Sounds in Advertising

Sound has always been used in advertising, since the dawn of radio. The reason is not only a mere entertainment of the public but the belief that music and sounds can help people remember the product or the brand advertised. 

Introduction

Until the 1920s mass communication had been dominated by newspapers and magazines, the only known form of advertising being that of print advertising. The most important shift in the media used for advertising occurred in 1920 with the introduction of the radio. In that year the first commercial radio broadcast was aired and, although less than a thousand receivers were tuned in to the program, it was a success to such an extent that just in a few decades radio became the most important advertising medium until the introduction of TV commercials in the 1940s.

The new media opened up a new range of possibilities for advertisers. For the first time they had the opportunity of addressing consumers with sounds and music, which had been until then impossible with print advertising. Advertisers immediately noted the importance of music in advertising. Through the use of music, they were finally able to overcome differences in terms of language, culture and education and to go straight to consumers. They understood for the first time that it was possible to address consumers in an emotional way, relating to their feelings and touching their sphere of sentiments. From simply sponsoring musical shows, advertisers passed soon to the creation of jingles specifically designed for their products.

What is manipulation

Psychological manipulation can be defined as the exercise of undue influence through mental distortion and emotional exploitation, with the intention to seize power, control, benefits and/or privileges at the victim’s expense Neuroscience knows that men are not aware of why they make a good part of what they are doing. That is why people, respond to the conditioned stimulus of the symbol in advertising and not to the real quality.Advertising is focused on manipulating symbols. When Consumers seeing an advertising, they are not focused by the quality or effectiveness of the product, but in the symbols and this is the logic of the griffes (often mediocre but sold at high prices by virtue of a label-symbol, so exclusive and for few). Neuroscience, which in this area we may call neuromarketing, has described that the encephalic area relevant to the decision (purchase) is the prefrontal cortex of the middle.

Every word, color, character, phrase, image, logo, subject used, in advertisements are created by experts (psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, neuropsychiatrists, etc.) who do not only create advertising but actual conditioning to produce certain associations or moods in the minds of consumers. "Embeds" are hidden or unreadable words, or images that are not perceived by the conscious mind, but by the unconscious. The application of psychoanalysis to advertising is basically based on the concept of subconscious, that part of the psyche, constituting a mental state that influences behaviors and determines actions. According to this approach, the motivations of human behavior are not easily they are discovered by an external observer, Consequently, advertising must act on primary instincts, go beyond the superego and ego barriers, that control satisfaction through the purchase and consumption of objects and goods .

Advertising therefore has the task of emphasizing such instincts, trying to associate them with the proposed product in advertising. A good example of how creators of advertising use the subconscious for the manipulation of mind , is that many psychologists in the field of alcoholism, with the excuse to help patients get rid of alcohol dependence, collect information about the nightmares and hallucinations that their patients experience, especially when they suspend alcohol intake, and use them to create alcoholic advertising in order to evoke, the need to take alcohol!

Change the certainty

Anyone who wants to manipulate a person, to induce her to buy something or to bend her resistance to any action of persuasion, needs to give many new and interesting stimuli. After that, he must submerge him with data, dogmas, slogans, and so on. The prefrontal cortex is affected by toxic chemicals that can damage it, such as drugs, alcohol, food toxins, but also strong emotions, sleep deprivation, chronic stress and a diet rich in fat animals can make more people exposed to external manipulations.By absurd, by granting full freedom to the people to lead an unregulated life, it is easier for them to cancel their freedom to choose.

How sociology studies music in ad

Sounds we listen in advertising are real characterize of brand and help the firm͛s name to remain in the consumer mind and stay easily in collective imagination. Music help association of words or ideas with emotion and feelings.

These are the reason why through the years, marketing scholars had highlight the existence of a music business entertainment industry with the task of attract more consumer as possible, that needed to be studied starting with its sociology point of view.

One of the former sociologist that through a critical assessment, is the French Pierre Bourdieu, that has been an extraordinarily influential figure in the sociology of music. His ideas directly informing our understandings of how musical preferences reflect and reproduce inequalities between social classes. Social stratification and music consumption are still relevant and whether they are sophisticated enough to deal with the specific ways that we interact with musical forms.1

Also, Heidegger analyzed how music conveys individual taste and is linked to personal memories. Identity protection is enabled as consumers frequently resist advertisers͛ attempts to use musical repetition to impose normative identity. Critiques of repetition in the music produce Heideggerian anxiety leading to critically reflective resistance. Similarly, where advertising devalues the authenticity of iconic pieces of music, consumers often resist such authenticity transgressions as a threat to their own identity. The Heideggerian search for meaning in life emphasizes the significance of philosophically driven ideological authenticity in consumers͛ responses to music in advertisements.

Psychology

Melody is a tune, the arrangement of single notes to form a satisfying sequence. This definition can be considered strictly connected to the process of letters and pronunciation of words: language.

Human perception of sounds begins even before we are born, when our parents sing a song and we are in our mum’s belly. Maria T. A. Montessori, an Italian physician and educator, best known for the philosophy of education and her writing on scientific pedagogy, wrote “La mente assorbente”, the absorbent mind. In this abstract she explained what happens after: babies have an unconscious and creative mental state: the absorbent mind. She takes as example language: at two or three months, babies do not talk, but they absorb alphabets sounds and voice intonation and then they incredibly come out with their acquired knowledge. According to these brief explanations, the deduction is that melodies are part of human beings even before we concretely exist and this attitude is quickly developed as we are born and keeps on when we grow up.

Music is part of our lives and it has been exploited in several ways. In line with a study led by Helga De la Motte-Haber, music increases productivity and attention. It becomes and already is a weapon in the hands of advertisers, because of its powerful quality. It is used to stimulate particular emotions or activities in accordance with the desired consumers’ response. Once, it’s repeated, it becomes a code that contains more than just jingles in it, but direct associations with emotions, moments, products and a brand.

Ethics

The ethical standards placed upon advertising and the products of which they produce is an area of constant change that has gone through strenuous development as advertising has developed into new mediums and is further accessible through an ever-expanding spectrum. Private entities including EASA (European Advertising Standards Alliance) and the AFF (American Advertising Federation), as well as public groups such as America’s FTC (Federal Trade Commission) have developed industry standards so as to protect consumers and make sure advertising is meeting the ethical standards of public consumption.

Currently the area of particular jingles, music and sounds remains a relative grey area regarding how it is able to be regulated. There are clear guidelines in terms of what imagery can be used in advertisements, and also in terms of the written and verbal communication regarding what is considered to be suitable language and the validity of descriptions and promises that are able to be made. When it comes to sounds and music the effect is often based on a psychological components of persuasion. As described by Sidney Hecher in his research into the psychological components of advertising, often in advertising to enrich the key message and may be the single most stimulating component in a commercial.

Sonic branding

Sonic branding is the strategic development and deployment of a brand's unique ownable sustainable audio assets leveraged consistently across many brand touchpoints. It is the use of sound to reinforce brand identity and a vehicle for conveying memorable messages to targeted consumers, using advantage of the powerful memory of sound. As we know, the power of music, and sound transcend language, culture and is much more powerful than all things visual. Music can trigger emotional responses and according to the Harvard Business Review's research, presented at the 2012 Audio Branding Congress, "congruent sound cues can increase the speed of a visual search for products" (a big advantage for both online and brick-and-mortar retail settings). Moreover, "the strategic use of sound can play an important role in positively differentiating a product or service, enhancing recall, creating preference, building trust, and even increasing sales". That’s why sonic branding can be a huge part of the promotional activity of many companies. However, this aspect of the PR and marketing world is relatively unexplored. In fact, even if, sonic branding exists since the creation of radio, its power and importance has always been marginalized. The process of distilling the essence of a brand into a few seconds of sound can be long and challenging but it pays off. Sonic branding signatures can be more recognizable than company logos or spokespeople. To make music work for the brand it’s important to have a music strategy that is tied intimately to the personality and position of the brand. In fact, only using sounds that match the company’s values, sonic branding can: increase brand awareness, differentiate the company from the competitors, connect the brand with its audience on a deeper level, create brand communities, and generate more sales and profits.

Examples

Some cases are useful to be analyzed in order to get the point about how corporate creativity and advertising department use the sound logo to be more easily recognizable.

Many brands are famous for their sound logo and advertising observers are able to identify the product just from this trait.

Following some famous cases from different field:

BMW

Bmw M Sport auto spot 2017

Its sound logo appears at the end of advertising commercials. In the adv commercials the consumer can usually hear the roar of the motor and finally the sound logo which make the specific brand come at the potential consumer mind. This specific sound logo is only musical without any word.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAp6a-rLO0o

Coca Cola

Coca-Cola Taste the Feeling

Coca Cola sound logo appears at the end of advertising commercials. In this case usually the consumer hears for all the advertisement the noise of the bubbles and of glasses and only at the end can hear the famous verse "taste the feeling". When a consumer hears Coca-Cola sound logo also without seeing can associate it to the fizzy drink. This specific sound logo is a melody accompanied with a singed claim.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2oKV5eRP_k

EA Sport

EA Sports Sound

The brand that develop sports video games, has a sound logo appears at the end of advertising commercials. In this case the advertisement involves sports game videos that for a consumer could be of any corporation that develops PlayStation, Pc and Xbox games, but their sound logo "EA Sports it's in the game" makes it easily recognizable. This specific logo in a claim where also the brand is involved, here for the consumer is impossible to don't recognize the brand.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgGK93iiQ6E

Sound logos as it is shown by those cases, tends to appear at the end of commercials but can be of different nature, however trying to reach the same scope.

References

See Also:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EA_Sports

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coca-Cola

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_in_advertising