Originally published July 3 2005
New study finds that color and flavor names effect consumer choice
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Names for flavors and colors, regardless of how specific or non-specific they are, control people's underlying ideas about a product's ability to meet their needs.
"The results from these studies suggest that color names can influence propensity of purchase, and that this effect is related to the typicality and specificity (or lack thereof) of the names and people's underlying assumptions that information in the marketplace should conform to certain norms," propose Elizabeth Miller (Boston College) and Barbara Kahn (University of Pennsylvania).
Miller and Kahn demonstrate through this study that what is in a name, although it may be ambiguous, matters; in fact, the more atypical and unspecific the better.
The authors note that while previous research has touched on similar topics, this area of research is understudied.
"In addition, although researchers have suggested that people carry the assumptions of conversational norms into settings other than interpersonal conversation, no one has demonstrated that these norms also play a role in marketing communications."
The bottom line: 120 colors in a crayon box may be just the beginning.
Consumers love these names and it is a marketing dream come true.
The authors conclude "that consumers prefer atypical and unspecific (ambiguous) names to more typical and more specific names (common descriptives)."
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