Background information
Advertising entails the use of marketing campaign awareness so as to promote the brand and product; it passes some information, reminds and persuades the target market. Some may use music in communicating the message of image/brand acceptance by the target market. The use of music in promotion will help convey the specific message including the mission statement to the intended target market which will be achieved through the use of integrated marking communication. The companies’ targets to advertise in print media, print media and other forms. The advertising should be:
- Controlled: this concept distinguishes advertising from personal selling and publicity. As to the content time and course of the latter two methods of marketing communication, the advertiser has no absolute authority, but these aspects can be controlled in the case of advertising.
- Non – personal outward communication: these concepts imply that advertising takes –place by way of non –personal mass communication media in the form of one- way communication from the advertiser to the target audience.
- Identifiable sponsor: this concept is used to show that the receiver of the message can recognize its source and purpose as derived from the product, brand or name of the institution.
- Specific target audience or target market: this concept makes provision for market segmentation and the selection of a target market which may be based on the geographical and / or psychological characteristics of the market.
- Information: this concept explains the particular tasks of advertising, namely to inform potential consumers of the product, service or idea, its price, the place where it can be purchased and the needs which it can satisfy.
- Reminding: this concept indicates that advertising continually reminds present consumers of the existence of the product or service even though they are aware of its existence or may already be purchasing it.
- Persuasion: this concept is used to show that the purpose of advertising is, inter alia, to create a preference for the sponsors product or service and to encourage the target audience to take the appropriate action, that is, to purchase the advertised product or service.
Advertising has a significant effect on a country’s economy, culture, society, and political system. Critics argue that advertising has an enormous influence on society. This is particularly correct in the United States where advertising industry takes part in such an important role. Advertising can have extensive consequences on a society. Some critics propose that advertising encourages a materialistic manner of life by directing people to think that pleasure is attained by purchasing products. It is argued that advertising produces a consumer culture where buying rousing new products turns to be the basis of the society’s pleasures, values, and goals.
Advertising advises the consumers that simply purchasing products makes one happy, and consequently, people compare each other with their belongings. It is also argued that consumers are fooled by deceptive advertising, and thus, advertising must be curtailed, or firmly regulated. Advertising is highly criticized on the basis of manipulation, deception, and being in bad taste.
Furthermore, it is suspected to distort the life styles and social values. Other critics’ articulate worry over the manner advertising has influenced racial minority groups and women. Advertisements in the 1950s portrayed women principally as sex objects or decoration. Even though millions of women worked in the 1960s, advertisements persisted to focus on their function as homemakers. After 1960s, it became more ordinary to see women portrayed in professional roles, however, numerous of advertisements today still highlight a woman’s sexuality. The way advertising has portrayed racial minorities has been harmful as well. Before 1960, African Americans were typically shown in an inferior position. However, several African American community and organization activists maintain to object on the means that tobacco and alcohol companies have apparently besieged low-income minority communities through a heavy predominance of outdoor advertising on their products. As advertisements have begun to more completely mirror the lives of African Americans and women in the United States, growing consideration has been given to the method in which advertising shows other ethnic groups, such as Native Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.
Advertising has a chief social impact by aiding maintain mass communications media and creating them comparatively cheap, if not at all free, to the public. Broadcast television, newspapers, magazines, and radio all receive their major income from advertising. Devoid of advertising, numerous of these types of mass communication may not exist to the degree that they do today, otherwise they may be significantly offer less variety, more expensive, or even subject to the government control through subsidies. The free entertainment, in-depth news programs, and a diversity of magazines, may no longer be extensively available. simultaneously, however, some critics advise that since advertising take part in a foremost economic role, it might exercise unwarranted pressure on the news media, thus, restrain the free course of information in the free society. Commercials are significant fraction of the income of TV stations that directs to the doubt that news channels may not report on incidents concerning companies they depend on. Reporters and editors, for instance, might be uncertain to develop news story which criticizes a chief advertiser. Consequently, society may not be vigilant to harmful or prospectively harmful demeanor of the advertiser. The majority of the members of news media refute that influence from an advertiser stops them from trailing news stories concerning such advertiser, but some members admit that they may not be persuaded to examine an issue insistently if it threatened to affront a major advertiser.
The impact of music on children has obtained much attention. Researches suggest that children view television advertising as merely another kind of programming and respond uncritically to the messages, which make them particularly susceptible to advertising. Also, women compare themselves with the very skinny and beautiful models they view on commercials and advertisements. There is apprehension about the method wherein adolescent girls react to advertising which features beautiful and thin models. New research proposes that adolescent boys, also, are being manipulated by advertising representations of bulked-up and buffed bodies. thus, countless become displeased with their body image, dedicate great quantities of time to weightlifting, might even take drugs which have injurious side effects to develop more muscle.
Advertising provides to constrain competition in the marketplace through motivating consumer spending and eventually growing the quantity of money which businesses make. It does not require that business develop its service or products due to competition. It also alleviates an otherwise lively marketplace. Advertising provides financial support for the media and motivating an active and competitive economy. As consumers linger aware of products through different kinds of advertising, the companies are not as vulnerable to shifts or changes in the flow and ebb of business. Every business is also obliged to keep its prices in a sensible range. Additionally, it might be helpful to consumers, bearing in mind that distribution of information is essential when buyers are to make an alternative from a range of services and products. Advertising’s role is to unite meanings from product to consumer.
Each individual’s consideration of advertising is influenced by these characteristics. Every individual has a mental riddle through which each advertisement pervades. Some of the filters are firmly knit; allowing only specific things go by, while the others have extensive spaces which permit everything through. Even then, every individual chooses what he/she has to do with the data that acquires past the filter.
Literature review- summary of individual papers
A definition of advertising should at least center on its communication task in which the concept of information, reminding and persuasion should be emphasized. Advertising should thus be defined as controlled, non- personal outward communication regarding a need satisfying product, service or idea which is identifiable sponsor addresses to a specific target audience or target market for the purpose of informing and/ or persuading it to take the appropriate action.
Advertising may be classified into various forms depending on who advertises, what is being advertised, to whom the message is addressed, where the target market is and the response that is sought. The circumstances under which the advertising occurs can thus differ. This cannot be used as a basis for classifying various forms of advertising because they mainly concern the strategic and tactic aspects of advertising.
External control over advertising: Voluntary control over advertising is also practiced by the advertising standards authority. This body includes most of those concerned with advertising.
The code of the advertising standards authority contains comprehensive stipulations pertaining to the prevention of misleading advertising as well as information that has to appear in advertisements under certain circumstances and for certain products. The consumer also has the right to report to the authority any advertising not adhering to this code. Any such report will be investigated and, if necessary, steps will be taken against the defaulting advertiser.
The organizational possibilities of advertising. There are basically two possibilities regarding the organization of the advertising activities, for example an own advertising division within the enterprise, or advertising can be given to an advertising practitioner outside the enterprise. Very often it happens that both parties together bear the responsibility for advertising. More than half the amount of money spent on advertising is handled by marketing department or the advertising practitioners. A large portion of the balance is spent by retailers and other smaller enterprises who handle their own advertising. No set norms exist, however for the organization of advertising activities. Normally advertising practitioners are used to affect national advertising whilst retail advertising is done by the enterprise’s own advertising division because the advertised message may have to be varied at short intervals.
Music
Whether it is confessed or not, music imbeds our daily life, merging its magnificence, beauty, its soothing effect and emotion through our feelings, thoughts, behavior and our memories. Music is a form of art where the medium is sound organized in time. Definition of music as coined by Edgard Varese is that it is “organized sound” (Goldman 1961, 133).
Music could also act as an aid against bad feelings like emotional stress, depression, sadness, misery, anxiety, and nervousness. It holds the power to cheer up a person and making him want to dance, even when he is upset or going through a dull feeling. Levi R. Bryant defines music not as a language, but as a marked-based, problem-solving method such as mathematics.
The formation, performance, presentation, significance, implication and even the classification and worth of music differ according to culture and social point of view. Music is entangled into the way of life of people in many different cultures. It is also considered to play a role in displaying the culture and tradition of those people who form several groups in accordance with their race, tribe, ethnic group, language, opinion and beliefs.
Music itself has always been praised in social get-togethers whether these gathering are formed as a result of birthdays, anniversaries, parties and concerts. Many hotel and restaurants amuse their customers by playing enormous melodies.
Life being lead by people in today’s world and in existing time, usually don’t get anytime to relax, calm down and lighten up when it is needed the most as they are busy almost all the time. As per his scenario, music plays an important role in helping them to be in peace for a sufficient amount of time. On speaking about oneself, a person apparently even fails to realize his quantity of work that he performs each day; he puts behind him the stress level that is increasing as mind hardly gets a time off the work being performed. Going through such busy routine in daily life, few moments spent listening to music that could help change and relax mind could make a huge difference in one’s energy.
There are a lot of musical instruments which are used for creation of melody like piano, guitar, drums, violin, flute, etc. All instruments are capable of being used to express the intensity of emotion formed inside of a person. Amongst all instruments, violin is desired the most by me. It belongs to the family of bowed strings. 1Although bowed instruments were known to the Arabs, Turks and other Oriental peoples before they were known in Europe, it is the European violin that is now most commonly played. This instrument, if played with expertise, creates the most soothing melody which also makes a person close his eyes so that he could enjoy its sound and rhythm at its fullest. Emotions of a person, who has mastered in violin, are carried out through the sound created by a violin and are felt by the listeners. Happiness, peace, encouragement, sadness, anger, etc, all sorts of feelings could be transferred from the player to the listener by the help of it.
Influence of background music on shopping on shopping behavior classical versus top-forth music in a wine store
There are many factors that influence consumer behavior. The article tries to explain the impact of music in the consumer behavior. The such of a consumer purchasing wine in the store was researched as the researchers has found that the consumption of wine in the store was influenced by certain factors this factors was considered to be the origin of the wine, snob appeal and the sophistication of the wine. The research has also considered the impact of music in the purchase of the wine. Wine which had higher prices where purchased when classic music was being played. This meant that classical music played an important role in influencing the type of wine that was being purchased. They found out that top-forty music had little impact in influencing the consumer consumption. Where there was no music purchase was lower in consuming the wine. What it means is that music played an important role in communicating some message about the wine. In normal marketing environment adverting campaign is aimed at helping the customers not the product.
The main aim of the music in this case was to advertiser and attains specific objectives. Advertising must, of course, be related to and deduced from the broad marketing communication task of advertising. The result of advertising must therefore be change of mind, attitude, behavior or action of the receivers of the message and it is against these that its effectiveness can ultimately be measured. The requirements for specific advertising objectives comprise, inter alia, the following:
- Measurableness: advertising objectives must not be formulated in vague general terms, but must reflect the specifically require communication implicit such as a 15 per cent increase in the awareness of the product or services
- Bench-mark: before a specific advertising objective can be set, the present situation should be clear; for example, the present brand awareness in the target market is 50 per cent. Without such a “point of departure” it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of advertising and to quantity the impact which is required.
- The target market should be well articulated to make music advertising successful. This links up with the concept of market segmentation and such a target market may include, for example married women in the age group 24- 48 years, motorcar owners or institutional buyers in the target market. One of the most important advantages of defining a target market specifically is that it facilitates the selection of advertising media.
- Written: advertising objectives should be committed to paper so that any shortcomings or misunderstandings can be exposed. At the same time this serves as a guideline for management of rest of the advertising campaign. With the abovementioned requirements as the point of departure, it is now possible to set specific advertising objectives.
From the above objectives and the research from this paper it shows clearly those music players an important role in influencing the customer. The research also showed that the type of music that is being played and impact on consumption of wine. If the music was played in the background consumption was high for expensive wine as compared to music on real time. The consumers expect more due to the influence of music at the background.
Consumer behavior in automotive industry
Consumer behavior in the automotive industry especially in consideration to general motors America is influenced by culture factors, social factors, Personal factors and Psychological factors.
Culture factors: In America today culture is one of the most fundamental determinants for one when deciding the type of vehicle to purchase. There are many motor vehicle manufacturing companies producing a wide range of vehicles, they also offer different quality of services. Most of the people due to their cultural influence have started preferring general motors brands. Children growing up in America prefer specific values that are crucial to a vehicle. One of the values they like most is comfort. These values common in children remain in them even if they grow up. The values of the vehicles that general motors offers are of high class. For example the seats of cars produced by general motors are smart and comfortable for one seating on them. The vehicles produced by general motors have got desirable values that most American usually looks for.
Cultural factors real influence a consumer behavior. American people believe in values like efficiency and practicality. Vehicles from general motors are known to be very efficient in their operations. These vehicles are perfect in all weather condition. Both light and heavy commercial vehicles perform well in rough roads. For customers who believe on practicality very much the general motor vehicles perform in extreme conditions. Hence it has been like a culture in America that these vehicles are reliable.
- Personal factors: In America when making the final decision of buying a vehicle one’s personal characteristics like his age and life-cycle stage, lifestyle, occupation, economic circumstances and personality will influence his choice. General motors America take much consideration to personal characteristics of various groups of people before designing its vehicles in order to meet the needs and demand of its people.
- Social factor: When once goes to the market to purchase a car he will take consideration to his membership groups. These are groups having direct influence to once buying decisions.
Here in America some groups like the upper class prefer buying vehicles from general motors. Since general motors America produces many types of vehicles that fulfill this group it attracts most people. In America the influence of a family is very great. Co-worker also influence one’s buying decision. In America if especially the boss has bought a given commodity the juniors will also try to buy the same.
Psychological factors:-Motivation: some people get satisfied when they buy specific brands of cars. Some Americans feel that they have satisfied specific needs by buying general motors automatic cars especially the handicapped. A customer with only one of his legs feels satisfied when he buys one of general motor automatic cars that he is able to drive without one of his legs. Because these are cars that select gears automatically after the accelerator pedal has been depressed.
Perception: Most Americans to be motivated in order to act will depend mostly on their perceptions of the situation. Here in America the design of a car, its body finishes all appeal to the perception of a customer.
Beliefs and attitudes: most Americans follow some set of belief when making a decision on the type of car or brand of car to buy. Most people believe that electronic fuel injection vehicles have more benefits than vehicles having carburetors.
Advertising Rules of Thumb by Daniel Brand
The articles highlight the factors that influence advertising effectiveness. Advertising effectiveness is influence by many factors these factors according to this article include product time consumed choose of media. The pre-testing and revision of the advertising campaign together with measuring the effectiveness of advertising are part of the control element of advertising management. Seem in the light these facts of advertising management must follow the logic steps of control, for example, setting standards; observing actual performance; comparing the actuality with the standard and analyzing and explaining deviations; and taking corrective steps. Essentially, in measuring the effectiveness of advertising, it should be determined in how far specific advertising objectives have attained.
A viewpoint often held is that advertising effectiveness can be determined by an increase in sales. This is obviously not true because advertising is but one of many elements influencing sales. Advertising is, however, ultimately geared to the marketing and sales objectives, therefore effectives advertising naturally has to contribute to the achievement of these objectives.
Essentially, advertising can be marketing communication task, and the effectiveness of advertising can be measured according to its ability to communicate effectively with the target market. The marketing communication’s impact be measured advertising ability will depend on the success to the message itself, the media used for advising, and the amount available for advertising. The question now arises: according to which criteria can the marketing communication’s impact be measured? Five criteria exist, namely: the extent to which advertising has altered the increase in the awareness of the message, product or theme; the extent to which the target market remembers something of the message or medium; the extent to which advertising has altered the attitude and opinion of the target market; the creditability that people show in the advertisement; and the number of inquiries ensuing for the advertisement.
There are various methods that can be used to determine the marketing communication’s impact. The first method requires the questioning of people who have regularly been exposed to a medium with the purpose of determining what they can remember about the advertiser and his product. The recall achievement is determined on the grounds of the reaction of the people questioned and is used to quantify the marketing communication’s impact.
Recognition test use a random check on the readers of a certain edition of, for example, a magazine. They are then asked to indicate what they namely the percentage of readers who say that they have seen the advertisement and who can thus supply the name of the product or service, and the percentage who can prove that they have read more than half of the written contents.
Measuring the effectiveness of the advertising remains a vital facet of an advertising campaign and no fool-proof methods exist regarding the nature and extent of the campaign. Reliable measuring can, however, obviate expensive mistakes in the future; it can show up the worth of different advertising policies and strategic, and can improve the general advertising effectiveness.
The Power of Music and Its Influence on International Retail Brands and Shopper Behaviour
The article explained the importance of using music in encouraging the customer to patronize business premises the article being in explanation on the power of music. The writer explains that music is powerful in connecting the customer to a specific business where is been played. Music brings relaxation to the mind of the customer therefore customer would like to be associated with such a place therefore customers playing music will have huge cells and customer will patronize such business due to past experience. Music player an important role in attracting various customer demographic depending on type of product that is been sold. If the music is for the younger generation then we shall have youth generation frequently patronizing the business. The music also has the effect on psychographic of the target market.
Motivation: some people get satisfied when they buy specific music is played thus influencing purchase behavior of this people. Some customers feel that they have satisfied specific needs by buying general store with that music. A young generation will feel satisfied when they buy from store with background music that he is able to drive without one of his legs.
Perception: Most customers to be motivated in order to act will depend mostly on their perceptions of the situation. Here customers will tend to be appealed to the perception of a store by the music. The various tones music produces various effects of attraction giving customers a good picture of the real quality of this goods being sold. Also when in the store they do not take music as noise giving a good perception about the product.
Beliefs and attitudes: most people follow some set of belief when making a decision on the type of store to patronize. Most people believe that a store with music at the background have more benefits and high quality products than those without music. Even though other stores have music, Nike town and most people believe that those products available they are more durable and high quality. This are believes that promote Nike Town.
Nike Town music helps them to have a relationship with customer because the music coming from the store in Chicago is the same as that of Las Vegas and Los Angeles. Any customer visiting one of these stores will find similar music like bouncing balls also the music is the accompanied by video models and big scene showing athletes.
Victoria secret capture’s the customer attitude to come and visit again by playing music that encouraging customer among themselves and sales people. The same time FAO schewaz has music which is accompanied by electronic games. In each department in the store has its own music this make shopping a fantastic experience to the customer.
Musicians and audience
Musicians are the widely known people who are highly regarded by the audience. They stand out as the cream of the society, super achievers who scale the heights none had dared. The rises and sets in the eyes of these stars according to their there fans’ reactions – the connection is both emotional and psychological.
All this acclamation gets into the heads of the stars and their identity changes completely. As the musicians come in all shapes and from various fields so does their behavior. There are professional musicians who include television anchors and actors, musicians and film stars, politicians and leaders. Mostly these types of stars are internationally known and it’s easy for them to become globe trotters in the name of getting close to there fans. These stars are usually internationally known.
Musicians also create an identity by use the common trade mark look or dressing codes which may include, use of a particular hair style that identifies with that specific personality. There is a therapeutic effect when a star acclaims something which makes even a vice become a slogan in the society just because a popular person did it. Virtues like love have been abused by this people who are always in the public domain and the institution of marriage no longer holds any sanctity to them. They are self driven always going for what they believe that they deserve despite breaking rules of the society.
The stars make the unsuccessful feel inferior though they might not be aware, this is because they seem to feel the space with there confidence which they have acquired after making a good name in there respective industries thus suffocating any upcoming star. However the strong willed does stand firm and fight to beat a path to fame.
To fit with the stars some people let them use them to acquire there ego. In common cases women agree to dance almost naked just to be featured and associated with this stars. While others dress in clothes that have the stars photo imprints and buy there products religiously.
All in all the musicians of today are the ones who put our given society on the global map with the unlimited ambitions to an art that which no one ever taught existed. Also they help mould our history and set the line for the future musicians who must close over to bring something much more credible enough to make them stars. The making of the stars is very significant to the human society at large as it brings new horizon which would even mean a better living.
Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture
The formation, performance, presentation, significance, implication and even the classification and worth of music differ according to culture and social point of view. Music is entangled into the way of life of people in many different cultures. It is also considered to play a major role in displaying the culture and tradition of those people who form several groups in accordance with their race, tribe, ethnic group, language, opinion and beliefs. Music has always been praised in social gatherings whether it’s a birthday party or an anniversary and even at the restaurants where enormous melodies are played to entertain their customers.
Chinese has also created a culture of dressing and eating. The Chinese have one same culture that is acceptable by all. Local dressing identities hence are seen to have been tampered with. Language identities hence are seen to have been associated with this culture. There are words that can never be found in any dictionary or any local language vocabularies yet Chinese music lovers can communicate and understand each other through use of such a language.
When it comes to greetings Chinese music has also a style of greeting that seems unusual to he minority people who are not in the world. Since time immemorial each and every culture had its local way of greeting.
The music of India is exclusively monadic. It has scales of sa-grama and ma-grama instead of the doh—fah soh which is used in the western world. The two used differs when it comes to intervals of pitch already it claimed that they were used in 16th century. There music, ragas has been using ragas that has ways of crating them and they are sung.
India’s music s role in the advertising is a combination of sociological, psychological, and economic perspectives in general. It does provide specific information about the problems of the society and at times used for advertising. For example when sing about a disease a drug can be advertised thus targeting lovers of the music. The trend and pattern of music role depends on the psychological perspective but also derived the social intend as well as the music lovers justification. In this linear connection, the psychological perspective emerges in a deeper sense to make the goals, purposes, and obligations of music in advertisement become more rationalize in the society.
Through the document discussed in this section, it can be seen that music are important in the advertising. It is a significant fact that music is behind any success that we have in advertising. The only negative proportion that could be seen in this aspect is that music pass negative message. It is somehow problematic but acceptable from the historical trend up to this present generation where music are already symbol of entertainment and leisure removal.
Peter Gabriel on the Digital Revolution
Music has always been one of the most appreciated creations of the human mind. Since time immemorial, people have searched for ways on how music, which from a form of entertainment evolved to become a source of income for many, can be distributed to millions of fans worldwide. As technology advanced, people have learned various ways on how to put music into devices thus eliminating the need for live performers every time music is called into presence. At the dawn of the 20th century ago, these included turntables or phonographs. And still, a few decades ago, the aforementioned formats gave way to cassettes and videos. However, technology proves to be unstoppable since today, other formats have rapidly emerged in the market thus ushering the music industry into what is termed today as the digital music revolution. If once, a single record amounted to considerable preparation to make it work, today, people are given the privilege to listen to all kinds of music just by a few pushes of buttons. Considering this dramatic change in the production and dissemination of music across the globe, we come to the question of how this digital revolution affects millions of musicians and consumers alike. In response to this, this paper serves the purpose of presenting the different facets of what the revolution has to offer.
And lastly, the ability of many artists to use the internet in digitalizing the promotion and selling of their music has paved the way for better interaction between them and consumers. As stated above, many minor artists used self-managed websites where they can promote and sell their music. This in turn has led to different forms of easier communication between artists and fans via online discussions and forums. With regard to dealing with the production of music, it is also evident that digitalizing them in the internet helped in faster and easier distribution. If once, distribution to another country involved actual shipment of CDs and other records, fans can now interact with the actual companies/artists through the internet.
Considering the advancing ways on how technology affects the music industry, it must be noted that most companies should get in with the times since rapid innovations may lead to the demise of outdated companies. Also, the financial problems posed by the piracy of music either through the internet or unwarranted duplications of records is causing much profit loss among many recording and distributing companies. As shown by these problems, the digital music revolution has two facets: one characterized by that of convenience and easy acquisition and another of staggering rate of piracy. In relation to this, stricter laws and measures should be implemented in order to curtail the rise of these cases. And most importantly, the digitalization of the music industry has led never-before seen ways of how artists can reach the largest number of fans and music lovers.
In conclusion, the digital music revolution has paved the way for unprecedented convenience in both distribution and acquisition of music. Firstly, tedious ways of enjoying music such as the use of turntables, phonographs, and even the buying (in stores) and loading of CDs into players are now being replaced by the easier and faster downloading of music from the internet in very reasonable prices (without the inconvenience of going outside or buying 18-song CDs just to get a couple). Secondly, digitalization offers minor and struggling artists a chance to promote and sell their music without the use of intermediating companies. And lastly, the internet as a vital tool in the promotion, distribution, and acquisition of music has made it possible for more direct and faster contacts between artists and fans alike. As this age of rapid technological advancements continue to offer more and more innovations for the convenience of many, we may well expect better and easier ways of enjoying music be it in the comfort of our homes or anytime anywhere through gadgets which defy the technology of the past.
Results and discussion
Most consumers in the world today are concerned with the features of the product as they form most important factor in determining the consumer behaviors. Take for example of products of fashion show for young and mature women. Due to increase and growth of consumerism, the clothing should come up with clothes that make women move with times thus increasing consumption and production.
In world today culture is one of the most fundamental determinants for one when deciding the product to consume. Children growing up will learn the culture of parents or peers thus preferring specific values that are crucial to a determining consumption. One of the values they like most is comfort. These values common in children remain in them even if they grow up.
Social factors influences consumer behavior. When once goes to the market to purchase a product he will take consideration to his membership groups, social class and family. These are groups having direct influence to once buying decisions. For example there is upper class people who are social elite with a good family background.
One of the impacts of musician endorsement is the creation of credibility of the product, essentially because people consider the musicians as being highly credible themselves. However, argue that credibility alone cannot explain the effect of musician endorsement and that the iconic qualities of celebrities, their status, popularity and recognition need understanding for this can have serious implications in matching musician and product distinguishing features.
The fashion industry and advertisers base their promotion strategies on creating a distinctive style and attaching desirable lifestyle associations to luxury fashions through a process of branding. Musician endorsement further helps strengthen these lifestyle associations and continuing consumption creates a sort of addiction to style. Such consumption may be unnecessary but is very profitable for the marketer.
Some authors describe the role of advertising as a mechanism for coordinating consumer purchase decisions. In other words not only does advertisement strive to add consumer value through increasing the number of people who also purchase the same product and thus address the need for social standing. Increase in the consumer base also helps companies to provide improved service, after sale service, and acceptability.
The intended target consumer only ‘probabilistically’ observes advertisement in media and even if the message is observed the chances of recall at the time of purchase are low.
In McCracken’s three-stage ‘‘Meaning Transfer Model’’ we find a comprehensive explanation of how meanings and images become attached to a particular musician, these meanings or images are then transferred to the product the musician endorses and finally the images and meanings are transferred from the product to the consumer through purchase and consumption. If the musician image is “desirable and resonant”, the consumers wish to emulate the musician and demonstrate this desire through the purchase and consumption of the product and to identify a self-concept that is in alignment with the musician. Among younger people, the musicians may take on the image of role models and favourable response to the endorsed product may occur through a desire to copy the performance and lifestyle of the musician. On the other hand, desire to emulate the image, behaviour, or achievements of the musician does not influence older customers’ decision to purchase and consume a product, which may be driven by the desire for constructing a self-image that is resonant with that of the musician. This clearly lays down the choice of effective utilisation of musician endorsement in promotion of a product and brand image. This shows the need for understanding consumer decision drivers, which are different for different demographics of age, and similarly gender, socio-economic background and ethnicity.
Music has the following positive and negative effects
Music (Positive)
- Music is the strongest channel through which we can access to almost everything, most importantly news at national level, as well as what’s happening across the world
- Music, which is both electronic music and print music, is also best used for entertainment purposes, be it talk shows, dramas, soaps, movies, cartoons etc.
- Through, for example, documentaries and talk shows etc, one can get access to loads of information and interesting facts
- Role models are made from figures shown as musician. They give inspiration to a lot of people
- If rightly viewed by youth, music gives them confidence. They may imitate, for example, how a prominent figure talks, or how he/she thinks and expresses their views etc. youth may also get inspired and decide pursuing to work for music in future as their profession
Music (Negative)
Music does a lot of negative portrayal of classes, e.g. women are mostly shown as very skinny blondes always while men are shown as masculine and strong figures. Similarly minorities and blacks are shown very oppressed and weak, being the working class mostly etc. overall music does a lot of class discrimination
- It may also create a negative environment for kids e.g. a lot of material shown is not suitable for kids and they get negatively affected by it e.g. violence, obscenity, and bad language
- Advertisements shown are often exaggerated; the qualities of different products that they tell on TV, magazines, or internet are most of the time not like that. This puts a big question mark to their ethics
- In some issues it creates over-awareness e.g. kids at a very early age are exposed to violent and obscene material that is shown. On the other hand, in some issues there is a lot of under-awareness, like youth counseling is rarely done, music does very less about making students aware of their potentials, or guide them to a decent profession etc.
Conclusion
Appearance in the mass media, whether in sports, movies and television, art, music or entertainment, determines the ‘musician’ of an individual.The positive effect that musician endorsement has on brand image is well established as musiciansdraw more attention to the advertisements they appear in when compared with those that do not have musician presence and the advertisement is able to break through the clutter of media messages.
Some studies point out that while the advertisement may have recall the brand association is not very strong and that musician endorsement is not as effective as has been made out.
Another aspect of increased spending on advertisement is the outsourcing of the production activity to developing and underdeveloped countries thereby reducing production costs and increased margins available. However, this may also affect quality of the product, and raise concerns of ethical production, even where the product and brand are well established. Within this scenario, advertisement support of the product is justified as a necessary expense. With proven efficacy of musician endorsement, this is a strategy frequently deployed by organisations to assist increase of market share and margins within their businesses.
Companies have believed that musicians and supermodels are perfect for product promotion yet, as H&M realised, such choices have potential for becoming critical for success. The company hastily withdrew from its commitment with Kate Moss after it became public that she used drugs, and any further endorsement would bring a negative influence on their products.
When we examine an unrelated but arguably more important area, i.e. that of promotion of healthy food and food habits, advertising impact especially with musician endorsement acquires a new relevance. While there is a need to focus on health benefits as well as issues such as taste, cost, ease of preparation advertisement appears to support snack food, soft drinks, and confectionery with its implicit affect on health, for example the increasing obesity among young people. Nutrition and health communications in supermarkets and cafes does not affect eating behaviour neither does ‘on-product’ labelling, cautionary messages etc have much effect, since the health messages are lost in an environment overflowing with media messages.
Simultaneously the production costs of musician-endorsed advertisements are much higher. Therefore, the need to balance the costs and the frequency of delivery arises. The sheer cost involved in securing musician endorsement for a product and thus the emphasis on finding the right musician-product or musician-brand take on critical proportions.
This research proposes to develop a set of guidelines for determining informers for such decisions from the perspective of addressing urban female customers of the 18to28 age group within the target market.
As seen above the purpose of this research is to understand how advertisements using musician endorsement affect consumer perception of quality and influence purchasing decisions. To meet the requirements of the research the information that needs generation would cover:
- A survey of the theoretical perceptions and findings of earlier research on the subject,
- An attitudinal survey of the audience that musician endorsed advertisement targets as potential customers,
- Comparison of response to advertisement using musician endorsement with advertisement that does not use this strategy
Interpretation and analysis of the information garnered will enable meeting the objectives and aims of this research.
Since this is an individual level research, the availability of resources is severely limited and is the main determinant of the chosen methodology. The following is a brief discussion and evaluation of different paths available for reaching the objectives of the study.
- Desk based survey: This method relies on research of literature and publications and published data on the specific area of study. Data and information available from books, scholarly journals, and the internet is studied and relevant information summarised. This method has the advantage of requiring the least resources and at the same time providing authentic, in-depth, knowledge to inform most part of this research.
- Appreciative inquiry (AI) is an important tool for problem solving in general. It is a philosophy in itself and a number tools and methods find their base in it. AI bases itself on the principle that “problems” are often the result of our own perspectives and perceptions of phenomena i.e. if we consider a certain situation as a problem we restrict our ability to address the situation since we have this preconceived notion of it being a problem. This approach finds use where there is experience of what worked best in the past and forming a vision of the future and planning action based on experience. In this research, this method is important as experiences of actual advertisers to extrapolate the good experiences can form a basis for recommendations of future strategy.
- Case studiesare particularly useful in understanding the experiences and results of a program from either side of the picture, namely the construction company’s point of view as well as that of the client.. This provides assistance in developing an in-depth understanding of the issue surveyed.
Advertising: This involves creating awareness and attention to the product to its consumers. They include: Advertising: a company can choose to advertise in the local press (newspapers, mail, magazines) commercial television, billboards, Use of Travel agencies, brochures, Word of mouth. Out-door hoarding, transport advertising by the taxi and Celebrity/musicians endorsements.
Chosen Research Methodology
The approach to the research at hand shall consist of a judicious mix of the different ways that such a research may be undertaken. This shall consist of:
- Detailed literature survey using different sources. Using publications and journals and reliable internet sites will help prepare a foundation for the research. This is essential, as books may not have the most current research reports. The literature survey will also help examine experiences of the impact of musician endorsement within other countries.
- Identification of a specific product or service advertised using musician endorsement and another similar product or service that does not use such strategy.
- Identification of representative samples from within the target audience that comprises of women in the age group of 18-28 years and conducting an opinion survey amongst them.
Finally, analysis and discussion of the information collected through the literature survey, statistical methods and logical interpretation of the qualitative aspects will assist in meeting the objectives and aims of the research.
Reliability
Materials consisting of books, journals and web search used as references shall allow gathering of reliable information on the subject. Professionals and authorities who specialise in their fields author such materials and hence, the facts from such sources are a dependable foundation for the researcher’s conclusions and findings. However, despite the diligence in collection of all types of views on different aspects of the subject one might miss some.
References
Advertising and Society. (n.d.). 2008. Web.
Advertising. (n.d.). 2008, Web.
The Impact of Advertising. (n.d.). 2008. Web.
Varese, Edgard Definition of Music, Goldman 1961, p133.
Viswanathan T. “Music in South India”. Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (2004).