I have a strong and rather strange attachment to a particular song. ‘What a wonderful World’ by Louis Armstrong. I know it’s a nice sentimental piece. It should make everyone happy – except you’re Shrek before he met Fiona. But the feelings it evokes in me are particularly strong. I’m intensely happy, deeply contented and all seems right with my world. Everyone who is close to me knows my attachment to that song. A couple of years ago, I went into a store with a friend. I didn’t really feel like it. It had been a long day and I just wanted to get home and put my tired feet up. While she browsed and shopped, and I grudgingly looked around, What a Wonderful World started playing in the store. It took a short minute for my mood to change. I ended up leaving the store with a broad smile and several unbudgeted-for packages under my arm.
That evening, once more, I wondered about my reaction to that particular song. I have happy songs that make me pick up a brush, a comb, a pencil, and sing at the top of my voice to the adoring one-woman audience in the mirror! I have songs that make me melancholy, or just plain sad. We all do. But this one was different and I always wondered why. I thought about it longer, and then it came to me. My parents are music lovers and I grew up listening to all kinds of music. But every Saturday morning, my Dad played What a Wonderful World. Saturday mornings to me and my 3 brothers meant no school, big breakfast on trays in front of the telly, cartoons until mid-day and the prospect of an afternoon outing to goodness-knows-where, to look forward to, while my Dad sang along in the background. My little world was perfect: safe, secure and happy. To a little girl, I felt that very deeply and every time I heard the song, it evoked those feelings in me. I thought about my experience in the store and how hearing that song changed my mood and even got me spending.
Thinking about it now, I realize that it is a form of classical conditioning (also called respondent conditioning) and in turn, it got me considering the role and effect music in advertising has on our choice behavior. Studying consumer psychology really does make you relate even the seemingly mundane, to buying choices and behaviors. Classical conditioning suggests that hearing music that evokes strong feelings, whether positive or negative, while being exposed to product, can affect product choice or buying behavior.(1) These reactions are used by advertisers to persuade us to make positive buying decisions in respect to their products. Happy, repetitive music makes the consumer associate that feeling of happiness with the product, therefore a preference for it. Gerald J. Gorn’s experiment aptly demonstrates the classical conditioning paradigm in determining the effect of music in advertising. A light blue and a beige pen (the neutral stimulus), were paired with well-liked and disliked music (the unconditioned stimulus) and participants were asked to make a choice between the pens. 79% chose the pen with the music they liked, indicating a conditioned reaction.
Brands increasing look to behavioral psychology and its understanding of consumer buying behavior, to guide their advertising decisions in the research and planning stages. Music is one of the prime heuristic cues that effectively appeal to System 1. It enables ‘bonding with brands through emotional register’ and creates bridges between personal experiences of consumers and the product. (2)
Music and TV or digital adverts have always gone hand in hand, creating an experience and enhancing viewer arousal. Emotional impact and memory come together to remind us of a particular moment in our lives. Positive memories could positively affect our buying decisions.
REFERENCES:
- Gorn, G (1982). The Effects of Music in Advertising on Choice Behavior: A classical Conditioning Approach. Journal of Marketing, vol.46, no 1, 1982, pp.94-101. JSTOR, jstor.org/stable/1251163
- Mullensiefen, D. (2017). Music, Psychology and Advertising. Invited talk at the 4th Brainy Bar event, Unlimited House, London, 24th May, 2017.
hammersandflowers 
Hi I really liked your blog post.
Have you thought about ways that companies can use music to further. A study found that if the store is playing German music consumers are more likely to buy German wine and the same result when they were playing french music. The interesting thing is that the majority of participants either said that they weren’t playing music or that it generic pop music was playing. This shows that even though they weren’t paying attention to the music it still had an impact on their behaviour.
Reference: North, A. C., Hargreaves, D. J., & McKendrick, J. (1997). In-store music affects product choice. Nature, 390(6656), 132.
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This blog remained me of the experiment about music and wine. The one which researcher play both German music and French music (thanks to the comment by bloggingconsumer), it come out that the customer is highly affected by the music. They buy more German wine when it’s in German music, and they don’t even realize (North, Hargreaves & McKendrick, 1997). It happened a lot in our daily life even the company may not know how it works, for example, the music in a fast food restaurant is different from the music in an upscale restaurant.
Another thing I recalled is about Intel, if you remember the sound logo of Intel. And also the opening songs for a TV shows. And sometimes, even the voice tone could be a brand in advertising too. Sorry when I am typing this the only thing come out my mind is the batman says: “I am Batman.” lol.
Anyway, this blog is really inspiring, although I know so much nudge music in my daily life. But I never really looking through it, and never consider the music and the memory of my past.
Reference:
North, A., Hargreaves, D., & McKendrick, J. (1997). In-store music affects product choice. Nature, 390(6656), 132-132. doi: 10.1038/36484
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Hi there, thank you for good read this week! I agree with everything you’ve said.
I’ve come across a piece of research by Craton and Lantos (2011) that might be interesting for you to consider. Despite the benefits of classical conditioning with music, they can also have some negative effects. For instance, research has shown a few factors that can have a negative impact on the success of an advertisement:
• Playing a song disliked by the consumer in the advertisement
• Playing music by an artist that the consumer dislikes in the advertisement
Therefore, due to the fact consumers dislike the song or artist, this can also lead to them being conditioned not to enjoy the advertisement and the product being advertised. For instance, a consumer may have bad memories associated with the song, and as a result, they end up disliking the product.
It might be interesting to consider how companies can overcome this problem? For instance, maybe they could create their own theme song for an advertisement?
Have a good weekend!
Reference:
Craton, L. G., & Lantos, G. P. (2011). Attitude toward the advertising music: an overlooked potential pitfall in commercials. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 28(6), 396-411.
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I love the link you have made between music and the consumer. Music can really play on our emotions as they can bring back so many memories with nostalgia.
I think it’s sweet that you mentioned about your dad playing the Louis Armstrong song to you and your brothers as a child, it shows how music can really have a place in our hearts and bring back memories that we cannot access as well without the trigger of the music.
I’m a big music fan, I won’t lie, I do shed a few tears over songs and can feel the warmth of music through advertisements. Music is extremely powerful in advertising I think it’s interesting that you’ve highlighted that happy and repetitive music can help the consumer to associate those emotions with the products.
Moreover this shows how music can really manipulate the consumer into buying something. Honestly, the number of adverts that have really drawn me in through music is ridiculous!
I really enjoyed reading about the study you have mentioned ‘’79% chose the pen with the music they liked, indicating a conditioned reaction’’ This just proves that music is a part of humanity, we all connect with music in some way, and those songs that really pull on our heart strings, might just make us purchase something we never would have done before.
Have you ever thought that music could be a touchy subject in advertising for example do you know the happy song by Pharrell? This is probably the only song that makes me unhappy… ironically. I would switch that advertisement off in a heartbeat!
Bruner, G. C. (1990). Music, mood, and marketing. the Journal of marketing, 94-104.
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