19 Rhetorik der Markenzeichen und Markennamen

Abstract

In today’s world of globalization, growing international competitive pressure and saturated markets with interchangeable products, branding plays a key role as a means of differentiation among competitors. The elements which distinguish a brand from other brands are the brand name, the brand logo as well as the shaping of the product and its packaging. The name enables consumers to verbally identify a brand. It is of central importance for the recognition of the product(s) and can be regarded as a cognitive anchor. The rhetorical study of brand names and trademarks can be carried out from a twofold perspective. In a wider, more psychologically oriented sense, the focus lies on the myth of a brand, which is determined by the sum of inner and emotionally charged images that the brand evokes. The narrower, more philologically oriented perspective focuses on the various figures and tropes that are used in the creation of brand names, such as the alliteration, the word play or the metonymy.