title: Voice and persuasion in a banking telemarketing context.
abstract: Voice has been neglected in research on advertising and persuasion. The present study examined the influence of voice and sex on the credibility of the voice source in a banking telemarketing context as well as with regards to the attitude toward the advertisement, and subjects' behavioral intention. An experiment using voices of a man and a woman was conducted. A recorded mock-telemarketing message consisted of an advertisement for an ATM card offered by a Canadian bank. Subjects were undergraduate students (N=399; 71.6% women, 28.4% men; M age=26.5 yr., SD = 7.4). They completed a questionnaire after hearing the message in telemarketing conditions. Analysis indicated a moderate intensity, an unmarked intonation, and a fast speech rate are associated with a more credible source than the other combinations. Sex was not a significant moderator in the relationship between voice characteristics and source credibility. Voice characteristics significantly affected attitudes toward the advertisement and behavioral intention.
authors.affiliation: Department of Marketing, HEC-Montreal. jean-charles.chebat@hec.ca
authors.forename: Jean-Charles
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Chebat
authors.forename: Kamel
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: El Hedhli
authors.forename: Claire
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gélinas-Chebat
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Boivin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000329:Advertising; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033182:Intention; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010565:Persuasive Communication; D040241:Social Marketing; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013689:Telephone; D014833:Voice Quality