whispervixen at the Haven found this:
http://www.time.com/time/insidebiz/article/0,9171,1056310,00.html
Time Bonus Section June 2005: Inside Business
Voice Lessons
By BARBARA KIVIAT
Monday, May. 09, 2005
Good news for Patrick Stewart: television commercials with celebrity
voice-overs are most effective when people recognize the voice --
but can't quite put a name to it. Odd but true, according to a study
that will appear in the Journal of Consumer Research later this year.
Researchers studied reactions to TV commercials with actors David
Duchovny, Donald Sutherland, David Hyde Pierce and Willem Dafoe
voicing pitches for Sprint, Volvo, Lipton and Qwest, respectively.
The commercial watchers' prior attitudes toward the celebrity
influenced how much they liked or disliked the brand, but
surprisingly, the celebrity endorsements evoked stronger feelings
for the brand when viewers weren't sure to whom the familiar
voice belonged.
"When they recognize the celebrity, it seems potentially manipulative,
and they wind up overcompensating. But when they don't recognize the
celebrity, they generalize over to the brand," says the University
of Washington Business School's Mark Forehand, who ran the study
with Andrew Perkins of Rice University's Jones Graduate School of
Management. The take-away for marketers? Simple enough: hire someone
affable with a distinctive voice but who won't be easily named.
Calling all B listers. -- By Barbara Kiviat
From the May. 09, 2005 issue of TIME magazine
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