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geoff199 OP t1_jbblgr0 wrote

From the Journal of Marketing: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00222429231162367

Abstract:

An increasingly common strategy when naming new brands is to use an unconventional spelling of an otherwise familiar word (e.g., “Lyft” rather than “Lift”). However, little is known about how this brand naming strategy impacts consumers’ beliefs about the brand and, ultimately, their willingness to support it. Across eight experimental studies, we demonstrate that in general, consumers are less likely to support unfamiliar brands whose names are spelled unconventionally compared to brands that use the conventional spelling of the same word. This occurs because consumers perceive the choice of an unconventionally spelled name as an overt persuasion attempt by the marketer, and thus view the brand as less sincere. We demonstrate these effects are driven by persuasion knowledge using both mediation and moderation and show robustness by employing different types of unconventional spellings. Our studies suggest that, while marketers may choose unconventional spellings for new-to-the-world brands with the goal of positively influencing consumers’ perceptions, doing so may backfire. However, we also find that unconventionally spelled names do not produce a backfire effect when the motive for selecting the name is seen as sincere. Further, unconventionally spelled brand names may even be desirable when consumers are seeking a memorable experience.

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ShameNap t1_jbco8na wrote

Wait, you don’t want a Krab Kake ?

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Em_Adespoton t1_jbctqmn wrote

This is likely because we have laws attached to the real spelling of a lot of words; if you call something Milk on the label, there are requirements for what’s in the container. If you call something Milq, you can put anything you like in the container, and it usually signifies that there’s been a substitution for something the FDA would be unwilling to call Milk.

Krispy Kreme, for example, often isn’t crisp and contains no cream. I have a theory on why they’re called donuts instead of doughnuts too….

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dblack246 t1_jbcvmdv wrote

Burger King used to have (or maybe they still do) a sandwich called the "Chick'n Crisp". The unconventionally spelled food item promoted my wife to joke "We never said there was chicken in this."

That observation dissuaded me from buying one.

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awidden t1_jbd6cdd wrote

So we tend to think less of misspelled words in brand names. I'm not surprised.

We think less of people who can't spell correctly, and don't recognise the difference between "its" and "it's", etc.

Or if they use a weird slang.

At least after the first 20-some years of our life most of us do. :)

I think it should have been obvious to the brands a long time ago. But then these things are created by people who work in marketing, and those aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed.

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jasongw t1_jbd84d4 wrote

I don't see it as any of those factors. I just see it as lazy, failed attempts at being creative. "Look at me, I can spell a word wrong but it still sounds the same, see how clever I am?"

It's not clever. It's lazy. It's cheap. It's dumb.

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Atomic_Wrangler2 t1_jbd9x7c wrote

Bothers me a lot less than made up words like “nutraceutical”. To me grift just drifts off that word.

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linkdude212 t1_jbdc14f wrote

That is interesting: it is certainly how I feel. However, I know many people who would not know that one is misspelt and therefore I am uncertain if they would feel negatively toward the one that was misspelt.

3

TrooperCam t1_jbdct3i wrote

Someone get the CEO of Klear Kanteen on the line stat!

2

Wild-Caterpillar76 t1_jbde8uu wrote

Nothing makes me more angry than a florist with a “bokay’s sold here” sign

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Hm_Maybe_ t1_jbdi0re wrote

Seriously, who trusts a donut shop? I only give my money to a true doughnut shoppe.

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Sterlod t1_jbdi9ft wrote

Replying to Sparktank1 (#2,183,499)

Well a lot of other slaughterhouses aren’t giving male chicks the creative outlet, the only thing they have is their choreography, are you implying we take that away from them?

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andygchicago t1_jbdisrr wrote

Unconventional spelling in general is obnoxious. Kaytlynn? Cydnee? I will judge your parents hard

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andygchicago t1_jbdizw5 wrote

Replying to Em_Adespoton (#2,183,188)

This article is discussing company names, not product descriptors. Krispy Kreme can be called “Meat and Potatoes.” Plenty of “Maple” brand companies that make syrups with no maple in them, for example.

Also, I’m pretty sure that even if they called the individual doughnuts crispy, they aren’t going to get in trouble because they aren’t crispy.

“Cheeze” or “Chik’n” are legally required terms for plant based foods, though.

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Prymu t1_jbdlqae wrote

Now I have another's argument in the eternal gnome vs kde war

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TomMatthews t1_jbdmx3c wrote

Is there many brands people consider honest, down to earth and/or wholesome?

Even ones you like you know you’re lucky if one of them is true

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movetoseattle t1_jbdn0jg wrote

Love Krusteaz baking mixes . . . but it took me years to even try one because of the kitschy K!

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qu1x0t1cZ t1_jbdnped wrote

I feel validated. I hate brands that mess around with spelling and syntax. I don’t even have a particularly strong grasp on grammar but it bugs me when people intentionally get it wrong in some awful grasping attempt to look down with the kids. Examples in the UK include Phones4U that I refuse to buy from on principle and a shopping centre chain called Intu which ruined the original branding of our local centre when they took it over.

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gonesnake t1_jbdt5yq wrote

Replying to AllYouNeedIsATV (#2,184,079)

And many consumers aren't stupid. We all know names like that are attempting to imply specific positive qualities (a detergent called "Brite" or "Shur Grip" adhesive)and are trying to make it easy to remember by just using a phonetic sound alike yet at the same time something with a unique spelling for trademark purposes.

Anyone can sell comfy socks but only WE sell the original Kumphie Sox™

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TiddlyhamBumberspoot t1_jbdta3v wrote

There are supplements called Juce because they’re not allowed to call it Juice - something seems icky about it

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DontDisrespectDaBing t1_jbdudpu wrote

I see it as a tacit nod that the product is a synthetic/not real version of the real thing. First that comes to my mind is the frozen bag of chicken “wyngz”. Immediately skeptical of the product bc it’s pretending to be something else/it’s not

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elusiveoddity t1_jbdy074 wrote

I always associate those unconventional spellings as cheap knockoffs, like Suny for Sony or whatever. And this was before the days of Amazon and the flood of drop-shipped items that play with english words.

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nosnowtho t1_jbdz5qp wrote

Purposely misspelt names seem more American to me (Australian) and more dishonest.

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that_noodle_guy t1_jbe0466 wrote

For me it's an indicator ur trying to stand out with your name/branding becuase the product itself doesn't stand out on its own.

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mikebaker1337 t1_jbe57ip wrote

Replying to jasongw (#2,183,746)

I also assume they got beaten to the real spelling by a different copyright or something else implying a knock off of someone else's IP. Not always true I know but that's where the monkey brain goes.

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Levitins_world t1_jbe74it wrote

So does that mean n00bmaster69 isn't an honest, down-to-earth and wholesome guy?

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victorix58 t1_jbe89rn wrote

The science of capitalism. How wonderful that we are perfecting our knowledge of how best to lie to "consumers" with advertising. What a wonderful world. A little bit closer to true satire every day. Like living in the movie Idiocracy.

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ItsASeldonCrisis t1_jbe8dmh wrote

Ever since I realized that "krab" meat generally means crab-colored whitefish slurry, I don't trust any alternate spellings.

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dghammer t1_jbebolg wrote

Replying to dblack246 (#2,183,261)

A guy I worked with years ago, when the web was new, insisted that the reason KFC started calling themselves KFC was that they no longer served real chicken....he told me this the first time I met him and he said he learned this on the internet. The dude was a nutter.

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hermeez t1_jbed7e7 wrote

Yea I think all those Chinese products on Amazon with weird names fall under this category.

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mandozombie t1_jbedkic wrote

It also makes one question the product makers intelligence

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Rainbow_mama t1_jbee2rg wrote

I just think it’s stupid when things are spelled like that and I avoid it.

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Jolly-Lawless t1_jbeeagg wrote

Replying to movetoseattle (#2,184,243)

I fkn hate that name - krusteaz sounds like a skin infection, the spelling is so far removed from a known English word/phrase.

I only recently realized phonetically it was probably originally Crust-Ease. Which makes perfect sense for a mid 20th century baking mix.

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MIkeR1988 t1_jbeeatc wrote

Where’s the study that explains why new startups that just add -ly to words make me want to throw a chair though a window?

Latest I saw was an add for “Remitly”. Come on

3

alphabitserial t1_jbehaw2 wrote

Replying to AllYouNeedIsATV (#2,184,079)

Vegan products are required to do so by law, and the meat & dairy industries are still pushing back against that, trying to suggest that they be named, for example, “breaded soy and pea protein chunks.” The argument from vegan food companies is that consumers understand how to use “vegan chicken tenders” more easily and that the (quite prominent) vegan labeling is enough. I personally agree with the vegan companies there.

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jmite t1_jbehbfg wrote

Who doesn't trust the Pure 'n Kleen water company?

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ramdom-ink t1_jbeiy12 wrote

Saxx underwear w/ the “ball park” feature is too Cleve by half…

1

DaStalkingBiscuit t1_jbeqlfh wrote

Replying to Extension-Ad-2760 (#2,185,365)

That's not what the article is about. I've never blamed vegan substitutes for not being legally able to call themselves 'chicken substitute' etc.

Laws that prevent misrepresentation of your product are good, but I feel like your should be allowed to explicitly state that your product tries to mimic something else.

5

robothelvete t1_jbeuxvg wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,185,676)

> Most people I know who eat meat still have a moral qualm with lamb

Really? That's not an experience I share. Have they ever wondered why it's called "chicken" and not "hen" or "rooster"?

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dinosaurs_quietly t1_jbevsh7 wrote

It’s even more upsetting to me when the pronunciation is slightly wrong. I’ve wasted a couple hundred dollars on overpriced yeti products just because RTIC doesn’t include the c sound in “arctic”.

1

robothelvete t1_jbf55sw wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,186,191)

Is it? English isn't my native language and this is one of many weird things about it I didn't know.

Anyway, my point is: all we eat is essentially juveniles, no matter what we call it.

−1

AuntieEvilops t1_jbf9p5v wrote

The irony of this being posted on a site called "Reddit."

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RalphPhillips089 t1_jbfdhqn wrote

The backwards R in "Toys R Us" screwed me up all the way til Grad School.

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mitom2 t1_jbftc6g wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,185,390)

in Austria, horse is the best meat, especially for our national to-go-food
"(pferd[e])|leber|käs|semmel".

pferd[e] = horse[s]
leber from laiber. laib = loaf
käse = cheese (it has the size of a cheese-loaf, before sliced)
semmel = kaiser.

don't be confused by the käseeberkässemmel, where cubes of Emmentaler cheese are added, before the leberkäs is baked in the oven.

both the leberkässemmel (without "pferde"), and the käsleberkässemmel are made from pork. confusing, but delicious.

ceterum censeo "unit libertatem" esse delendam.

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goliathfasa t1_jbftsbt wrote

“Y’all no bein’ no hippity hop brands with the names spelt all funny?”

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HammerTh_1701 t1_jbge3t0 wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,185,390)

The longest German word ever coined was a law meant to prevent exactly that.

Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz - the law to transfer the duty of monitoring the labelling of beef

3

jasongw t1_jbglghc wrote

Replying to mikebaker1337 (#2,184,805)

I'm sure that's true sometimes as well. I am not saying there's one and only one reason, just that me often than not when I see these silly intentional misspellings, there's just no good reason for it.

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Thatguynoah t1_jbgv7s4 wrote

Wonder if we respond the same way to people names?

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CheesyDutch t1_jbgx87c wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#2,185,382)

But is it really always meat from baby sheep? In my native language we call it 'sheep meat'.

I've also visited a farm where they slaughtered their own sheep and that was an animal that was a couple of years old. I must admit that I found the taste of that meat pretty strong and not so pleasant but I'm generally not really into lamb anyway.

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Suspicious_Diver4234 t1_jbidlcu wrote

Agreeing with the findings, this kind of unconventional spelling of words can certainly make the consumer less trusting of the product and the brand. Having an honest, transparent vibe becomes all the more important when launching a new product.

1