This research investigates nickname branding, a novel phenomenon whereby firms incorporate the ‘street’ names consumers give brands into their own marketing (e.g., Bloomingdale’s opening a Bloomie’s store). While practitioners anticipate positive results from deploying this tactic, the current research serves as the first empirical investigation of its likely effectiveness. Drawing on speech act theory, we theorize that using a nickname in place of a formal name serves as an act of power redistribution, effectively signaling submission to consumers, thereby reducing the perception of a brand’s power and weakening its performance. Using a multi-method approach that incorporates secondary data analyses, field studies, and pre-registered experiments, the results support this view across a range of performance metrics. In addition, we show this effect is contingent on two factors, such that nickname branding (1) harms performance more for competent brands than warm brands; and (2) is less pronounced when nicknames are used in messages that are communal-oriented (vs. transactional-oriented). Our research introduces a new theoretical perspective centering on the illocutionary meanings embedded in the process of naming brands and highlights actionable insights on how marketers should approach or avoid consumer-based slang in their marketing.

中文翻译：

---

EXPRESS：宝马很强大，而 Beemer 则不然：昵称品牌会损害品牌表现


这项研究调查了昵称品牌，这是一种新现象，企业将消费者赋予品牌的“街道”名称纳入自己的营销中（例如，Bloomingdale 开设了 Bloomie's 商店）。虽然从业者预计采用这种策略会产生积极的结果，但当前的研究是对其可能有效性的首次实证调查。根据言语行为理论，我们认为使用昵称代替正式名称是一种权力重新分配行为，有效地向消费者发出服从信号，从而降低对品牌权力的感知并削弱其表现。使用结合了二次数据分析、实地研究和预先注册实验的多方法方法，结果在一系列绩效指标上支持了这一观点。此外，我们表明这种影响取决于两个因素，例如昵称品牌（1）对有能力的品牌比温暖的品牌影响更大。 (2) 当在面向公共（相对于面向事务）的消息中使用昵称时，效果不太明显。我们的研究引入了一种新的理论视角，以品牌命名过程中嵌入的言外​​含义为中心，并强调了营销人员在营销中应如何处理或避免基于消费者的俚语的可行见解。