Examining intramodal sound executions in advertising : the effect of speech and lyrics in advertising on consumer’s attitudes

Marketers often use inter-modal executions to communicate with consumers about a brand or product (e.g., sight and sound TV commercials or touch, smell and sight magazine advertisements). However, little is known about how messages that uses intra-modal executions, such as audio and audio, affect consumers’ processing and evaluation of the message itself. Across two chapters containing 4 studies, findings demonstrate, when consumers’ processing involvement is low, there is an effect of intra-modal sound executions on consumers’ attention to the music in and advertisement, as well as their subsequent attitudes towards the advertisement. This is explained by dual processing whereby two processing routes of persuasion may be activated. In this study, lyrics appear to increase the salience of the peripheral cue (e.g., music) when involvement (i.e., a proxy for motivation to process) is low. Thus, consumers’ attention towards to the music is increased, which appears to affect more positive attitudes towards the message. Further, because attitudes towards the advertisement can mediate evaluations of the brand/product, the intra-modal integration of lyrics can indirectly influence brand attitudes.