Search results
1 – 10 of 241Elyria Kemp, Steven W. Kopp and My (Myla) Bui
Brand management has traditionally enlisted visual branding elements, including the brand’s graphic logo, to distinguish and communicate the personality of the brand. However, as…
Abstract
Purpose
Brand management has traditionally enlisted visual branding elements, including the brand’s graphic logo, to distinguish and communicate the personality of the brand. However, as healthcare organizations work to shape how consumers perceive their brand, organizations are also enhancing their brand identity with sound and music by creating a sonic brand. This research paper aims to examine how sonic brands influence consumer emotional reactions and trust in a healthcare provider. It also explores how sonic brands can differentially affect consumers, depending on their level of engagement in their physical and mental health.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experimental studies were conducted that tested the use of a sonic logo for healthcare providers in consumption contexts that might elicit negative emotions, cancer care and mental health care.
Findings
The results suggest that the presence of a sonic logo helped to alleviate negative emotions as well as engender trust in the provider. Findings also revealed that for consumers who are less engaged in their health, a sonic logo served as a peripheral cue by enhancing perceptions of competence and empathy for the healthcare provider.
Originality/value
Findings from this research provide insight into how sonic brands can increase the effectiveness of branded healthcare communications.
Details
Keywords
Lluis Mas, Paul Bolls, Emma Rodero, Miguel Barreda-Ángeles and Ashley Churchill
The purpose of this study is to determine how sonic logo’s acoustic features (intensity, pitch and pace) based on melodic tunes with no voice orient the response of consumers…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to determine how sonic logo’s acoustic features (intensity, pitch and pace) based on melodic tunes with no voice orient the response of consumers, attract attention, elicit levels of pleasantness and calmness and transmit brand personality traits.
Design/methodology/approach
A within-subject experimental factorial design is applied to measure emotional arousal (indexed as electrodermal activity) and enhancement on perceptual processing (indexed as heart rate), as well as self-reported factors, namely, calmness/excitement, pleasantness and brand personality scales.
Findings
Results show a significant increase on electrodermal activity associated with fast-paced sonic logos and a decrease in heart rate in slow-paced long sonic logos. Also, fade-up, pitch-ascending fast sonic logos are defined as more exciting and descending-pitch sonic logos as more pleasant.
Research limitations/implications
The use of sonic logos with no voice does limit its implications. Besides, the use of three variables simultaneously with 18 versions of sonic logos in a laboratory setting may have driven participants to fatigue; hence, findings should be cautiously applied.
Practical implications
First, sonic logos are best processed in a fade-up form. Second, fast pace is recommended to orient response, whereas slow pace is recommended to transmit calmness. Practitioners may opt for fast-paced sonic logos if the design is new or played in a noisy environment and opt for slow-paced sonic logos in already highly recognized sound designs.
Originality/value
To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to combine psychophysiological measures and self-reported scales in a laboratory experiment on how sonic logo’s acoustic features orient response, transmit emotions and personality traits.
Details
Keywords
Shawn P. Scott, Daniel Sheinin and Lauren I. Labrecque
The purpose of this paper is to show how sonic logos, despite their brief exposure time, resonate with consumers’ emotions and attitudes in a manner that until now has been…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to show how sonic logos, despite their brief exposure time, resonate with consumers’ emotions and attitudes in a manner that until now has been attributed to only longer background music in advertising. The moderating role of sonic logo placement within the ad (beginning versus ending) and the mediating role of emotion felt after exposure to the brand and advertisement are also explored.
Design/methodology/approach
An expansion on sonic logo research is completed through two experiments testing nine hypotheses. A pretest is also conducted to create two orthogonal sonic logos (sad sonic logo and happy sonic logo) which are then used in the two experiments.
Findings
Participants had higher attitude scores for an advertisement that had a happy sonic logo over the ad that had a sad sonic logo. These consumer attitudes are mediated by emotion felt because of the exposure to the brand and advertisement and are moderated by placement of the sonic logo within the ad. Placement drove more positive consumer attitudes of a sad sonic logo at the beginning and a happy sonic logo at the end of the advertisement.
Practical implications
Given the short nature of a sonic logo, sonic logo placement in the advertisement is shown to change consumer perceptions. This effect uncovers an important aspect of placement of the sonic logo in the advertisement which gives practitioners a means of application. Furthermore, consumer emotions drive these strong attitudes despite the short exposure times of the sonic logo.
Originality/value
This paper expands upon the limited sonic logo research and shows how the short exposure time of a sonic logo can have the same emotional qualities as long-form music, previously reserved for background music in advertising. In addition, by uncovering the mediating relationship of emotion felt after exposure to the brand and advertisement, it is shown how these short audio branding elements can help shape emotion and consumer attitude toward brands. Finally, altering placement of the sonic logo can enhance consumer attitudes of the advertisement and brand.
Details
Keywords
Vijaykumar Krishnan, James J. Kellaris and Timothy W. Aurand
Auditory branding is the association of a non‐verbal, auditory identity for a brand. Sonic logos, or “sogos,” are a key element of sonic branding. This paper seeks to examine the…
Abstract
Purpose
Auditory branding is the association of a non‐verbal, auditory identity for a brand. Sonic logos, or “sogos,” are a key element of sonic branding. This paper seeks to examine the systematic influence of an objective property, the number of tones in a sogo, on consumers' willingness‐to‐pay for the associated brand.
Design/methodology/approach
A laboratory experiment was conducted to test hypotheses.
Findings
Findings suggest that the number of tones in a sogo systematically influences willingness‐to‐pay in a non‐linear manner. Sogos with very few (three) tones or numerous (nine) tones are perceived to be less valuable than sogos with a moderate number (six) tones. This influence is mediated by the fluency with which the sogos are processed.
Research limitations/implications
Although this study examines only one objective property of a sogo, it lays the theoretical foundation for a new research stream by connecting the processing fluency literature and logo literature to provide objective design guidelines for auditory branding elements. Future research could address the influence of other objective properties such as the contour (ascending/descending) of a sogo.
Practical implications
Although sogos are important and costly branding devices, their creation depends on intuition rather than objective parameters. Findings demonstrate that number of tones in a sogo systematically influences willingness‐to‐pay for the associated brand – a direct economic practical implication.
Originality/value
Despite its undeniably central role, sonic branding is a sparsely researched area. This paper demonstrates a strategic outcome for a brand leveraging sound as information.
Details
Keywords
Nicolai Jørgensgaard Graakjær and Anders Bonde
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of sound branding by developing a new conceptual framework and providing an overview of the research literature on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of sound branding by developing a new conceptual framework and providing an overview of the research literature on non-musical sound.
Design/methodology/approach
Using four mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive types of non-musical sound, the paper assesses and synthesizes 99 significant studies across various scholarly fields.
Findings
The overview reveals two areas in which more research may be warranted, that is, non-musical atmospherics and non-musical sonic logos. Moreover, future sound-branding research should examine in further detail the potentials of developed versus annexed object sounds, and mediated versus unmediated brand sounds.
Research limitations/implications
The paper provides important insights into critical issues that suggest directions for further research on non-musical sound branding.
Practical implications
The paper identifies an unexploited terrain of possibilities for the use of sound in marketing and branding.
Originality/value
The paper identifies a subfield within sound-branding research that has received little attention despite its inevitability and potential significance.
Details
Keywords
Ömer Sarı and Selma Meydan Uygur
Nation branding efforts are carried out by means of communication. The element, which is the object of communication tools, must have an analogical connection with nation branding…
Abstract
Purpose
Nation branding efforts are carried out by means of communication. The element, which is the object of communication tools, must have an analogical connection with nation branding. The object of analogy should have attractive features that will strengthen the nation brand. Online tourism content, which has the quality to add value to nation branding, can produce a strong analogy. Online tourism content can easily be internalized in a positive way, as it creates attractive connotations such as memories, entertainment, holidays, etc. in the mind of the audience. In this direction, the research aims to reveal that the online tourism brand is a strategic transmission tool of nation branding.
Design/methodology/approach
The research study was carried out with the semiotics method. Content analysis has been made for the videos of GoTürkiye, Turkey's tourism brand, on YouTube.
Findings
Research findings show that content covering a large part of Turkey has been created. Messages to be given in the content; it is that Turkey has authentic and attractive elements and hosts international events. The content on GoTürkiye's YouTube has reached a significant number of views.
Practical implications
The research aims to reveal how to build an online nation brand through online tourism brands. In this respect, it is thought that the results can guide the politicians or marketers responsible for nation branding.
Originality/value
The idea of how to build an online nation branding through online tourism brands remains unclear. In this respect, the research demonstrates its original value in proposing a model that will contribute to online nation branding.
Details
Keywords
This paper seeks to explore the influential role of religion in developing a nations brand and discusses the possibility of re-positioning the brand Pakistan as a “Sufi country”…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to explore the influential role of religion in developing a nations brand and discusses the possibility of re-positioning the brand Pakistan as a “Sufi country” that is coherent with the cultural values and social realities of the country.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper follows a case study approach in delineating the image problem encountered by Pakistan and describing how governments in Pakistan related country branding efforts with the religious sentiments to foster their motives. This paper also follows an inductive approach in making a theoretical explanation about promoting Pakistan's image as a “Sufi country”.
Findings
The negative image of Pakistan is gaining worldwide currency due to the absence of proactive management by government and relevant stakeholders. Pakistan as a Sufi brand has a potential to grow into a strong country brand. Branding Pakistan as a Sufi country would not only pave the way for forming a different set of associations that would be positively contradictory to the current militancy and extremism oriented perceptions associated with Pakistan, but it would also benefit her as a tourism destination.
Practical implications
This paper is basically a policy recommendation regarding the reconstruction of brand Pakistan around the Sufi theme that is fairly consistent with the prevailing disposition of Pakistani society, in contrast to the current image of Pakistan cultivated in the World's media as a country with the terrorist roots. With thousands of Sufi Khanqahs, tombs and shrines spread throughout the country conforming to the ancient Islamic architecture with shades of Mughal artifacts presents with a significant ‘spiritual tourism’ opportunity provided with proper management and planning.
Originality/value
The present study makes significant contribution to the theory of nation's branding by discussing the potential role of religion in developing a nation's brand, a topic that hasn't been profoundly inquired. Moreover it discusses the reputation management of a country brand in a crisis, a topic that hasn't been adequately studied.
Details
Keywords
You Jeong Hong, Beomjoon Choi and Kyogu Lee
The authors aim to explore whether and how variations on pitch levels of background music in audiovisual commercials affect consumers' judgments of the competence of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors aim to explore whether and how variations on pitch levels of background music in audiovisual commercials affect consumers' judgments of the competence of the advertised brands and for which group of consumers such changes in ad backgrounds are more influential.
Design/methodology/approach
Consumers are presented with an audiovisual advertisement in which the pitch of background music is lowered or raised. They are subsequently asked to evaluate the music and traits of the advertised brand and indicate their predisposed styles of thinking.
Findings
Consumers tend to judge a brand in an audiovisual commercial as possessing a higher level of competence traits when the brand is accompanied by lower-pitched (vs higher-pitched) background music, which is mediated by levels of powerfulness they perceive from the background music. Consumers with holistic (vs analytic) thinking styles, who are known to devote more focused attention to background information, tend to be more (vs less) susceptible to the changes in pitch.
Research limitations/implications
The current research approaches thinking styles as predisposed individual differences as in prior works in marketing. Provided that the predisposed thinking styles can be influenced by individuals' cultural backgrounds, the authors suggest cross-cultural studies as an approach to further validate the present findings.
Practical implications
Given the recent trends that consumers are increasingly exposed to audiovisual ads with the rapid growth of various video-based platforms (e.g. YouTube) and mobile advertising, this empirical study may assist contemporary marketers in considering an acoustic strategy for brand communication using the audiovisual advertisement. This study suggests that the pitch of ad background music can serve as a manageable strategic tool that can assist in establishing an image of a competent brand.
Originality/value
This research highlights a seemingly-trivial element in audiovisual advertisements, the pitch of background music, as a crucial determinant of the perceived competence of an advertised brand upon which further brand evaluations (e.g. brand trust, purchase intention) are based. An important yet overlooked effect of ad recipients' predisposed thinking styles on how consumers respond to the changes of background cues in audiovisual commercials is also proposed.
Details
Keywords
Abstract
Details