Brand Name Distinctiveness of Star Hotels in Bali

A brand name is an important feature for a brand, serving as an identifier for a product and simultaneously attempting to shape consumers’ perception as a distinctive trademark. The present study explores branding in light of Peirce’s triadic model of signs in linguistics, using summary statistics and cross tabulation to empirically show trends in the choice of brand name and descriptor for 224 star hotels in Bali. The data shows that five trademark distinctiveness strategies are present in the core brand names of star hotels in Bali: generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary, and fanciful — with arbitrary names being the most popular. Additionally, several trends are shown in regards to descriptors used in property names. The use of ‘Bali’ as a descriptor is still popular, while the use of descriptors ‘beach’ and ‘grand’ is declining. Using definite article ‘the’ as a descriptor is increasingly popular, as well as using descriptors ‘private’, ‘luxury’, and ‘collection’ to convey exclusivity and intimacy