Voice patterns

A new Adweek Media/Harris Poll shows that Americans have a mixed response when asked if a male or female voice is more effective in advertisements.

Survey results show that use of voice depends on the tone the ad is attempting to convey. Almost half of Americans (48%) believe a male voice is more forceful while 46% believe a female voice is more soothing, so those may be easy choices for a marketing executive to make. However, almost half of U.S. adults also say it makes no difference to them and neither voice is more forceful (49%) or more soothing (46%).

Harris conducted an online survey of 2,194 U.S. adults between Feb. 2-4, 2010.

SURVEY FINDINGS
• One in five Americans (19%) believes a female voice is more persuasive while 18% say they believe a male voice is more persuasive. Almost two-thirds (64%) say the voice’s gender makes no difference in persuasion.

• When it comes to actually selling a specific thing, two-thirds of Americans say it doesn’t make a difference and neither voice is more likely to sell them a car (66%) or a computer (69%).

• Among those who believe it makes a difference, over one-quarter (28%) believe a male voice is more likely to sell them a car and 23% say a male voice is more likely to sell them a computer. Only 7% say a female voice is more likely to sell them either.

• Men and women do think similarly on the tone of the two types of voices – with one major exception. Over half of men (54%) believe a female voice is more soothing, compared to 38% of women who say the same.

• One in 10 women (11%) believes a male voice is more soothing while 5% of men say the same. The only other real difference between men and women is on the selling of a car. One-third of men (32%) say a male voice is more likely to sell them a car compared to 23% of women who say this.