Telstra is doing it. Foxtel is doing it. Westpac is doing it too.

Phone names are becoming more and more common as companies realise the effect a phone word can have on marketing and branding efforts, and ultimately revenue.

Ray Morgan's 2006 research on phone words showed customers recognise and retain words much easier than numbers. Companies that use phone words also enjoy unexpected benefits. Such benefits include ‘accidental' clients who have called a company simply because they needed a service and guessed which number to call.

Companies who realise the value of phone words, particularly those who purchased them before the concept became so popular, are now re-selling their numbers. 1800 MOBILE is for sale at the moment, which when first purchased eight years ago was valued at a six figure amount. As far as sales go, perhaps the biggest sale Australia has seen was 13TAXI, which a Melbourne businessman bought for $1 million in 2004.

Message retention is becoming increasingly harder for advertisers to achieve amongst consumers as each consumer is bombarded with up to 5000 advertising messages a day. Advertisers can make it simpler for consumers by using phone words to break through the clutter.

Phone words are proven to motivate consumers to act faster than other forms of advertising. Basically, a phone word can cut a company's marketing efforts and expenses in half.

Phone words can also be an important part of branding. Turning your company in to a brand is one of the most extensive marketing activities a company can do, but is very well worth it. A phone word will not just be an extension of your brand but will also play a major part in creating it. A successful brand is one that invokes thoughts, images and ideas in consumer's minds after they have been exposed to it in some way. Brand recognition improves customer response rates so companies get more calls more often.