Hopes for a good US/UK trading relationship post Brexit were boosted by a new survey of US consumers by Moneypenny into the power of regional accents, which revealed that 13.3% said the British accent would make them most likely to buy something, which was second only to the Southern US accent cited by 20.2%. In contrast only 6.7% said a Spanish accent would clinch a sale from them, while 5.2% voted for a French accent and only 2% voted for an Irish accent.
The enduring power of the special US/UK relationship was also seen in the fact that 16.5% of US consumers said the British accent was most pleasant to listen to, second again to the Southern US accent (22.5%) and way ahead of the French (7%), Irish (6.33%) and Spanish accents (1.8%).
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More than a third of US consumers in generation Z (aged 18 – 24) are big fans of the British accent, as 37.7% said it is most attractive accent, while the Southern US accent came in second at 18.75%. From all generations surveyed, the British accent still beat the French accent in terms of attractiveness at 13.5% vs 10.7%.
Of those who have changed the nationality of the voice of their digital assistant, such as Siri or Alexa, a British accent was top choice, cited by 11% of consumers. Again, the Generation Z consumers showed their love of a British accent, as 37.7% of them said they had changed their digital assistant to a British voice.
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The survey also suggested enduring perceptions of the famous British reserve, as when asked which accent is most associated with being friendly, only 3% voted for a British accent, while 51.7% said the Southern US accent was most friendly. However, for Generation Z 18.75% said the British accent is most friendly, in equal first place with the Southern US and Mid-western accents.
Joanna Swash, Global CEO of Moneypenny commented: ‘As one of the world’s largest outsourced communications firms, based in Charleston, North Carolina, and London and Wrexham in the UK, we spend a lot of our time thinking about voice calls and how different accents effect our customers’ customers when we answer their calls. We were pleased to confirm the power of the Southern accent across the US and how many Americans perceived it as the most friendly voice to hear. We were also pleasantly surprised to see how popular the British accent is among US consumers and this should be a welcome boost to any British companies wanting to do business with the US.’
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