Noise, Power, Prestige: The Hidden Language of Product Volume

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In increasingly competitive markets, brands are constantly seeking subtle yet powerful ways to differentiate themselves and communicate value. A Journal of Marketing Research study highlights an often-overlooked yet highly influential factor: product volume. The research demonstrates that the loudness of a product, such as a car engine, speaker, or even notification sound, can serve as a status signal, shaping how consumers perceive both the product and its user.

From a managerial perspective, a key insight is that volume is not neutral—it communicates meaning. Louder products tend to signal dominance, power, and confidence. These cues are often associated with assertiveness and visibility, appealing to consumers who seek to stand out or project authority. In contrast, softer or more controlled sound levels tend to signal prestige, sophistication, and exclusivity, appealing to consumers who value refinement and subtlety over overt display.

How Does Product Volume Impact Marketers?

For practitioners, these findings have direct implications for product design and brand positioning. Managers must align sound characteristics with their intended brand identity. For example, a performance-oriented brand may intentionally design louder sound profiles to reinforce perceptions of strength and boldness. Conversely, luxury brands may prioritize quieter, more refined sound experiences to convey elegance and exclusivity. This highlights the importance of integrating sensory branding strategies into product development processes.

The findings also extend to marketing communications and customer experience design. Sound cues in advertising, retail environments, and digital interfaces should be consistent with the desired status positioning. Inconsistencies between sound and brand identity can dilute brand meaning and confuse consumers. Moreover, as urban environments become increasingly sensitive to noise, managers must also balance status signaling with social and regulatory considerations.

At its core, this study highlights how something as simple as product volume can act as a powerful signal of social status. Marketers should keep in mind that louder products are often associated with dominance and visibility, whereas more controlled or subtle sound levels can signal prestige and refinement. This means brands must carefully align product sound with the type of status they want to convey in the market. For policymakers and stakeholders, the findings also raise important considerations around noise, consumer perception, and urban environments. For consumers, it offers a new lens to understand how everyday products, from cars to speakers, quietly (or loudly) communicate identity and social positioning.

Marketers should keep in mind that louder products are often associated with dominance and visibility, whereas more controlled or subtle sound levels can signal prestige and refinement. This means brands must carefully align product sound with the type of status they want to convey in the market.

We had the opportunity to engage with the authors to gain deeper insights into their study and its practical implications. This allowed us to better understand the motivation behind the research, the nuances of their findings, and how these insights can be applied in real-world contexts. The following Q&A highlights key reflections from the authors on product volume as a signal of dominance and prestige.

Q: Your research shows that sound can signal status, often below the level of conscious awareness. From a practical standpoint, what should brand managers start doing differently when designing product experiences?

A: Sound can sometimes be an afterthought in product design decisions, or something that managers are content with as long as there’s no glaring issue. “Good enough” can be the attitude. Managers should start treating sound as an opportunity to differentiate the product. Naturally, there are often other parts of the product experience that matter tremendously, but sound can really elevate and distinguish it and signal meaningful information about a product or brand. I would recommend:

1. having a clear vision for the positioning of the product and the experience desired by its intended audience,
2. thoughtfully considering the sonic touchpoints of the product/brand experience and designing working alternatives for each, and
3. testing these alternatives with at least a sample or panel of consumers to understand what they feel, what the sound conveys to them, and how much they enjoy the sound.

Our research specifically finds that product volume operates as a status cue along two routes, dominance (loud, bold) and prestige (quiet, refined), so understanding which of these your brand is trying to signal and target can sharpen the sound design considerably. In a nutshell, understand that sound matters and invest in it adequately; there is good potential for ROI.

Q: For companies looking to apply your insights, what are some simple, cost-effective ways to test whether product sound (e.g., louder vs. quieter) is influencing how consumers perceive their brand?

A: It is a fairly simple exercise to conduct some surveys or focus groups, exposing consumers from the target audience to iterations of potential sonic elements of a product. In focus groups, I would ask open-ended questions about what each sound option suggests to them about brand or product attributes, why they feel the sound fits or does not fit the product and brand, and how much they like each sound. Informed by focus groups, I recommend scaling that data into a survey to see whether those responses generalize and how they differ by consumer attributes or goals. Rather than producing variants of products with different sounds (or options), edits could be made to video demos, and feedback could be used to measure consumer attitudes or perceptions. If the sound in question could be reasonably altered in a field test (e.g., background music, chimes, announcements), then attaching actual customer survey feedback to the conditions at the time of their visit might also reveal something in a very cost-effective yet externally valid manner. There are numerous ways to get feedback on the product or environmental sound.

Q: Which types of brands or industries are most likely to see an immediate return from investing in sound as part of their branding strategy, and where might it be less effective?

A: As sound has a signaling effect, products that are identity-relevant are likely to benefit most, as are products that are more emotional or experiential in nature. When sound adds value by either enhancing what the product signals about the user or meaningfully improving the core experience, its impact should be strongest. This is especially true in categories such as automotive, consumer electronics, gaming, luxury goods, hospitality, and retail, where sound can shape perceptions of power, quality, or atmosphere. Think of the assertive roar of a muscle car versus the near-silence of a Dyson fan or the subtle click of a Chanel lipstick case. These sound signatures do real positioning work for their brands.

By contrast, sound is likely to be less impactful in highly utilitarian or low-involvement categories, in which consumers are primarily focused on function, price, or convenience, and in which the product produces little to no meaningful sound when in use. In those cases, sound may still matter at the margins, but it is less likely to drive immediate returns compared to other aspects of the product or brand experience.

Q: How should marketers think about segmenting their audience when it comes to sound preferences? For example, distinguishing between consumers who associate louder products with dominance versus those who prefer subtlety and prestige?

A: The difference, as it relates to volume, would be less about what people understand and more about what people desire. Some consumers will prioritize dominance while others prioritize prestige. How marketers identify these preferences is likely to align with other behavioral and psychographic segmentation methods. Product categories that emphasize or enable competition (especially physical), performance, or power are more likely to skew toward dominance-prioritizing consumers, whereas categories that emphasize education, relaxation, or luxury may skew toward prestige-oriented consumers. Dominance-oriented consumers are likely to prefer bold, attention-grabbing features, while prestige-oriented consumers may prefer craftsmanship, discretion, and expert validation.

I am not sure that segmenting on sound preferences alone would be a segmentation strategy I would advise. Rather, sound preferences are just one input, or part of an overall behavioral or psychographic segmentation strategy, to consider.

Q: With growing trends toward sustainability and minimalism, what practical advice would you give brands trying to balance quiet sophistication with the need to still signal quality or status?

A: Signaling sustainability, minimalism, sophistication, quality, and status should all actually align beautifully with quieter, more refined sounds generally. Quieter sound takes less energy to produce, simplifies the aesthetic product experience, and signals status through sophistication.

However, our research finds that quiet alone does not automatically signal prestige. Without accompanying visible cues, such as distinctive design, recognizable branding, or material quality, a quiet product risks reading as merely weak rather than refined. The quiet has to be paired with an alternate status signal that makes the sophistication apparent to observers.

Q: What are some common mistakes brands make when trying to use sensory cues like sound in their products or marketing, and how can they avoid them?

A: One mentioned earlier is simply ignoring them or treating them as an afterthought. On the opposite extreme is overdoing the sensory cues to the point that they become a distraction or feel out of place in a product. Sound is rarely the focal point of a product or its value proposition. Rather, sound is an ornament or an ancillary piece of information or aesthetic. The idea should be to seamlessly complement the product and the brand, augmenting the experience the consumer desires. Marketers should have a clear vision for their product and brand positioning—a clear understanding of what consumers are really hoping to experience and feel, and how their product meets those desires in ways that are distinct from competitors. Sound then just becomes another attribute and opportunity to deliver on that value proposition, or to help consumers have an excellent product experience. Sound is a facet of the user interface (UI) that alters the user experience (UX).

Finally, a potential mistake would be misalignment between sound design and targeting. For instance, a vehicle brand positioned around refinement and expertise with a bold, attention-grabbing loud sound, or vice versa. The sound likely works against the intended positioning rather than supporting it. Don’t ignore it, and don’t overdo it either. Look for a seamless, augmenting fit with what you’re trying to do with the product.

Source: Michael Lowe, Wooyong Jo, Morgan K. Ward, and Kathleen D. Vohs (2025), “The Sound of Status: Product Volume as a Status Signal of Dominance or Prestige,” Journal of Marketing Research, 62 (4), 740–56. doi:10.1177/00222437251314368

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