Empirical Critique of Musical Advertisements and Emotional Impacts, Essay Example

Introduction

Although the main goal for creating an advertising text is to achieve economic efficiency, its cultural component is not less important – attempts and opportunities to make advertising a positive component of modern popular culture (Taylor, 2012). The impact of music in advertising is inseparable from the impact of advertising itself. The psychology of advertising is studying this impact. This science is young and not fully formed. In it, there is no explanation of everything that occurs in the process of perception of advertising, psychological phenomena.

With all the variety of modern forms of advertising, an important role belongs to audio advertising, which is based on sound. In the communication space of mass culture, audio advertising creates a special sound environment, a special type of symbolic relationship between the advertising text and its perceiving subject (Allan, 2006).

The role of sound increases significantly in cases when there is no image, and there is a need, using verbal and non-verbal means, not only to transmit information in verbal form, but also immerse the addressee in a special world – attract his attention with a sound atmosphere, and, through it, create a mood, stimulate the desired response, force to get used to the transmitted image, to experience those or other feelings.

Thus, the predominantly short form of the message, a wide variety of means of transmission, informative and symbolic richness of audio advertising make it possible not only to notify the audience about the product, but also to create the necessary image of the product and company, thereby, influencing people’s consciousness and subconsciousness (Kennett, 2007; Zander, 2006).

Being a part of mass culture, audio advertising copies already existing cultural codes, and, at the same time, introduces them into consciousness and creates new ones. Audio advertising (as well as other types of advertising) is attributed the propaganda of ‘thingism’ and consumerism, the ability to inspire and even to zombify. The advertising myth, designed to change life and make it beautiful, at the same time, emphasizes its pragmatism, monotony, and dissimilarity to a fairy tale (Alpert, Alpert, & Maltz, 2005; Zhu & Meyers-Levy, 2005).

Advertising has a cultural phenomenology; its role goes beyond the economic framework, because, according to J. Baudrillard, it begins to actively participate in shaping the values of society. This happens through both visual and audio perception (Shevy & Kristen, 2011).

Constant search for increasingly new types of advertising opens up promising opportunities for audio advertising regarding promoting goods and services. To assess the rich communicative potential, it is necessary to deconstruct its basic media characteristics in the context of popular culture, which has not been done before. This whole complex of circumstances and reasons determined the relevance of the research topic. Obviously, audio advertising is one of the active forms of communication, but, at the same time, one of the less studied in comparison with other types, such as print or television advertising.

To date, the vast majority of television commercials (96.9% according to research) use musical accompaniment (Andersson, Kristensson, Wastlund, & Gusrafsson, 2012). However, the question of evaluating the effectiveness of using the musical component of advertising is not sufficiently covered in the marketing literature. It is important to note that, namely, efficiency should be the decisive criterion when deciding on the use or non-use of one or another type of musical accompaniment of the commercial (Graakjaer & Jantzen, 2009).

Since the 1960s, many authors have been searching for formats in which music appears in television commercials. The whole variety of music formats mentioned in various studies can be divided into two main groups: non-distinctive and distinctive (North & Hargreaves, 2008).

The authors understand background music or “muzak” as nondistinctive formats, i.e., music with a neutral non-annoying character, for example, with an average tempo, neutral harmony, only instrumental sounds, a positive mood, small melodic turns (Lusensky, 2010).

Among the distinctive formats, there are short-term, such as jingle and emblem, and long ones: song, melody, and groove. Short-term formats can last a few seconds, while lengthy ones can span the entire ad segment (Hansen & Christensen, 2007).

At the same time, synchronization is a key characteristic for compositional formats, since it is of great importance when building the composition of the commercial. The studies revealed the following types of synchronization of music and video in advertising: the pace of video and music; the division of advertising into parts; the appearance of a visual logo and a music logo (slogan); separate elements of video and music; video series contains dance synchronized with music; video and music are completely in sync (Alexomanolaki, Loveday, & Kennett, 2007).

With the help of these characteristics, one can accurately describe the distinctive features of the music formats presented in the advertising market. Defining a set of templates helps to recognize certain types of communication, determine their features and characteristics (Payne, Korczynski, & Cluley, 2017).

Today, most consumers prefer to purchase products in large supermarkets. At the same time, only 40% of purchases in retail are planned purchases, while the other 60% are impulsive when the decision to purchase goods is made directly in the store (Shevy & Kristen, 2011). Music can make a significant contribution to creating the atmosphere of the store to control the behavior of the buyer, motivating him to buy.

Moreover, music can serve as a sort of filter for the target audience. Abercrombie & Fitch clothing store is a prime example of this. Brand philosophy is premium level fashionable clothes for stylish young people. To attract their customers, electronic dance music is used in the stores. Music sounds very loudly, which ‘pushes’ from the store away older people and those who do not like this type of music. Even those who go inside the store feel uncomfortable and tend to leave as soon as possible (Lusensky, 2010).

Music marketing is one of the strongest tools for an emotional impact on the consumer. For example, the African Journal of Business Management published a study on the impact of music content on brand perception. Subjects were offered a fictional brand of mineral water. Then they were presented several promotional videos with the same content but different musical accompaniment: two with music, one without it, and the third one with a very famous melody. Each video was submitted to only one group of people. After that, the subjects described their impressions of the brand. As the result, the average score for goods with music videos was much higher than in others, and the video with a well-known melody scored the maximum number of points. Based on this, it was concluded that the use of different melodies that fit the message and brand, but differ in tempo and emotional tinge, create positive emotions about the product and the brand itself. At the same time, the music allows recognizing a brand without a familiar logo or visual style – it is enough just by chance to hear an excerpt of the melody (North, Sheridan, & Areni, 2016).

Scientists have proven that, with the help of music, one can isolate segments and develop appropriate mood situations. According to the research results of R. Blackwell, P. Miniard, and others, slow music, as compared with fast, doubles the time spent by a customer in a store or restaurant, and the consumer’s spending increases by 25%. Music creates a variety of images and features of the segment (Graakjaer & Jantzen, 2009). Also, the main advantages of ‘right’ (‘competent’) music accompanying is and attracting or directing the attention of visitors. The music should not distract the attention of the buyer, but he should be pleased to hear it. A soft melody leads to a more sincere communication of visitors with the sales staff, and classical music, for example, often gives the store an image of fashionable or expensive (Williamson, Liikkanen, Jakubowski, & Stewart, 2014).

Large companies hire specialists to monitor customers and create music sets. However, many important aspects of this phenomenon, related to the interaction of audio advertising with the mass culture, the specifics of its communication, require a deeper cultural understanding. In this paper, an attempt is made to find some general principles of the effect of music in advertisement on a person. They help to explain the origin of primitive feelings and emotions, as well as some phenomena of popular culture. These principles are valid for music in almost all directions.

New Enquiry

The object of study in our work is the advertising space itself; the subject is audio advertising as a media phenomenon of mass culture.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the role of audio advertising in the communicative space of popular culture.

Achieving this goal required the formulation and solution of the following research tasks:

• To define the concept of “audio advertising” through the analysis of related concepts, taking into account the terminological tradition and practical experience of use;
• To explore the origins of sound advertising and trace its dynamics in the historical and cultural retrospective;
• To determine the features of the psychological impact of audio advertising, depending on various groups of customers;
• To give a classification to the diverse forms of modern audio advertising with the aim to identify its rich informational, semantic, communicative, aesthetic, ethical potential;
• To analyze the communicative nature of audio advertising;
• To explore the features of the ‘language’ of audio advertising and its impact on popular culture.

The hypothesis of the study can be formulated as follows: the specificity of audio advertising, as a cultural phenomenon, is that it is cognitively and distributively connected with the communication channels of popular culture and does not exist outside its space.

Proposed Method

An interdisciplinary approach that assimilates the methodology of the theory and history of culture, philosophy, sociology, psychology, art study will be fundamental. It allows considering audio advertising as an integrative phenomenon that has an applied character. The method of historical, cultural, and social reconstruction was chosen as the basic method for identifying the cultural genesis of audio advertising, its social role; for revealing typological characteristics, structural and functional method was chosen.

Particular importance in the work is given to axiological and semiotic methods. Axiological one makes it possible to comprehend the audio advertisement in the value scale and formulate the assumption that popular culture has become the medium that allows revealing the rich, almost inexhaustible potential of audio advertising messages, its adaptive resources. The semiotic method gives access to the nature of communication, helps to analyze the language of audio advertising as a cultural code. If the symbolism of advertising texts determined the use of the method of semiotic analysis, the movement of meanings in social space and time explains the use of modern communication science methods. Also, in the work, comparative and analytical methods will be applied, as well as systematic analysis of empirical material (commercials of the most popular TV channels on the base of segments).

The empirical base of the research is represented by advertising texts that make up the content of modern communication. On the examples of advertising texts, there will be analyzing the features of the modern language of mass culture. The professional ‘immersion’ of the author in advertising allowed analyzing and evaluating the sign variety and wide possibilities of representing sound in advertising texts.

For the purpose of the study, it is intended to identify musical advertising formats used in television advertising, as well as determine their qualitative and quantitative characteristics. To achieve this goal, an expert assessment will be conducted for 326 different commercials of the most popular TV channels in their segments. The first channel is nationwide, the target audience is 35 years and older; the level of earnings is average and below average. Some regional family entertainment channels will be used; the age of the target audience is from ten years age.

The criterion of the target audience became the basis and the determining factor for the choice of voice, music, and the entire sound-acoustic style of presenting information. The separate group included the following: audio messages aimed at a young audience up to 18 years; audio messages aimed at the average age; audio messages for the elderly.

Audio messages are classified by subject of advertising: product, service, company image, idea, personality.

Conclusion

The scientific novelty of the research is as follows:

• Definitions of key concepts will be formulated – “sound” advertising, “audio advertising,” “audio environment,” “audiality,” giving the opportunity for reference and verification to present the phenomenon of audio advertising in the communicative space of mass culture;
• It will be proved that audio advertising, as a “successor” of traditional (sound) advertising, does not function outside of culture, outside the historical context, but reflects the civilizational stage of its development;
• The author’s classification of audio advertising will be presented, making it possible to systematize the information scattered about it into a single whole, which, in turn, generates a new ’round’ of research interest in the pronounced phenomenon of mass culture;
• The communicative functions of audio advertising for mass culture will be identified, associated simultaneously with the reflection and formation of the values of society;
• A characteristic of audiality as an attribute of creolized advertising will be given;
• Using examples of advertising texts (including regional ones), an attempt will be made to show that audio advertising is a product of popular culture that is implemented through communication channels, and parameters and factors of efficiency will be determined.

The communicative nature of audio advertising, although it fits into the scheme of advertising communication, has some features inherent in popular culture, which are due to limited means for creating an audio medium (voice, music, noise). Subjectivity and multi-channel perception determine the effectiveness of the impact on consumers and participate in the formation of their values. Thus, the functionality of audio advertising is determined by communicative, informational, semantic, ethical, and aesthetic characteristics, which are reflected in each advertising message.

The theoretical significance of the study is in conducting a comprehensive analysis of the sound parameters of audio advertising, which significantly expands and deepens the understanding of this socio-cultural phenomenon.

The practical significance of the study lies in the fact that it has practical significance for researchers of popular culture, sociologists, practical psychologists, specialists in the field of public relations, theorists, and advertising practitioners.

We believe that the study of audio advertising should be continued in the space of interdisciplinarity. Special studies are needed, for example, for regional projections of audio-advertising messages, in many respects original, but, at the same time, in many respects imitative to the ‘capital’ samples. A separate problem is the study of the artistic and aesthetic aspects of audio advertising – those models that can be considered as a phenomenon of art. The constant search for new forms of audio advertising continues, and the research on this continuously developing cultural phenomenon is going on.

References

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Alpert, M. I., Alpert, J. I., & Maltz, E. N. (2005). Purchase occasion influence on the role of music in advertising. Journal of Business Research, 58 (3), 369-376.

Andersson, P.K., Kristensson, P., Wastlund, E., & Gusrafsson, A. (2012). Let the music play or not: The influence of background music on consumer behavior. Journal of Retailing and Customer Services, 19(6), 553-560.

Graakjaer, N. & Jantzen, C. (ed.) (2009). Music in Advertising. Commercial Sounds in Media Communication and other Settings. Aalborg University Press.

Hansen, F. & Christensen, S.R. (2007). Emotions, Advertising and Consumer Choice. Copenhagen Business School Press.

Lusensky, J. (2010). Sounds like branding: using the power of music to turn customers into fans. London: Bloomsbury.

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North, A.C., Sheridan, L.P., & Areni, C.S. (2016). Music Congruity Effects on Product Memory, Perception, and Choice. Journal of Retailing, 92(1), 83-95.

Payne, J., Korczynski, M., & Cluley, R. (2017). Hearing music in service interactions: A theoretical and empirical analysis. Human Relations, 70(12), 1417–1441.

Shevy, M. & Kristen, S. (2011). Semantic meanings associated with popular music: An international consideration of music genre in branding. In K. Bronner, R. Hirt, & C. Ringe (Eds.), Audio Branding Academy Yearbook 2010–2011 (pp. 219-229). Sinzheim, Germany: Nomos.

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