Journal of Consumer Marketing

ADVERTISING SYMBOLS AND BRAND NAMES THAT BEST REPRESENT KEY PRODUCT MEANINGS
Jeffrey F. Durgee Robert W. Stuart
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To cite this document:
Jeffrey F. Durgee Robert W. Stuart, (1987),"ADVERTISING SYMBOLS AND BRAND NAMES THAT BEST REPRESENT
KEY PRODUCT MEANINGS", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 4 Iss 3 pp. 15 - 24
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 ADVERTISING SYMBOLS AND
BRAND NAMES THAT BEST REPRESENT
KEY PRODUCT MEANINGS
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Jeffrey F. Durgee
Robert W. Stuart
In order to distinguish their brands from other
brands in the same category, most consumer
products companies attempt to establish a unique
personality for each brand. Rather than emphasize
that it is a soft drink, Dr. Pepper emphasizes,
through its name and advertising, that it is an
"oddball" soft drink. This article recommends
that these companies instead develop advertising
and brand names that communicate the best
qualities of the relevant product category. Dr.
Pepper, for example, might emphasize that it
tastes good and quenches thirst. This article
suggests that marketers use free association
tests to select advertising symbols and names
that best communicate key product category
benefits; it suggests that they use product
categories and candidate symbols and names as
stimuli, then match the answers across stimuli.
In a sample test, for example, the stimulus "iced
tea" drew the responses "refreshment," "cool,"
and "summer." In a separate test, the stimulus
"plunge into swimming pool" drew identical
responses. The Nestle Nestea "plunge" (into a
pool) campaign, therefore, is thought to be a
highly effective one.

Jeffrey F. Durgee is currently Assistant Professor of Marketing at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York. His
research is in the areas of advertising research, symbolic consumption and consumers' subjective experiences of
products. His articles have been published in the Journal of Consumer Marketing, the Journal of Advertising Research and
Advances in Consumer Research. In spite of his academic work he also maintains close ties with industry, winning a
copywriting competition sponsored by the J. Walter Thompson Agency.
Prior to joining RPI he was assistant manager of strategic research at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company where he worked
on the Winston and Vantage brands and tracked lifestyle trends, such as working women, which impacted RJR brands. He
also worked in city planning in Pittsburgh and taught sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. He earned his Ph.D. in
Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh in 1976.
Robert W. Stuart is presently an instructor in the School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and a
candidate for a doctoral degree. He holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in engineering from Northwestern University, an M.S.
from Harvard University, and an M.B.A. from RPI with concentration in the Management of Technology.
Mr. Stuart's early career was largely in technical areas working with Esso Research & Engineering on refinery design
and Arthur D. Little, Inc., on the early Titan missile fuel loading system.
Mr. Stuart was with Cryogenic Technology, Inc. (CTI) as it spun-off from Arthur D. Little, initially in a technical role as
a research group leader, and later Manager of R&D developing extreme low temperature refrigeration systems.
Mr. Stuart's 24 years of experience with small high-tech companies has given him insights into the workings of such
firms, and now, he has started applying that knowledge to research on technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and
the workings of new ventures.

Vol. 4 No. 3 Summer, 1987 15

 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING
Commodity-type products, such as beer, sham-
poo, gasoline, cigarettes, fast food, soft drinks,
detergent, ice cream, and toothpaste, rely heavily
on the communicative powers of their advertising
and brand names. Within each product category,
what one brand denotes or actually does (wash
clothes, quench thirst, etc.) is not very different
from what any other brand does. Therefore, in
order to differentiate itself, each brand has to
rely heavily on what it connotes or means
symbolically in the eyes of consumers. "Mr.
Clean" probably cleans floors and woodwork as
well as any other cleaner, yet its vivid name,
logo and advertising make it seem likely to do a
better job.
Good names and image advertising
do not communicate the brand's
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identity but rather tell how the brand
represents the best qualities that the
product category has to offer.
We will first review current methods of
developing advertising and brand names and
then suggest a simple new method based on the
"meaning profile" of the product category. As
its name suggests, the meaning profile refers to
the complex of meanings that are associated
with a given category. A sample study of the
meaning profiles of five product categories iced
tea mix, gasoline, pick-up trucks, casual shoes
and personal computers will illustrate how
these profiles may be used to suggest effective
names and campaigns. We will also use the
method to evaluate the advertising of current
brands and suggest how to develop new, more
effective names and campaigns.
Current Research
on Brand Meaning
Current brand meaning research tends to focus
on the brand. Interesting new research techniques
have been developed to measure brand "equity"
or what might be called overt and latent brand
meanings. One study suggests that researchers
ask respondents to compare their brands to
people, countries, occupations, fabrics, activities,
cars, animals, and magazines.1,13 Thus, in a study
of Oil of Olay, it was found that to the women
respondents Oil of Olay means "France," "sec-
retary," "silk," "swimming," "mink," and "Vogue."
The research suggests this brand "does sort of
16
bring to mind the picture of someone's secretary
on the Riviera, by the swimming pool, in a silk
bathing suit, reading Vogue, with her mink coat
on an adjacent chair." Some techniques ask
respondents to write creative descriptions of
brands4 while others ask them to recount stories
of interesting family experiences with them.10
Still others use focus groups or "brand mix"
methods to explore a given brand's personality.
For example, a beer is assumed to have a macho
personality if its users also read Guns & Ammo
magazine, drive Jeep "Honcho" trucks, and smoke
"Marlboro" cigarettes.7
Creatives use this type of information to refine
and redevelop brand meaning through advertising
campaigns as well as packaging, distribution,
and sales promotion programs. Creatives working
on Oil of Olay, for example, might be expected
to develop a campaign that intensifies this brand's
favorable associations with upscale, European
lifestyles.
Given the crowded nature of most product
categories, this is the type of approach many
advertisers have taken. Burger King attempted
to extend its tongue-in-cheek identity through
the "Herb" campaign (Herb, a faceless bureaucrat
who had never eaten a Whopper hamburger),
and Dr. Pepper attempted to extend its oddball/
unique identity through a campaign featuring
monsters, strange people, and unusual settings.
Selling the Product Category
The most effective names and image adver-
tising, however, are not expressive of the indi-
vidual brand's identity but rather of the product
category itself. Good names and image advertising
do not communicate the brand's identity but
rather tell how the brand represents the best
qualities that the product category has to offer.
Consider Marlboro cigarettes. Marlboro's
cowboy imagery might be effective because
cowboys connote everything that is positively
valued, not about the brand but about smoking:
masculinity (smoking has always been more
masculine than feminine), independence (espe-
cially popular among young adult smokers), the
outdoors (cigarettes taste good there), and, in a
sense, days-gone-by. On the last note, many
smokers probably yearn for earlier times, when
men were men, cigarettes were cigarettes, and
separate smoking sections didn't exist. The smoker
who buys a pack of Marlboros is symbolically
 ADVERTISING SYMBOLS AND BRAND NAMES
buying smoking per se. The blue-collar smokers
in the current Winston cigarette advertising might
be told by their union's health program to quit
smoking, but no one would ever imagine Wyatt
Earp or Billy the Kid being worried about
smoking's alleged effects on shortness of breath.
Figure 1 summarizes the Marlboro "experi-
ence." It includes the consumption experience
(smoking), a set of shared meanings (masculinity,
etc.) and a symbol (the cowboy). Properly used,
Figure 1 becomes a template for evaluating all
image campaigns.
Ideally, a symbol has many meanings
which are highly valued and are
strongly shared with the relevant
consumption experience.
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Consider trucks. The truck buyer is not looking
for the essence of "Fordness" or "Chevyness"
but rather the essence of "truckness." "Truck-
ness" probably means masculinity, toughness,
and crashability. In his book, Iacocca 6 beams
about the creativity that went into the suc-
cessful Dodge truck "Ram Tough" campaign.
The real genius of the campaign, however, might
relate to the fact that Rams connote all of the
key things that trucks do. Rams are masculine,
are tough, and take naturally to crashing or, in
their case, butting heads! Similarly, the shampoo
"Gee Your Hair Smells Terrific" has an effective
name insofar as it directly implies a benefit of
shampooing.
Meaning Profiles
In short, what we suggest is that marketers
first study the relevant product category in order
to achieve an exhaustive understanding of all
the positive meanings the category has to the
user. These are then condensed into a set of
five or six key meanings, which together define
the "meaning profile" for that product category.
Researchers then screen for names and symbols
whose meaning profiles best match the product
category profile. For example, a battery manu-
facturer recently selected the Olympic gymnast
Mary Lou Retton as its symbol and spokesperson.
This may be a good choice insofar as batteries
are small, compact, highly energized, and able
to do a lot of things all traits that also apply to
Miss Retton!
Suppose the product category is ice cream.
One place to start might be Dichter's 3 classic
Handbook of Consumer Motivations, which
discusses in detail the symbolic meanings of
hundreds of products and services. Ice cream,
according to the Handbook (p. 339), connotes
17
 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING
the following:
Sweetness:"It is immediately absorbed into
your bloodstream as blood sugar."
Abundance:"It is almost an orgiastic kind
of food. Children frequently stuff their
mouths with it."
Love:"It is given to children for being good."
Other people:"It is fun to share. It tastes
better when eaten in the company of others."
fmmediacy"A second after the thought enters
the mind, the housewife can have the ice
cream on the table."
Nostalgia"Older people think back nostalgi-
cally to homemade ice cream."
If these make up the meaning profile for ice
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cream, which name sounds like it represents
the best-tasting ice cream: "Sealtest," "Buy Rite,"
"Klondike," "Al & Jerry," or "Grandma's Loving
Scoop?" Obviously, the last. Which would make
the best advertising symbol: a polar bear, a
small child, or an old, hand-crank ice cream
maker? Hopefully, old ice cream makers would
have the same meaning profiles as ice cream,
that is, connote other people, nostalgia, imme-
diacy, love, and so on.
Three issues seem important in the fit between
product category meaning profile and brand
meaning profile:
1. The number of shared meanings between
consumption experience and symbol.
2. The positive value that target consumers
place on each meaning.
3. How strongly meanings are shared between
consumption experience and symbol.
Ideally, a symbol has many meanings which
are highly valued and are strongly shared with
the relevant consumption experience. For ex-
ample, which is a better symbol, Traveller
Insurance's "umbrella" or Allstate Insurance's
"good hands"? An umbrella probably shares more
meanings with insurance than hands e.g.,
protection, episodic need, usually reliable, being
prepared, and so on so the umbrella is probably
the better symbol. Similarly, all motorists want
gasoline that makes their cars explode with
power, so Exxon's tiger symbol (which it has
recently reactivated) is very effective. The want
(for power) is strong, and the tie with the symbol
18
(tiger) is strong. Gasoline explodes and so do
tigers.
Theoretical underpinnings for these ideas can
be found in the work of consumer behavior
researchers, 5 anthropologists 9 and philosophers 8
who study the philosophy of meaning, or what
"meaning" means. In a nutshell, there are three
different ways an item such as a product can
"mean" something:
1. Causality. Part of the meaning of Alka
Seltzer is "upset stomach." An upset
stomach causes the user to take it.
2. Context. Another part of the meaning of
Alka Seltzer is "aspirin," "cough medicine,"
and "dentifrice." All of these items are
part of the context of "medicine cabinet."
Other researchers have referred to this
as the principle of "contiguity" 11 or
"metanymy." 9
3. Similarity. A third meaning of Alka Seltzer
might be a nuclear explosion. Both items
an atom bomb and an Alka Seltzer tablet
hitting the water involve falling and
exploding. One might say that the two
items, bomb and tablet, share metaphoric
properties. 9
Certainly, many advertisers attempt to utilize
meanings that are causally related to their
products. Life insurance advertisers, for example,
show contented, smiling, policyholders, since
owning a policy is felt to produce feelings of
peace of mind.
Other advertisers utilize context. Some years
back Chevrolet tries to associate itself with
the context of all good things American: "Amer-
ica loves baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and
Chevrolet!"
Our interest, however, is in similarity or
metaphor. There is a method for identifying those
advertising symbols and brand names that
because of their similarities to products being
advertised highlight the most favorable proper-
ties of those products."Jaguar," for example, is
a good name and symbol for a sports car. Both
animal and car are similar in terms of speed,
agility, exoticism, rarity, beauty, and flowing,
smooth movement. As was indicated earlier, we
are interested in communicating not only what
the product does (go fast) but also what it can
mean symbolically: exoticism, rarity, beauty, and
gracefulness. While the bulk of advertising
 ADVERTISING SYMBOLS AND BRAND NAMES
researchers feel that consumers seek information
and that learning the right information causes
them to buy the product, we assume that
advertising serves mainly to give the product
favorable meanings in the consumers' minds.
When consumers are ready to switch to new
brands, these meanings provide the main drawing
forces to these brands.12
A Free Association Test for
Identifying Meaning Profiles
There are many methods for identifying mean-
ing profiles. The initial, exploratory work might
consist of depth interviews, focus groups, and
participant observation that is, researchers
might interview consumers individually, interview
them in groups, or consume the product alongside
them in the field. The results could be cast in
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the form of bipolar adjectives (semantic differ-
ential) or Likert-type items and could be quanti-
tatively tested.
Advertising serves mainly to give
the product favorable meanings in the
consumers' minds.
However, a quicker way to identify such
meaning profiles is to ask a large sample of
respondents to write down what they think of
when they hear the names of products called
out in a free association format. Once a profile
of the most common associations has been put
together, free association tests can be run using
brand names and advertising symbols as stimuli.
Names and symbols whose profiles best match
the product category's profile can then be
selected.
Some Examples
In order to illustrate the methodology and
conduct some rough tests of the effectiveness
of some well-known brand names and symbols,
free association tests were conducted of five
product categories gasoline, casual shoes, iced
tea, personal computers and pick-up trucks and
two leading brand symbols in each. The tests
were conducted among two samples of college
students, 38 students in one sample, and 83 in
the other. The first sample was asked to give
associations for the product categories, and the
second was asked to give associations for these
brand names and symbols:
Tiger (Exxon gasoline)
Star (Texaco gasoline)
Floater (Bates casual shoes)
Puppy (Hushpuppy casual shoes)
Plunge into swimming pool (Nestea iced tea)
Sun-cured (Lipton iced tea)
Hercules (Hercules computer equipment)
Leading Edge (Leading Edge personal computers)
Ram (Dodge pick-up truck)
Cherokee (Jeep pick-up truck)
The groups were roughly matched in terms of
age, sex, and experience with the product
categories. Instructions to each group were
identical: respondents were to "write down as
many favorable adjectives and short, descriptive
phrases as possible" as they heard each stimulus
word called out.
Admittedly, the use of college students has
an effect on the results. While all of the products
are familiar to college students, most of them
are not targeted at students per se. Also,
researchers 2 who study product symbolism note
the importance of situation or context in the
meaning attribution process. A soft drink has a
different meaning to a man in a desert than to a
man in a swimming pool, and a pick-up truck
has a different meaning to a student than to a
farmer. Our intention, however, is to demonstrate
the method, not provide conclusive results. While
the findings make sense and might seem appro-
priate for all types of respondents, we make no
claims as to their generalizability.
Results
Results are summarized in Tables 1 through
5. Numbers in each table indicate the percentage
of respondents. Thus, in Table 1, 29 percent of
the respondents wrote "powerful" in connection
with gasoline, while 69 percent wrote the same
word in connection with tigers. No one associated
power with Texaco's star symbol.
Though based on small convenience samples,
the results suggest some interesting hypotheses
regarding popular symbols in some key consumer
product categories.
Gasoline
The tiger is a very effective symbol for Exxon,
strongly communicating two highly valued mean-
19
 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING

ings associated with gasoline: power and speed.
Texaco's star symbol, however, appears to have
no meanings that overlap with gasoline, and
therefore has no synergies with it. Gasoline
connotes not only power and speed but also
performance, "good-for-engine," and clean engine.
Stars, in contrast, connote beauty, distance,
brilliance, awe, fame, and wealth, in short,
attributes that are not part of gasoline's meaning.
Casual Shoes
On the surface, Hushpuppies' name and logo
(a basset puppy) would appear to be a very
effective way of communicating many desired
attributes of casual shoes: soft, forgiving, warm,
and so on. However, Bates' name, "Floaters,"
comes closer to symbolizing two key meanings
associated with casual shoes: comfort and
relaxation. The Hushpuppy puppy symbol seems
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to connote cuteness, cuddliness, softness, play-
fulness, and friendliness, meanings that were
not associated with shoes.
Iced Tea
Nestle's "Nestea plunge" (into a swimming
pool) appears to be a very effective way to
symbolize key iced tea meanings of coolness
and refreshment. It also connotes summertime,
a time that was linked with iced tea in 8 percent
of the cases. On the other hand, Lipton's "sun-
tea" theme does not appear to overlap very well
with the meaning profile of iced tea. The only
meaning iced tea and "sun cure" shared was
sweetness. While "sweet" was associated with
iced tea by 47 percent of the first sample, it was
associated with the term "sun-cured" by only 8
percent of the second sample.

Table 1
Percent of Respondents Associating the Same
Adjectives and Phrases with Gasoline, Tigers, and Stars

Gasoline* Tiger Star

(Exxon) (Texaco)

N (38) (83) (83)

Adjectives/Phrases % % %
Powerful 29 69 -
Fast 21 40 -
Performance 33 - -
Good for engine 21 - -
Clean 21 - -
Dangerous - 46 -
Wild - 22 -
Colorful - 37 -
Beautiful - 22 6
Distant - - 30
Brilliant - - 64
Awesome - - 15
Famous - - 35
Wealthy - - 22

* Phrased in test as "driving a car with the best gasoline"

20
 ADVERTISING SYMBOLS AND BRAND NAMES

Table 2
Percent of Respondents Associating the Same
Adjectives and Phrases with Casual Shoes, "Floating," and Puppies

Casual Shoes Floating Puppy

(Bates "Floaters") (Hushpuppies)
N (38) (83) (83)
Adjectives/Phrases % % %
Comfortable 87 13
Relaxing 11 63
Stylish 21
Long lasting 24 -
Inexpensive 21
Carefree 25
Freedom - 17 -
Nice day - 13
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Cute 78
Cuddly - - 46
Soft 42
Playful 47
Friendly - - 27

Table 3
Percent of Respondents Associating the Same Adjectives and Phrases
with Iced Tea, Plunge Into Swimming Pool, and Sun Cured

Plunge Into
Iced Tea Swimming Pool Sun Cured
(Nestea) (Lipton)
N (38) (83) (83)
Adjectives/Phrases % % %
Cool 61 49 -
Refreshing 53 72 -
Sweet 47 - 8
Thirst quenching 34 2 -
Summer 8 13 -
Healthy 3 3 31
Relaxing - 18 -
Revitalize - 16 -
Fun - 8 30
Natural - - 36
Tan - - 29
Wholesome - - 14

21
 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING
Personal Computers
It appears that personal computers connote
power, speed, usefulness, dependability, ease
of use, and fun, at least to college students.
However, of two common names in the industry
Hercules and Leading Edge only Hercules
connotes any of these qualities. Hercules stands
for power and, to a lesser degree, dependability.
The name "Leading Edge," however, seems to
have few of the meanings of computers. "Leading
Edge"suggests being advanced (a computer
meaning to some), innovative, and "high-tech."
Pick-up Truck
Apparently, Dodge's Ram symbol is perfect
for communicating many of the desired qualities
of a pick-up truck: toughness, power, ruggedness,
and strength. These were among the most
common associations for both pick-up trucks
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and rams. Jeep's Cherokee symbol for its new
line of pick-up trucks, in contrast, appears less
effective. Cherokee Indians seem to connote
loyalty, bravery, pride, and wildness, which
are not key associations with trucks.
This method has some obvious weaknesses.
Most product categories have become so crowded
that if every brand in a category sought to be
the best representative of everything that was
good about that product category, brands might
become indistinguishable. All pick-up trucks can't
be called rams or stags. Also, free association
tests alone cannot be relied upon to get at deeper
product meanings, and other research methods
are available.3,10
Nevertheless, we feel the method provides a
quick set of directions for getting campaign and
name ideas and for evaluating those campaigns
and names once they are selected. It provides
help and direction but still puts the burden on
creatives to develop rich, evocative campaign
themes and names. For example, since computers
mainly connote power, speed, usefulness, and
dependability, Superman is a better symbol than
IBM's Charlie Chaplin little tramp character.
Since iced tea connotes coolness, refreshment,
sweetness, and thirst quenching, the Nestea
plunge into a swimming pool is a good campaign
symbol, but so might be 7-Up's recent campaign
which shows young people caught in a sudden
summer shower.
Conclusion
Some of these ideas might sound familiar. In
a nutshell, they call for advertisers and re-
22
searchers to get back to basics, to study the
rich, enjoyable meanings that using a product
has and to give these back to the customer not
only in the form of the product, but also in a
symbol that communicates as well as enhances
the enjoyment of the product. David Ogilvy wrote
his famous copy line for Rolls-Royce "the loudest
noise is the clock" many years ago. This is an
interesting line insofar as it does not truly
differentiate Rolls-Royce from other cars in its
category. Many luxury cars are quieter than
their clocks. Ogilvy was the first, however, to
seize the essence of these cars' character, express
it on behalf of the Rolls-Royce car, and intensify
the Rolls appeal to Rolls-Royce owners and
nonowners everywhere.
The method we propose here has different
implications for different stages of a product's
life cycle. It would seem to work well for a
totally new product. The advertiser wants to
emphasize the most positive aspects of the
product and can use the method to select a
name and symbol whose associations most
resemble the product.
Older products present different problems. If
an existing symbol is tested and does not appear
to communicate the right attributes for that
product, should it be changed? For example, if a
larger sample suggested that Texaco's star symbol
is weak in communicating desired qualities for
gasoline, should it be replaced by a new symbol?
This is an executive decision, although a change
is certainly called for if sales are heading
downward.
Another problem with older products and their
symbols is the image build-up the advertising
generates over time. Dodge ran the "Ram Tough"
campaign so long for its trucks that respondents
might have mentioned "tough" in connection
with the stimulus "ram" simply because they
had been exposed to this advertising. A related
problem is the reciprocity between brand and
symbol. When they heard the stimulus "ram," a
few respondents replied "Dodge." In short, how
much of a symbol's meaning is due to language
and how much is due to past advertising?
Considered more carefully, however, these
may not be such serious problems. Certainly, a
marketer would like the target for a Dodge pick-up
to evoke Rams and all the things they mean
when the target hears the stimulus "Dodge pick-up
truck." By the same token, no Dodge advertiser
 ADVERTISING SYMBOLS AND BRAND NAMES

Table 4
Percent of Respondents Associating the Same
Adjectives and Phrases with Personal Computers, Hercules and Leading Edge

Personal Hercules Leading Edge

Computers (Hercules) (Leading Edge)
N (38) (83) (83)
Adjectives/Phrases % % %
Powerful 29 51
Fast 24 - -
Useful 40 - -
Dependable 16 8
Easy 21 -
Fun 16
Advanced 5 - 63
Innovative - - 21
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High-tech - 33
Masculine 29
Strong 76
Greek god - 25 -
Large 13

Table 5
Percent of Respondents Associating the Same
Adjectives and Phrases with Pick-up Trucks,
Rams and Cherokee Indians

Pick-up Truck Ram Cherokee

(Dodge) (Jeep)
N (38) (83) (83)
Adjectives/Phrases % % %
Tough 34 27 1
Powerful 32 28 4
Rugged 16 6 -
Strong 32 43 14
Fun 13 - -
Fast - 10 -
Horns - 25 -
Loyal - - 10
Brave - 4 16
Proud - 5 17
Wild - 5 11

23
 THE JOURNAL OF CONSUMER MARKETING

will complain if people think "Dodge" whenever product. How these meanings trigger each other
they hear "Ram." The advertiser's job is to may be a moot point, just as long as the meanings
associate bundles of meanings with his or her are favorable and they are tied to the product.

END NOTES
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24
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