How personal pronouns influence brand name preference

Abstract

I and my brand names, as in iPhone and MySpace, are popular but poorly understood. Although there is an intuitive appeal to using pronouns to reference the consumer, little is known about why the naming tactic works and, in turn, the conditions under which each pronoun should be used. We propose a framework for consumer processing of such brand names, predicting that both I and my influence consumer preference under divergent conditions and psychological mechanisms. In referencing the self as an actor, I should induce narrative self-referencing, wherein one imagines oneself actively using the product. By contrast, my references the self as an owner, so we expect it to give rise to the more inert feeling of subjective ownership. These hypotheses were tested in an online experiment using a representative sample of US consumers. Findings indicate that I produces favorable consumer response via narrative self-referencing, but only when the root word of the brand is a verb (for example, iRead). Meanwhile, my produces favorable consumer response via feelings of subjective ownership, but only when the brand root word is a noun (for example, myReader). Mediation analyses support the proposed divergent psychological processes. Practical implications for branding are discussed, as are theoretical implications.