Does the cowl make the monk? Detecting counterfeits in brand names versus logos

Abstract

Companies and products are identified by their brand names, which are typically written with a specific letter style, color, and design (i.e., logos). This graphical information offers a distinctive image that facilitates their recognition. However, the uniqueness of these configuration cues may make brand names more vulnerable to counterfeiting via misspelling. We examined whether the confusability at detecting misspelled brand names is higher when embedded in the full logo than when presented in plain format (Experiment 1), when removing all graphical information of the logo other than typeface (Experiment 2), and when only modifying the typeface (Experiment 3). Participants had to decide whether the presented item was a correctly spelled brand name. The misspelled stimuli were created by either transposing or replacing two internal letters of popular brand names (amazon → amzaon vs. amceon), thus allowing us to have a measure of the transposed-letter confusability effect. Results showed a sizeable transposed-letter confusability effect for all types of brand names, but the effect was greatest for the misspelled full logos. Thus, the distinctiveness of the graphical information in logos has a deleterious side effect: logos are quite vulnerable to counterfeiting via misspelling branding.

Are brand names special words? Letter visual‐similarity affects the identification of brand names, but not common words

“…Thus, it extended Pathak et al's (2019) findings, which were obtained with external letter replacements (tacebook vs. xacebook), to internal letter replacements (e.g., anazon vs. atazon). Furthermore, the participants had more difficulties at classifying a misspelled brand name when presented with its graphical information than when presented unformatted (see also Perea et al, 2021, for the same pattern). Note that we found the opposite trend for correctly spelled logos, thus suggesting a ‘yes’ bias for those items with graphical information (see Table 1).…”

“…There is some evidence that suggests that graphical information may enhance the confusability of misspelled brand names. Using the same procedure as Pathak et al (2019), Perea et al (2021) found that response times were longer and more error‐prone when a misspelled brand name created via letter transposition/replacement (e.g., amzaon or amceon) was embedded in its complete graphical information than when presented unformatted. Perea et al (2021) also found that the transposed‐letter effect (i.e., the difference in response times between misspelled transposed‐letter versus replacement‐letter items) was slightly greater for misspelled brand names with their graphical information than for unformatted misspelled brand names.…”

“…However, none of the leading visual word recognition models currently addresses whether brand names are identified just as common words. One reason for this is that research on brand name identification has been extremely scarce (see Gontijo et al, 2002; Gontijo & Zhang, 2007; Martin & Davis, 2019; Perea et al, 2015, 2021, for exceptions). Thus, examining the similarities and differences between recognizing brand names and common words has important implications for a comprehensive visual‐word recognition model.…”

“…Prior research has revealed some similarities and differences between the identification of brand names and common words. On the one hand, brand names show several key effects in the literature on visual word recognition: transposed‐letter effects (Pathak et al, 2019; Perea et al, 2021), masked identity priming effects (Martin & Davis, 2019; Perea et al, 2015), and first‐letter advantage (Pathak et al, 2019). On the other hand, Gontijo et al (2002) reported a smaller right visual field advantage for brand names than common words in a lateralized lexical decision.…”

Single Word Reading in the “Real” World: Effects of Transposed-Letters

“…The primary aim was therefore to examine whether a transposed-letter effect can be observed in a more realistic single word reading context. We note that transposed-letter effects have been reported in the reading of logos and brand names (Perea et al, 2021), which are typically read in isolation. Hence, we had good reason to predict that we would observe similar effects in our simulated driving context.…”