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Certain flavours and textures are better suited to high-pitched sounds and angular graphics, while others suit soft sounds and rounded graphics, finds a new study that could help marketers develop appropriate food product branding.
Choosing a brand name and graphics that accurately represent a product’s qualities and what a consumer may expect from it can mean the difference between commercial success and failure.
Charles Spence from Oxford University’s experimental psychology department and Alberto Gallace from the University of Milano-Bicocca set out to test how food products may be linked to sounds and taste. Their findings have been accepted for publication in the journal Food Quality and Preference.
Their study involved 20 participants aged between 18 and 60 years, who were given a set of linear scales either with a shape at each end or a nonsense word. They were asked to taste certain foodstuffs and indicate whether their perception matched the shape or word at one end of the scale more than the other.
The commercially-available foodstuffs tested were: still water, sparkling water, cranberry juice, brie cheese, and two kinds of chocolate confectionery.
The sparkling water, cranberry juice and Maltesers (chocolate-covered honey-comb) were seen to be most associated with angular shapes and high-pitched pseudo-words like ‘kiki’ and ‘takete’, pronunciation of which requires sharp inflection of the mouth.
The still water, brie and Caramel Nibbles (chocolate-covered caramel) were most associated with rounded shapes and lower pitched pseudo-words like ‘bouba’ and ‘maluma’.
The researchers say these results “demonstrate that the phenomenon of sound symbolism extends beyond the visual modality, and in terms of the oral-somatosensory attributes of foodstuffs as well”.
They may help companies design novel brand names and graphics for packaging that best represents the food and drink products they contain, and can give an indication of what the consumer can expect.
Chocolate positioning
Spence and Gallace said the different results for the two chocolate confectionery products are especially interesting because Maltesers and Caramel Nibbles have similar market positioning – but Maltesers are noisier to eat.
“It may be this different in aural texture that was driving the participants’responses,” they wrote.
Future research will need to determine whether brand names and graphics that have been designed on the basis of sound symbolism actually change a consumer’s sensory expectations about – and hence experience of – real products.
參考譯文：
某研究發現，食品的某些風味和質構比較適于尖銳的語音和棱角的圖案，而其他則較適于溫潤的語音和圓整的圖案。該理論將有助于市場營銷者開發合適的食品品牌。
選擇一個合適的品牌名字和圖案——它們一定程度上代表了產品的質量及消費者對之的預期，有時就意味著商業成功或失敗之間的差異。
來自牛津大學實驗心理學系的查爾斯.思朋斯（Charles Spence）和米蘭-比可卡大學的阿爾貝托.格萊士（Alberto Gallace）想要通過實驗探索食品是如何跟聲音、味道相關聯的。他們的研究發現已由《食品質量和偏好》雜志接收。
該研究共有20名參與者，年齡介于18到60之間。他們要品嘗一些食品，然后根據一套附有形狀和隨機詞語的線性標尺去描述他們的感官所感知到的情況跟標尺哪個尺度附有的形狀及字詞更相符。
用做測試的食品（有商業用途）是：蒸餾水、蘇打水、蔓越橘汁、布里干酪和兩種巧克力糖果。
蘇打水、蔓越橘汁和麥提沙（蜜餞包裹的巧克力）這三種食品被看做跟棱角圖案和尖銳詞語關聯性更大，比如‘kiki’和‘takete’，它們的發音需要大而且尖的口形變化。
蒸餾水、布里干酪和焦糖小食（焦糖包裹的巧克力）這三種食品被看做跟圓整圖案和低音虛詞如‘bouba’和‘maluma’關聯性更大。
研究者表示，該測試結果說明，語音符號已超出其自身形態，并可定義為食品的口述-軀體感覺（oral-somatosensory）屬性。
這將有助公司開發出新奇的品牌名字及最能代表食品和飲料內容物的包裝圖案，并給予跟消費者預期一致的信息。
巧克力的定位
思朋斯和格萊士說，有趣的是兩種巧克力糖果的不同測試結果，雖然麥提沙和焦糖小食有相似的市場定位——但麥提沙因為過于~而不如焦糖小食更為消費者喜愛。
他們寫到，“或許是聽覺結構的差異性影響了參與者的具體反應。”接下來，還要做進一步的研究實驗以確定基于語音系統設計的品牌名字和圖案是否真的影響消費者對產品的感官預期及切實的品嘗。
