The Use of Music in Ads - Essay Example

THE USE OF MUSIC IN ADS By + of Introduction Advertising acts as the link between producers or owners of products and services and their consumers. Whether the seller of the product is trying to introduce a new product into the market or trying to increase the market segment of an already existing product in the market, it is of essence that the attention of the target audience is captured, lingers in their minds and finally influences their decision positively in regards to the product being advertised. This positive influence is in regard to purchasing the product or service being advertised, and eventually been put out for sale. It is at this juncture that music in advertising comes in. The power of music and the influence it has to the human being cannot be underestimated due to the fact that it tends to touch the very deepest part of the human soul and lingers there. For this reason, music, when used appropriately in advertising will enhance the message that is being transmitted to the audience. The paper shall evaluate the uses of music in advertising, and the role music plays in influencing the target audience. The evaluation shall be guided by the hypothesis that pairing a unusual, funny or motive idea music that captures the senses tends to bring back some old memories which make a person smile. This is known as nostalgia and it is one of the crucial aspects of blending music with advertising (Rossiter and Percy, 1991). Background Information Huron (1989, p. 557) defines advertising as the means through which a party makes deliberate attempts at convincing or enticing another party into buying a particular good or service. He goes ahead to state that advertising differs from the kind of one-on-one sales pitch in that advertising tends to address a much larger and more general audience. In essence, the target audience is much larger and spread over a wider geographical area in comparison to a single individual targeted at a one-on-one sales forum. The advertisement forum differs in a big way from conversation due to its total reliance on mass media and the widespread social meanings, as opposed to personal or individualistic purchasing motivations (Rawsthorn, 1997, p. 17). In the beginning, advertising was done by way of print media in the newspapers. At the time, newspapers were entirely filled with news but gradually advertising was introduced. As such, the newspaper was able to generate two kinds of income by selling news and stories to the subscriber, while to the advertiser; they sold access to a particular target market. With time, the aspect of photography was introduced and incorporated into advertising, and this eventually gave rise to the modern magazines seen today (Block, 2003, p. 4). The magazine did not entirely give up the news feature but rather juggled up with the other segments including biographical pieces, reviews, photo spreads and analytic "features". Lately, in probably the last two decades, the magazine producers have changed their tactic, adopting a new kind of magazine whose revenues are entirely generated from advertising unlike the former versions whose revenues came from news and advertising. The new magazines were dubbed “controlled-circulation magazines”. An example of this genre is the Homemaker’s, a magazine distributed free of any charges to select urban neighbor hoods, with the target audience being the housewives who are expected to make some purchases of household products including detergents and kitchenware among others. The articles appearing in these magazines are simply aimed at propelling and conveying the advertising message. So, how does all this relate to music in advertisements? In advertising, music can only be used in electronic media as opposed to use of pictures and print. When reviewed, the revenue situation for electronic media is similar to that of controlled circulation magazines in that they entirely rely on advertising revenues. However, this is with the exception of pay TV and some of the public broadcasting stations. Like the controlled-circulation magazine, commercial broadcasters are "in the business of matching media markets to advertising needs", and entertainment is not the product, but simply a tool of the trade (Huron, 1989, p. 562). The Use of Music in Advertisements A research dubbed “A Content Analysis of Music Placement in Prime-Time Television Advertising” concluded that of the total 3, 456 advertisements sampled for the research, a whooping 94 percent, and a further 84 percent of 715 unique advertisements contained some form of music. Of these, approximately 14 percent contained known and popular music, while 5 percent made use of jingles. The figures in preceding and subsequent research studies and observations indicate an increased use of music in advertising, particularly in video advertising due to the numerous advantages that could result from the practice (Galizio & Hendrick, 1972). Huron (1989, p.560) listed the vast uses of music in advertising as entertainment, continuity, memorability, lyrical language, and targeting and authority establishment. In regards to entertainment, music, especially good music, transforms an otherwise dull advertisement and makes it more attractive and catchy to the audience and this enhances the engagement of the audience. An entertaining view always tends to capture the attention of people, and in this way, the message gets transmitted. Structure is achieved by the fact that music tends to build upon the story of an advertisement in just a fraction of a minute without necessarily the need for print or further descriptions. In this way, music can be used alone without the need to incorporate other aspects. Music also has a way of creating and increasing the recall level of a product name and this is based on the fact that music tends to linger in the mind as opposed to any other kind of voice over, thus enhancing memorability. Music, when incorporated in an advertisement sends the message in a non-spoken manner, which tends to be more powerful in comparison to logical language used in voice-overs and print medium. Music is catchy passes the information at hand more powerfully and effectively. In regards to meeting the target needs of the advertiser, music directly hits at the target and this eliminates misdirected and wasted messages. Finally, music plays the role of authority establishment. This means that when used in advertisements, music helps in enhancing the credibility of the video advertisement due to the fact that it creates a genuine appeal to its target audience Over and over, music has been seen as a crucial background feature in advertising due to the fact that it has been able to enhance the arousal of viewers, as well as the effects that the advertisements have on them. Morris and Boone (1998) carried out a research study to evaluate for variations in emotional response, attitude of brands and purchase intent between advertisements with music and those without music. According to the findings of the research, there were no notable variations in regards to brand attitude and purchase intent, though in view of emotional response, 50 percent of the 12 advertisements sampled depicted significant differences between the two groups. In advertising, music is often used in enriching the key message and may eventually turn out to be the most stimulating component of the particular commercial. Music is professed to be a potential tangential cue that is used to positively arouse the emotional state of the targeted consumers. Stout and Leckenby (1988) add on this notion by stating that the peripheral cues, music included, are capable of leading a positive attitude regarding the advertisement, and then transferring the positive attitude to the brand name. Due to the fact that commercials are perceived to have a rather passive audience; one that is potentially uninvolved even in the process of making decisions, music comes in handy in these situations and could act as a tool that persuades viewers to attain the level of decision making. The influence experienced here could be felt through the indirect influence of music on the feelings and other emotional responses of the respondent. Mehrabian and Wetter (1987) found that there exists a positive relationship between emotional response and love, whereby exciting music was found to augment emotional arousal via heart rate and skin response in the sample population used for the study. The two stimuli were assumed to be the two physiological manifestations of emotional response that the study used. To evaluate the effect of music on advertisements and the perceived responses from the target audience, the paper makes use of three advertisements namely the Sony advertisement, Guess Jeans advertisement and the Millennium advertisement. The sample population used for the evaluation gets to see/ view the advertisement without music, record their feelings or responses, after which music is incorporated into the advertisement and the responses compared. Sony Advertisement The variances between the music groups and non-music groups for the Sony advertisement were positive and considerable across the five dependent variables used in the study. The univariate F indicated a considerable improvement in the pleasure and brand attitude variables when music was added to the advertisement. This may have been as a result of the fact that the Sony movie camera is a fashionable product, and the music used was a reconstructed 1940 popular tune by a popular and trendy musician known as Carly Simon. The particular song had in the recent past been used in a hit movie dubbed "Sleepless in Seattle". In addition, the ad showed the camera with a video in it, with the video playing the two lead characters from the movie as they hold. This went further to tie the music to the entire advertisement. Pleasure derived from watching the advertisement may have greatly improved owing to the fact that the song was popular at the time, and also because the artist was popular. In addition, the audience connected the music and the movie with the advertisement. Brand attitude may have improved because pleasure improved. When the participants watched the ad without the music, they felt different, nostalgic, awed, and were left in wonder. The words used to describe this experience are appropriate due to the fact that the Sony movie camera ad played on all the nostalgia that was involved in the romantic movie mentioned earlier. The headline also directed the focus to the movie as it read, You Can Watch Movies’ (Morris and Boone, 1998). With addition of music to the advert, the viewers experienced totally different emotions which included self-consciousness, virtuousness, and usefulness. The song, "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," by Carly Simon was chosen due to its haunting nature, and the fact that it was a love song done by a popular and modern artist. It was also chosen because it had been featured in the movie "Sleepless in Seattle." “Informed” and “useful” used to describe the emotions of the participants after watching the advertised with music made sense due to the fact that the camera is useful equipment and this made the audience to feel informed (Morris and Boone, 1998). Guess Jeans Advertisement For the Guess Jeans advertisement, the variations amongst the five dependent variables were considerable as well as negative. The univariate F’s indicated a substantial decrease in the arousal, pleasure, brand attitude as well as the purchase intent upon incorporation of music to the advertisement. The reason behind this was the fact that the music chosen for the advert was not popular, and therefore the audience failed to identify with it. In addition, the ad felt and looked weird judging from the fact that it was a jeans advertisement, but the model used held a cat in a rather unhappy manner, but the product being advertised was not visible to the audience and it was somehow confusing to the audience. When watched without music, the audience felt proud, curious and interested. Curious and interested from the fact that the mysterious and beautiful model sits with a cat in her arms, looking vulnerable and sad. Nothing else goes on in the ad apart from the headline that reads "Guess Jeans". With the addition of music the emotions changed to concentrating, sheltered, serious, obedient and aloof. The music played was "While my guitar gently weeps" by Kenny Rankin, and it is about a sleeping love’. The words “serious” and “aloof” are supportive of the picture which is displayed by the model who looks aloof (Morris and Boone, 1998). It would be interesting to note that had the no music results been known, a different kind of song would have been use. The adjectives may also be revealing that the advertisement itself without music may not be working as well as it could (Hecker, 1984). Millennium Advertisement For this advertisement, the variances across the five dependent variables were significant and positive. The univariate F’s indicated significant improvement in the pleasure, arousal and purchase intent variables when music was added. The pleasure and arousal factors may have due to the fact that the advertisement showed a trendy product. The music used was also reasonably modern, a rather popular rock and roll song. In this particular case, the fit is highly linked with arousal, while the purchase intent also may have significantly improved from the influence of the music. The advertisement without music caused the participants to feel different, awed, nostalgic and wonder. The advertisement had a large photo showing a man’s hand putting batteries into a battery recharger, with the copy emphasizing on how the music would go on perpetually with the since they could be recharged over and over. The adjectives make sense in that the awe and wonder the participants felt were from the power’ image that the batteries/recharger project in the photo and because the copy declared that rock will go on forever, and you’ll save hundreds of dollars. The nostalgia probably referred to the headline "Why rock and roll will never die". The addition of music changed the feelings experienced to strong, popular, bold, creative and hopeful. The song chosen for the advertisement was Heart of Rock N Roll by Huey Louis and the News, a fun, happy, upbeat song with a rather strong beat, and the change in the feelings could be attributed to the nature of the song. It caused an appropriate and positive change in the feelings of the participants, which have been described as positive, upbeat feelings. The fact that the song is popular made the audience to feel while the definite strong stirred the feelings of strength and boldness. In addition, the music caused them to feel hopeful, and creative, which tends to describe the song’s bold, happy tune (Morris and Boone, 1998). Hopeful could be attributed to the hope that rock will never die’ due to the batteries/recharger, which is the main point of the advertisement. This up-tempo, happy music helped feelings go from awed to bold and hopeful and helped convey the double meaning (Park & Young, 1986). Conclusion Music may not be the sole factor that significantly causes changes in arousal, pleasure, brand attitude or the purchase intent of in an advertising situation. However, it can radically change what the viewer feels in the course of watching an advertisement. All in all, the manner in which the music fits with the particular advertisement should be evaluated for it to achieve the maximum effect expected of it. This should be done in just the same way that the efficacy of the advertisement should be tested and weak elements eliminated, or replaced. Weak elements in an advertisement would definitely hurt the impact, and the end result may actually be worse off than it would have been, had the advertisement not been aired at all (Ahmad & Mahmood, 2011) Reference list Ahmad, W. & Mahmood, Z., 2011, An Empirical Investigation of the Association Between Creative Advertising Effectiveness in Pakistan. International Journal of Marketing Studies. Vol 3, no. 2:pp. 32-52 Block, V., 2003, Music: Use of Star Tunes in Ads Jangles NY Jingle-Makers. Crain’s New York Business. Vol. 19, vol. 4. P. 4 Galizio, M., & Hendrick, C. (1972). Effects of musical accompaniment on attitude: The guitar as a prop for persuasion. 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