Good Brand Names Sell, but They Don’t Come Easy

SAN FRANCISCO — Coke is it, and so is Pepsi. Gaggenau is definitely not, according to a new study assessing the impact of 672 brand names and whether they are popular with U.S. consumers.

Landor Associates, a design and image-consulting company, surveyed more than 1,000 people at random in 12 shopping malls across the country and found that Coca-Cola is easily the best known and most esteemed brand in America.

Campbell’s was a distant second, followed by Pepsi-Cola, AT&T;, McDonald’s, American Express and Kellogg’s, meaning five of the eight “most powerful” brand names relate to food or drink.

Rounding out the top 10 were Levi’s and Sears.

“You can sell the American public any name if you have enough time and money,” said John Diefenbach, Landor’s chief executive, on Wednesday.

Longevity Not Enough

Consumers, however, had a hard time swallowing such product names as Gaggenau, which makes German cooking equipment and finished the eighth worst in brand power rankings.

The least powerful name was Export “A”, which makes Canadian cigarettes. Next were Klipsch (loudspeakers), Primerica (diversified financial services), Bang & Olufsen (Danish consumer electronics), Asahi (Japanese beer), Blue Mountain (pet food), Daewoo (Korean industrial products, electronics), Gaggenau, Ricola (Swiss cough drops) and Exide (batteries).

Most of the highest-ranked names have been around for decades, but longevity and exposure alone were not enough for a high ranking. Wendy’s, Greyhound and Volkswagen all failed to make the top 100 even though they’re among the 100 biggest advertisers.

Diefenbach noted that people did not react favorably to “meaningless, computer-generated names” such as Allegis, which ranked in the bottom 5% in both recognition and esteem. Allegis recently changed its name back to UAL Corp. after spending $7 million trying to make its new name click with the public.

Diefenbach said the cost of changing a corporate name can run as high as $20 million a year.

Allegis’ largest subsidiary, United Airlines, ranked in the top 15% in awareness and the top 5% in prestige.

Companies turn to computer names because there are very few real names left, according to Landor, and it is not easy to come up with one that works.

BIG IMAGE

In a survey measuring “image power,” a combination of what Landor Associates calls “share of mind” and esteem, the following companies were ranked highest.

Top 20 Second 20 1. Coca-Cola 21. 7-Up 2. Campbell’s 22. Goodyear 3. Pepsi Cola 23. Kraft 4. AT&T; 24. Marlboro 5. McDonald’s 25. Visa 6. Am. Express 26. Cadillac 7. Kellogg’s 27. GM 8. IBM 28. Chevrolet 9. Levi’s 29. Xerox 10. Sears 30. Rolls-Royce 11. Disney 31. Ford 12. Hershey’s 32. CBS 13. NBC 33. Minute Maid 14. Mastercard 34. Betty Crocker 15. Tylenol 35. Colgate 16. K.F. Chicken 36. Amer. Airlines 17. Kodak 37. Mercedes 18. Windex 38. Polaroid 19. Kleenex 39. Crest 20. Budweiser 40. Wall St. Journ.