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Is it the ‘alpha’ or the ‘numeric’?: Consumers’ evaluation of letter versus number changes in alphanumeric brand names

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Abstract

This article, in five experiments, delineates the effects of alpha and numeric components of alphanumeric brand names (ANBs), by demonstrating the effects of disparities in processing between letter and number sequences on consumers’ brand evaluations. The findings show (i) ascending letters in ANBs (from D10 to E10) lead to more favorable evaluations of line extensions than descending letters in ANBs (from D10 to C10); (ii) line extensions are evaluated more favorably when a line extension ANB is formed with a change in number (from A70 to A80) (versus a change in letter) (from A70 to B70) for an existing ANB; (iii) consumers’ tendency to align brand numbers with product advancements mediates the relative effects of numbers versus letters in brand names and (iv) the observed effects are robust to differences in stimuli and context.

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Notes

  1. Levene’s test for equality of variances was significant (F=17.52, P<0.01); and the assumption of equal variances was rejected. Therefore, we report statistics for preferences using adapted degrees of freedom (Landau and Everitt, 2004). This difference occurred in subsequent studies, which is why we have DF values in decimals for some statistics.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Robin Coulter, David Norton and Nicholas Lurie for their helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Connecticut, 2100 Hillside Rd. Unit 1041, Storrs, 06269-1041, Connecticut, USA

    Selcan Kara, Kunter Gunasti & William T Ross

Authors
  1. Selcan Kara
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  2. Kunter Gunasti
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  3. William T Ross
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Selcan Kara.

Appendices

Appendix A

Stimulus for studies 1 and 2A

Stimulus for study 1 – Ascending letters condition

Dell, an electronics brand has the Dell D10 laptop model with the following key features:

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figure d

Dell is planning to introduce a new laptop, Dell E10, in the market with the following specifications:

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figure c

Stimulus for study 2A

illustration

figure b

Appendix B

Stimulus for study 4

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figure a

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Kara, S., Gunasti, K. & Ross, W. Is it the ‘alpha’ or the ‘numeric’?: Consumers’ evaluation of letter versus number changes in alphanumeric brand names. J Brand Manag 22, 515–533 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2015.28

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/bm.2015.28

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