Marketing Message Components in Commercial Naming

Abstract

The article focuses on the marketing potential of commercial names involved in the clientoriented communication and, more precisely, on the mechanisms of semantic derivation proper to the formation of commercial names. The author argues that the semantic shifts in the meaning of the original word result from its use as a part of a commercial message, i.e. for the transmission of specific marketing information. One of the current trends in contemporary Russian commercial naming is related to the actualization of the marketing content components (MCCs) ‘big’ and ‘small’ which communicate complementary information about the named object. The marketing content component ‘big’ communicates the idea of respectability, economic might, wide choice of goods. This idea is most commonly transmitted by the foreign language prefixes mega-, super-, hyper-, grand-, maxi-, macro-, big-. In commercial naming their meanings overlap, making them stereotypic means of advertising. The marketing content component ‘small’ often appears in the names of cosy cafés and restaurants, cheap shops and child care institutions. This marketing content component can be communicated by foreign language prefixes, e.g. mini-, micro-, nano-, but it is most often actualized by Russian diminutive suffixes. The analised MCCs are also transmitted by means of direct, metaphoric, metonymic and symbolic names in which it is also possible to distinguish stereotypic patterns of commercial naming.

Keywords

• Russian language
• advertising discourse
• commercial naming
• semantic derivation
• marketing message
• marketing information
• object of advertising
• advertising addressee