Time versus Pause Manipulation in Communications Directed to the Young Adult Population: Does It Matter?

In verbal, one-way marketing communication, e.g., radio advertising, the only cues that the target customer has are voice related. Competitive and financial considerations dictate that advertisers use the most cost-effective means to accomplish their communication objectives. Using a two-step approach, this study examines, first, the effect of speech rate on young adult listener responses to verbal advertising. The second phase of the study seeks to identify significant differences when different methods of speech sampling (time- or pause compressed/expanded) are used to produce the faster/slower speech rates. Results indicate that faster speech rates affect the number of affective responses and the attitude toward the message while slower speech rates elicit more cognitive processing by young adult listeners. The use of pause only expansion to produce the slow speech rate accentuates the level of cognitive processing and attitude toward the message. Recognition of these effects allows the advertising strategist to further refine targeted message delivery.