Steps to implement

• Start your brand name with a sharp consonant sound, like p, t, k, b, d, and g) to make it more memorable. Using it with alliteration (e.g. Pepsi) can make it even more memorable, but can sound casual.

• Puns or wordplays in your brand name can make your name stand out in your customers’ minds.

• Choose a brand name that clearly relates to the product’s function or purpose. A strong, intuitive connection between the name and product helps your customers form a mental link, making your name easier to remember. Other research also shows it strengthens the association your customers have between your product and that specific purpose. This works best for practical products - for luxury or fashion brands, abstract or aspirational names might be more effective.

• Try to avoid:

  • Misspelled words, since more recent research found that they backfire

  • Blending two words together to create a new brand name - the new blended word can confuse your customers, making it harder for them to remember you.

🔍 Study type

Market observation (analysis of TV ads of 480 established brands including cleaning products, packaged foods, and financial services targeted to women).

📖 Research

The Relation between Brand-Name Linguistic Characteristics and Brand-Name Memory. Journal of Advertising (September 2003)

🏫 Researchers

• Tina Lowrey. HEC Paris

• L.J. Shrum. HEC Paris

• Tony Dubitsky. Ameritest

Remember: This is a scientific discovery. In the future it will probably be better understood and could even be proven wrong (that’s how science works). It may also not be generalizable to your situation. If it’s a risky change, always test it on a small scale before rolling it out widely.

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