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Researchers from Western University, Stockton University, and University of Massachusetts Amherst have published a new study that examines whether firms benefit from adopting popular nicknames in their branding efforts.

The study, which appears in the Journal of Marketing, is titled "BMW is Powerful, Beemer is Not: Nickname Branding Impairs Brand Performance," and is authored by Zhe Zhang, Ning Ye, and Matthew Thomson.

Many brands have popular nicknames that have become a part of daily conversations. BMW is commonly referred to as Beemer, Bloomingdale's as Bloomie's, Rolex as Rollie, Walmart as WallyWorld, and Starbucks as Starbies.

Given their popularity, some marketers have embraced these names in their own branding efforts. For instance, in 2021, Bloomingdale's officially adopted "Bloomie's" for its new store in Fairfax, Virginia, Target launched a style campaign in 2018 with the tagline "Fall for Tarzhay All Over Again," and the Howard Johnson hotel chain slogan is "Go Happy. Go HoJo."

Do firms actually benefit from adopting popular nicknames in their branding efforts? This new study finds that nickname branding is actually detrimental to brand performance. This is because brand nicknames are usually given by consumers.

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