An alphanumeric brand name is a

brand name A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create a ...

composed only of letters and numbers ( alphanumericals). Examples include

7 Up 7 Up (stylized as 7up outside North America) is an American brand of lemon-lime-flavored non-caffeinated soft drink. The brand and formula are owned by Keurig Dr Pepper although the beverage is internationally distributed by PepsiCo. 7 Up co ...

Saks Fifth Avenue Saks Fifth Avenue (originally Saks & Company; colloquially Saks) is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in New York City and founded by Andrew Saks. The original store opened in the F Street shopping district of Washing ...

Audi A4 The Audi A4 is a line of compact executive cars produced since 1994 by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The A4 has been built in five generations and is based on the Volkswagen Group B platform. The fir ...

, Canon A75. They may serve as abbreviations (e.g. 3M, formerly known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company), indicate model extensions (

iPhone 3G The iPhone 3G (also known as iPhone 2) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc.; it is the second generation of iPhone, successor to the original iPhone, and was introduced on June 9, 2008, at the WWDC 2008 at the Mosco ...

iPhone 4 The iPhone 4 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fourth generation of the iPhone lineup, succeeding the iPhone 3GS and preceding the 4S. Following a number of notable leaks, the iPhone 4 was first unve ...

, etc.), symbolize physical product attributes (the v-shaped

V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight- cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and u ...

), incorporate technical attributes ( AMD32 chips use

32-bit In computer architecture, 32-bit computing refers to computer systems with a processor, memory, and other major system components that operate on data in 32- bit units. Compared to smaller bit widths, 32-bit computers can perform large calcula ...

processors), refer to inventory codes or internal design numbers (e.g.,

Levi's Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, ...

501). Kunter Gunasti and William T. Ross (2010) define two dimensions of alphanumeric brand names: "link", or the connection between the brand name and a specific product feature or the product as a whole; and "alignability", or whether the preferences for a product can be aligned with the numbers included in the brand names in an ascending or descending trend. Selcan Kara, Gunasti and Ross (2015) delineated the number and letter components of alphanumeric brands and observed that for new brand extensions firms can either change the letters or numbers of their parent brand names. Altering the number components of brand names (e.g.

Audi A3 The Audi A3 is a subcompact executive/small family car ( C-segment) manufactured and marketed by the German automaker Audi AG since September 1996, currently in its fourth generation. The first two generations of the Audi A3 were based on th ...

vs. A4 vs. A6 vs. A8) led to more favorable consumer reactions compared to changing the letter components (e.g. Mercedes C350 vs. E350 vs. S350). Gunasti and Timucin Ozcan (2016) further categorized alphanumeric brand names as either "round" or "non-round". They showed that use of " round numbers" in brand names is pervasive because this practice increases the tendency of consumers to perceive products as more complete (including all necessary attributes). For example, labeling an identical product with an "S200" brand (round number) as opposed to an "S198" or "S203" brand can make consumers believe that the product is superior and more well-rounded. They also found that the presence of competitor alphanumeric brand name (e.g.

Garmin Garmin Ltd. (shortened to Garmin, stylized as GARMIN, and formerly known as ProNav) is an American, Swiss-domiciled multinational technology company founded in 1989 by Gary Burrell and Min Kao in Lenexa, Kansas, United States, with headquarte ...

370) can affect consumer choices among the focal brand (e.g.

TomTom TomTom N.V. is a Dutch multinational developer and creator of location technology and consumer electronics. Founded in 1991 and headquartered in Amsterdam, TomTom released its first generation of satellite navigation devices to market in 2004 ...

350 vs. TomTom 360). Gunasti and Berna Devezer (2016) observed that this effect occurs only for competing firms' products.

References

Brands Identifiers {{marketing-stub ca:Alfanumèric de:Alphanumerische Zeichen es:Alfanumérico marcas fr:Alphanumérique marques ja:英数字ブランド simple:Alphanumeric brands sv:Alfanumerisk tr:Alfanümerik markalar zh:文數字品牌