Gash, Chubby Hubby and Urban Decay are all names that a focus group would flag as “too negative”, yet all are successful. That’s because focus group responses are by definition literal. Consumers are not literalists, not consumers of any kind in any business sector. Names are processed emotionally, in the context provided by the corporation. Philly.com goes into detail:
What color is Sin? How would Riptide Rush taste? What does Ionic smell like?
If you’ve spent an extra moment in a store aisle wondering, that was probably good for the marketers of Nars Sin blush, Riptide Rush Gatorade and Degree Ionic antiperspirant, according to new research from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.
The researchers found that, in general, surprising or ambiguous names for colors and flavors made consumers – in this case, college students – more likely to prefer a product.
Wharton marketing professor Barbara Kahn’s theory is that when consumers spend more time thinking about a product, they form more connections to it and end up liking it better. Trusting souls that they are, shoppers believe marketers are trying to tell them something important with a name, an assumption she traces to the way people fill in the gaps in confusing conversations. Plus, people enjoy figuring out what a name like Dublin Mudslide (Irish cream liqueur and chocolate ice cream made by Ben & Jerry’s) or Gash (dark metallic red eyeshadow by Urban Decay) means. Their positive feelings transfer to the product.
“Some of these weird names were actually little puzzles,” Kahn said, “so if you thought about it, you could get it.”
“Their positive feelings transfer to the product”. And all those literal, negative dictionary definitions have done their job in creating engagement, and then faded away.