Popular Music in Advertisements

SOURCE: Steemit

        The economic principle I’m exploring is “People generally respond to incentives in predictable ways”. My research question to help me study the economic principle is “What role does popular music play in modern day advertisements?”

        The article published in Advances in Consumer Research Volume 25 titled “The Effects of Music on Emotional Response, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition” demonstrates this economic principle by showing that music enriches the key message of an advertisement, increases the consumer’s emotional response to an advertisement, and creates growth in purchase intent.
     
        First, advertisers intentionally include music in their advertisements because they know it can help a consumer understand the key message they’re trying to convey. For example, in an advertisement for puppy shelters, usually sad music is played so that the consumer knows the puppies are sad and in need of a home. Playing this music also invokes an emotional response, another key reason as to why music is used in advertisements. For me, sad puppy commercials always make me beg my mom to let us buy one of those poor puppies. Cat or dog person, it’s hard to resist the emotional commercial many puppy shelters set up. Usually the music really highlights the sadness many people feel when watching them. It encourages those emotions even more.

        Second, music evokes an emotional response in consumers, giving them a greater inclination to buy the product. In car advertisements, usually rock or pop music is used because it is known to create a more exciting response in consumers. In fact science backs this theory up. When exciting music was used in advertisements, it “was shown to increase emotional arousal in subjects via their skin response and heart rate, which are assumed to be the two physiological manifestations of emotional response”. One example of this is the following BMW ad:

When emotions are involved in advertisements, it connects a viewer to a product, increasing their will to buy the product being advertised.

        Third, music in advertisements is known to increase a consumer’s purchase intent. Songs are carefully selected to be included in advertisements because they can encourage a consumer to buy something. Part of this encouragement comes from the emotional response an advertisement can evoke, but another part comes from improving one’s attitude towards a brand. In an experiment conducted in “The Effects of Music on Emotional Response, Brand Attitude, and Purchase Intent in an Emotional Advertising Condition”, popular music was included in an ad to see how consumers would react to it. The results stated that, “Brand attitude may have improved because pleasure improved.” upon hearing popular music. With brand attitude improving, a consumer is much more likely to buy the product.

        In my next blog post I will research the question: What incentives do music advertisements offer?