Recurrences, Innovations, and Mismatches Around the Naming of Argentine Wines

Abstract

Despite its enormous importance for a brand, Naming appears as a minor field of knowledge within Branding. It is enough to observe the shortcomings of the classifications of brand names found in the scarce literature on the subject. This article proposes a different way of sorting brand names, depending on the different readings that they can generate as a result of semantic associations. This sorting derives from a semiotic analysis which is synchronic in production and takes the Argentine wine brands as a reference (380 names). This approach, which is disguised as a taxonomy, aims to highlight fundamental theoretical-methodological aspects, not prioritized in the specific literature, which ignores the processual and intersubjective dimensions of the brand. Finally, we describe a couple of names (brands), recently launched by wineries, which stand out for moving away from traditional variants in order to seduce the “postmodern” consumer.