Une approche non verbale de l’identité musicale de la marque : influence du « timbre » et du « tempo » sur l’image de marque évoquée

The literature on how consumer reacts to music exposure at the point of sales, in adverts, over the phone and on the Internet is rich. However there is a little convergence in the results. We propose a new conceptual framework based on the concept of synesthesia and specifically study the influence of timbre and tempo. We also examine the mediating impact of pleasantness of music and the moderating influence of sex, personality traits and musical expertise. Using nonverbal projective methods and a new protocol, we collected 1,100 drawings from 220 individuals. Our results confirm the existence of semantic-coding of weak synesthesiae. Timbre and tempo are strongly contributing to the evocation of brand image associated values. However, a timbre too crystalline or a tempo too fast call for the heavy use of cognitive resources that can disturb the overall comprehension of the brand message. The major management application of our doctoral work is that a brand manager should take into account all these multi-factor aspects to guarantee an efficient brand musical identity.