It is well known that advertising materials consist of various nonverbal elements in addition to verbal messages that convey the name and quality of the product.
Under these circumstances, a blind spot, hidden behind the actors, the advertising story, and the color tone of the advertising background, is the music used in the advertising.
Although advertising music is added to most video advertisements, academic knowledge about its effects on ad viewers is not well known by advertising production companies or advertising companies.
This time, we will be talking about Associate Professor Masako Ono of Meiji University’s School of Global Japanese Studies, who has researched “nonverbal cues in advertising” including advertising music, won awards at international academic conferences, and published papers in top international journals. We asked the professor to talk about the past, present, and future of advertising music.
Interview reference material:
Effects of advertising music as nonverbal cues on consumer reactions
(Makoto Ono, Marketing Journal, 43(3) 68-75, January 2024)
How I became involved in research on “nonverbal cues in advertising”
–First of all, Professor Ono, please tell us about how you became interested in “nonverbal cues in advertising.”
Masako Ono (hereinafter referred to as “Ono”)
has only recently become an academic, and previously worked at an advertising company. When I was a new graduate, I was in charge of gathering the needs of client companies and bringing together diverse talent both inside and outside the company.After that, I was in charge of marketers, investigating consumer trends and utilizing them in product creation and advertising appeal. I also worked as a researcher specializing in research and investigation.
Eventually, as I explored the connection between corporate behavior and consumer behavior, I began to see certain rules, and I decided that I wanted to acquire the world’s most cutting-edge wisdom and do a job that would produce that wisdom. During that time, I received a doctoral degree from my alma mater, Keio University, and with a connection to Meiji University, I turned to the world of academia.
–What kind of research did you conduct during your doctoral program?
Although I worked at
Ono
Advertising Company, I actually did not earn my doctorate based on my advertising thesis. I got it for my paper on food marketing. This paper analyzed the influence of labels attached to food packages on quality evaluation.
However, since I was appointed to Meiji University as an advertising scholar in hopes of gaining practical experience, I am currently shifting from marketing research to advertising research.
Because of this background, we originally investigated consumer psychology based on information on the package rather than the product itself. We focus on how information influences consumer behavior.
–So advertising music is also one of the clues that has a major influence on consumer behavior.
Ono:
Yes, that’s right.
The influence of advertising music on consumer behavior differs depending on the level of consumer involvement.
–I feel that music has been a part of video advertisements such as TV commercials for a long time, but hasn’t there been more research into it?
Ono:
As you said, music is an integral part of advertising. In an analysis I participated in, I counted how many TV commercials actually include music, and found
that 93% of TV commercials included music
. It can be said that music is an integral part of advertising.
Because advertising music is so familiar, research focusing on advertising music has attracted the largest number of advertising researchers, second only to research focusing on advertising messages.
However, it is extremely difficult to measure the effectiveness of advertising music, and even an elementary analysis of the subject can reveal a 180-degree difference between what one scholar is saying and what another scholar is saying. I feel like research has been stagnant for many years.
For example, consumers who watch an advertisement while listening to music they like are more likely to want to buy the advertised product, and consumers who watch an advertisement while listening to music they dislike are less likely to want to buy the advertised product. There are claims that it is easy. Intuitively, it seems right, right? However, many advertising scholars have failed to prove this.
–Do you mean that many scholars have failed to find a difference in consumers’ desire to buy advertising music depending on whether they like it or not?
Ono:
That’s right. However, in recent years, we have begun to see some solutions.
Specifically, when we differentiate between cases in which consumers carefully select a product and watch related advertisements, and cases in which they casually watch advertisements that seem unrelated to them,
we found that high-involvement products (consumers In the case of advertisements for products with high consumer involvement, the effect is the same whether the music is liked or disliked, whereas in the case of advertisements for low-involvement products (products with which consumers have low involvement), music they like is used.
It feels like
it’s effective
.
The lessons to be drawn from this body of research are clear. Considering the recent behavioral targeting advertising,
it is assumed that each ad viewer knows the products they are interested in and the music they like, so it is possible to place an advertisement for a product they are interested in over their favorite music. Corporate efforts to spread the word are effective
.
Video advertisements that are shown at random times literally disappear without attracting the attention of most consumers. There may not be a need to go all out with the advertising music for such advertisements (lol).
However, when it comes to low-involvement products, choosing which product is good for you is a tedious task for the consumer, while the decision to say “I like this music” or “I don’t like this music” is an instant emotional response. It’s something that will rise. Therefore,
when choosing a product is difficult, whether you like music or not may be the deciding factor in choosing a product.
This theory claims that the psychological process by which consumers evaluate products is carried out through a low-involvement route rather than through a high-involvement route.Some readers may be aware of this, but ” It is also known as the “Refined Probability Model.”
When consumers start thinking about things like, “I don’t like the music in that advertisement,” or “I like the music in this advertisement,” instead of the low-involvement route of deciding on a product based on likes or dislikes of the music activated in their minds, The high-involvement route of trying to evaluate quality from the message about the product itself is suppressed in the mind, so as long as you like the advertising music, even if the product is defective, you ignore it and buy it. This behavior can also occur.
However, this does not mean that companies should rely on this, neglect efforts to provide better products, and just use popular music. It’s not as simple as simply hearing your favorite advertising music and wanting to buy a product.
When music attracts consumers’ attention and is used as a cue for product selection, consumers’ minds are activated to use cues other than music in advertisements in conjunction with this. It’s from.
“Message suitability” and “experience associativity” are the basics.
–It seems difficult to get the best effect from advertising music.
Ono
: That’s right. However, the story that we want to keep in mind is simpler. In the first place, many advertisements are posted to send an advertising message. At that time, if the advertising music does not match the message the advertiser wants to convey to the consumer, for example, if the advertisement wants to convey “relaxation” but plays uptempo music, the advertisement will fail. Probably. Therefore, it is
important to select music with “suitability” in mind
.
However, when selecting advertising music, do not just think about the character of the product being advertised.
There is something called “experience association,” which is music that seems to be playing before the product was created or while using a competing product.
If advertising music is not adapted to such music, consumers will not be able to properly associate the usage situation and will feel uncomfortable.
For example, the type of music that is suitable for associating experiences should be different depending on whether you are drinking beer at a bar or at home. Music must be appropriately selected so that it can be associated with the usage situation of the product. Then, in order to build a new brand image that is different from competing brands of beer that are intended for the same usage conditions,
they must select music that has a different character from that of competing brands
.
“Which should I choose between monotonous music or complex music?” changes depending on product characteristics and advertising strategy.
–It’s interesting to think that advertising music should be selected considering both the product category as a whole and your own brand.
Ono
: That’s right. The best advertising music is one that makes it easy to identify the product category by making it easy to associate experiences, and also makes the brand stand out by adapting it to the message.
Information that allows consumers to easily receive and process advertising stimuli is referred to as information with high “processing fluency,” and has recently received increasing attention.
Although the term processing fluency has been used relatively recently, the psychological phenomenon known as the “mere exposure effect”, which was discovered long before then, is based on the fact that high processing fluency It is said that this is one of the causes.
The mere exposure effect is a phenomenon where if you see the same ad over and over again, you’ll eventually start liking it. At first, consumers find it troublesome to receive, process, and draw conclusions from advertising information, but eventually, when they receive the same information, they feel lighter because they are freed from the trouble of processing it. As a result, positive emotions begin to arise.
This applies not only to repetition in advertising, but also to the repetitive rhythms of advertising music. If the music played during an advertisement is elaborate, it will be difficult for consumers to process the ad because it will be difficult to read. However, if the rhythm is repetitive, it is easier to predict the next moment and consumers can easily get into the rhythm, which in turn generates positive emotions and positively influences product evaluation.
–Information with a high level of processing fluency not only eases the mind and generates positive emotions, but also makes it easier for consumers to receive product information.
Ono
:However, once again, researching advertising music is not an easy task. Not only is there a case where monotonous music is better, but there is also a case where more complex music is better.
Recent research has shown that complex music has lower processing fluency, meaning it takes longer to process, and as a result, consumers evaluate the advertised product as being more distant from them. Masu. If we use negative expressions such as “not familiar”, it may be misunderstood as being in bad condition, but if this is not the case, and the product has the meaning of being an innovative product that is not familiar to us, then it is considered to be in good condition. You can say In other words, it would be
a good idea for innovative companies to advertise their products with complex music
.
Differences in advertising effectiveness between classic songs and new songs: Choosing songs to appeal to consumers with different goals and preferences
–You have talked about trends in advertising research so far, but could you also touch on your own research?
Ono
: So far, I have conducted research on the influence of various types of information in advertising and other marketing communications on consumers’ product evaluations, and as part of this research I have published several papers focusing on advertising music. Among them, there is one that deals with the theme of “Which should I use, standard songs or new songs?”
Of course, there may be constraints in reality, such as standard songs being used in other advertisements and not being able to be used in new advertisements, but regardless of these constraints, which type of music is more consumed? This is a pure analysis of whether it will affect people.
Here, standard songs are songs that consumers already know, and new songs are songs that consumers don’t know yet. Then, unknown songs have the pleasure of tasting something that has never been done before, so they should be liked by consumers who like to go out to acquire such new things, and if they are characterized as such, they should be liked. It matches the brand image.
However, not all consumers or brands have such personalities. For consumers who choose to protect what they already have rather than go out and buy something new, or for brands whose selling point is consistency, it is more likely that they will choose to keep their classics than tie-up with new songs. So it’s better to tie it up with a song.
In the future, in order to continue academic research that can provide useful knowledge that is directly connected to business implementation, we would like to conduct advertising and marketing research from a creative perspective, while also considering joint research with industry and academia. .
Interview reference material:
Diversification of advertising research using control focus theory
(
Makoto Ono
“Marketing Journal” 41(4) 65-70 March 2022)
Effects of advertising music on consumers’ product evaluations: Examination of new songs vs. standard songs using control focus theory
(Akinori Ono, Masakoto Ono “Mita Shogaku Kenkyu” 66(3) 117-131 August 2023)
Interview summary
- In the case of behavioral targeting advertising, it is effective to identify music preferences and use that music in advertisements as well as products with which consumers are highly involved.
- When advertising products with low involvement, using favorite music may not be effective, but it may also be effective by activating consumers’ brains as they process advertising information.
- When it comes to advertising music, it’s not about whether you like it or not, but rather whether the music is reminiscent of the product usage situation and whether the music matches the image of the message about the new brand character.
- Just as advertising causes a mere exposure effect, so does advertising music. Advertisers who want to feel closer to consumers should use simple, familiar advertising music.
- New songs should be used in advertisements that emphasize high innovation and new value. On the other hand, ads that use classic songs are best suited for brands that prefer solidity and defensiveness.