Abstract
One common definition of premiumness is as a higher quality and more expensive variant of a product than other members of the category or reference class. Premiumness can effectively be conveyed by means of different sensory cues (e.g., colours, sounds, weight). However, to date, research linking the sound of a product’s packaging with premiumness is sparse. In the present study, we demonstrate for the first time that consumers associate different levels of beer premiumness with the sounds of opening and pouring of bottles and cans. We report the results of two online experiments. Experiment 1 explored the effect of two sound properties associated with beer can and bottle opening and pouring (sound pressure and frequency) on the perception of premiumness. Experiment 2 used semantic differential scales (e.g., bad-good, passive-active) to evaluate the meanings people tend to associate with different auditory cues. The analyses revealed that participants perceived: 1) bottle sounds to be more premium overall than can sounds, 2) pouring sounds as more premium than opening sounds, and 3) higher pressure sounds as more premium than lower pressure sounds. Additionally, premiumness was positively correlated with semantic differentials of dead-alive, and the evaluative terms of sad-happy, awful-nice, and bad-good, which highlights the perceived quality and premium character of a beer when conveyed auditorily.
Highlights
Sonic cues can provide a rich, if often neglected, source of infor mation concerning the attributes of a product
If sonic stimuli can be used to indicate premiumness, what are the properties in the acoustic cues that signal it? The current paper explores these in the context of the sounds of beer packaging
To further explore the possible meanings of the sounds that are related to premiumness, we considered the relationship between the premium ratings of the sounds obtained in Experiment 1 and the se mantic differential ratings from Experiment 2 and conducted Kendall Tau’s correlations
Summary
Sonic cues can provide a rich, if often neglected, source of infor mation concerning the attributes of a product (e.g., its temperature, viscosity, and perhaps even its quality; see Spence & Zampini, 2007; Velasco & Spence, 2019a; Wolkomir, 1996). Pathak, Calvert, and Velasco (2017) demonstrated that certain speech sounds (e.g., /sh/ as in Sharon) are considered more premium than others (e.g., /p/, /b/) Pathak and his colleagues indicated that phonemes (i.e., sounds contained within words) acquired late in life require more effort and time to distinguish (as compared to those phonemes acquired early in life), making these rarer in languages. When these phonemes are used in brand names, consumers link the phonemic rarity present in names with the premium appeal of the associated brand
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