People judge brands on how they sound
A recent study suggests that our preferences for specific brands are significantly influenced by our feelings and intuitions. Brand managers should be mindful of this when naming a product, as people tend to associate certain sounds with proximity or distance. The research is seen as a noteworthy contribution to the understanding of sound symbolism, which involves the intuitive interpretation of the meaning of particular sounds.
The study’s findings reveal that individuals instinctively link front vowel sounds, like the “ee” in “feet,” produced with the tongue positioned forward in the mouth, to objects that are perceived as close by. Conversely, back vowel sounds, such as the “oo” in “food,” produced with the tongue farther back in the mouth, are associated with things perceived as more distant.
Cristina Rabaglia from the University of Toronto Mississauga emphasizes, “Our feelings and intuitions about sounds influence our perception of suitable names for specific items or brands.” In a paper published in the journal Cognition, Rabaglia adds that naming a product in a way that is not intuitive may decrease the likelihood of people wanting to engage with that product.
The study, based on a series of five experiments conducted in New York City, included one where participants were asked to estimate the distance between NYC and non-existent cities in New York State. The names of these fictional cities, Fleen and Floon, were carefully chosen to contain front and back vowels, respectively. Participants consistently predicted that Floon was much farther from NYC than Fleen, demonstrating the association of back vowels with distance and front vowels with proximity.
The other four experiments produced similar results, with participants generally associating words containing back vowels with distance and those with front vowels with nearness. Rabaglia concludes, “Feelings and intuitions about sounds also hold significance, likely due to our human inclination to interpret things in a particular way.”
A recent study suggests that our preferences for specific brands are significantly influenced by our feelings and intuitions. Brand managers should be mindful of this when naming a product, as people tend to associate certain sounds with proximity or distance. The research is seen as a noteworthy contribution to the understanding of sound symbolism, which…