Musical Branding Effects on the Consumer
By Stephen Hoshaw
In the previous post, I detailed musical branding and its effect on the entities that use it. This post will focus on the effect of musical branding on the consumer, and what this means in our political economy of the media.
What kind of music is pumped through your mall's speakers?
The most important aspect of branding is the connection consumers make with the commodity marketed to them.
Once the consumer constructs this, the connection can then be exploited for a profit.
Muzak
In dealing with musical branding toward consumers, one of the most obvious examples of comes to mind.
As I have stated before, muzak is sometimes explained as “functional music” or “scientifically engineered sound.” We have all heard it in an elevator, a department store or even walking through the mall.
There are numerous other examples of muzak in our daily lives. In a paper by Clare Cardwell and Sally Hibbert (both with the University of Strathclyde, Ireland), they describe the true nature of music played in a restaurant.
“Music tempo will affect actual time spent in the restaurant such that individuals dining under the slow tempo condition will spend more time in the restaurant than individuals dining under the fast tempo condition.”
Not only is muzak used in restaurants, but there are many examples of its use in other stores.
In a post on suite101.com, Jennifer Copley summarized research done on music used in stores. She found that when stores played songs from the top 40 list of popular music, consumers thought that they were shopping for longer periods of time.
If this is played at the same time you shop for this album, is it muzak?
Another interesting finding described how a product can be sold through this music. When a department store advertised a product with a song, and that music was then played at the store where one can purchase the product, the consumer was much more likely to buy it.
In abstracts from Psychology and Marketing and The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Customer Research, other reasons to play muzak are listed.
To look at the matter in a psychological sense, one argument is listed as “Higher desire to affiliate was associated with more pleasure and more (aural) arousal” (Psychology and Marketing). This is a great example of a true marketing element in muzak.
The book regarding retail listed several other reasons customers “want” to hear muzak in stores. One of these is the customers alleged aspiration to hear music that represents their idea of the store, or their idea on how long their shopping experience should last.
This all eludes to music’s role in muzak. The sole purpose is to get the consumer to respond buy either purchasing more or spending more time (or both) in the store/restaurant played.
Disney’s Use
While muzak may be used in stores to affect customers buying habits, there is a much more disturbing role musical branding is currently playing.
Ever heard of Miley Cyrus? Well it appears that, as was Britney Spears’ time years ago, it is now Miley’s point in time to age into adulthood from her early Disney groomings.
Oh, isn't this is your wholesome girl Disney?
This comes with more than a few issues to consumers.
Disney promoted Cyrus in many different ways, one of them being a marketing to moms initiative. This has caused Miley Cyrus’ brand to become more powerful than “American Girl and Build A Bear Workshop” (Marketing to Moms Blog). They did this by selling her image in several ways.
First, Disney did a remarkable job in relating her to her father, Billy Cyrus, who the mothers can already relate to. This may have led to mom’s already bringing a connection to Miley.
They also displayed Miley in a “wholesome” light. Parents are naturally going to gravitate toward a character that displays such ideology in light of other influences in our commercial society.
Finally, Disney injected her image at the ripe time before many girls in her current target audience hit their teen years. This is one of the most important factors as it led to her current success as an “artist.”
By providing children with this image at a young age, Disney also employed what the Media Awareness Network calls “pester power.”
This refers to the purchasing power children have when they are provoked to buy something, and then have to motivate their parents to buy it.
One could argue that the marketing to children of Miley is inherently unethical, however, due to recent events it is now clear that there is something wrong with the image little girls are expected to emulate.
In her new video, Cyrus is shown “publicly testing the waters of adulthood” (Billboard). Not only is does the video display her in some pretty revealing clothing, but it also shows Miley pulling off moves that some would describe as sexually provocative.
Another move that horribly represents this underage girl’s image to her fans is her spread in Vanity Fair. She took part in a photo shoot that consisted of her (at the age of fifteen at the time) wrapped in a sheet alone.
Clearly this is detrimental to the youth that follow her brand. Some have seen her recent acts as destructive to this “artist’s” image, however, I would argue that the damage that has been done to her following is what is truly destructive.
It is evident that the use of musical branding in this case could cause many young girls to take away false ideas on the right and wrong things to do.
Surely press releases will be written, and apologies will be made. However, it is the responsibility of the entity who brands these youth celebrities to make sure that they are representing something that not only benefits their quarterly report, but truly benefits their customers as well.
Sources:
How music changes the restaurant environment.
Research on consumer behavior.
The truth about her Vanity Fair shoot (hehe).
Musical Branding Effects in Our Economy.
By Stephen Hoshaw
Neither, please.
While music has many jobs in the media landscape, one may fly under your radar.
Muzak is most commonly known as elevator music, it plays in the background of many department stores and is meant to give us something to listen to while we shop.
Right?
Wrong.
Branding
In this EST article, muzak is described as “scientifically engineered sound – functional music rather than entertainment.” This “functional” element of muzak is the aspect that leads to its psychological effect on people.
A piece from the blog History is made at night details the real subconscious effects as motivational to office workers, relaxing for patients and delivering a “less hurried” shopping experience for customers.
However, these effects do not only apply to the inside of a store, office or restaurant. The practice of engineering sound to produce a desired effect has become a popular marketing practice in our media culture.
Many corporations have used “audio identifiers” in tandem with a product. This could be the jingle that plays with the 20th Century Fox logo at the beginning of a film, or the McDonald’s tune heard on all of their television advertisements.
Why does your brand need a sound?
Corporations have found new ways to turn what was once thought of as a secondary element (to visual portions), into a more powerful marketing tool.
An article from Post Magazine reported many techniques that corporations use to maximize the effect of this tool. Most businesses focus on the structure of the song to create a stronger emotional connection with the consumer, while simultaneously concern themselves with the context of the advertisement the tune will appear in.
When used in this way, the “music” that is created is referred to as a Sonic Brand.
Corporate Use
Most businesses that run advertisement campaigns utilize Sonic Branding, however, not all of them use nameless instrumentals, as many jingles appear.
The WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) is a great illustration of this.
In 2008, the WWE was pushing hard for artists to start looking to them for a branding experience. Wrestlers came out to specific
Well this looks like a wholesome image the teenage American shopaholic, right?
songs, thus promoting the artist and spreading awareness. Usually, the WWE would try to time this kind of promotion with the release of the album said song was on.
Other companies use musical branding to sell the image of the artist to consumers.
Iconix is a brand group dedicated to getting the brands it owns into retailers and department stores nationwide.
More importantly, they are the firm behind the recent Britney Spears endorsed Candies sponsorship (available in the Kohls store near you).
This is a perfect example of how most corporations view a musical celebrity. Iconix is using Britney Spears’ appeal to the youthful women to sell Candies clothes to that very demographic.
Their video shows the direct partnerships they share with some of America’s biggest corporate department stores, displaying the depth they can achieve with through this kind of branding.
Artist Use
While the popularity of musical branding is growing in the corporate world, both through the audio that corporations employ in advertisments/in store and through the images they sell, artists have also picked up on the power behind branding.
In an article by Constantine Roussos (of musicmusic.com), he describes the changing brand environment the musical world faces.
In his view the amount of time and money big labels are spending on branding isn’t working, “Spending thousands of dollars does not buy you as much attention and the reality is, the major labels have to work harder and more transparently to gain the exposure they once enjoyed.”
While this may spell trouble for the big time record labels, this ultimately leads to an increase of power in the hands of the
Apparently these guys are really into this musical branding thing.
independent artist. Artists now have the opportunity to make an image of their own and gain a following of fans who can support them.
Some artists have recognized the power of branding, and have seen how its use has hurt their own brand. Case and point, Nine Inch Nails.
Apparently, our government likes to use Nine Inch Nails’ powerful sound to improve the effectiveness of interrogations at Guantanamo Bay. In this article, the government’s tactics are outlined and described in detail regarding this use of music to cause a psychotic feeling in the victims of the interrogations they conduct at Guantanamo.
While branding becomes more and more important for artists, it is clear that selling power may lie in correctly branding the artists sound.
Branding is and always will be an important element in our culture’s use of music. Whether its creating a song that will sell a product, using an artist’s image to sell a commodity or to sell an album, musical branding will be in full effect.
Sources:
Apple: A Corporate Profile
By Stephen Hoshaw
Background/History
If one was to look at the war between the personal computer and Macintosh ten years ago, it would look completely different than the battle waged today.
Apple's early attempt at catering toward the business crowd.
The Apple Computer Incorporation was founded by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in 1976. After creating the Apple I in Jobs’ garage, the two entrepreneurs sold 200 units to hobbyists in the San Fransisco Bay area.
Sales from these early Apple computers prompted the creation of two more generations of the Apple concept computer as well as the Apple Lisa.
In 1984 Apple unveiled Macintosh. Jobs hoped for this technology to spread to in-home use, expanding on the market for the company.
The sale of the Macintosh proved to be successful, at least at its beginning. Apple’s Macintosh sales dropped sharply after a small period during the Macintosh’s birth forcing Apple to re-think its business plan.
Steve Jobs makes his return to CEO of Apple in 1998.
Steve Jobs was later forced out of the CEO position at Apple by former president of PepsiCo John Sculley.
After a period of rough sales, Apple’s board of directors voted John Sculley to be replaced with Michael Spindler as the CEO of Apple. However, Spindler over
saw some of Apples largest failures. These include the Macintosh Portable and the Aquarius.
These mistakes caused the board to appoint Gil Amelio to overtake Spindler as CEO in 1996. As Amelio oversaw many of Apple’s changes to its graphical user interface, he wanted to merge with Jobs’ new company NeXT.
This merger eventually led to the creation of the OS system Macintosh computers employ now, as well as Jobs’ return to the CEO position at Apple.
Jobs’ return brought new vitality to Apple, along with a new vision for the future of the company.
Financial Information/Board of Directors
Today, it is clear that Jobs’ vision has been realized.
How much is Apple worth?
Last month, CNET stated, “Apple on Tuesday reported revenue of $13.5 billion and profits of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 earnings per share. That’s a 49-percent increase from the $9.08 billion in revenue reported in the same quarter a year ago.”
The release of the iPad has only shown how much of a media powerhouse Apple truly is. They proved that they havn’t lost their kick-ass product launch ability by selling over one million units over the first month of the iPads launch.
As we have seen, Apple has had many changes in the history of its corporate leadership. However, the return of Steve Jobs seems to have brought the companies top executives together.
A Wall Street Journal article reports, “Investors have long urged Apple’s directors to be more independent of the company’s
Apple's diverse board of directors.
powerful CEO, even as Apple has continued posting strong financial results. An independent board represents the interests of shareholders and can challenge the CEO when necessary, said David Nadler, a corporate governance expert and senior partner at consultants Oliver Wyman Group.”
One can clearly see how Apple’s board of directors could want to follow a CEO with such a distinct plan as Jobs’.
With most of the corporate leadership changes in their past, Jobs and Apple seem to focus on the future of our culture’s grasp of the computer and of media as a whole.
Product Placement/Synergy
In doing this, Apple has created an unstoppable brand image in our media landscape. Today, the Apple logo is used in many shows and movies.
Jim just loves his Macbook Pro!
In this press release by TV by The Numbers states, “Apple and Pontiac each received over $250,000 in Media Value from the season premiere of 24. According to Front Row Analytics, Apple received $292,800 in exposure by 12 total sequences.”
Apple advertises through more than just its television product placements, if you’ve seen a movie recently, you have probably seen an Apple product.
In the top blockbusters of last year, Apple products appeared in nearly 41 percent of the 44 films. This list includes Drag Me To Hell, Orphan, Crank 2: High Voltage and even the Oscar winning best picture of last year Hurt Locker.
He's got every avenue of media consumption covered thanks to Apple!
Clearly, Apple is aiming for the top spot in the pop culture spotlight for a corporation based on technology.
Not only do they lock down this spot literally IN the media we consume, but also through our consumption of media.
Apple does this brilliantly by providing us with devices such as the iPod, iPad and even the Macintosh home computer. It is in the combination of these technologies that the synergy Apple creates for itself shines.
Perhaps the most obvious example of the synergy between their own products is given by iTunes.
An article from CNET reported that, in 2009, a song bought from the itunes store accounted for 25 percent of the overall music market.
Last month, Fortune stated that Apple had sold around ten million (estimation) iPod units in just the second quarter of this year.
When combining the uses of these two technologies, Apple not only profits from the unit you are listening to your music through, but also from the music that is piped in to the mp3 player.
On top of this, the iPad adds another market for Apple to harness.
The iPad creates a market for applications. These are managed through the App Store and provide Apple with additional revenue through no output on their behalf.
The creation of the iPad device gives Apple an opportunity to return to vertical integration. Through the use of the A4 chip (in place of the intel chips they have been using in all of their Macintosh units) Apple is able to create the processors its computers run.
In studying this corporation, it is clear that Apple has utilized the media landscape of today to generate profit. This commodification of information is clearly the leverage that Apple will continue to use and integrate into their business plan.
Sources:
A brief history of Apple Computer Inc.
The first Macintosh advertisement.
John Sculley on Macintosh issues.
Apple sells one million iPads.
Wall Street Journal reports on the board of directors at Apple.
Numbers for Apple on television.
The Digital Release
By Stephen Hoshaw
How long will we be using these?
Buying an album today means something completely different than if you were to pick one up ten years ago. With the rise of the digital age comes a growing interest in a new format of music.
It is widely known that the music industry, much like the field of journalism, is facing a digital change. One could argue that the drop in 7.2 percent (down to $17 billion) for recordings last year is the result of their acclimation to their new environment. However, the opportunity that the digital switch provides for the music industry is extremely evident.
There are three distribution companies at the forefront of the digital music front currently striving to figure this out; Amazon, iTunes, and eMusic.
Amazon's trademarked smirk carries on to its music division
Amazon created a music division of its store in 2007, hoping to find its place in the digital music industry. Most of the songs they offer are priced between $0.89 and $0.99 individually. They use this to combat the newly instituted iTunes standard price of $1.29 a song. This is not the only maneuver they made to curb their rival.
In a move they denoted as the “daily deal,” Amazon MP3 offerred heavy promotion on albums release dates. This included slashing the prices on the selected album and in some cases, a one-day early exclusive on the release. This move was not well accepted by Amazon MP3’s most powerful rival, iTunes.
Apple responded to the record labels participating in this by threatening to take away marketing privileges on iTunes. This is what Scott Reilly, stated was one of his best accomplishments as the former manager of digital music at Amazon.
iTunes: a great gateway to music or a restraint on our musical interaction?
In an effort to provide the user with restriction-free mp3 music files, eMusic provides another avenue of competition in digital music market. eMusic works on a package-based subscription for the user. This allows a set number of downloads for a concrete price, saving the buyer more than if they were to use iTunes.
Where will netlabels such as PublicSpaces Lab fit in to the music industry?
While these digital music distribution services struggle to find the best way to meet their profit margins, record labels have started looking into the digital market as well.
Under Creative Commons, PublicSpaces Lab has been digitally releasing tracks since 2007. Netlabels such as PublicSpaces Lab distribute their artists content through both digital download and online radio. As one of their newest releases, The Containment Sessions proves to be an interesting digital release experiment.
Through progressive technologies such as the DRM-free download and the solely digital album release, it will be interesting to see where digital music will bring the music industry holistically.
Sources:
360 Degrees of Pain: What the Rest of the Business Is Looking Like.
Amazon MP3 Takes on the iTunes Store.
Is Apple Finally Worried About Amazon’s Music Store.
Amazon exec slams some in music sector.
iTunes Store a greater cash crop than Apple implies?
Fearless(ly) Owning a Demographic
Taylor Swift's newest album Fearless
By Stephen Hoshaw
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, you are aware of the new pop-princess in town.
Taylor Swift has taken the spot that many other pop stars have previously filled. She has had wild success with Fearless, her sophomore album, which provided her the top spot on The Billboard 200 last year. Swift has since become a celebrity commodity and has made an appearance at many music events in Hollywood.
A prime example of this was at this year’s Grammy event. Infamous Fleetwood Mac vocalist Stevie Nicks paired with Swift for a duet of “Rhiannon” (Nicks joins her at around 2:18 in the clip). This rendition created quite the buzz around Swift’s voice, as many noticed that she seemed to have some tonal issues.
History/Context
Fearless made its debut on November 11th of 2008. During 2009 the album sold over 3.2 million copies, making Fearless the year’s best seller and Swift “the youngest solo artist ever to top the year-end sales chart”.
Swift Recieves the "Album of the Year" Grammy
Due to this popularity, Swift soared to number 69 on the Forbes 2009 Celebrity 100 list, showing her income as 18 million dollars that year.
The album’s record-setting sales not only helped her (and her record company, The Big Machine‘s) bank account, but also played their part in awarding Swift the album of the year Grammy at this year’s show.
Fearless‘s success also won Swift the Country Music Association’s Entertainer of the Year award, as well as more Gold and platinum certifications than any other artist has received in October.
Production
Taylor Swift paired with producer Nathan Chapman to produce Fearless. Swift claims that many of the tracks off of Fearless are based personal relationships from her life.
Swift with Producer Nathan Chapman
As she stated, “True. I write songs about people that I date. When you buy my album you are going to find out what I’ve gone through in the past two years. And you’ll probably be able to
figure out how many break-ups I’ve gone through, how many people I’ve fallen for – it’s very autobiographical.”
Much of what makes Taylor’s music consumable for the general public is rooted in the image she created in Fearless. As writer Benji Wilson discusses, “Clean-living pop singer Taylor Swift is the ultimate anti-Britney.”
Distribution
In Fearless‘s digital release it sold 129,000 copies, making it the fourth largest week for a digital recording. This digital success only added to the album’s already gigantic in-store sales triumph of 3.2 million.
Super sweet gang signs guys, whats the deal with Debbie Downer on the right? (Swift and her record execs)
The Big Machine is the record company providing the power behind Swift’s release. This allowed Swift the opportunity to spread awareness of Fearless through the most powerful/successful routes possible.
A press release, dated the day after the album’s release, states that she would appear on the 42nd CMA Awards to play a live version of “Love Story”. Another press release states that she was given an interview with Ryan Seacrest five days before the album release.
Synergism
Fearless has made Taylor Swift a marketer’s dream. There are many examples of cross-marketing that come to mind when looking at her personal brand.
See the resemblance? A little creepy if you ask me... Also, why the hairbrush?
Wal-mart now has a selection of dolls resembling Taylor Swift’s various fairytale characters she portrays in her songs. A great example of franchising, she also has a book available (for those interested in her biography).
However, perhaps the most notable cross-marketing in her bag of promos is her new clothing line. l.e.i has picked Swift up as their new brand image for a sundress line, giving her a collection of clothes she gets to help “design,” and sell of course.
She is also used in the new Band Hero promo (video below). Band Hero is going to include tracks from Fearless, thus we will no doubt be seeing more of Swift in promo’s of this game.
Consumption
When dealing with how America consumes Fearless, one must first realize what a marketers dream she is. Not only does she claim to promote a “clean” lifestyle, but she is INSANELY popular with a ripe target market, the tween (if you have any doubts about this fan base, please peep the video below).
Swift’s writing partner, Liz Rose, states that “She’s brought back a lot of fans we (country) lost that went to pop and Disney.”
No matter what she produces in the future, it is clear that Swift has created great success with Fearless. The crowd she now has with her is at an age that is ideal to follow her career/products into the future.
Sources:
Articles:
Swift and Nicks’ Duet: Out of Sight, or Out of Tune?
Nielsen Soundscan Swift Ratings
Swift on the Forbes Celebrity 100
Swift’s Page on The Big Machine
The Big Machine Press Release Page (2008)
l.e.i. Swift Sundress Collection
Swift Talks About Blurring Genre Lines
Videos:
Music Inc. 