IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jouret/v97y2021i2p288-300.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Power of Consequential Product Sounds

Author

Listed:
  • Ringler, Christine
  • Sirianni, Nancy J.
  • Christenson, Brett

Abstract

Building on theory in sensory marketing, mental simulation, and cue diagnosticity, this research investigates when consequential product sounds, or ancillary sounds generated by the normal operation of a product, can impact customers’ perceptions and behavioral intentions. Across four studies, we demonstrate how consequential product sounds coupled with imagery and phrasing of products in use can encourage customers into a mental space in which they can clearly envision using the product, also known as a process mindset. This mindset allows customers to use the amplitude of the consequential product sound to make inferences about its power, and subsequently enhances their willingness to pay for louder products (versus quiet products or those with no sound). Effects are attenuated when customers are encouraged into an outcome mindset, or a mental space in which they only consider the end benefits of using a product. We provide clear theoretical and managerial implications and, based on our findings, propose that retailers should consider incorporating consequential product sounds into customers’ shopping experiences, as these auditory cues can help to encourage a process mindset and thereby, positively impact customers’ willingness to pay.

Suggested Citation

  • Ringler, Christine & Sirianni, Nancy J. & Christenson, Brett, 2021. "The Power of Consequential Product Sounds," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 288-300.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:97:y:2021:i:2:p:288-300
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jretai.2020.09.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435920300555
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jretai.2020.09.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kirmani, Amna, 1990. "The Effect of Perceived Advertising Costs on Brand Perceptions," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(2), pages 160-171, September.
    2. Lynch, John G, Jr & Marmorstein, Howard & Weigold, Michael F, 1988. "Choices from Sets Including Remembered Brands: Use of Recalled Attributes and Prior Overall Evaluations," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(2), pages 169-184, September.
    3. Helmefalk, Miralem & Hultén, Bertil, 2017. "Multi-sensory congruent cues in designing retail store atmosphere: Effects on shoppers’ emotions and purchase behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    4. Aydınoğlu, Nilüfer Z. & Krishna, Aradhna, 2019. "The power of consumption-imagery in communicating retail-store deals," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 95(4), pages 116-127.
    5. Dick, Alan & Chakravarti, Dipankar & Biehal, Gabriel, 1990. "Memory-Based Inferences during Consumer Choice," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(1), pages 82-93, June.
    6. Wei, Wei & Kim, Gaeul & Miao, Li & Behnke, Carl & Almanza, Barbara, 2018. "Consumer inferences of corporate social responsibility (CSR) claims on packaged foods," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 186-201.
    7. Möller, Jana & Herm, Steffen, 2013. "Shaping Retail Brand Personality Perceptions by Bodily Experiences," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 89(4), pages 438-446.
    8. Debora Viana Thompson & Rebecca W. Hamilton & Petia K. Petrova, 2009. "When Mental Simulation Hinders Behavior: The Effects of Process-Oriented Thinking on Decision Difficulty and Performance," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(4), pages 562-574, December.
    9. Madzharov, Adriana V., 2019. "Self-Control and Touch: When Does Direct Versus Indirect Touch Increase Hedonic Evaluations and Consumption of Food," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 95(4), pages 170-185.
    10. Joann Peck & Suzanne B. Shu, 2009. "The Effect of Mere Touch on Perceived Ownership," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(3), pages 434-447.
    11. Andrea C. Morales & On Amir & Leonard Lee, 2017. "Keeping It Real in Experimental Research—Understanding When, Where, and How to Enhance Realism and Measure Consumer Behavior," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(2), pages 465-476.
    12. JoAndrea Hoegg & Joseph W. Alba, 2007. "Taste Perception: More than Meets the Tongue," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 33(4), pages 490-498, December.
    13. Meyers-Levy, Joan, 1989. "The Influence of a Brand Name's Association Set Size and Word Frequency on Brand Memory," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 16(2), pages 197-207, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christenson, Brett & Ringler, Christine & Sirianni, Nancy J., 2023. "Speaking fast and slow: How speech rate of digital assistants affects likelihood to use," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    2. Thorsten Hennig-Thurau & Dorothea N. Aliman & Alina M. Herting & Gerrit P. Cziehso & Marc Linder & Raoul V. Kübler, 2023. "Social interactions in the metaverse: Framework, initial evidence, and research roadmap," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(4), pages 889-913, July.
    3. William Fritz & Rhonda Hadi & Andrew Stephen, 2023. "From tablet to table: How augmented reality influences food desirability," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 503-529, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jha, Subhash & Balaji, M.S. & Peck, Joann & Oakley, Jared & Deitz, George D., 2020. "The Effects of Environmental Haptic Cues on Consumer Perceptions of Retailer Warmth and Competence," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 96(4), pages 590-605.
    2. Adilson Borges & Felipe Pantoja & Patricia Rossi & Amanda Yamim, 2020. "If I Touch It, I will Like It! The Role of Tactile Inputs on Gustatory Perceptions of Food Items," Post-Print hal-02507986, HAL.
    3. Rose, Stefan & Wentzel, Daniel & Hopp, Christian & Kaminski, Jermain, 2020. "Launching for Success: The Effects of Psychological Distance and Mental Simulation on Funding Decisions and Crowdfunding Performance," SocArXiv fqbwk, Center for Open Science.
    4. Mai, Robert & Symmank, Claudia & Seeberg-Elverfeldt, Berenike, 2016. "Light and Pale Colors in Food Packaging: When Does This Package Cue Signal Superior Healthiness or Inferior Tastiness?," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 92(4), pages 426-444.
    5. Xu, Lidan & Mehta, Ravi & Hoegg, JoAndrea, 2022. "Sweet ideas: How the sensory experience of sweetness impacts creativity," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    6. Flavián, Carlos & Ibáñez-Sánchez, Sergio & Orús, Carlos, 2021. "The influence of scent on virtual reality experiences: The role of aroma-content congruence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 289-301.
    7. Kirmani, Amna & Lee, Michelle P. & Yoon, Carolyn, 2004. "Procedural priming effects on spontaneous inference formation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 859-875, December.
    8. Kim, Minjeong & Kim, Jung-Hwan & Park, Minjung & Yoo, Jungmin, 2021. "The roles of sensory perceptions and mental imagery in consumer decision-making," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    9. Peng Zou & Jingwen Liu, 2019. "How nutrition information influences online food sales," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(6), pages 1132-1150, November.
    10. Pino, Giovanni & Amatulli, Cesare & Nataraajan, Rajan & De Angelis, Matteo & Peluso, Alessandro M. & Guido, Gianluigi, 2020. "Product touch in the real and digital world: How do consumers react?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 492-501.
    11. Abraham Koshy & . Abhishek, 2010. "Quality Perceptions of Private Label Brands Conceptual Framework and Agenda for Research," Working Papers id:2756, eSocialSciences.
    12. Michael J. Barone & Thomas E. DeCarlo, 2003. "Emerging Forms of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Agricultural Producers," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 03-mrp5, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    13. Haryanto, Jony Oktavian & Moutinho, Luiz & Coelho, Arnaldo, 2016. "Is brand loyalty really present in the children's market? A comparative study from Indonesia, Portugal, and Brazil," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(10), pages 4020-4032.
    14. Pantoja, Felipe & Borges, Adilson & Rossi, Patricia & Yamim, Amanda Pruski, 2020. "If I touch it, I will like it! The role of tactile inputs on gustatory perceptions of food items," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    15. Helmefalk, Miralem & Hultén, Bertil, 2017. "Multi-sensory congruent cues in designing retail store atmosphere: Effects on shoppers’ emotions and purchase behavior," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-11.
    16. Abhishek & Koshy, Abraham, 2008. "Quality Perceptions of Private Label Brands: Conceptual Framework and Agenda for Research," IIMA Working Papers WP2008-02-04, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    17. Moein Abdolmohamad Sagha & Nader Seyyedamiri & Pantea Foroudi & Morteza Akbari, 2022. "The One Thing You Need to Change Is Emotions: The Effect of Multi-Sensory Marketing on Consumer Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Chatterjee Shuvam & Bryła Paweł, 2022. "Innovation and trends in olfactory marketing: A review of the literature," Journal of Economics and Management, Sciendo, vol. 44(1), pages 210-235, January.
    19. Shao, Bingjia & Cheng, Zhendong & Wan, Lijuan & Yue, Jie, 2021. "The impact of cross border E-tailer's return policy on consumer's purchase intention," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    20. Ringler, Christine & Sirianni, Nancy J. & Gustafsson, Anders & Peck, Joann, 2019. "Look but Don’t Touch! The Impact of Active Interpersonal Haptic Blocking on Compensatory Touch and Purchase Behavior," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 95(4), pages 186-203.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jouret:v:97:y:2021:i:2:p:288-300. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-retailing .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.