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Phonological Loop Value

“The Secret Behind The Successful Brand Names”

Most of the successful companies in the world have a hard-to-forget brand name. After we analyzed the most successful brand names in all industries, we discovered one common factor that makes them perfect. It was the phonological loop value of those names. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a quality people commonly discuss about brand names. That’s why we call it a secret! The phonological loop value represents the memorability of your brand name! Here is everything you need to know about it.

What Is The Phonological Loop?

Each and every sound you hear gets bounced around in the inner ear for 2-3 seconds in a loop. This happens automatically allowing your brain to decide whether the auditory information to be stored or deleted. This process is a very important part of short-term memory. 

Maybe you have this experience. How do you remember someone’s phone number until you find a paper to write on? Before the memory is deleted, you keep reading what you’ve heard until you find a paper to write. This happens because of the phonological loop. It allows you to hold the auditory information for some time.

The phonological loop may feel new to hear in the brand naming field, but it can make a huge difference in a successful brand name.

Phonological Loop Value

Phonological loop value is a factor that is given to a word, based on its effectiveness in the phonological loop. Simply, the possibility of a heard sound to be stored in the short memory. The phonological loop value is given from 0% to 100%. 

To consider a brand name as a perfect brand name, the value must be higher than 80%. If it is 60% to 79% the brand name is good, but if the value is lesser than 60% you better think again about your choice.

Phonological Loop Value Of Most Popular Brand Names

  • Google – 84.6%
  • Yahoo – 90.2%
  • Tesla – 85.9%
  • Amazon – 85.6%
  • eBay – 88.7%
  • Facebook – 82.1%

The connection between phonological loop value and a brand name

You need to select a brand name with a higher phonological loop value to become more “human friendly.” If you evaluate the best company names in the world, most of them are easy to memorize because of the higher phonological loop value. It can help you get customer attention and keep them attached to your company. So if your brand name is phonological loop friendly, or in other words easy to memorize, you can easily form a loyal customer base. 

So, our branding specialists recommend that the phonological loop is a must-know fact by all the startup founders, business owners, and entrepreneurs before naming their business.

How to get a higher phonological loop value?

  • Less syllable count 

This is the most important fact when it comes to phonological loop value in a brand name. If your brand name has 1-2 syllables, you got the perfect brand name. How? Researchers have found that words with one or two syllables are more likely to remain in the short-term memory than words with more syllables. Brand names with fewer syllables bounce in the inner ear more times than other brand names. So brand names with 1-2 syllables have a good chance of sticking to the memory. If the brand name has 3 or more syllables, it gets less bouncing time which makes it easy to forget!!!. Check out these examples,

-VISA- 2 syllables

– Apple- 2 syllables

– Gucci- 2 syllables

– YouTube- 2 syllables

  • Less character count

The character count of your brand name is also important. Long brand names have less bouncing count in the inner ear. But if you select a short brand name, it is more likely to stick in the memory. The ideal character count of a brand name is 4 to 6 characters which also gives your brand name a higher phonological loop value.

  • Using Generic words?

You may think that using generic words as your brand name is the easiest way to get a high phonological loop value. Because there is nothing to remember in a generic word. This is not true. That particular word is already heard and people have their own definitions, imaginations, pictures in their mind for that particular generic word. So getting a generic word is not a good idea. It is very difficult to force a new feeling, meaning to an established word. Brand name experts always recommend a unique brand name for a business. 

  • Avoid Using numbers and special characters

This is also a bad move when naming your brand. We researched the brand names with numbers and special characters and their phonological loop value. The results were negative as we expected. When a brand name with numbers and special characters is heard for the first time, there is a lot to remember. So instead of retaining the information, the brain tends to ignore these types of brand names. So focus only on letters.

  • Avoid complex pronunciation patterns

Some entrepreneurs think getting a hard-to-pronounce brand name is an easy way to be unique and catchy. But this is not a smart move in naming your brand name. It will affect the phonological loop value. When your brand name is difficult to pronounce, your customers cannot grab it quickly and easily as it has less phonological loop value. Try your brand name idea with your friends or family members, if they find it difficult to pronounce, you better move for a simple brand name idea.

Making a name that’s hard to forget

Eben Pagan is an Entrepreneur, trainer and author specialized in training entrepreneurs on how to be successful when starting a business. Below is a great resource from his collection where he explains how the phonological loop is important when naming and he focuses on one thing.

“It’s not about making a name
that’s easy to remember,
it’s about making a name
that’s hard to forget”

Why can’t users find a brand name with a high phonological loop value

Almost all the brand names with a higher phonological loop value have been taken by brand name resellers by using automated bots. They are selling those for above $1000. Some brand names are being sold above $100000 too.

But still, you have the chance to buy perfect and professional brand names like Google, Yahoo, Tesla for less than $1000. So we highly recommend you not to pay more than $1000 for a brand name.

Why are some small businesses still not developed in the business field?

Choosing the wrong brand name is an irreversible mistake as the first step of every successful business is the brand name.

90% of small businesses use very poor brand names for their business. Let’s look at why there are failures with their brand name.

  • Ignorance

The brand name is the first and foremost step when starting a business. That is the key element we should consider more. The first step of a successful business is based on the brand name and the brand is a future investment that you’re making for your business.

If you made a mistake with your brand name it will be irrevocable. So the best thing you can do is to gain more knowledge about naming your business and choose a perfect and professional brand name for you.

The main mistake that small businesses make is that they do not take the brand name as a serious point. They always choose an unprofessional brand name for their business.

Make sure to learn more and more about naming your business before finalizing your brand name.

  • Follow the Myths

The other mistake that every small business does is that it is still following the old myths of naming the business. Most people still think that having keywords in the brand name or explaining what they do with the brand name is the best way to name the business but now even Google rejected brand names with keywords.

In 2012 Google introduced the EMD penalty which is known as the Exact Match Domain penalty. Search engines can consider including keywords in your domain name as a spamming technique, Refer more about EMD Penalty to know more information about this.

This mistake happens when they have a lack of knowledge about the current trends.

  • Not Identifying the user behavior

Take a look at the below example. Which brand names are professional and trustworthy?

Google Best Search Engine
Tesla Best Electric Car
Zara Best Clothing
Facebook Connecting With People

Why are big companies so successful in Brand naming?

As they have good experience in the field and as they can hire expert teams with brand name experts, they do not make mistakes. They always make sure to get the perfect brand name for their business to make it professional.

You may get a question why a few popular brand names get less phonological loop value but still succeed in the business industry. As those brand names were founded before the internet era and because of the very little competition each company had when entering the business field they were able to succeed.

Here are a few companies that are successful but have a less phonological loop value.

  • General Motors
  • Louis Vuitton
  • Mercedes Benz

 

But in this digital era, perfect brand names are more important than ever because of the high competition. We have to be perfect among good ones because users will not put any effort to remember a brand name when there are lots of alternatives.

Why is having a perfect brand name important in this era?

  • In the last century, nobody wants to write or type brand names

The spelling of a brand name or phonological loop value wasn’t the most important factor earlier. But now everybody uses search engines to find brands. So with the current lifestyle, users don’t want to type such long words and waste time. They will always find short, quick, and easy brands as there are thousands of alternatives.

  • Less competition

In the 1990s only a few companies were there in the field. They dominated the field, almost every brand was a giant in the industry.

But It is different now, Using common words or misspelling words may drive your users to another brand, So uniqueness is important now and you have to be the perfect one to stand among others.

  • Pronunciation matters

The volume of voice searches is increasing so rapidly. In the next 10 years, almost every brand search query could be a voice search.

So make sure your brand name is unique and It can be easily pronounced and Robots can understand it clearly.

How to get the perfect brand name for your business?

If we look into the best brand names in the world like Google, Tesla, Amazon, Yahoo all of these brand names consist of all the brand name qualities. The main factor that all these brand names have is the high phonological loop value. Phonological loop value is the most important factor a brand name should consist of. It shows how a user will get familiar and like the brand name with the sound of the brand name and with the time duration the brand name will bounce around the mind of a human.

All the giant companies in the industry that succeed in the business field use brand names with the above said qualities.

There are brand names available with high phonological loop value for any startup and still, you can find them but the main issue is those brand names are difficult to be purchased due to unethical business practices. Let’s take a look at why these brand names are hard to buy.

Few More Things to consider when buying a brand name

  • Make sure to consider the phonological loop value and the .com domain availability before choosing a brand name for you because now a professional brand name will be based on these two factors.
  • Do not pay more than $1000 for your brand name unless you’re a millionaire.
  • Always check the Godaddy appraisal value tool before buying a brand name to know how much the brand name will cost. It will help you not to pay more for a brand name.
  • Never lease or rent brand names even if they offer them for free.
  • Do not use .net or any other domain extension except .com. If you’re running an educational website use .edu, if you’re running a non-profit organization use .org, and you can use the country-based domain extension if you’re targeting a specific country.
  • Don’t choose a brand name with keywords because following the EMD penalty is important to build your online reputation and also make sure not to use generic words such as pineapple as the brand name because you will have to compete with real pineapples in search engine results pages.
  • Do not imitate any other popular brands because imitating brand names will raise future legal issues.