Abstract:

There’re lots of suggestive brand name(SBN) in the market, suggesting that they can bring luck or have special functions. Although studies have investigated the Functional SBN’s effect on consumer’s cognition, little has done about Propitious SBN’s effect. Neither compare two kinds of SBN’s effect in the same framwork. In this study, three series experiments found that Propotious SBN can also strengthen consumer’s brand recall, only in the context of low sense of control. In addition, when contrasting Functional and Propotious SBN’s effect, we found that there’s a mediater between sense of control and brand recall——Negotiable Fate. When consumers in low sense of control, they have stronger belif in ” Negotiable Fate” , which leads to higher brand recall (vs no suggestive brand name) of Functional and Propotious SBN; when consumers in high sense of control, they have lower belif in ” Negotiable Fate” , which leads to higher brand recall of Functional SBN and lower recall of Propotious SBN.This paper, in theory, complement and extend the theory of SBN, also has certain contribution to improving the theory of superstitious consumption. and provides new data support and application development of "negotiable fate ” theory. In practice, the conclusions of the study provide advice for Chinese brand naming, also provide the insight of Chinese superstitious marketing.

Key words: Suggestive Brand Name, Propitious Suggestion, Functional Suggestion, negotiate with fate, Suggestive Brand Name')">Negotiable Fate