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INTRODUCTION
Research has shown that effective brand names enhance consumer awareness and create a favorable image for the product (Aaker, 1996; Argo et al , 2010). Empirical observations suggest that many popular brands carry the name of the associated promoter, city or family (Nestle, Bank of China). The naming of a brand is critical. Hence, brand naming has interested researchers for many years (Peterson and Ross, 1972; Bergh et al , 1984; Robertson, 1987; Meyers-Levy, 1989; Heath et al , 1990; Maheswaran et al , 1992; Robertson, 1992; Chan and Huang, 1997; Sen, 1999; Klink, 2000, 2001; Kohli and Suri, 2000; Dong and Helms, 2001; Kohli et al , 2005; Lowrey and Shrum, 2007; Wänke et al , 2007; Luna et al , 2013). For example, the well-known failure of Edsel (Ford) in marketing history has largely been attributed to its name (Haig, 2005). Marketing research scholars continually debate whether there has been any significant progress in the process of brand naming in the branding literature.
Klink (2001) stated, 'It's hard to name any product ... branding decisions are still made by the seat of the pants'. Recent branding literature has extensively discussed trademark-related issues involved in brand naming (Petty, 2008a, 2008b, 2010). According to Thomas (2013), it is alarming to see unimaginably high filing rates at the US Patent and Trademark Office. As reported by Melton (1979), US courts have suggested a hierarchy of five categories: generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary and coined , in increasing order of potential for trademark protection.
Today, there is growing demand for Web names as the Internet expands (ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], 2014). Web addresses, known as top-level domain names, with already existing two dozen suffixes, such as .com, .org and .net, may see new suffixes like .hitachi and .paris in the future (Crovitz, 2012). In addition, the Internet industry suffers from problems of cybersquatting, which generally involves registering a Web address, usually including a company's name, with the intent of selling it to that company for a profit (Richmond, 2003). Hence, the cost of acquiring relevant Web domain names has shot up significantly over the years (Steigrad, 2011; Crovitz, 2012). Entrepreneurs starting a new venture intend to maintain Web domain names, which are related...