The Effect of Negative Valence on Memory and Perception: Negative Brand Names Experimental Study

Abstract

While some studies suggest that a positive brand name may better predict consumers’ memory of the product, other studies agree the opposite. The aims of this study are to explore how people recognise a negative brand name, and to investigate how it correlates to people’s preference and willingness to buy the product. A two-stage experiment was conducted on 84 undergraduate students. The results show that when structured stimuli are exposed with attractive colorful pictures, negative brand names are more likely to have lower recognition compared to positive brand names. However, negative brand names with no colorful picture are easier to remember. The results also show that compared to positive brand names, negative brand names are more likely to have lower correlation to consumers' preference and willingness to buy the products.