The Importance Of Music As Marketing Techniques

Music surrounds us at all times of our day. Even when we don’t make a conscious decision to listen to it, it serves as the soundtrack to almost everything we do.

We go to the bar for a coffee and the radio in the background transmits music to us, we do the shopping and music accompanies us in the purchases, we are at an exhibition and a musical background follows our visit.

The same is true if we watch a movie and even a lot of reports. Also at the stadium, in the interval of a football match, we are entertained by the loudspeakers which transmit music. What about the advertisements?

In many cases, this is not just entertainment, but the result of real marketing research. Indeed, our brain stores all the promptings it receives and if it is stimulated in the right way, it is able to remember situations and associate stimuli with lived experiences. Successfully fostering these connections can give a huge advantage in the sales and promotion of any product or service. Stimulating positive memories and bringing them back improves mood and predisposes to purchasing as a result.

We are now ready to enter the field of sensory marketing, which, by stimulating our senses, can influence our behavior!

Sensory marketing

Anyone who is accustomed to watching television or radio programs knows that it is impossible to escape commercials and that commercials are almost always accompanied by music or song.

The choice of soundtrack is not random and must be carefully considered to achieve the desired impact on the audience, must integrate with the narration and dialogues of the story contained in the spot, without distracting attention of the message that the potential customer needs to reach in a clear and confusing manner.

How to choose the right music

As we see every day, any musical genre can lend itself to this use: depending on the categories of products that we want to promote, we will try to select music that is in line with the idea to be represented, for example with a certain lifestyle associated with a car or a perfume. For good success, it is essential that the music is based on the context of the advertisement.

The music that performs the best is not always the best known, but it is the one that is able to elicit suggestions from potential consumers that engage them emotionally in a positive and fun way. There are advantages and disadvantages to using a trending song: while it can be enjoyed in the moment, it could even be boring if the piece becomes fashionable (think summer hits, for example).

The use of music can promote the consumer’s bond with the brand, raise the level of attention towards the advertising message, create a strong association with the brand by citing it within the song, as in the case of “Jingles”.

In summary, it can be said that the success of an advertising campaign is achieved if it has managed to stay imprinted on people’s minds and be hummed by potential consumers.

In these cases, a very important element is the emotional contagion, that is to say to succeed in making several people experience the same emotional state induced precisely by a communicator which, in our case, will be an advertising spot.

A recent discovery

It was around the 90s that advertising discovered the possibility of harnessing emotions, whereas previously there was more emphasis on humor and sarcasm. We begin to understand that emotions can be used to increase attention and interest in a product, whether it be joy, fear, anxiety, empathy, disgust. If anger is the emotional state which turns out to be more easily contagious, the surest for the success of an advertising message is a positive feeling, on the contrary the use of negative emotions can be risky and create unease in the person. potential client.

To give an idea of the effects of listening, we can cite an experiment made in a store where it had been proven that French music in the background had led to the increase in the sale of French wines! The same result had been obtained by the sale of German products while typical German music was being broadcast.

Music used as a background in a store is an additional service offered to the customer, increasing their satisfaction and therefore their propensity to buy. In contrast, choosing the wrong music can have the opposite effect.

Research conducted by the marketing department of Bocconi University in Milan quantified the effect of music in a store with an increase in the average customer’s receipt of between 2 and 10%. And let’s not forget the positive effect that music also has on the mood of the staff working in the store, with the result that more motivated staff work better and give more.

Create the right environment

In retail, too, music is seen as important in creating a more comfortable environment for customers and workers. To obtain the best results, the choice will have to be made with care and be consistent with the environment in which we find ourselves: for example, it will be pleasant and relaxing in a restaurant, engaging and rhythmic in a gym.

It will also have to be functional to the objectives: a wellness center that wants to extend the stay of customers will choose long, pleasant and not too demanding music, a store will aim not to waste the customer’s time with too relaxing music but either to press it with too stimulating music, by opting for a cadenced and repetitive sound which will keep company without distracting from the choice. A dairy store will focus on country music, a jewelry store on jazz and swing, a sports store on a vibrant and energetic genre, and so on.

Two important elements: rhythm and volume

In addition to the type of music, essential will be the choice of two other elements: time and volume. The time (considered in bpm, beats per minute) must remain within 70 bpm to improve the quality of the customers’ stay in the store; Beyond this threshold one could run the risk of having the opposite result. The volume should be low, within 30-40 db (decibels), so as not to disturb the customer.

It is proven that the longer the customer stays in the store, the more the chances of making a purchase increase. Too loud music makes it difficult for customers to interact with staff and distracts attention from the purchase. The need for a fast food restaurant, for example, is different, where one tends not to extend the customer’s stay beyond the time needed to consume the purchased food in order to clear the tables and make it available. for other customers. In this case, loud music will help achieve the goal.

Music, art and culture

A similar discourse can be made for the use of music as the soundtrack of films, exhibitions, fashion shows. In all of these cases, his role in the success of the event is indisputable. Soundtracks have a decisive role in creating the right atmosphere, in involving the viewer where one wants to rely on the presence of strong emotional components.

If we think of the scene from a film that is stuck in our memory, we will hardly remember it without also remembering the music that accompanied it. Blockbuster movies almost always carry equally loved and remembered soundtracks with them. Already in the trailer of a film the music has the duty to capture the attention of the spectator, to fascinate him, to astonish him, to intrigue him with the obvious aim of taking him to the cinemas.

Even art and culture often merge with soundtracks that enhance them and exhibitions that are more and more interactive, with the offer of several contents and routes designed to emotionally involve the public in order to offer real experiences. sensory where the music follows and underlines the different phases of the journey. Whether in these contexts or, for example, during a fashion show, the soundtrack must be in perfect harmony with the context, the stylistic coherence reinforces the key concepts on which we want to draw attention as well as dictate the rhythm and atmosphere of the event itself.