It is not just a name: Effects of proper name for high‐quality versus low‐quality brands
研究发现，在广告中使用专有名称（如“Lady Aiko”乳液）能提升产品评价，且对低质量品牌效果更显著，为新产品营销和消费者福利政策提供启示。
Abstract The usage of proper names to advertise a product is ubiquitous in the marketplace. In many cases, there is very little information about these names. For example, treatment lotion by “Lady Aiko.” This research examines whether such a strategy effectively increases evaluations for a product. If so, is this strategy more effective when used by a high‐quality brand or a low‐quality brand? Across one field study, one text analytics study, and two experimental studies, we find that the proper name strategy can lead to higher product evaluations and that such names are more effective when advertised for a low‐quality brand. We first propose, using contagion effects, that products advertised with a proper name are more likely to contain the essence of human creation, resulting in greater product effectiveness than identical products without such proper names. Furthermore, we employ the expectation‐disconfirmation account to propose that when the brand has a higher (vs. lower) quality (expectation stage), the product with a proper name strategy (postexpectation stage) leads to small (vs. large) positive disconfirmation, which thereby results in assimilation (vs. contrast) and forming product evaluations similar (vs. higher) to the original assessments of the brand. We offer implications for new product marketers on how to be most effective in influencing product evaluations, as well as policymakers looking to improve consumer welfare by encouraging manufacturers of generic products to consider using a proper name strategy.