Misspelled logotypes: the hidden threat to brand identity

Area of Science:

• Cognitive psychology
• Marketing
• Human-computer interaction

Background:

• Brand names and logotypes are valuable assets.
• Logotypes are vulnerable to counterfeiting through misspelled brand names.
• Incidental processing of brand names in logotypes is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the transposed-letter confusability effect on brand name recognition within logotypes.
• To explore how incidental exposure to misspelled logotypes impacts recognition accuracy.
• To understand the cognitive mechanisms behind brand name and logotype misrecognition.

Main Methods:

• A virtual reality experiment was conducted.
• Participants were incidentally exposed to correctly spelled and misspelled logotypes.
• Offline analyses assessed recognition accuracy and memory recall.

Main Results:

• Participants were more accurate in recognizing correctly spelled brand names compared to misspelled ones.
• Participants demonstrated false memories, recalling misspelled logotypes as correctly spelled.
• Incidental processing of misspelled logotypes significantly affects recognition accuracy.

Conclusions:

• The incidental processing of misspelled logotypes impacts brand name recognition accuracy.
• Transposed-letter confusability contributes to the effectiveness of counterfeit brand names.
• Findings highlight challenges in identifying authentic brand names and the success of counterfeit strategies.