Subliminal Branding Part 1: ‘What You Hear Is What You Taste’
On her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Billie Eilish said, “Every day of the week has a color, a number, a shape. Sometimes things have a smell that I can think of or a temperature or a texture. It inspires a bunch of stuff. ”
Billie Eilish is not hallucinating. She is a synesthete, which means she experiences one of her senses through another.
Her ability is certainly not unique. Researchers say that roughly one in 25 people worldwide have one or more forms of synaesthesia. Some people can see a word and taste food. Others can hear sounds after they smell a particular scent, while others can feel an object with their hands and hear a sound.
Here is where it gets interesting. While around 2% of the general population works professionally in the arts, that rate goes up to 25% among synesthetes! The ability to experience a sense through another gives one a creative advantage.
We are all synesthetes!
While most of us don’t experience one sense through another, we all have some synesthetic abilities. For instance, think about the following sentences:
- “Warm colors look good on you.”
- “I love smooth jazz.”
- “The cheese has a sharp smell.”
Most probably, you didn’t have any difficulty understanding the above metaphors. After all, even if most of us are not synesthetes, we all possess synesthetic abilities!
Our brain constantly integrates information from different senses. What we see informs what we smell; our sense of touch helps shape our understanding of taste, and our ears interfere with our taste buds. “You don’t just hear; you hear and predict what should come next. You don’t just see; you predict what should be seen,” says Carol Pearson, the famous American author and educator. And all of those have significant implications for branding. Let’s start with the most obvious one.
What does that sound mean?
Take a good look at the images below. Which one of these shapes is Kiki, and which one is Bouba?
You are not alone if you think the one on the left is Bouba. An overwhelming majority of people choose Kiki for the sharp, angular shape and Bouba for the soft, rounded one!
Rest assured, we are not talking about a language-specific glitch. The experiment was replicated in 25 languages. Speakers of 22 and 11 out of 25 languages validated the bouba-kiki effect, respectively.
Finally, children as young as 2.5 demonstrated the Bouba/Kiki effect, proving that phonetic symbolism (the mental connection between sounds and vision) is universal and innate.
“But, how is that related to branding?” you may ask. Let’s find out.
Each sound means something. For instance, certain vowel sounds (e.g. the ih in “mill”) convey certain impressions (e.g. small, fast), whereas other sounds (e.g. the ah in “mall”) convey other images (e.g. large, slow). Before you go any further, play the following game to familiarize yourself with the meaning of sounds.
Which ice cream is creamier?
— Frish or Frosh
Which motorcycle is faster?
— Valp or Galp
Which one is more alive?
— Preff or Prezz
Which one is lighter?
— Simi or Somo
Which one is smaller?
— Tok or Gok
Answers: Frosh, Valp, Prezz, Simi, Tok
Does your brand name sound great?
Brand names, too, are influenced by phonetic symbolism. Researchers have shown that specific vowel sounds convey size, taste, and attractiveness perceptions. That’s why you must consider the meaning of a sound when inventing a brand name.
Here’s a cheat sheet for you:
- Products with brand names containing front vowel sounds (e, a, short i) as opposed to back vowel sounds (u, long o) are perceived as:
— smaller,
— lighter (relative to darker),
— milder,
— thinner,
— softer,
— faster,
— colder,
— more bitter,
— more feminine,
— friendlier,
— weaker,
— lighter (relative to heavier), and
— prettier - Products with brand names containing fricatives (f, s, v, and z), as opposed to stops (p, t, b, d, g, and k), are perceived as:
— smaller,
— faster,
— lighter (relative to heavier) - Products with brand names containing voiceless stops (p, t, and k), as opposed to voiced stops (b, d, and g), are perceived as:
— smaller,
— faster,
— lighter (relative to heavier),
— sharper - Products with brand names containing voiceless fricatives (f and s), as opposed to voiced fricatives (v and z), are perceived as:
— smaller,
— softer, and
— more feminine
Here is a caveat: The effect of phonetic symbolism is arbitrary for words that already have a meaning. For instance, strictly phonetically, “pure” is not ideal for bottled water compared to a made-up word like “Slish.” The combination of “u” and “p” convey a large, slow, heavy, and masculine brand. That said, given its positive meaning, “Pure” is a fitting name for bottled water.
Arguably, phonetic symbolism is more critical for service firms than for products. Why? Because we can evaluate a product’s size, shape, color and price. On the other hand, services are abstract. You can’t get cues about their size, shape, or color. Without such built-in signals, customers have to make sense somehow, and that’s where phonetic symbolism comes in handy.
What you hear is what you taste
Speech sounds can convey meaning. But can they connote tastes, flavors, and food and drink textures? To answer that question, researchers used the Bouba / Kiki experiment again, but with a little twist.
In this version, participants were first instructed to taste a few food items such as still and sparkling water, Brie cheese, cranberry juice, and two kinds of chocolate. Then they were shown a spectrum with the words Bouba and Kiki on opposite ends. They were then asked to indicate whether their perception of the flavor matched more Bouba or Kiki.
The results show that sparkling water, cranberry juice, and Maltesers (chocolate-covered malt honeycomb) were better associated with a high-pitched word such as ‘Kiki’, whose pronunciation requires sharp inflection of the mouth.
By contrast, still water, Brie, and Caramel Nibbles (chocolate-covered caramel) were strongly associated with the softer sounding, lower-pitched word ‘Bouba’.
While there will always be exceptions to the rule, we can see the bouba-kiki effect in the nomenclature of everyday food. Take the following foods, for instance: butter, chocolate, and donuts. Don’t they all sound fatty? How about these? Biscuits, salad and crackers? They are all linguistically lightweight.
As you see, sound symbolism extends beyond a brand’s visual identity. In fact, your brand name and packaging could shape the taste of your product!
Here’s your second cheat sheet:
- Use a name that has rounded sounds, such as bouba, if you want your product to be perceived as:
— sweeter
— fattier - Use a name that has sharper sounds, such as kiki, if you want your product to be perceived as:
— More acidic
— Citrusy
— Crisp, and
— Fresh - If you want your food to be perceived as sweeter or fattier:
— Serve it on a round plate - If you want your food to be perceived as spicy, crisp or fresh:
— Serve it on an angular (square or triangular) plate - If you want the texture of your food to be perceived as smoother, richer, or creamier, use:
— A brand name with rounded sounds, such as bouba - If you want the texture of your food to be perceived as spiky rough, or abrasive, use a:
— A brand name with sharper sounds, such as kiki
To wrap up, speech sounds convey meaning and help modify the perception of taste, flavors, and food and drink textures. That said, as far as subliminal branding goes, the bouba-kiki effect is just the tip of the iceberg.
A myriad of experiments suggest that all of our senses are cross-connected. Without noticing, our brain forms links between shapes, colors, sounds, tastes, smells, and textures.
In the following article, we will talk about how our skin plays tricks on us and help shape our brand perceptions.
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