The Influence of Music in Advertising - Report Example

Music Sells – The Influence of Music in Advertising Introduction It is indeed a wonder that advertising and marketing across different media rely a great deal on music and dance. Both art forms that appeal to the soul, music is often described as the language of the heart. A person who understands none of the language in which the commercial advertisement is will still be able to enjoy and relate to the theme music of the advertisement and know the product by its signature tune. The use of music in marketing and advertising is the focus of my paper today and therefore, it is only natural that the paper holds the title, “Music Sells”. Music as a selling tool has been in the advertising industry from quite some time. From ballads to hard rock, brands have heavily relied on the popular appeal of music genres raging in the market. The main focus has been to make an appeal to the target audience through musical marketing. It has been long agreed that music’s presence in advertising has a favorable, psychological impact on the audience. Studies have revealed that choice behavior of humans is often influenced by the ambience in which he has to make the choice, which can be suitably modulated using pleasant or unpleasant music (Gorn, 94). Indeed classical conditioning (Hecker, 5) created using music has become a topic of intense study in the past couple of decades, giving rise to newer and better advertising opportunities for businesses. We break the study in the following sub-heads to make it easy to relate to the numerous aspects of music based selling of products. Programming & Target Marketing : An important aspect of determining which type of music will have the best possible impact on the buyers is the determination of the target audience and the program timing at which the advertisement is scheduled to be telecast. Different kinds of advertisements are shown on the television and are programmed for breaks in between soaps, cartoons, prime time and sports hours of the channel. There are specific advertisements to be used during commercial breaks in between news hours and so on. Therefore, the theme of the advertisement is decided by the target audience and the timing of the programs that these audiences are expected to watch. Numerous surveys are conducted to decide the TRPs of programs and those with high popularity are the ones in between which advertisers want to telecast their brands. Music chosen for a kid’s toy or kidswear brand will be more light and funky to have an appeal to the children who are watching the commercials in between cartons. Gadgets, dresses and consumer items targeted towards the teenage crowd and the youth have hip-hop, rock, or light music backgrounds. An ideal case is the iPod advertisement by Apple which used Jet’s Be MyGirl track to make a mass appeal to the young and the hip buyers. The advertisement had an instant appeal and not only did Jet suddenly see his track growing in popularity, but Apple also saw a huge rush of young buyers who wanted iPods to be a part of their every move, be it in dance or otherwise. Moving on to serious settings in between news hours, you either have suave music or no music television advertisements hitting your screen. Mainly clothe-line advertisements for office going men and women are telecast in this section. Advertisements with social and family messages are also relayed in these slots as serious audiences watching news take in not just the message but also the product favorably. So, from creating the advertisement to scheduling its telecast slots, every bit of target marketing governs the type of music that is to be used in these television commercials. A highlight example in this regard is the use of Spandau Ballet in the Chevrolet Malibu Eco TV Spot, in which the highlight features of the car are alternated with the lyrics of the famous ballet. As a result, the viewer is not only humming the lyrics of the famous ballet but also getting to repeat the features of the car as in the jingle. It is only natural that followers of the ballet will be only more inspired to buy this car than other cars. Age & Gender : An important factor that decides the type of music used in the commercial is the age and gender of the target audience. For example, following from the case of children’s clothes and toys, the music for a Barbie doll commercial targeted at little girls is starkingly different from a GI Joe. Similarly, talking of age, the Boomers advertisement is more directed towards creating a family and entertainment feel while the Millenials TVC is a more universal advertisement which tries to keep the flavor of the nineties alive in the minds of viewers. In short, it is not just the theme or product that is being sold that decides the music, the age and gender plays an important role in giving the advertisement its tone and structure. In most cases, the age of the target audience decides the content of the advertisement, its theme and background music (Kellaris and Cox, 115). Experiments in classical conditioning as seen in the nineties have had limited results as against the experiments on classical conditioning in the past one decade. Starting from television advertisements to YouTube advertisements, it has become more evident that selling your products through visuals is easy when you have the right accompanying music to its background. A clear example is the issue of home videos on channels like YouTube in which new start-ups use live video recording to the accompaniment of music and create brand image and impactful advertisements. Many of these videos have already released music to the backdrop, completed using messages from the manufacturer. Product Identification : It is noticed that audience identify a product with the jingle (Scott, 226) used to promote it. Whenever there is a popular track used, it becomes easier for the customer base to remember the product that was promoted using it. Although the main aim of the advertisement is to sell the product, it also aims at leaving a long lasting impact on the audience who remember the product every time the song is played. Here are the main categories that have used music to its benefit in unique ways. Automobiles: The need to keep the focus on the car or bike’s performance makes advertisers go for catching and dashing music in automobile advertisements which are created to complement the stunts and features of the vehicles. Targeted at generating the required stimulus, the music used is often lifted from popular rock and dance tracks grooving the radio channels at the time of making of the commercial. Financial planning: Strategy and cleverness are key elements that the audience of the financial planning advertisements can relate to. When it comes to developing music for such a serious service or product, it is more a tone of official demeanor and seriousness that accompanies the main advertisement. In many cases, music is kept minimal and unhindering to the main narrative of the advertisement and used only during the tagline of the brand. In many such ads, there is no music used to keep the focus on the dialogue delivery. Entertainment: With most colorful of offerings, theater and cinema advertisements have the maximum use of music. The title track to the background score, every aspect of the main production is held up in the commercial advertisement which makes a promise to the targeted audience. There are variations in presentation but overall, entertainment through such commercial advertisements allows the best use of music since it is multi-faceted. Electronics: Like it or not, electronic gadgets and wearables are always promoted using hard rock, metallic jazz or rhythm and blues music. It is rarely that you get to see a film based song or a personal album being used in electronics. However, with catchy taglines and purposeful lyrics these jingles have a strong impact on buyers. In rare cases like in the case of the iPod advertisement previously mentioned, you will see innovative use of a racy track to garner up maximal audience reaction. Important Takeaways form the study: Consumer psychology has always been a serious focus of study in marketing, and in recent years, creativity and innovation has brought music as a selling factor in advertisements found all over the web and broadcast media. The main impact of the advertisement is further fine tuned using music (Yalch, 268) as the supportive defining element, and not humor as was predicted in a couple of studies. Use of music that has a popular record definitely helps a brand to sell and to bear testimony to this fact, we have numerous home and impromptu videos on YouTube, SnapChat and Instagram to check out. Use of music in advertising has also brought in a soothing flavor in the visuals used in advertisements. For example, in the case of the iPod advertisement related above, the use of black silhouettes instead of real men and women in broad light, adds a unique twist to the story that the advertisers are trying to sell, namely, the importance of having a wearable iPod that is easy to carry almost anywhere and gives you access to endless number of songs. Thus, it is indeed interesting to see music grow as a new advertising tool. Consumer psychology studies therefore, must grant more importance to the art of musically selling products and services now on. References: Apple Jet iPod commercial featuring Do You Want to Be My Girl by Jet,2005, 31st October, 2014 from: Chevrolet Malibu Eco TV Spot, Song by Spandau Ballet. (2012) acessed on 31st October, 2014 from: Gorn, Gerald J. "The effects of music in advertising on choice behavior: A classical conditioning approach." The Journal of Marketing (1982): 94-101. Hecker, Sidney. "Music for advertising effect." Psychology & Marketing 1.3‐4 (1984): 3-8. Kellaris, James J., and Anthony D. Cox. "The effects of background music in advertising: A reassessment." Journal of consumer research (1989): 113-118. Scott, Linda M. "Understanding jingles and needledrop: a rhetorical approach to music in advertising." Journal of Consumer Research (1990): 223-236. Yalch, Richard F. "Memory in a jingle jungle: Music as a mnemonic device in communicating advertising slogans." Journal of Applied Psychology 76.2 (1991): 268. Read More