That sounds healthy! Audio and visual frequency differences in brand sound logos modify the perception of food healthfulness

Abstract

Sonic brand logos, also termed “sogos”, are a marketing communication tool that brands use to signify brand or product benefits to consumers in catchy, non-visual ways. Given the considerable utility of brand lsogos, it is surprising that there has been scant research into the nature of the specific acoustic features that can be modulated to connote certain traits, such as the healthfulness of products within the food category. Our findings revealed that sogos created with higher (vs. lower) frequency were significantly matched with healthy food products (vs. less healthy), while the effect of tempo was neutral. This effect generalizes to high (vs. low) spatial frequency visual stimuli too. The current study contributes to the literature on the crossmodal correspondence between acoustic sound clips and expectations of healthfulness. It also advances the theoretical insights into business applications using optimal sogos congruent with visual cues on packaging to connote food healthfulness to consumers implicitly.