Your Brain Has Opinions About Sounds

Say "Kodak" out loud. Now say "Mulan." They feel different in your mouth and in your head, and not just because they mean different things. The sounds themselves carry weight. Brand name phonetics isn't marketing fluff. It's rooted in decades of psycholinguistics research, and it explains why some names feel instinctively right for their product while others feel off.

The Kiki/Bouba Effect

Way back in 1924, psychologist Dimitri Uznadze published the results of an experiment in which he presented a list of nonsense words and some drawings and asked people to match the words to one of the drawings and discovered that certain pairs were much more common than others.

A bit later, psychologist Wolfgang Kohler ran a similar experiment which showed people a spikey image and a rounded shaped and asked which was named takete and which was called maluma. A bit later than that V. S. Ramachandran and Edward Hubbard did something similar, only they used different images and the words "kiki" and "bouba."

Now you try it, look at the image at the top of this post, which image do you think is "bouba" and which is "kiki?" I bet I know. And I bet you thought something like "of course that one is kiki, I mean...look at it"

Sharp, angular sounds (k, t, p, i) feel pointed, fast, precise. Round, flowing sounds (m, b, o, l) feel soft, warm, approachable.

Google feels friendly and round. Kodak feels crisp and mechanical. When your brand's sonic character contradicts your brand's personality, something feels subtly wrong to consumers even if they can't articulate why.

Sound Symbolism

Vowels carry associations independent of meaning. High front vowels (the "ee" in Easy-Off, the "i" in Nike, the short sound in Zipcar) tend to imply speed, lightness, precision. Low back vowels (the "o" in Volvo, the "u" in Walmart) tend to imply largeness, heaviness, and power,.

This isn't a hard rule. But if you're naming heavy-duty machinery, a name full of high "ee" sounds is working against you. And if you're naming something meant to feel nimble and quick, low rumbling vowels don't mesh. Keeping brand name phonetics helps you match sound to meaning.

Booms and Pops

Consonants like b, p, t, d, k, and g are called plosives because you physically stop the airflow and release it in a small burst. They create a tiny cognitive "pop" that aids recall.

Look at how many famous brands lean on these sounds: Kodak. TikTok. Kit Kat. Pepsi. Target. PayPal. Coca-Cola. The repetition of these hard consonant sounds gives names a percussive quality that lodges in memory.

Comedians will tell you that these sounds are funny. And well, I don't know why, but they are. Next time you're watching a standup special, pay attention to the rhythm of the words and the density of hard consonant sounds in punchlines. Once you know what you're looking for you'll start to notice it and wonder why you never noticed it before. 

Phonetic Fluency

Names that are easy to pronounce get rated as more trustworthy, more credible, and more likable. This is the fluency effect, and it's been replicated many times. Hard-to-pronounce names trip up people and that disconnect can get interpreted as something unfamiliar or even untrustworthy.

On the other hand, Porsche, Dolce & Gabbana, and Givenchy aren't pronounced the way English speakers might assume they're pronounced, and they're doing fine. Sometimes different is good.

Rhythm and Cadence

Two or three syllables is the sweet spot. One syllable can work but can also feel blunt. Four or more syllables usually get shortened.

Stress patterns matter too. A strong-weak pattern (SO-ny, AP-ple, AM-a-zon) feels authoritative and natural in English. Alliteration boosts recall: Coca-Cola, PayPal, Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' Donuts. So does internal rhyme or near-rhyme.

Take Home Message

You don't need a linguistics degree to apply brand-name phonetics. Say your candidate names out loud and ask yourself if the sound matches what you want the brand to mean. If you're building something warm and approachable, try round sounds. If you're building something precise and technical,  sharp ones are probably better. How does the rhythm flow? Either way, load up on plosives because recall is always good.

These aren't hard rules. THERE ARE NO HARD RULES. Tension between phonetic and the product can work as well as a perfect match, and if it's presented just right, it can be even more valuable.

Don't believe me? Have you ever heard of the band Party Cannon

This is part of a series on selecting a brand name. Here's the previous post, and here's the next one.