Sounds like a heuristic! Investigating the effect of sound-symbolic correspondences between store names and sizes on consumer willingness-to-pay

Abstract

This investigation seeks to demonstrate that matches between the observable size of a retail store and the size-sound symbolism in the store's name can lead to higher consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP), moderated by store size. Namely, utilizing back vowels and voiced consonants, which are linked to larger sizes (versus front vowels and voiceless consonants, which are associated with smaller sizes), in the name of a large retail store leads to higher WTP. However, size-sound symbolism exerts no effect on WTP for small retail stores, indicating that store size is a moderator of the effect. Further, arousal is revealed as the mediating process, and processing fluency is ruled out as an alternative explanation. This study is one of the first to document a moderating influence (store size) on the strength of sound-symbolic effects. The findings help to clarify the ways in which sound symbolism influences consumer responses, hopefully opening further inquiry into additional moderators of sound-symbolic effects.