Consumers don’t mind when companies use misspelled words — think Lyft for “lift” or Froot Loops for “fruit loops” — as their brand names, as long as the alterations aren’t too extreme and the misspelling makes sense.
Those are the main findings of a new peer-reviewed paper co-authored by Assistant Professor of Marketing Annika Abell and fellow marketing scholar Leah Warfield Smith. The study builds on previous work that found that using misspelled brand names usually backfires.
Misspelled brand names like Kool-Aid, Reddi-wip and Crumbl seem to be everywhere. They are especially common in the names of smartphone apps and in certain industries, like fashion. Companies often follow the practice to stand out or so they can use the misspelled word as their domain name. Read more at The Conversation.
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