A psychological investigation of the likelihood of confusion between the words 'Coca-Cola' and 'Chero Cola'

Abstract

Reports an investigation on the deceptive similarity in visual appearance and in sound between the word trade marks 'Coca-Cola' and 'Chero-Cola'. Four experiments (three with recognition and one with relative position) were conducted on 90 Ss, aged 20-45 yrs. The word 'Chero-Cola' showed a likelihood of visual confusion with the word 'Coca-Cola'. Most of the Ss put the greatest confidence in their wrong recognitions. The confusion in visual recognition caused by 'Chero-Cola' was greater than that caused by the imitation of other three very well-known original trade-marks. In the relative position experiment 'Coca-Cola - Chero-Cola' were in the third most confusing position in the list of 10 pairs of litigated trade-marks. Concludes that not only did similarity in visual appearance, but also in sound, linguistic formation and meaning or significance contribute to confusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)