“Brand name and Brand image - between Linguistics and Marketing”,

The aim of this paper is to examine the interplay between marketing tools and the linguistic properties of a brand-name. Theory in brand management and psychological research on advertising has shown that a brand image is the result of various associations originating from marketing communication tools as well as from the brand name. In fact, consumers draw inferences from brand names. Scholars have identified several important properties a brand name should possess, such as memorability, simplicity, distinctiveness or meaningfulness, which must be taken into account in the naming process of a new brand. Several studies dealing with the creation of brand names can be found, but most of these are characterized by a one-sided approach: the brand name strategies are mainly investigated from a marketing point of view. The present research integrates the different perspectives of linguistics and marketing for the study of a brand image. The main objective of this paper is to assess whether marketing tools and linguistic brand name characteristics can contribute to the creation of a consistent brand image. The case study examines the experience of the international company Lush in the Italian context. The novelty of the paper consists in a conjoint research which combines linguistic and marketing-oriented knowledge.