Yesel Jun, Hyunju Lee. (2020). Multisensory Congruence in Brand Identity: Evidence from the Global Automotive Market. Archives of Design Research, 33(4), 19-41.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15187/adr.2020.11.33.4.19

ABSTRACT

Background 

There is now a rapidly growing body of literature on nonarbitrary mappings between sound and meaning. That is, certain images are provoked by pure sounds. On the other hand, studies have long established that typefaces have personas such that their visual features are associated with certain attributes. This paper explores the interplay between the two branding elements, the auditory image of a brand name and the visual image of its logotype, in the context of brand design communication to provide evidence that brands can enjoy the advantage of a congruency effect on their brand performance.

Methods 

T tests and Chi-square tests were used to analyze brand name linguistics and visual characteristics of logotypes amongst globally leading automotive brands.

Results 

Both the auditory and the visual images of globally leading companies were found, by and large, to agree in the connotations they deliver in conjunction with distinctive product attributes.

Conclusions 

The findings provide an evidential ground to reason that delivering a consistent image through multisensory channels leads to a greater potential in corporate success. Further research is called for to prove the hypothesis exhaustively.