ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one of those nonobvious and nonsemantic devices, phonetic symbolism. It reviews in depth the research on phonetic symbolism, focusing on the different types of perceptions induced by various sounds, the nature of the evidence for and against these effects, and the generalizability of the effect. The chapter covers research that has specifically looked at phonetic symbolism and its implications in a marketing context. It discusses in detail previous empirical work that has looked at the effects of phonetic symbolism on brand name preference. Phonetic symbolism is simply the notion that phonemes can convey meaning on their own, apart from their configuration in words. Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound and form the basic building blocks of language. The research on phonetic symbolism takes a variety of forms, differing on dimensions such as experimental control, universality of effects, and types of sounds or phonemes that are investigated.
