How consumers respond to male, female voices in ads

That’s what a new study sought to find out. A lot of thought goes into the “right” voice for every ad. Certainly the tone and timbre timber of a voice are two things that can help sell the product or service. But, probably the most important question every marketer must answer is, should the voice be male or female?

It really 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%).

These are some of the findings of a new Harris Poll survey of 2,194 U.S. adults surveyed online between February 2 and 4.

It is a little more of a difficult decision if the advertisement is trying to persuade someone to do something – and aren’t all ads effectively doing just that? 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 ten 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.

Advertisers will still spend time to determine what voice to use in advertisements. But, overall, the American consumer does not believe that, for most things, one type of voice is more or less likely to sell them a certain product or service. Yes, male voices are more forceful while female voices are more soothing, but when it comes to cars and computers, just to name two products, the tenor of the ad will matter more than the gender of the voice.