A Sweet Voice: The Influence of Cross-Modal Correspondences Between Taste and Vocal Pitch on Advertising Effectiveness
In: Multisensory ResearchInstitute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
Search for other papers by Kosuke Motoki in
Current site
Google Scholar
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
Search for other papers by Toshiki Saito in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Rui Nouchi in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Ryuta Kawashima in
Current site
Google Scholar
International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Search for other papers by Motoaki Sugiura in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
We have seen a rapid growth of interest in cross-modal correspondences between sound and taste over recent years. People consistently associate higher-pitched sounds with sweet/sour foods, while lower-pitched sounds tend to be associated with bitter foods. The human voice is key in broadcast advertising, and the role of voice in communication generally is partly characterized by acoustic parameters of pitch. However, it remains unknown whether voice pitch and taste interactively influence consumer behavior. Since consumers prefer congruent sensory information, it is plausible that voice pitch and taste interactively influence consumers’ responses to advertising stimuli. Based on the cross-modal correspondence phenomenon, this study aimed to elucidate the role played by voice pitch–taste correspondences in advertising effectiveness. Participants listened to voiceover advertisements (at a higher or lower pitch than the original narrator’s voice) for three food products with distinct tastes (sweet, sour, and bitter) and rated their buying intention (an indicator of advertising effectiveness). The results show that the participants were likely to exhibit greater buying intention toward both sweet and sour food when they listened to higher-pitched (vs lower-pitched) voiceover advertisements. The influence of a higher pitch on sweet and sour food preferences was observed in only two of the three studies: studies 1 and 2 for sour food, and studies 2 and 3 for sweet food. These findings emphasize the role that voice pitch–taste correspondence plays in preference formation, and advance the applicability of cross-modal correspondences to business.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Biswas, D., Lund, K. and Szocs, C. (2019). Sounds like a healthy retail atmospheric strategy: effects of ambient music and background noise on food sales, J. Acad. Mark. Sci. 47, 37–55.
-
Borkowska, B. and Pawlowski, B. (2011). Female voice frequency in the context of dominance and attractiveness perception, Anim. Behav. 82, 55–59.
-
Bremner, A. J., Caparos, S., Davidoff, J., de Fockert, J., Linnell, K. J. and Spence, C. (2013). “Bouba” and “Kiki” in Namibia? A remote culture make similar shape–sound matches, but different shape–taste matches to Westerners, Cognition 126, 165–172.
-
Bronner, K., Frieler, K., Bruhn, H., Hirt, R. and Piper, D. (2012). What is the sound of citrus? Research on the correspondences between the perception of sound and flavour, in: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference of Music Perception and Cognition (ICMPC) and the 8th Triennial Conference of the European Society for the Cognitive Sciences of Music (ESCOM) 2012, pp. 142–148. Thessaloniki, Greece.
-
Brunetti, R., Indraccolo, A., Del Gatto, C., Spence, C. and Santangelo, V. (2018). Are crossmodal correspondences relative or absolute? Sequential effects on speeded classification, Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 80, 527–534.
-
Chattopadhyay, A., Dahl, D. W., Ritchie, R. J. B. and Shahin, K. N. (2003). Hearing voices: the impact of announcer speech characteristics on consumer response to broadcast advertising, J. Consum. Psychol. 13, 198–204.
-
Chebat, J.-C., Hedhli, K. E. L., Gélinas-Chebat, C. and Boivin, R. (2007). Voice and persuasion in a banking telemarketing context, Percept. Mot. Skills 104, 419–437.
-
Coleman, R. O. (1976). A comparison of the contributions of two voice quality characteristics to the perception of maleness and femaleness in the voice, J. Speech Hear. Res. 19, 168–180.
-
Crisinel, A. S. and Spence, C. (2011). A fruity note: crossmodal associations between odors and musical notes, Chem. Sens. 37, 151–158.
-
Crisinel, A.-S. and Spence, C. (2009). Implicit association between basic tastes and pitch, Neurosci. Lett. 464, 39–42.
-
Crisinel, A.-S. and Spence, C. (2010). As bitter as a trombone: synesthetic correspondences in nonsynesthetes between tastes/flavors and musical notes, Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 72, 1994–2002.
-
Crisinel, A.-S., Jones, S. and Spence, C. (2012a). ‘The sweet taste of maluma’: crossmodal associations between tastes and words, Chemosens. Percept. 5, 266–273.
-
Crisinel, A.-S., Cosser, S., King, S., Jones, R., Petrie, J. and Spence, C. (2012b). A bittersweet symphony: systematically modulating the taste of food by changing the sonic properties of the soundtrack playing in the background, Food Qual. Pref. 24, 201–204.
-
Deroy, O., Crisinel, A.-S. and Spence, C. (2013). Crossmodal correspondences between odors and contingent features: odors, musical notes, and geometrical shapes, Psychon. Bull. Rev. 20, 878–896.
-
Emarketers (2018a). US Digital Video Ad Spending, 2017–2021 (billions, % change and % of total digital ad spending). https://www.emarketer.com/Chart/US-Digital-Video-Ad-Spending-2017-2021-billions-change-of-total-digital-ad-spending/209000. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
-
Emarketers (2018b). US TV Ad Spending to Fall in 2018. https://www.emarketer.com/content/us-tv-ad-spending-to-fall-in-2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
-
Hagtvedt, H. and Brasel, S. A. (2016). Cross-modal communication: sound frequency influences consumer responses to color lightness, J. Mark. Res. 53, 551–562.
-
Ho, H. N., Van Doorn, G. H., Kawabe, T., Watanabe, J. and Spence, C. (2014). Colour-temperature correspondences: when reactions to thermal stimuli are influenced by colour, PloS One 9, e91854. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0091854.
-
Knoeferle, K., Li, J., Maggioni, E. and Spence, C. (2017). What drives sound symbolism? Different acoustic cues underlie sound–size and sound–shape mappings, Sci. Rep. 7, 5562. DOI:10.1038/s41598-017-05965-y.
-
Knoeferle, K. M., Woods, A., Käppler, F. and Spence, C. (2015). That sounds sweet: using cross-modal correspondences to communicate gustatory attributes, Psychol. Mark. 32, 107–120.
-
Knöferle, K. and Spence, C. (2012). Crossmodal correspondences between sounds and tastes, Psychon. Bull. Rev. 19, 992–1006.
-
Lattner, S., Meyer, M. E. and Friederici, A. D. (2005). Voice perception: sex, pitch, and the right hemisphere, Hum. Brain Mapp. 24, 11–20.
-
Ligges, U., Preusser, A., Thieler, A., Mielke, J. and Weihs, C. (2018). ‘tuneR: analysis of Music and Speech’. R package version 1.3.3. ftp://ctan.uib.no/pub/cran/web/packages/tuneR/tuneR.pdf. Retrieved 01 January 2001.
-
Martín-Santana, J. D., Muela-Molina, C., Reinares-Lara, E. and Rodríguez-Guerra, M. (2015). Effectiveness of radio spokesperson’s gender, vocal pitch and accent and the use of music in radio advertising, Bus. Res. Q. 18, 143–160.
-
Motoki, K. and Sugiura, M. (2018). Disgust, sadness, and appraisal: disgusted consumers dislike food more than sad ones, Front. Psychol. 9, 76. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00076.
-
Motoki, K., Saito, T., Nouchi, R., Kawashima, R. and Sugiura, M. (2018). The paradox of warmth: ambient warm temperature decreases preference for savory foods, Food Qual. Pref. 69, 1–9.
-
Motoki, K., Saito, T., Nouchi, R., Kawashima, R. and Sugiura, M. (2019a). Round faces are associated with sweet foods: the role of crossmodal correspondence in social perception, Foods 8, 103. DOI:10.3390/foods8030103.
-
Motoki, K., Saito, T., Nouchi, R., Kawashima, R. and Sugiura, M. (2019b). Light colors and comfortable warmth: crossmodal correspondences between thermal sensations and color lightness influence consumer behavior, Food Qual. Pref. 72, 45–55.
-
Ngo, M. and Spence, C. (2011). Assessing the shapes and speech sounds that people associate with different kinds of chocolate, J. Sens. Stud. 26, 421–428.
-
Ngo, M. K., Misra, R. and Spence, C. (2011). Assessing the shapes and speech sounds that people associate with chocolate samples varying in cocoa content, Food Qual. Pref. 22, 567–572.
-
North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J. and McKendrick, J. (1999). The influence of in-store music on wine selections, J. Appl. Psychol. 84, 271–276.
-
Oakes, S. (2007). Evaluating empirical research into music in advertising: a congruity perspective, J. Advert. Res. 47, 38–50.
-
Puts, D. A., Gaulin, S. J. C. and Verdolini, K. (2006). Dominance and the evolution of sexual dimorphism in human voice pitch, Evol. Hum. Behav. 27, 283–296.
-
Ramachandran, V. S. and Hubbard, E. M. (2001). Synaesthesia — a window into perception, thought and language, J. Consc. Stud. 8, 3–34.
-
Reinoso Carvalho, F., Wang, Q. (J.), Van Ee, R. and Spence, C. (2016). The influence of soundscapes on the perception and evaluation of beers, Food Qual. Pref. 52, 32–41.
-
Reinoso Carvalho, F., Wang, Q. (J.), van Ee, R., Persoone, D. and Spence, C. (2017). “Smooth operator”: music modulates the perceived creaminess, sweetness, and bitterness of chocolate, Appetite 108, 383–390.
-
Schwarz, N. (2011). Feelings-as-information theory, in: The Handbook of Theories of Social Psychology, P. A. M. Van Lange, A. Kruglanski and E. T. Higgins (Eds), pp. 289–308. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA.
-
Shue, Y.-L., Keating, P., Vicenik, C. and Yu, K. (2011). VoiceSauce: a program for voice analysis, in: Proceedings of the 17th ICPhS, Hong Kong, pp. 1846–1849.
-
Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D. and Simonsohn, U. (2011). False-positive psychology: undisclosed flexibility in data collection and analysis allows presenting anything as significant, Psychol. Sci. 22, 1359–1366.
-
Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D. and Simonsohn, U. (2018). False-positive citations, Perspect. Psychol. Sci. 13, 255–259.
-
Simner, J., Cuskley, C. and Kirby, S. (2010). What sound does that taste? Cross-modal mappings across gustation and audition, Perception 39, 553–569.
-
Spence, C. (2011). Crossmodal correspondences: a tutorial review, Atten. Percept. Psychophys. 73, 971–995.
-
Spence, C. (2012). Managing sensory expectations concerning products and brands: capitalizing on the potential of sound and shape symbolism, J. Consum. Psychol. 22, 37–54.
-
Spence, C. (2019). On the relative nature of (pitch-based) crossmodal correspondences, Multisens. Res. 32, 235–265. DOI:10.1163/22134808-20191407.
-
Spence, C. and Gallace, A. (2011). Tasting shapes and words, Food Qual. Pref. 22, 290–295.
-
Spence, C., Puccinelli, N. M., Grewal, D. and Roggeveen, A. L. (2014). Store atmospherics: a multisensory perspective, Psychol. Mark. 31, 472–488.
-
Starr, R. L. (2015). Sweet voice: the role of voice quality in a Japanese feminine style, Lang. Soc. 44, 1–34.
-
Stel, M., van Dijk, E., Smith, P. K., van Dijk, W. W. and Djalal, F. M. (2012). Lowering the pitch of your voice makes you feel more powerful and think more abstractly, Soc. Psychol. Personal. Sci. 3, 497–502.
-
Sunaga, T., Park, J. and Spence, C. (2016). Effects of lightness-location congruency on consumers’ purchase decision-making, Psychol. Mark. 33, 934–950.
-
Teshigawara, M. (2003). Voices in Japanese Animation: a Phonetic Study of Vocal Stereotypes of Heroes and Villains in Japanese Culture. PhD thesis, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada.
-
Velasco, C., Salgado-Montejo, A., Marmolejo-Ramos, F. and Spence, C. (2014). Predictive packaging design: tasting shapes, typefaces, names, and sounds, Food Qual. Pref. 34, 88–95.
-
Velasco, C., Woods, A. T., Petit, O., Cheok, A. D. and Spence, C. (2016). Crossmodal correspondences between taste and shape, and their implications for product packaging: a review, Food Qual. Pref. 52, 17–26.
-
Velasco, C., Adams, C., Petit, O. and Spence, C. (2019). On the localization of tastes and tasty products in 2D space, Food Qual. Pref. 71, 438–446.
-
Wang, Q. (J.) and Spence, C. (2016). ‘Striking a sour note’: assessing the influence of consonant and dissonant music on taste perception, Multisens. Res. 29, 195–208.
-
Wang, Q. J. and Spence, C. (2017). The role of pitch and tempo in sound-temperature crossmodal correspondences, Multisens. Res. 30, 307–320.
-
Wang, Q. (J.), Woods, A. and Spence, C. (2015). “What’s your taste in music?” A comparison of the effectiveness of various soundscapes in evoking specific tastes, i-Perception 6, 2041669515622001. DOI:10.1177/2041669515622001.
-
Wang, Q. (J.), Keller, S. and Spence, C. (2017). Sounds spicy: enhancing the evaluation of piquancy by means of a customised crossmodally congruent soundtrack, Food Qual. Pref. 58, 1–9.
-
Watson, Q. J. and Gunther, K. L. (2017). Trombones elicit bitter more strongly than do clarinets: a partial replication of three studies of Crisinel and Spence, Multisens. Res. 30, 321–335.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 3994 | 612 | 121 |
| Full Text Views | 386 | 33 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 507 | 46 | 4 |
A Sweet Voice: The Influence of Cross-Modal Correspondences Between Taste and Vocal Pitch on Advertising Effectiveness
In: Multisensory ResearchInstitute of Development, Aging and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
Search for other papers by Kosuke Motoki in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
Search for other papers by Toshiki Saito in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Rui Nouchi in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Ryuta Kawashima in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
International Research Institute of Disaster Science, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
Search for other papers by Motoaki Sugiura in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
We have seen a rapid growth of interest in cross-modal correspondences between sound and taste over recent years. People consistently associate higher-pitched sounds with sweet/sour foods, while lower-pitched sounds tend to be associated with bitter foods. The human voice is key in broadcast advertising, and the role of voice in communication generally is partly characterized by acoustic parameters of pitch. However, it remains unknown whether voice pitch and taste interactively influence consumer behavior. Since consumers prefer congruent sensory information, it is plausible that voice pitch and taste interactively influence consumers’ responses to advertising stimuli. Based on the cross-modal correspondence phenomenon, this study aimed to elucidate the role played by voice pitch–taste correspondences in advertising effectiveness. Participants listened to voiceover advertisements (at a higher or lower pitch than the original narrator’s voice) for three food products with distinct tastes (sweet, sour, and bitter) and rated their buying intention (an indicator of advertising effectiveness). The results show that the participants were likely to exhibit greater buying intention toward both sweet and sour food when they listened to higher-pitched (vs lower-pitched) voiceover advertisements. The influence of a higher pitch on sweet and sour food preferences was observed in only two of the three studies: studies 1 and 2 for sour food, and studies 2 and 3 for sweet food. These findings emphasize the role that voice pitch–taste correspondence plays in preference formation, and advance the applicability of cross-modal correspondences to business.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 3994 | 612 | 121 |
| Full Text Views | 386 | 33 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 507 | 46 | 4 |
