Brand nicknames: Great for consumers, bad for brand strategies

Researchers from three universities in North America – Western University, Stockton University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst – have published a new study that examines whether firms benefit from adopting popular nicknames in their branding efforts. 

The study, published in the American Marketing Association’s peer-reviewed Journal of Marketing, is titled ‘BMW is Powerful, Beemer is Not: Nickname Branding Impairs Brand Performance’, and is authored by Zhe Zhang, Ning Ye, and Matthew Thomson. 

Many brands have popular nicknames that have become a part of daily conversations. BMW is often referred to as ‘Beemer’, for example. Or Starbucks as ‘Starbies’. 

Can companies benefit from adopting such nicknames in their branding? The study finds it’s detrimental to brand performance. This is because brand nicknames are usually given by consumers. 

Zhang explains: “Accepting a consumer-generated nickname suggests that a brand implicitly admits that consumers are ‘in charge’ and that they publicly accept and promote an altered identity bestowed by consumers. When a brand starts to accept and even adopt a nickname given by consumers, it makes the brand seem less powerful.” 

Nickname use by customers versus nickname use by marketers 

Many brands closely follow consumers’ language use, especially on social media. However, the purpose of this monitoring should be to generate insights, not to mechanically repeat what consumers say.  

“Marketers should recognise the differences in nickname use by consumers versus by marketers,” says Thomson. “While one may want to avoid adopting a nickname for marketing, nickname use within the consumer community should not be discouraged.” 

Lessons for chief marketing officers 

• Marketers need to be careful about appropriating consumers’ language. 

• Marketers must recognise the difference between consumer nickname use, versus formal nickname branding. For example, when General Motors banned the use of the ‘Chevy’ nickname within the organisation in 2010, the company received enormous criticism for not being consumer-oriented. However, critics overlooked the fact that the policy was meant to reduce the internal use of the nickname (e.g., when a salesperson talks to consumers) and not to stop consumers from using it externally. 

• Renaming a brand may be necessary as a brand grows. However, if nickname branding is not accompanied by substantial changes to the brand’s core identity, it may appear to be a superficial effort to flatter consumers. 

You can find out more about the study here.