This study aims to determine the effect of both taste type—such as physiological needs, prior information, and food culture—and linguistic influences like semantic appositeness and paronomasia on consumers’ food preference, particularly considering Japanese language style. To do this, participants were asked their preference of foods based on two different dishes described in different ways. The results showed that prior information about food and semantic appositeness (sounds that match the image of the dish) have the most pronounced effect on participants’ preference. We believe that our study makes a significant contribution to the literature because the effects of a brand name and its linguistic characteristics on consumers’ brand preference is a highly relevant study area in marketing.
