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).
Music Inc. 