Overcoming Variability in Consumer Response to Advertising Music

Results May Vary: Overcoming Variability in Consumer Response to Advertising Music

Lincoln G. Craton and Geoffrey P. Lantos Stonehill College

Richard C. Leventhal Ashford University

ABSTRACT

Although listening to music seems effortless, it actually involves many separate psychological mechanisms. This article describes and extends the multimechanism framework proposed by Juslin and colleagues, highlighting how the operation of psychological mechanisms leads to two general types of variability in consumer response to advertising music. First, the risk of between-consumer variability (individual differences) in musical response is moderate or high for most mechanisms, and it often depends on each individual’s particular history of exposure to music (listening biography). Second, within-consumer variability occurs when different mechanisms have contrasting effects, so that an individual consumer’s musical response is often mixed (e.g., guilty pleasures, bittersweet feelings, pleasurable sadness). Both types of variability can negatively impact advertising objectives (message reception, recall, acceptance, brand attitudes, etc.). The article offers preliminary suggestions for how marketers can use a multimechanism approach to successfully incorporate music in commercials and reduce the risk of unanticipated consumer responses. It ends with proposals for further research. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Business is booming in the ﬁeld of music percep- Scope and Goals of the Article tion and cognition (hereafter, music cognition). Re- search activity is surging (Levitin, 2010), member- According to Levitin and Tirovolas (2010, p. 599), ship in the Society for Music Perception and Cognition (SMPC) is rising, and “after a long drought” (Ashley, Music cognition . . . is the scientiﬁc study of those 2010, p. 205) new introductory textbooks are emerg- mental and neural operations underlying music lis- ing (e.g., Honing, 2009; Tan, Pfordrescher, & Harre´ tening, music making, dancing (moving to music), 2010; Thompson, 2015). Growing interest in the topic and composing. It is intrinsically interdisciplinary, even seems to be a cultural phenomenon, with books drawing on methods from cognitive and sensory for lay readers such as cognitive neuroscientist Dan psychology, neuroscience, musicology, computer sci- Levitin’s (2006) This is Your Brain on Music and neu- ence, music theory, and sociocultural aspects of mu- rologist Oliver Sacks’s (2007) Musicophilia becoming sic, with genetics and evolutionary biology becoming best-sellers. increasingly relevant. Music-processing is a complex, Marketers may well wonder, “What is the relevance higher cognitive activity engaging many areas of the of all this buzz for us?” What have these researchers brain and employing many distinct cognitive opera- learned so far, and what are the implications for ad- tions. (emphasis added) vertisements using music? This article attempts to Taking this as a starting point, the article surveys answer these questions by highlighting an important what Levitin and Tirovolas (2010) refer to in the quo- recent development in music cognition research: the ap- tation above as the mental and neural operations that plication of a multimechanism approach to explaining occur when a consumer listens to advertising music. musical responses (Juslin & Vastfj¨ all,¨ 2008; Scherer The term “mechanisms,” which is standard in the mu- & Zentner, 2001), which are instrumental to achiev- sic cognition literature, is used to denote these oper- ing advertising objectives (Middlestadt, Fishbein, & ations. The primary goals of the article are to (1) de- Chan, 1994; Morris & Boone, 1988; Park & Young, scribe how these mechanisms affect consumer response 1986). to advertising music, (2) illustrate implications of the

Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 34(1): 19–39 (January 2017) View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/mar © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. DOI: 10.1002/mar.20971 19 new multimechanism framework in music cognition for chometric approaches are discovering more valid effectively incorporating music into commercials and correlates of music preferences such as personality achieving advertising objectives, and (3) provide sug- (Rentfrow, 2012; Rentfrow et al., 2012) and musical gestions for future research. intelligence (Krishnan, Machleit, Kellaris, Sullivan, & For the sake of brevity, it was necessary to restrict Aurand, 2014). the scope of coverage. First, the article only addresses This article takes a complementary approach to music listening (not music making, dancing, and com- the emerging literature on correlates of musical taste posing). Second, it draws primarily on cognitive meth- by considering the implications of particular music- ods used to study music listening. A cognitive approach processing mechanisms for between-consumer variabil- regards advertising music as a form of communication ity in musical response. Research in music cognition using acoustic information to initiate a variety of men- reveals that some of these mechanisms may lead to in- tal processes that operate on this information and elicit dividual differences in musical response. For instance, a variety of conscious experiences (Bharucha, Curtis, although basic features of music are perceived simi- & Paroo, 2006). Third, the article is concerned pri- larly by all listeners, some mechanisms depend a great marily with recent work coming out of music cogni- deal on that person’s “listening biography”—all of that tion proposing a multimechanism framework and this person’s previous exposures to, knowledge about, and work’s implications for broadcast (TV and radio) and experiences with music (Huron, 2006; Margulis, 2014). digital (online and social media) advertisements incor- Because consumers in a given target market now have porating music. This approach does not seem to have virtually unlimited online access to the entire catalogue been addressed in the most recent reviews of the mar- of recorded music, their listening biographies are likely keting literature (e.g., Allan, 2007; Kellaris, 2008). to differ—and, consequently, so are their responses to advertising music. The second kind of variability in musical response Two Types of Variability in Musical is within-consumer variability. As two of the authors Response have discussed previously (Lantos & Craton, 2012), an individual’s response to the same piece of advertising Music is ubiquitous in advertisements (Allan, 2008; music may be very dissimilar on two different listening Marshall & Roberts, 2008). But does music always occasions. This can occur, for instance, if the listening enhance a commercial’s effectiveness, that is, shape situation (ongoing activities, social context, program consumer responses so as to achieve advertising content, voluntary vs. involuntary exposure) changes. objectives? Although this may seem to be a safe as- This article focuses on a subtler kind of variability in an sumption, two of the authors have argued elsewhere individual’s musical response: variability that occurs that this is not always the case (Craton & Lantos, during a single listening occasion. The marketing liter- 2011; Lantos & Craton, 2012). In the marketing litera- ature’s tacit assumption is that a consumer’s musical ture, this assumption has sometimes been supported response is essentially uniform at any given moment— (Galizio & Hendrick, 1972; Hoyer, Srivastava, & a person either likes, dislikes, or feels neutral about a Jacoby, 1984) but often disputed (Allan, 2007; Haley, given piece of ad music (Alpert & Alpert, 1991; Birkett, Richardson, & Baldwin, 1984; Englis & Pennell, 1994; 2012; Holbrook & Schindler, 1989; Verstreken, 2013). Macklin, 1988; Sewall & Sarel, 1986). Given the im- Although this assumption seems intuitively reason- portance of achieving desirable consumer responses to able, a multimechanism approach suggests otherwise. advertising music, this article evaluates this assump- Because each mechanism can affect musical response tion further by addressing two related questions: (1) differently, an individual’s musical response is multi- “How variable is musical response between listeners faceted and often a mixture of contrasting responses. (between-consumer variability)?” and (2) “How variable For instance, negative cognitive evaluations may occur is musical response within a given listener (within- along with positive emotional responses (e.g., “guilty consumer variability)?” The more variable are con- pleasures”), and emotional responses themselves may sumer responses to ad music, the less confident adver- be mixed (e.g., “bittersweet” feelings, “pleasurable sad- tisers can be in achieving their advertising goals. ness”). After reviewing mechanisms identified by mu- Between-consumer variability refers to individ- sic cognition researchers, the article discusses how ual differences in musical response. The tradi- understanding the simultaneous operation of these tional marketing assumption—that advertising mu- mechanisms may help marketers assess the trade-offs sic can be favorably received by specific target involved in selecting advertising music. markets based on demographic and psychographic Identifying the mental mechanisms at work when market segmentation criteria believed to correlate a consumer listens to ad music casts doubt on the with musical tastes, namely, generations, ethnic- assumption that music always enhances advertising ity, sex, lifestyle, and so on—now seems unrealis- effectiveness. These mechanisms produce variability tic (e.g., Kupfer, in press). Heterogeneity in musi- in musical response both between and within con- cal preferences is high and increasing within such sumer listeners, which may in turn result in unantic- targeted groups (Craton & Lantos, 2011; Lantos ipated consumer responses to the entire ad that work & Craton, 2012; Nuttal et al., 2011). Recent psy- against achieving advertising objectives. Nonetheless,

20 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar the article will suggest how marketers can judiciously recent years, Juslin’s multimechanism approach has select music that may enhance—or at least, not detract provided a particularly useful framework guiding mu- from—their advertisements for most target audience sic cognition research (Juslin, 2013; Juslin, Liljestrom,¨ members. Vastfj¨ all,¨ & Lundqvist, 2010; Juslin & Vastfj¨ all,¨ 2008). For ease of exposition, the article will not repeatedly cite these three sources; readers can assume Plan for the Article that descriptions of the mechanisms rely on those papers. The article begins by briefly reviewing the multidi- The present survey includes seven mechanisms from mensional musical response construct attitude toward Juslin’s framework, which he claims is the most com- the advertising music (Aam) proposed by Craton and prehensive synthesis to date in the area of emotional Lantos (2011). It then surveys mechanisms from the response to music. Because the framework concerns music cognition literature and illustrates how each only emotional responses while advertisements usually mechanism is likely to influence Aam, using examples also generate cognitive responses, this article extends from actual commercials. Next, it summarizes the prac- it in two ways in order to include cognitive musical re- tical implications of this work for marketers who cre- sponses. First, it describes how each of the seven mech- ate or select music for commercials, focusing on the two anisms can also generate cognitive responses. Second, types of variability in musical response. Finally, it of- it adds two additional cognitive mechanisms from the fers suggestions for future research. music cognition literature, for a total of nine mechanisms (see Figure 1). While each of the proposed mechanisms has garnered some empirical support, current Attitude toward the Advertising Music understanding of them varies quite a bit. (Aam) The survey describes the operation of each mech- Previously, Craton and Lantos (2011) introduced a new anism with respect to four characteristics, shown in construct for describing a consumer’s response to ad Table 1’s column headings. First, it specifies the information in the ad music that the mechanism uses to music, Aam. The contents of Aam are listed in the cir- cle on the right-hand side of Figure 1; the particular elicit a musical response. Knowing this can help marketers choose music that activates a particular mech- elements of Aam considered in this article are shown in bold. Paralleling Lutz’s (1985) definition of attitude anism. The first mechanism, feature analysis, is activated directly by the acoustic signal from the musical toward the advertisement (Aad), they defined Aam as a predisposition to respond in a favorable or unfavorable stimulus as it reaches the ear. It allows the consumer manner to an ad’s music during a particular exposure to detect “basic features” of music—rhythm, pitch, texture, and so on (see Table 2). Each of the remaining occasion. Aam is comprised of cognitive and affective elements that jointly constitute a given listener’s musi- mechanisms is activated by one or more of these basic features (downward arrow in Figure 1). cal response, and Aam is a significant component of one Second, the survey notes whether the operation of type of mediator of advertising effectiveness—Aad—in ads employing music (Lutz, MacKenzie, & Belch, 1983). each mechanism is affected by consumers’ listening biographies. Knowing this can help advertisers predict Aam is essentially what the consumer perceives, thinks, and feels in response to an ad’s music—that the amount of between-consumer variability in musical is, how the consumer consciously experiences the mu- response that a mechanism causes. The more influential listening biographies are in determining a mech- sic. As a multidimensional construct, Aam overcomes a limitation in the literature: musical appeal is usually anism’s operation, and the more that listening biogra- only conceptualized as a one-dimensional variable— phies vary within a target market, the more individual differences in Aam there will be for ad music eliciting the typically “liking or disliking” (Allan, 2007). Aam specifies the many ways in which musical response can mechanism. This, in turn, jeopardizes the achievement vary between listeners (between-consumer variability). of advertising objectives. It also captures the richness and complexity of a single Third, the survey identifies the particular cognitive listener’s reaction to a musical piece, allowing for simul- and affective elements of Aam most likely to be influ- taneous, contrasting cognitive and affective responses enced by each mechanism, and considers the positive (within-consumer variability). and negative outcomes related to advertising objectives that can arise. The current treatment of cognitive responses draws on various works in music cognition as cited below, while the treatment of affective responses Survey of Mechanisms Affecting Aam relies heavily on the influential recent synthesis of the- Both the between- and within-consumer variability in ory and findings by Juslin and colleagues. musical response captured by the Aam construct can Fourth, the article considers the risk of eliciting in- be attributed to the fact that, whenever a consumer dividual differences in musical response for each mech- listens to ad music, multiple music-processing mecha- anism. Mechanisms that are strongly affected by the nisms are operating concurrently (Juslin & Vastfj¨ all,¨ consumer’s listening biography (Table 1, column 3) gen- 2008; Scherer, 2004; Scherer & Zentner, 2001). In erally lead to the highest risk of individual differences

OVERCOMING VARIABILITY 21 Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar Figure 1. Nine music-processing mechanisms that simultaneously inﬂuence attitude toward the advertising music (Aam).

in Aam. When such individual differences exist, the job selectively reviewing relevant research. It then high- of selecting music that helps achieve advertising objec- lights implications for creating or selecting advertising tives of course becomes more challenging. music, providing at least one example of existing ad mu- Altogether, the survey below outlines nine mecha- sic to illustrate each mechanism (URLs for commercials nisms that determine Aam. For each mechanism, cov- are not provided here since they often change, but in- erage begins by describing the mechanism with re- terested readers can search YouTube and similar sites spect to each of the four characteristics noted above, for examples).

22 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar Table 1. Nine Music-processing Mechanisms and Their Characteristics. Risk of Eliciting Affected by individual Information in Listening differences Mechanism Ad Music Biography Elements of Aam Affected in Aam Feature Acoustic signal No Perceived (basic) features Low analysis Brain stem Extreme or rapidly No Attention to music Emotions evoked Low reﬂex changing basic (e.g., surprise) features Emotional arousal Rhythmic en- Rhythmic features No Image suggested Moderate trainment (pulse) Emotions evoked Emotional arousal Evaluative Basic features Yes Image suggested High conditioning Emotions evoked Emotion Voice-like basic No Perceived features (emotions) Low recognition features Image suggested Emotional Voice-like basic No Emotions evoked Moderate contagion features Visual Basic features Yes Image suggested High imagery Emotions evoked Episodic Basic features Yes Image suggested High memory Emotions evoked Emotional memories activated Musical Basic features Yes Attention to music Moderate expectancy unfolding over Depth of processing time Image suggested Perceived as distinctive or not Emotions evoked Emotional arousal Hedonic response

Feature Analysis Summary. Feature analysis operates directly on the acoustic signal from the musical stimulus as it first Description. As described briefly in Table 2, feature reaches the ear. It is not affected by listening biogra- analysis mechanisms consist of rhythm perception, phy and allows the consumer to detect basic features of pitch perception, texture perception, streaming, feature the ad music (rhythm, pitch, texture, etc.). These per- integration, grouping, and multimodal perception pro- ceived basic features serve as eliciting information for cesses. Because they are very basic processes that op- the eight other mechanisms (Table 1). The risk of in- erate similarly in virtually all listeners, this treatment dividual differences in response to feature analysis is is quite brief. Readers wishing to learn more about very low. feature analysis should refer to the sources cited in Table 2 and to Deutsch (2013b). Brain Stem Reflexes

Implications. Because feature analysis functions Description. The clearest example of a brain stem similarly in everyone (Brattico, Bogert, & Jacobsen, reflex is the auditory startle reflex (Brattico et al., 2013; Harwood, 1976; McDermott & Oxenham, 2008; 2013). Brain stem reflexes are elicited by sudden, loud, Stevens & Byron, 2009), marketers can confidently as- dissonant, or rapid changes in music, such as the sume that virtually all consumers will perceive the ba- sudden loud kettledrum stroke in Haydn’s “Surprise” sic features of a piece of advertising music similarly. Symphony No. 94 (Juslin, 2013). A brain stem reflex With rare exceptions (e.g., Margulis, Mlsna, Uppunda, might be triggered when all instruments in a loud rock Parrish, & Wong, 2009), consumers’ listening biogra- band suddenly start playing following a quiet intro- phies do not affect feature analysis mechanisms. How- duction by one instrument. When two simultaneously ever, the perceived basic features of music that result played pitches do not blend well, the resulting sensa- from feature analysis are used by other mechanisms, tion of “roughness” or rapid beating known as sensory as indicated by the downward arrow in Figure 1 and dissonance (cf. Dellacherie, Roy, Hugueville, Peretz, & discussed below. Many of these other mechanisms of- Samson, 2011) may also elicit a brain stem reflex. This ten do lead to individual differences in response. type of sound characterizes the “threat” and “warning”

OVERCOMING VARIABILITY 23 Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar Table 2. Feature Analysis Mechanisms. mat, and Eerola (2014) successfully activated brain stem reflexes and evoked self-reported surprise (emo- Mechanism Description tion) and elevated skin conductance (a measure of emo- Rhythm Detects fundamental temporal features tional arousal) by inserting a sudden, loud chord into perception such as the beat and whether a an otherwise quiet excerpt of piano music. musical piece is a march or a waltz Brain stem reflexes are thought to increase attention (Honing, 2009, 2012; Justus & and evoke emotion and emotional arousal universally. Bharucha, 2002; Repp, 2005, Repp & Thus, the risk of individual differences in response to Su, 2013; Winkler, Haden, Ladinig, Sziller, & Honing, 2009) brain stem reflexes is very low. Whether the resulting Pitch Detects how high or low a musical note emotions and arousal are ultimately interpreted pos- perception is; also, detects that high “C” and low itively or negatively is more variable and depends on “C” are the same pitch category, and other music-processing mechanisms. different from (high or low) “D,” for example (Justus & Bharucha, 2002; Implications. Brain stem reflexes impact advertis- McDermott & Oxenham, 2008; ing’s ability to attract and hold attention (Hecker, 1984; Schellenberg & Trehub, 2003) Kellaris, Cox, & Cox, 1993; Macklin, 1988). Hence, Texture Detects the distinct sounds of different many commercials open with an attention-grabbing perception instruments and the way those sounds sudden, loud, dissonant, or fast sound, such as a phone are combined in the orchestration of a musical piece (McAdams, 2013) ringing, horn honking, baby crying, or peppy music, Streaming Detects whether musical notes in a with the first few seconds being critical to getting no- series all belong to the “same” melody ticed. This is especially important for low-involvement or to separate melodic parts or products and in cluttered TV and radio advertising pods “streams” in a musical piece or cluttered digital environments, whose audience of- (Bregman, 2015) ten is preoccupied, multitasking, and resents commer- Feature Combines the features in a musical cial interruptions. For these listeners, most information integration piece so that the listener perceives processing is therefore incidental and/or accidental, not what “goes with” what; e.g., a intentional, so advertisers must signal that the com- saxophone sound goes with one mercial is an “important” environmental event. Oth- melody and a piano sound goes with a different melody (Bregman, 2015) erwise, perceptual screening and physical zipping and Grouping Organizes musical events into larger zapping of commercials, or grazing through them, are units with beginnings and endings; likely and attention is never achieved. For music in on- individual notes combine to form line commercials—which, except for pre-roll and pop- motives (brief “melodic ideas”), up ads, are usually deliberately watched—stimulating motives combine to form phrases, and brain reflexes is generally less important. so on up to long sections of a In general, background music that changes fre- symphony (Bregman, 2015; Deutsch, quently throughout an ad is more likely to reduce mes- 2013a; Narmour, 2015; Schellenberg, sage recall than music that changes very little (Fraser 1997) & Bradford, 2013), perhaps because it elicits brain stem Multimodal Detects nonmusical information (visual perception information, speech/lyrics) and reflexes that continuously draw attention to the music combines it with the ad music; for and away from the advertising message. Consequently, instance, vision directs the consumer’s marketers may want to trigger this mechanism only at attention to visible objects that “move the beginning of their ads and to use relatively simple with” the music (Cohen, 2013) tunes that adhere to a basic motif and repetition of a theme. Examples of ad music stimulating brain stem reflexes abound. For instance, a Nike Air commercial calls of many animals, which may be why it also signals featuring Michael Jordan and John McEnroe success- danger to humans. fully grabs consumers’ attention using the introduction Brain stem reflexes are unaffected by a consumer’s to the Beatles song “Revolution”: the loud, distorted listening biography and occur automatically. Although electric guitar riff followed immediately by a signature sudden, loud, dissonant, and rapid changes in mu- John Lennon primal scream must surely activate brain sic are not actually dangerous, brain stem reflexes do stem reflexes in any consumer within earshot. An ad not “know” this; they respond instantly to any and all for Old Spice holds attention with climactic classical sounds with these characteristics, even when they oc- music: in this case, a man is seen surfing giant waves cur in music. as we hear a crescendo of thumping drums and power- Brain stem reflexes influence the first cognitive fac- ful choir and orchestra from the grand opening of the tor in the Aam box in Figure 1: level and persistence Carmina Burana cantata. The emotional arousal stem- of attention to music. These reflexes also influence two ming from brain stem reflexes can have a positive or of Aam’s affective elements, evoking emotions and in- negative valence (cf., Russell, 1980). To offset negative creasing emotional arousal. For instance, Juslin, Har- affect created by an off-putting startle, attention can be

24 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar maintained with music that is interpreted positively by nostalgia, sadness, peacefulness, and tension (Labbe&´ other mechanisms discussed below—for instance, mu- Grandjean, 2014). In addition, Labbe´ and Grandjean sic perceived as arousing/relaxing (rhythmic entrain- (2014) found that entrainment involves both feeling ment), happy (emotional contagion), or distinctive and one’s internal body rhythms adjust to the rhythm of exciting (musical expectancy). Intuitively, the startling music and also the urge to move along with the music— segment of the music should be a few seconds at most, to tap toes, bob the head, or dance. This urge to move so that listeners do not zap the ad. The exceptions would is strongly associated with enjoyment of a piece of mu- be where the commercial is designed to evoke a sense of sic, a phenomenon known as perceiving “the groove”; danger that the advertised product can overcome (e.g., groove can also be felt directly when listeners actually burglar alarms) or where emotions created such as de- move in time to music (Janata, Tomic, & Haberman, lightful surprise can be confidently be predicted to be 2012). pleasant for most listeners. Because it is present very early in development, the basic capacity for entrainment does not seem to de- Summary. Brain stem reflexes are triggered by basic pend on an individual’s listening biography. However, musical features that signal a potentially urgent envi- two findings in the literature point to a moderate risk ronmental event. They are not affected by listening bi- of individual differences stemming from the rhythmic ography, increase attention to the ad music, evoke par- entrainment mechanism. First, Labbe´ and Grandjean ticular emotions (e.g., surprise, fear, happiness, joy, or (2014) found that people displaying higher levels of excitement), and heighten emotional arousal (increas- empathy—which may indicate their ability to inter- ing one’s heart and/or breathing rate), which are typical nally experience the movements that musicians must advertising objectives. They are a low risk for individ- make to produce the music’s groove—report more en- ual differences in Aam. trainment to music. Second, Janata et al. (2012) found a correlation between “felt groove” and accuracy in tapping along with music, suggesting that entrainment Rhythmic Entrainment and its effects may be experienced more strongly for people with greater rhythmic ability. Description. Adults (Bernardi et al., 2009; Clayton, Sager, & Will, 2005; Etzel, Johnsen, Dickerson, Tranel, & Adolphs, 2006; Fujioka, Trainor, Large, & Ross, Implications. If possible, advertisers trying to arouse 2009; Harrer & Harrer, 1977; Khalfa, Roy, Rainville, listeners emotionally should seek out ad music with Dalla Bella, & Peretz, 2008; Nozaradan, Peretz, Missal, a beat that seems to generate positive and enjoyable & Mouraux, 2011; Nyklicek, Thayer, & van Doornen, “groove” responses in most listeners. Given the brief 1997) and infants (Phillips-Silver & Trainor, 2005; nature of most commercials (typically 15 or 30 seconds, Zentner & Eerola, 2010) tend to synchronize either although often longer in digital environments) and the their heart or breathing rate to the pulse of music. En- relative slowness of this musical response, it may be trainment is most likely to be triggered by music with effective to use music with a pulse that is close to lis- a strong pulse or beat, particularly when this is close teners’ internal resting rhythms (roughly 60–100 beats the listener’s normal internal rhythms. per minute for heart rate, 12–20 breaths per minute A cognitive effect of ad music with many instru- for breathing rate). For TV, 60-second spots might be ments playing in synchrony with a strong pulse is that the best candidates for this approach. Longer-form dig- it can suggest a powerful image in (see Figure 1) of com- ital ads might be the preferred vehicles for employing munion among the performers—that is, an impression entrainment to evoke desired responses. Products affil- that the music is being performed by a cohesive, well- iated with social groups (e.g., those consumed socially, practiced, socially coordinated group of people (Hagen items purchased for social status, lifestyle products, & Bryant, 2003). In addition, the changes in listeners’ etc.) might wish to employ rhythmic entrainment in internal body rhythms that occur during entrainment order to create a feeling of and even belief in com- invites them to join (cognitively and affectively) in the munion with the social group portrayed in the ad. synchrony, as audience members at a rock concert of- The involvement created by movement induced by the ten do when they get up and dance “with” the band and music’s groove might also enhance the appeal of low- with each other. involvement products. Entrainment induces general emotional arousal A perfect example of ad music that activates rhyth- gradually compared to the immediate arousal response mic entrainment is the 60-second “Target Style Spring that occurs for brain stem reflexes. Consistent with 2015: Groove is in the Heart” commercial, which main- the suggestion above that rhythmic entrainment may tains a lively pace and a fairly heavy beat. Similarly, evoke the cognitive impression of communion, recent GMC’s “Fastball” spot from its “Precision Counts” cam- empirical work suggests that entrainment can also paign uses The Who’s groove-heavy “Eminence Front,” evoke a corresponding feeling of communion with oth- a song with a beat near the high end of the normal range ers listening to the same music (Demos, Chaffin, for heartbeat, to effectively tease an increase in emo- Begosh, Daniels, & Marsh, 2012), as well as feel- tional arousal and create positive images and emotions ings of joy, transcendence, wonder, power, tenderness, in listeners.

OVERCOMING VARIABILITY 25 Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar Since it is unclear whether entrainment will occur seems likely that particular features of the original within short commercials’ time frames, marketers us- music, such as the unaccompanied melody, could by ing traditional short-form ads wishing to induce an im- themselves elicit a conditioned response. The listener age of communion, emotions, and emotional arousal is not consciously aware of the music’s past associ- might wish to test for entrainment (as described in ation with the stimuli determining the conditioned Janata et al., 2012) as well as for which specific emo- response. tions are evoked in targeted listeners. Evaluative conditioning leads to emotional responses to music. Music can also convey an image by Summary. Rhythmic entrainment occurs when listen- triggering cognitive associations in the form of ideas, ers “lock in” their internal body rhythm to the music’s concepts, or beliefs, a process sometimes referred to external rhythm, particularly the beat. This mecha- as “semantic association” (Fritz & Koelsch, 2008) or nism is elicited by music with a strong pulse and does “knowledge activation” (North & Hargreaves, 2008). not seem to be influenced by listening biography. En- Consider again a jingle that is regularly aired dur- trainment suggests communion among the performers ing football games. In addition to the association with and also evokes actual emotions such as “communion” the emotion of happiness from good times with friends, as well as changes in emotional arousal. The risk of in- the jingle might stimulate thoughts about the tough- dividual differences in Aam from rhythmic entrainment ness or competitiveness of the football players, which is moderate. then become linked with the brand. Studies of musical stereotype activation indicate that people associate musical taste with certain personality traits Evaluative Conditioning (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2007; Rentfrow, McDonald, & Oldmeadow, 2009). Thus, one type of cognitive associ- Description. Evaluative conditioning occurs when a ation that might arise is the personality of people who piece of music is consistently paired with other stim- like the jingle’s musical genre or style, which can be uli and a conditioned association is formed between useful in achieving the objective of crafting a partic- the music, which becomes a learned or conditioned ular brand personality. The risk of individual differ- stimulus, and other stimuli, which are unconditioned ences in conditioned responses to a piece of music is stimuli. Later, when the consumer hears the same high. The cognitive and emotional associations may be music under different circumstances, she experiences quite idiosyncratic and interfere with the marketers’ her original response to the associated stimuli—even attempt to build desirable associations and brand if those stimuli are no longer present. That is, she has image. been conditioned to respond in a particular way to the music. Implications. Life is full of negative stimuli (bad Consider a jingle regularly aired during televised dates, lonely times, death, and loss) that may be paired broadcasts of football games that consequently over with familiar music for some consumers. No matter how time becomes strongly associated with happy, excited good the copyrighted or public domain music may seem feelings experienced while enjoying watching football to sound, no matter how well suited to the brand the with friends. Through evaluative conditioning, the jin- music may seem to be, there will always be listeners gle can eventually evoke those same feelings without for whom the music evokes negative conditioned im- a game on or friends present. Importantly, the jingle ages or emotions, or else images and emotions incon- causes the conditioned happy response even if the consistent with the brand’s image. The musical responses sumer is not consciously thinking about its prior asso- from evaluative conditioning can be quite personal ciation with good times. and idiosyncratic due to individuals’ varying listening Evaluative conditioning explains how emotional re- biographies. sponses come to be associated with a piece of music. Sometimes marketers may be able to determine In contrast, the marketing literature has generally what stimuli have been paired with the music for many been more concerned with how a piece of music (e.g., targeted consumers. For instance, for copyrighted mu- Groenland & Schoormans, 1994) or an artist (Schemer, sic originally produced in conjunction with a music Matthes, Wirth, & Textor, 2008) that is already liked video, it would be wise to watch the music video to or disliked comes to be associated with a brand. Ulti- determine images that either clearly relate to a desired mately, both of these processes can work together to brand image or that might be potentially disturbing, influence brand choice, a phenomenon called “second- annoying, or offensive to the target audience. For pub- order negative conditioning.” For instance, Blair and lic domain music, certain desirable associations may Shimp (1992) discovered that people initially exposed be common to many targeted consumers (e.g., “The to music paired with an unpleasant situation later had National Anthem” is associated with sporting events a less favorable affective attitude toward a product that and patriotic feelings and “Pop Goes the Weasel” with was presented with the music than did a control group playing children and nostalgic childhood memories). that did not undergo the same conditioning. The only surefire way to avoid idiosyncratic nega- The musical information eliciting a conditioned re- tive evaluative conditioning effects for ad music is for sponse is usually the entire musical piece. It also advertisers to create their own unique jingle or musical

26 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar score. Of course, once such an ad campaign starts, so Emotion Recognition does evaluative conditioning. This provides an oppor- tunity to create unique evaluative conditioning effects Description. One can tell how a person feels by tun- via other stimuli in the ad with which the music and ing in to acoustic features or “cues” in their tone of brand become associated. However, original music and voice—whether they are speaking quickly or slowly, the high media frequency needed to create new asso- loudly or softly, abrasively or gently. The same cues ciations are expensive. A less costly strategy might be are present as basic features in any musical piece, to use adapted music, where the original tune is suf- and these allow listeners to perceive the emotions ex- ficiently modified so that the most obviously positive pressed by the music (Juslin & Laukka, 2003; Juslin & associations of the tune (such as a particular persona Timmers, 2010). For instance, music with slow tempo, associated with a particular musical genre) are kept low volume, and dull timbre often seems sad; music while avoiding or minimizing negative evaluative con- with fast tempo, high volume, and sharp timbre of- ditioning effects. ten seems happy (Juslin & Timmers, 2010, Table 17.2 In many cases, marketers may be reasonably confi- and Figure 17.2). The more voice-like features that dent that strongly negative prior associations with spe- are available in the music, the more obvious the ex- cific pieces of ad music will be rare. A more serious pressed emotion will be. This works for both vocal concern is that for certain consumers, entire genres of and instrumental music; in fact, according to “super- musicorparticularmusicalartistsmighttriggerneg- expressive voice theory,” musical instruments are par- ative associations. For instance, classical music might ticularly expressive because they are able to exagger- trigger stereotypes of boring, stuffy, pompous people. ate these vocal cues—for instance, a violin can play Knowledge of particular audience characteristics such faster, louder, and higher than a person can speak or as age, ethnicity, social class, and so on, might help sing. here, but generalizations are difficult to make. The emotion recognition mechanism is relatively un- As an example of evaluative conditioning at work, affected by a consumer’s listening biography. Because consider the “Coming to Your City” commercial for many of the voice-like cues that signal emotions are uni- college football—a fast-paced, upbeat blend of coun- versal, even listeners unfamiliar with music from a par- try and rock music featuring Lizzy Hale of rock group ticular culture can recognize many of the basic emotions Halestorm, a singer beloved of young male rock afi- expressed in its music (Balkwill & Thompson, 1999; cionados. In the ad, the music is accompanied by ex- Balkwill, Thompson, & Matsunaga, 2004; Fritz et al., citing vignettes of college football games and fans 2009; Laukka, Eerola, Thingujam, Yamasaki, & Beller, partying, kicking off ESPN’s 2015 college football sea- 2013; Thompson & Balkwill, 2010). This is one sense in son. An ad in an NFL campaign that worked similarly which music truly serves as a “universal language.” For used the “Waiting All Day for Sunday Night” theme instance, Western listeners who are unfamiliar with song by Carrie Underwood covering rock legend Joan Indian music nevertheless accurately perceive the in- Jett. The association of excitement and sociability— tended emotion (joy, sadness, peace) of musical per- triggered in this case by the ad visuals as well as prior formances from this culture (Balkwill & Thompson, listening experiences in the company of others—rubs 1999). off on the NFL brand. Second-order conditioning leads In Juslin’s and Vastfj¨ all’s¨ (2008) framework, emo- to positive emotions and raises viewers’ adrenaline lev- tion recognition is part of the emotional contagion els in response to the NFL brand. Even when alone, a mechanism, which produces a felt or experienced emo- fan would pick up the party atmosphere. Additionally, tion (see below). Because emotion recognition by it- consumer stereotypes about the kind of person that self produces cognitive effects, this article treats it likes this style of country-rock (aided by the rebellious separately from the emotional contagion mechanism outlaw image of rock stars Lizzy Hale and Joan Jett) that triggers felt emotions (Table 1). Emotion recog- lead to a similar musical image that transfers to the nition allows the listener to perceive the emotion that is football brands. expressed in a piece of music, without necessarily feeling or experiencing the emotion as with emotional Summary. Evaluative conditioning occurs when mu- contagion. sic induces a response because it has previously been Past research on the effect of basic musical features paired with other stimuli. This mechanism is elicited on perceived emotion has yielded mixed results (for re- by basic features of the ad music, depends on listening views, see Bruner, 1990; Lantos & Craton, 2012). Un- biography, and can suggest an “image” for the music derstanding the emotion recognition mechanism helps through cognitive associations that can transfer to the to explain why this is so: specific features of music do brand’s image. Evaluative conditioning can also induce tend to be associated with certain emotions, but the an emotional response to the music based on the emo- same cue can suggest more than one emotion (e.g., tions evoked by the stimuli previously paired with the fast tempo can indicate anger or happiness), and the music. The risk that evaluative conditioning can lead to same emotion can be evoked by any of several cues individual differences in these elements of Aam is high (e.g., happiness can be induced by fast tempo or by high due to variability in individuals’ prior music–stimulus pitch). A given emotion is evoked unambiguously only associations. when many features act in combination to specify it.

OVERCOMING VARIABILITY 27 Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar Current work in the area is clarifying the links between Emotional Contagion features and perceived emotions, and this work is making new discoveries. For example, Curtis and Bharucha Description. As with a contagious illness, a consumer (2010) showed that the musical interval of a minor can in effect “catch” the emotion expressed by a piece third sounds sad because it is used in speech to convey of music. Emotional contagion occurs when the listener sadness. first recognizes the emotion expressed by a piece of mu- Some evidence suggests that individuals with high sic (emotion recognition) and then “mimics” it inter- emotional intelligence (Resnicow, Salovey, & Repp, nally, perhaps because brain areas involved in prepa- 2004) and those with music training (Castro & Lima, ration for vocalizing are automatically activated (e.g., 2014) are somewhat better at detecting emotions in mu- Koelsch, Fritz, von Cramon, Muller,¨ & Friederici, 2006). sic. In addition, this ability may decrease somewhat The emotional contagion mechanism is elicited by the after young adulthood, at least for negative emotions same voice-like features used in emotion recognition. (Castro & Lima, 2014). Despite these findings, the risk Since the basic features in music that elicit emo- of large individual differences in Aam due to the emotional contagion are rooted in universal characteris- tional recognition mechanism seems quite low. It is not tics of speech, the emotional contagion mechanism— affected by a consumer’s listening biography and oper- like the emotion recognition mechanism—is proba- ates similarly in everyone. bly unaffected by one’s listening biography. However, while a number of cross-cultural studies have demon- Implications. By imitating the human voice, music strated that listeners can recognize emotions expressed can express emotion. This can be particularly useful in unfamiliar music from other cultures (see above), for global advertising transcending cultures as emo- there is apparently only one empirical study reporting tions evoked by voice-like musical qualities are univer- that listeners actually feel those expressed emotions. sally recognized. A particularly clear example of the Egermann, Fernando, Chuen, and McAdams (2014) emotion recognition mechanism at work occurs in an found that Canadian and Congolese Pygmy listeners ad for Guess Jeans that uses George Harrison’s “While experience similar levels of emotional arousal based on My Guitar Gently Weeps,” a song whose lyrics and in- acoustic features (tempo, pitch, and timbre) of musical strumentals sound like crying. Another illustration is pieces from both cultures. This similarity in musical the Volkswagen commercial “Feeling Carefree,” which response could plausibly stem from the emotional con- uses an old ‘80s song “Take on Me” by pop group A- tagion mechanism, although it might also be due to ha. The perceived emotion evoked by the high-pitched brain stem reflexes or rhythmic entrainment, the two vocals and perky instrumentation (particularly the key- other arousal-evoking mechanisms believed to be unin- board) suggest a happy, carefree image. This nicely fluenced by listening biographies. serves the ad’s message of VW providing carefree, no- Emotional contagion can lead the listener to experi- charge scheduled maintenance. As another example, a ence a broad range of emotions, particularly “everyday” commercial for Honda called “Snow Is Gonna Blow,” emotions that are readily expressed in speech (e.g., hap- answers the question, “What’s it feel like to get a great piness, sadness, anger). Recent empirical work has suc- deal at Happy Honda Deals?” Michael Bolton’s vocal cessfully produced a contagion reaction of sadness while performance is loud, with a forceful, insistent timbre. ruling out the influence of other mechanisms (Juslin The driving pulse, moderate tempo, and power chords et al., 2014; Juslin, Barradas, & Eerola, 2015). of the instrumental accompaniment all further con- The finding of similar emotional arousal responses tribute to an image of deeply felt triumph. In this in Canadian and Congolese Pygmy listeners mentioned case, the effect of this passionate emotional expres- above (Egermann et al., 2014) suggests a low risk for sion is intentionally humorous—after all, it is just a individual differences from the contagion mechanism. car! However, subjective valence ratings were different for the two groups of listeners and specific evoked emotions were not measured. For this reason, the risk of individ- Summary. Emotion recognition is a cognitive mecha- ual differences in musical response can tentatively be nism that identifies the emotions expressed in a piece considered as moderate. of music. It is elicited by voice-like basic features in the music (pitch, rhythm, timbre, texture, etc.) and is relatively unaffected by the consumer’s listening biography. Implications. Advertisers creating ad music for a The resulting perceived features of the music—its ex- Western audience can be reasonably confident that vir- pressed emotions—can produce a cognitive effect that tually all consumers will recognize the emotions ex- leads consumers to associate the music with a partic- pressed and that consumers will often experience those ular image or “personality.” Emotion recognition does emotions themselves. The likelihood of eliciting similar not contribute greatly to individual differences in Aam, experienced emotions across cultures seems somewhat so that marketers may confidently exploit it to gener- lower, however. ate an image that is universally suggested by the music Emotion recognition and emotional contagion have across cultures and subsequently associated with the different effects on Aam: emotion recognition works at brand. the cognitive level and suggests particular emotions

28 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar and corresponding images for ad music, while emo- contrast, connoted MEIs are similar for different lis- tional contagion stirs up actual felt emotions in con- teners because they are based more directly on basic sumers. In this sense, contagion appears to be a more features of the music. For instance, because the sound powerful mechanism for marketing than emotion recog- of a piccolo shares characteristics with birdsong (e.g., nition by itself. Contagion seems to operate only when quick bursts of high-pitched notes), it might trigger con- emotion recognition first takes place, so that the emo- noted MEIs of birds for many listeners. Some evidence tions that consumers experience from contagion will for private MEIs can be found in the music cognition always occur along with whatever emotion or image literature. For instance, Janata, Tomic, and Rakowski is first suggested by the emotion recognition mecha- (2007) found that ratings of the vividness of visual im- nism. Thus, consumers viewing the Honda “Snow is agery from music were strongly correlated with the ex- Gonna Blow” commercial—described above as trigger- tent to which the music evoked salient autobiograph- ing emotion recognition mechanism—might actually ical memories (memories of life events in someone’s experience the feeling of triumph elicited by Michael past); in that study, visual images were elicited 31% Bolton’s performance along with the powerful image it of the time to music, and 25% of those were rated as evokes, enhancing the humorous appeal of the ad. The very vivid. Similarly, empirically supported examples Guess Jeans ad mentioned above is perhaps a different of connoted MEIs include imagery of upward and down- story: using “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” to sug- ward motion evoked by the pitch contours of a melody gest a sad, soulful image is one thing, but does Guess (Weber & Brown, 1986) and nature scenes and images really want to bum out consumers with emotional con- of out-of-body experience evoked by spacey, synthesized tagion? This illustrates the potential conflict elicited electronic music (Osborne, 1989). among mechanisms operating concurrently, with one Visual imagery might lead to all sorts of cogni- mechanism helping the advertiser to achieve a desired tive associations suggesting a brand image, although response but another potentially eliciting an undesired this has apparently not been systematically tested. Vi- reaction. sual imagery can also evoke a wide range of possible emotions. Regarding the risk of individual differences, some Summary. After emotion recognition allows a listener listeners experience visual imagery frequently, while to identify the expressed emotion in a musical piece, others do so rarely. It seems that, given the possible in- the emotional contagion mechanism may actually influence of consumers’ listening biographies on imagery duce the emotion in the listener by causing the listener (Fraser, 2014; Janata et al., 2007), the risk of individ- to “mimic” the emotion internally. Emotional contagion ual differences in the content of imagery—that is, the is elicited by the same voice-like features in music that specific content of A —is high for both the image sug- are used in emotion recognition. For Western listeners, am gested by music and for the emotions it evokes. the research described above suggests that contagion is not affected consumers’ listening biographies and is un- Implications. Ad music may generate visual imagery likely to contribute greatly to individual differences in and consequent effects on A regardless of marketers’ A . This is much less clear for listeners from different am am intentions. Therefore, it seems wise to consider the pos- cultures, and more research is warranted. sible effects of this mechanism for any ad music. Fraser (2014) reported a trade-off for private versus connoted MEIs generated from ad music. Essentially, she found Visual imagery evidence that private MEIs can interfere with brand message processing and recall, but due to their per- Description. Not to be confused with the image sonal relevance they may lead to prolonged processing evoked by music—its cognitive associations and that ultimately facilitates music-cued brand message “personality”—a visual image is a “mental picture” that recall. Connoted MEIs, she argues, may not interfere resembles what one experiences from visual perception with brand message processing as much but may be but that occurs without a real visual stimulus. Music less effective in later music-cued recall because con- appears to be particularly powerful in stimulating vi- noted MEIs are not as personally meaningful as private sual imagery, although it is not yet certain what basic MEIs. Applying these results depends, of course, on be- features of music activate this mechanism. ing able to predict which kind of imagery is likely to In a recent marketing study, Fraser (2014) nicely il- be generated by ad music, which is unfortunately very lustrates how some, but not all, music-evoked images difficult. (MEIs) are influence by a consumer’s listening biog- TV and digital commercials are “multimodal”—in raphy. She suggests that ad music can lead to either addition to music, they contain visual information. In- private MEIs that are unique to a listener, or connoted tuitively, an ad’s engaging visual information might MEIs that are shared by many listeners in response inhibit MEIs. For instance, a backdrop of descending to particular features of a musical piece. She argues clouds and other dynamic, surreal visual information that private MEIs are unique because they are based in Amazon Kindle’s “Fly Me Away” ad suggest the im- on the listener’s idiosyncratic memories of listening to age of escaping in a good Kindle book. The day-dreamy that piece (i.e., the person’s listening biography). In Annie Little tune in the ad’s music has a ponderous

OVERCOMING VARIABILITY 29 Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar melody that complements this message, but it seems research may determine whether particular musical unlikely that it would promote any escapist visual im- features in isolation—such as the melody of a familiar agery in consumers who are already saturated with vi- song, without instrumental accompaniment—are suffi- sual information. cient to trigger the episodic memory mechanism. Another kind of visual information that might over- By definition, consumers’ listening biographies com- power music-evoked visual imagery is the “key frame” pletely determine what specific episodic memories con- or “signature” shot shown on screen either for a long sumers recall when listening to a musical piece and time or frequently throughout the commercial, serving whether these memories are positive or negative. How- as the ad’s chief visual takeaway. The map used as a ever, analyses of the content of MEAMs reveal some signature shot in Verizon Wireless’ “There’s a Map for common themes. Janata et al. (2007) found that of those That” campaign may well overpower any visual images songs that evoked memories, 40% elicited memories induced by the ad’s moderately upbeat music, which of people (especially friends and significant others; see sounds like it was intended instead to complement the also Baumgartner, 1992) or a period in one’s life (espe- scenes of people strolling and using their phones. cially the listener’s school when the music was heard). The best medium for stimulating visual images from The most common activities remembered were dancing music might be radio, which lacks competing visuals. and driving in a car. Radio offers an empty stage in the “theatre of the mind” Memories aroused by music can have a powerful cog- for advertisers to fill with rich, brand-relevant visual nitive effect, even if they do not evoke emotions. The imagery. As an example, a radio spot from the “Coke: memories might have connotations suggesting an im- Real Side of Life Campaign” features music that may age for the music, which can then become associated promote relaxing visual imagery in many consumers; with the brand. A pop tune that reminds the consumer along with the sound of rippling water and an an- of a vacation can suggest relaxation, a Woodstock tune nouncer describing the utter ease of floating on the can suggest peaceful rebellion, a high school hit can ocean while enjoying a Coke. The ad vividly conveys an evoke one’s coming-of-age era, and the National An- image of Coke offering leisurely happiness in a bottle. them can suggest the first pitch of a baseball game. By employing “imagery transfer,” radio advertisers can The memories aroused by music can also evoke emo- also stimulate visual imagery based on visual elements tions and emotional memories (Janata et al., 2007; from TV commercials by using the same or a similar Juslin et al., 2014, 2015). Janata et al. (2007) found soundtrack in a radio commercial. For instance, when that MEAMs were usually associated with strongly felt, listeners hear the distinctive voice of the Geiko Gecko positive emotions. In their study, happiness, feelings of on radio, they can visualize him from seeing him on TV youthfulness, and nostalgia were the three most com- ads. Likewise, ad music can be a vehicle for transferring monly reported emotions elicited by MEAMs; the most visual imagery from TV to radio. common negative emotions were sadness and loneli- ness. MEAMs may also be one reason that music is Summary. Visual imagery is elicited by basic features strongly connected with listeners’ sense of self or iden- of the music and can be affected by a person’s listening tity. Listening to music that one shared a preference biography. Visual imagery evoked by music can have for with “kindred spirits” might evoke feelings of pride the cognitive effect of suggesting a particular image or other self-relevant emotions (Huron, 2009). for the music as well as evoke a variety of emotions. Despite common themes in the content of MEAMs, Because people’s visual imagery can be idiosyncratic, the available evidence suggests that the risk of individ- this mechanism can lead to significant individual dif- ual differences in Aam from the episodic memory mecha- ferences in Aam. nism is quite high. Although listeners prefer the music of their youth (Hemming, 2013; Holbrook & Schindler, 1989), they vary in their overall nostalgia proneness Episodic Memory (Schindler & Holbrook, 2003). Janata et al. (2007) reported considerable variability among participants in Description. The episodic memory mechanism is sim- the proportion of songs that triggered episodic mem- ilar to evaluative conditioning. The primary difference ories. Very few individual songs in that study consis- is that with evaluative conditioning listeners need not tently evoked an episodic memory for most listeners, be aware of their conditioned associations with mu- and none of the songs were uniformly rated by most sic, whereas with episodic memory they are aware listeners as pleasing or very pleasing. Furthermore, that their music-evoked autobiographical memories Janata et al. (2007) concluded that “overall, any given (MEAMs) have been triggered by the music they are song elicited a wide variety of responses across par- listening to. ticipants, indicating that it would be rather difficult Research to date indicates that the episodic memory to identify a small fixed set of stimuli that could reli- mechanism is frequently activated by actual excerpts ably evoke memories in a population of participants” from the original musical piece. For instance, Janata (p. 856). et al. (2007) reported that 30% of musical passages from listeners’ past caused MEAMs. Of the 32% of songs Implications. Ads often generate good feelings by rated as very familiar, 62% elicited MEAMs. Future helping audience members recall autobiographical

30 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar experiences or by appealing to nostalgia, such as the ad unbidden memories or struggle to remember where for Hershey’s asking, “Remember your first Hershey’s they were when they first heard a particular tune. bar?” or the Volkswagen ad cited above, which targets One interesting question for future research is Generation X consumers using the ‘80s pop group A-ha. whether unfamiliar music played in a familiar style The 2012 Volkswagen re-launch of the Beetle uses the or genre can activate episodic memories. It seems plau- “Clap Back” commercial featuring the 1960s Shirley El- sible that music in a pop style from a particular era— lis “The Clapping Song” to evoke the ‘60s heyday of the for instance, 1980’s hair band rock music—could evoke Beetle. Popular copyright-protected music, for which nostalgic feelings in consumers who came of age when composers own the exclusive rights, is often licensed the style was popular. If so, then rather than having to for commercials; advertisers believe that it is likely to acquire the rights to popular songs in order to exploit elicit positive episodic memories in many consumers, the episodic memory mechanism, advertisers could cre- especially those belonging to a particular generation. ate their own original tune in the same style. Another The research summarized above confirms this belief, issue for future research is whether and how MEAMS with three important qualifications. elicited by ad music can be used to reinforce self-image First, because a given piece of music can be associ- (self-identity) and whether this can be linked to brand ated with vastly different episodic memories, the range image. of possible emotional responses is great—one person’s happy memory may be another person’s recollection of Summary. The episodic memory mechanism operates a personal tragedy. Advertisers hope to play off of emo- when familiar music triggers memories of the lis- tional positive feelings linked to events associated with tener’s life experiences associated with that music. music, but just because a pop tune was a hit does not Music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) guarantee that it will be enjoyed (this is true especially are elicited by basic features of the music recognized of overplayed music) or generate similar, positive mem- from one’s past listening experiences, and they depend ories in all consumers. It would seem most likely to entirely on the consumer’s listening biography. MEAMs produce similar memories for many people when asso- may have the cognitive effect of suggesting a particular ciated with a commonly shared event or pop culture image for ad music based on the content of evoked mem- phenomenon. Microsoft’s unique startup tune proba- ories. Episodic memory can also evoke a wide variety bly evokes memories of firing up the laptop at work of emotions and emotional memories, notably nostal- or school for many, and the distinctive T-Mobile jin- gia. While content analyses of MEAMs reveal common gle might bring to mind a certain someone who often themes such as memories of particular people or ac- calls (however, both of these examples could be either tivities, differences in consumers’ listening biographies positive or negative experiences for any given listener). may lead to significant individual differences in Aam. Diet Coke’s use of the Temper Trap tune “Sweet Dis- position,” from the soundtrack for a popular movie, “500 Days of Summer,” might trigger predictable sweet, Musical Expectancy warm-and-fuzzy associations with the film’s love story, even if consumers’ personal memories of viewing the Description. Musical expectancies are people’s pre- movie are unpredictable. dictions about what will happen next as they listen to Second, caution must be taken in deciding whether a piece of music. The musical expectancy mechanism to use music that is so popular that it is used by other forms these predictions and then generates musical re- brands, as happened when Train’s “Soul Sister” was sponses as these predictions are confirmed, delayed, or used by Samsung, Apple, Reebok, and others. In fact, disconfirmed (Huron, 2006; Huron & Margulis, 2010; several other advertisers also used “Sweet Disposition,” Margulis, 2005, 2007; Meyer, 1956; Narmour, 2015; which some critics saw as overkill. Overuse could also Tillmann, Bharucha, & Bigand, 2000). This mecha- hasten advertising “wearout”—the case where an ad (or nism is elicited continuously by the basic features of a elements thereof) is heard so often that it is no longer musical piece as it progresses—melodic patterns lead attended to and might even induce negative responses to melodic expectancies and subsequent musical re- in listeners. In addition, once other advertisers start sponses, rhythmic patterns lead to rhythmic expectan- using a musical piece, those commercials become part cies and subsequent musical responses, and so on. For of consumers’ listening biographies. The advertising instance, melodies typically proceed in small, rather music may now evoke memories of those other com- than large jumps, setting up a musical expectancy. The mercials! This problem is exacerbated if those other opening two notes of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” vi- ads have “tainted” the music with negative emotions olate this expectation the first time a listener hears this or emotions incongruent with the brand image. For in- tune; the musical response to the large melodic jump up stance, the song “Arms of an Angel” may have evoked is surprise. sad memories for many consumers after it was used in Influential “statistical learning” accounts propose the BC SPCA End Animal Cruelty campaign. that most, if not all, expectations stem directly Third, when episodic memories may lead to cog- from a person’s listening biography (Bharucha, 1994; nitive processing, that interferes with ad process- Bharucha et al., 2006; Huron, 2006; Huron & Margulis, ing. For instance, consumers may be flooded with 2010; Pearce & Wiggins, 2006; Tillmann et al., 2000).

OVERCOMING VARIABILITY 31 Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar However, some expectations may be innate (Narmour, listener responses. Marketers seem to understand this 2015; Schellenberg, 1997). intuitively; advertising music is rarely very adventur- Although a large literature has documented lis- ous. However, ad music that challenges consumers’ mu- teners’ musical expectations (for a recent review, see sical expectations just a little bit might be better at at- Tillmann, Poulin-Charronnat, & Bigand, 2014), there tracting attention, promote more depth of processing, is much less direct empirical evidence documenting make it moderately distinctive and thus more memo- what musical responses ensue as these expectations rable as well as perhaps creating an image of innova- are confirmed, delayed, or violated. Regarding cogni- tiveness. tive responses, it is proposed that musical expectancy In fact, playful violation of musical expectations has influences attention, depth of processing, and the im- been long been employed in ads. Salem cigarettes fa- age suggested—in particular, how distinctive ad music mously did this in an era when tobacco companies were is perceived to be. If the music violates expectations permitted to run TV commercials, using the jingle “You to a moderate degree, it may elicit attention, promote can take Salem out of the country, but you can’t take the greater depth of processing, suggest an image of inno- country out of Salem.” After airing these commercials vativeness, and be perceived as distinctive and interest- for a good while, Salem employed an ad using the first ing. On the other hand, music that fails to violate mu- half of this line, ending with “but” followed by a musi- sical expectations at all may lose listeners’ attention, cal ping, resulting in a minor violation of expectations. promote shallow processing, suggest an image of being This sustained consumers’ attention as they inevitably “derivative,” and be perceived as undistinctive and bor- finished the jingle in their minds, thereby heighten- ing. Finally, music with extreme violations of expecta- ing their message involvement. The ad projected an tions may demand attention and promote greater depth image of playful creativity and distinctiveness, and it of processing but might create an image of weirdness likely evoked a positive hedonic response in consumers or rebelliousness and be perceived to be so distinctive as they confirmed their own expectations by mentally as to be off-putting or distasteful. finishing the jingle. Regarding affective responses, musical expectancy A similar, more recent good-humored violation of ex- evokes certain emotions and influences emotional pectation occurs in a Nationwide Insurance commercial arousal and hedonic response. Juslin et al. (2014) featuring Peyton Manning repeatedly singing the fa- evoked listener irritation by randomly altering the mous “Nationwide Is on Your Side” tune. Each time notes in a piece to make it more unconventional. he repeats a stanza, he inserts unique lyrics describing Steinbeis, Koelsch, and Sloboda (2006) reported in- what he is currently doing. Finally, at the ad’s con- creases in tension and emotionality ratings for musical clusion an off-camera vocalist sings the correct lyrics, excerpts that violate expectations. Huron (2006) pro- which viewers have likely been playing in their heads posed that correctly predicting what will happen next each time Manning sings his own unique lyrics. in a musical piece leads to a positive hedonic response, The VW “Feeling Carefree” commercial discussed which he calls a “prediction effect”; incorrect predic- above playfully violates both specific expectations based tions lead to a negative hedonic response. Consistent on consumers’ prior exposure to the ad song and gen- with this, predictable music is rated as more pleasant eral musical expectations based on their history of expo- (Koelsch, Fritz, & Schlaug, 2008), more liked (Craton, sure to music. Recall that the ad abruptly breaks from Juergens, Michalak, & Poirier, 2016), and more pos- the recording “Take on Me” to show a carefree worker itive and less arousing (Egermann, Pearce, Wiggins, absent-mindedly singing the tune within earshot of & McAdams, 2013) than less predictable music. Other his co-workers. This transition to the “new” vocalist of expectancy-based affective responses that have been course violates specific expectations based on memories proposed but are largely untested include interest, anx- of the original version. General expectations about mu- iety, surprise, thrills/chills, hope, and disappointment sic are also violated: pop tunes do not ordinarily tran- (Huron & Margulis, 2010; Juslin, 2013). sition suddenly to a new unaccompanied vocalist, and The risk of individual differences from the musical the worker is slightly flat (out of tune) when singing the expectancy mechanism appears to be moderate. On the song’s climactic high note. Having aroused listeners’ at- one hand, broad similarities in all the music from a tention, the ad presents them with the pleasantly sur- given culture lead to similarities in people’s listening prising message that the worker’s absentmindedness biographies and, consequently, shared musical expecta- is due to his carefree attitude toward car maintenance, tions. On the other hand, differences between styles of thanks to VW’s free scheduled maintenance. music between cultures and (perhaps more subtle) dif- None of these examples involve extreme violations of ferences within a particular culture lead to individual expectations. Although it may seem like a risky strat- differences in listening biographies and, consequently, egy, music that strongly violates expectations might musical expectations that are specific to the styles with remain interesting and pleasurable with repetition, which people are most familiar (Huron, 2006). thereby avoiding advertising “wearout” while achieving higher recall due to repetition. Highly adventurous ad Implications. The prediction effect seems to argue music would also have the virtue of being perceived as for a conservative strategy of using highly predictable distinctive and hence more tightly linked to the brand, music in order to generate positive hedonic consumer and it could help craft a creative brand image.

32 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar Summary. The musical expectancy mechanism gener- lead to the least risk of between-consumer variability— ates predictions about what will happen next in a mu- are brain stem reflexes and emotion recognition. In fact, sical piece and evokes either desirable or undesirable it would appear that these are the two music-processing responses when some feature of the music violates, de- mechanisms that advertisers employ the most, perhaps lays, or confirms the listener’s predictions. Theorists because they intuitively understand that their opera- agree that the musical expectancy mechanism is con- tion is fairly predictable. Regarding brain stem reflexes, tinually activated by basic features of a musical piece as sudden, loud, dissonant, and fast changes in music are these unfold over time and that it is strongly influenced commonly used to attract and hold attention. These are by a consumer’s listening biography. The responses can also used to evoke emotion and emotional arousal for be cognitive, influencing the listener’s level of attention low-involvement products advertised in cluttered com- and suggesting a brand image, particularly whether mercial pods and fast-paced, information-overloaded the piece is perceived as distinctive and innovative. digital environments. Concerning emotion recognition, To date, however, theorists and researchers have em- any negative affect created by the startle elicited by phasized affective responses—especially that musical brain stem reflexes can be counteracted with positive expectancy evokes emotions and influences emotional voice-like basic features often found in commercials, arousal and hedonic response. Because many musical such as fast tempo, high volume, and sharp timbre to expectations are style-specific and listeners differ in suggest positive affect such as happiness or excitement, their familiarity with and preference for specific styles, which is appropriate for many hedonic products. there is a moderate risk of individual differences in Aam from the musical expectancy mechanism.

Within-consumer Variability in Aam CREATING AND SELECTING AD MUSIC The simultaneous operation of the various mechanisms THAT “WORKS” leads to within-consumer variability in Aam.Howmuch within-consumer variability is there likely to be for ad The survey above has identified eight mechanisms that music? At one hypothetical extreme, all eight music- can operate simultaneously and have distinct effects processing mechanisms could be activated, with each of them leading to a distinct, contrasting response in Aam. on Aam (feature analysis is excluded from this list because its effects are virtually identical for all listen- At the other hypothetical extreme, all activated mech- ers). This section offers some preliminary conclusions anisms could have a single, uniform effect on Aam.Both for marketers given the between- and within-consumer of these extremes are logically possible, but unlikely— the reality for most pieces of ad music is probably some- variability in Aam highlighted by the multimechanism framework. It then uses three examples of successful where between the two. Many kinds of within-consumer ads to show how marketers can in principle analyze ad variability are possible; most have yet to be explored music in terms of the music-processing mechanisms it empirically. The exception is two studies that found triggers, in order to understand and predict its effects that mixed emotions were reported 13% (Gabrielsson, 2010) and 11% (Juslin, Liljestrom,¨ Laukka, Vastfj¨ all,¨ on Aam. & Lundqvist, 2011) of the time that music evoked emotions in listeners. It appears that researchers have only begun to explore the many possible combinations of cog- Between-consumer Variability in Aam nitive and affective responses in musical response that The survey indicates that six of the eight mechanisms are possible. determining consumers’ response to ad music have a Intuitively, it might seem that music will best serve moderate-to-high risk of individual differences in Aam. the ad message if it leads to unmixed responses in in- This supports the view, defended by two of the authors dividual listeners—provided, of course, that these re- elsewhere (Craton & Lantos, 2011; Lantos & Craton, sponses are consistent with the advertiser’s goals. If 2012), that individual differences in musical response this assumption is valid, then an advertiser needs to are the rule rather than the exception. Consequently, strive for consistency among the responses elicited by marketers should exercise caution in drawing gener- the various mechanisms that are likely to be activated alizations regarding musical response. The best way in a particular target audience. This seems like a chal- to anticipate variability across consumers in their re- lenging task, indeed! For instance, because the emotion actions to advertising music, arguably, is to know the recognition mechanism operates similarly for different potential commonalities as well as variability in the tar- listeners, marketers could successfully select a piece of get audience’s listening biographies. As noted earlier, ad music with voice-like features that suggest a happy the challenge is that consumers’ listening biographies image. If the responses elicited by other mechanisms are becoming increasingly diverse and hence difficult to also elicit a happy image, then the music will have suc- predict, especially for younger consumers growing up in cessfully minimized within-consumer variability. Nev- a more diverse musical environment. ertheless, it seems likely that there will be some con- The mechanisms whose effects on musical response sumers who concurrently experience sad thoughts and marketers can be most confident about—that is, that feelings—due, for instance, to idiosyncratic episodic

OVERCOMING VARIABILITY 33 Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar memories evoked by the piece. This would lead to a “bit- 60-second spot, screeching tires followed by the sudden tersweet” feeling in those consumers, a familiar type of onset of carnival music might trigger brain stem reflexes mixed emotional response to music. Indeed, any of the eliciting attention and perhaps increasing emotional six mechanisms that are moderate or high risk for in- arousal. Rhythmic entrainment from the groove-heavy dividual differences in Aam might create undesirable, funk/samba music builds throughout the ad, contribut- mixed responses in particular consumers. ing to the feeling of shared festivity and increasing But perhaps the assumption that uniform respond- emotional arousal. As always, it is difficult to predict ing is always better is invalid. Depending on their goals, the effects of the evaluative conditioning and episodic marketers may in some circumstances want to em- memory mechanisms because advertisers are not privy brace the power of music to evoke rich, multifaceted to consumers’ unique listening biographies. However, responses such as a bittersweet feeling. Another famil- because many consumers have been exposed to fre- iar example of mixed emotional response to music is quent repetition of this commercial, the samba music the paradox of “pleasurable sadness”— people usually may trigger prior associations (evaluative conditioning) avoid experiences that cause sadness, but they often and memories (episodic memory) of adventure and ex- enjoy sad music. This can be understood and exploited citement based on prior exposure to the ad. Emotional by marketers as a situation in which one mechanism, recognition and emotional contagion from the raucous, such as emotional contagion, evokes sadness while an- exuberant horns and percussion suggest an image of, other mechanism, perhaps musical expectancy, simul- and perhaps feelings of, joy and abandon as the car ca- taneously evokes a positive hedonic response. The song reens through the city streets—a true carnival thrill “Arms of an Angel” is quite effective in evoking sadness ride! The ad visuals are powerful and perhaps inhibit in the listener, perhaps because of its vocal characteris- visual imagery, although it is possible that consumers tics (emotional contagion); however, for many listeners produce their own festive imagery reinforcing the visu- it is also enjoyable, perhaps because it is familiar, sim- als. Whenever there is ad music, the musical expectancy ple, and predictable in a way that confirms listeners’ mechanism is at work (Huron, 2006); here, listeners musical expectations (musical expectancy). The plea- will expect the festival dance groove to continue un- surable sadness it evokes in many listeners makes it a abated and will experience the pleasant positive he- brilliant choice for the BC SPCA “End Animal Cruelty” donic response that comes from this prediction being campaign (despite the misgivings expressed earlier in confirmed. As discussed above, marketers can be most discussing the episodic memory mechanism). certain of musical responses due to brain stem reflex Given the reality of low-involvement listeners in the and emotion recognition; the predicted responses to the case of most ad music and the difficulties of selecting other three mechanisms are more tenuous. This type of music that is much enjoyed by all listeners, the most multimechanism analysis can be done for any ad con- promising strategy may be to grab and sustain con- taining music. sumers’ attention with music that is irresistibly catchy. Another TV ad successfully incorporating music is Marketers may be willing to settle for a mixed musical Baileys’ “Pour Spectacular.” The musical “splash” at response in which their ad music is experienced as a the beginning, as an ice cube is seen from above splash- “guilty pleasure,” a type of mixed response in which a ing into a glass of Baileys, could trigger brain stem mechanism such as rhythmic entrainment leads to a reflexes that draw attention and induce arousal. Rhyth- positive hedonic response, perhaps from a catchy beat, mic entrainment and its positive effects are likely but musical expectancy simultaneously suggests that as the slightly upbeat music, with its busy groove- the music is not at all distinctive but rather predictable. oriented instrumentation, continues. However, if the featured ‘80s pop-rock tune “Rapture” by Blondie has negative associations for some listeners (perhaps “Rap- ture” was played at someone’s horrible ‘80s prom ex- Predicting Aam through Mechanism Analysis perience), evaluative conditioning and episodic memory could work against these other mechanisms. The From the perspective presented in this article, a reason- way the vocals slowly slide around suggests dreamy able first step in predicting targeted consumers’ Aam is relaxation through emotion recognition and perhaps vi- to analyze the mechanisms that will be elicited by ad sual imagery, and this may even evoke those feelings music and the impact of each on the cognitive and af- through emotional contagion—all complementing the fective Aam components. As an example of effective ad powerful ad visual images of silk-clad women trans- music, consider the MINI Coupe TV commercial “Sun- forming into silky-smooth Baileys. For consumers fa- day in Rio” from the 2011 “Another Day, Another Ad- miliar with the song, musical expectancy will lead to a venture” campaign portraying the new MINI Coupe´ positive hedonic response as predictions are confirmed. as the ideal companion for every adventure. In this At the same time, the tune has unusual features that spot for the sporty two-seater, the driving fun and ad- provide moderate violations of expectations even upon venture of the car are displayed as a man picks up repeated listening: the melody jumps around distinc- and drives a native through Rio de Janeiro’s festive tively and breaks into a rap halfway through the ad, af- carnival atmosphere while a high-energy, percussive ter which a rock guitar solo—somewhat unexpected for samba plays in the background. Seven seconds into the a club/dance tune—crescendos before Debbie Harry’s

34 CRATON, LANTOS, AND LEVENTHAL Psychology & Marketing DOI: 10.1002/mar smooth vocals return and fade, singing “rapture . . . ” velop methods for isolating them experimentally. This Here again, advertisers can be most confident of the could be accomplished by creating musical stimuli that results predicted by brain stem reflexes and emotional trigger only one mechanism at a time, perhaps by creat- recognition. ing a “standard” or baseline musical stimulus which is A final example comes from successful use of rap then edited in various ways to target particular mecha- music in an Evian “Water Babies” TV ad. The anal- nisms. For instance, inserting a loud noise in the middle ysis in this case is restricted to evaluative condition- of the musical stimulus could target brain stem reflexes. ing, in order to make a point about music stereotypes. Presenting the same melody as played by a musician The juxtaposition of rap and visuals of cute rollerblad- on an expressive, voice-like instrument such as a vi- ing babies in this ad is irresistibly funny. It would olin, may trigger the emotion recognition and emotion seem that it is not just the cuteness of the babies contagion mechanisms—at least more than a computer- that carries the day. The ad succeeds brilliantly be- generated keyboard would. Researchers could use both cause, through evaluative conditioning, the music ac- self-report and physiological measures to see if these tivates cognitive stereotypes of tough, urban rappers. manipulations have effects that would be predicted by Even avid rap-haters must surely find this contrast the multimechanism account reviewed above. If they amusing! do, then these stimuli could be incorporated into ex- Although the above examples of mechanism analy- periments testing that test response to advertisements sis are post hoc, they suggest that predicting consumer employing relevant marketing measures such as Aam, musical response based on the mechanisms at work Aad, message reception, recall, acceptance, brand atti- may be fruitful—but always, at least at this point, ten- tudes, and so on. tative. They also make it clear that even for successful A related approach that researchers might take is ad music, the assumption that some musical stimuli to focus on the causes of negative musical response, a have near-universal appeal and so can be incorporated phenomenon that advertisers typically hope to avoid into ads without risking a negative consumer response (Craton & Lantos, 2011). Hypothetically, any particu- is difficult to defend. In even the best cases, there is lar music-processing mechanism might elicit negative likely to be a lot of within- and between-consumer vari- Aam in some listeners. Researchers could isolate mecha- ability in consumer responses to ad music. Marketers nisms as described above as a way of discovering exactly can be most confident about musical responses from what features of ad music are off-putting to consumer brain stem reflexes and emotion recognition, largely listeners and determining what the particular negative because these mechanisms are relatively unaffected by effects are. consumers’ listening biographies. To date, the marketing literature on the effects Advertisers already use many of the ideas above of ad music has tended to focus on finding direct intuitively. However, intuition alone is rarely a links between basic features of music, such as tempo, justifiable or optimal basis for business decision- and consumer response (Allan, 2007; Bruner, 1990; making. While case studies are certainly useful (e.g., Kellaris, 2008). This strategy falls short of explaining Jackson, Jankovich, & Sheinkop, 2013), a multimecha- why particular musical responses occur and, in particu- nism framework appears to offer a promising new tool lar, why both between- and within-consumer variability for making practical decision-making more systematic in musical response occur. Recent work on psychomet- than either intuition or anecdote. ric correlates of musical preferences such as personality (Rentfrow, 2012; Rentfrow et al., 2012) and musical intelligence (Krishnan et al., 2014) promise to be part of DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH the explanation; however, whether these correlates can be linked to responses to ads with music remains un- The multimechanism framework in this article, and its clear (e.g., Kupfer, in press). As a complement to the application to ad music, is intended not as a fully devel- “micro” level of basic musical features and the “macro” oped theory of consumer musical response but rather as level of psychometric and demographic variables, the an organizing framework to help marketers understand multimechanism framework offers to a middle-level of and predict consumer musical response and to help re- analysis that identifies a range of underlying music- searchers develop hypotheses for future research. Al- processing mechanisms influencing musical response. though the selective review of the literature provided This framework merits further empirical investigation points to steady progress in the field, much remains to using advertising music to better inform marketers and be investigated before advertisers can confidently im- researchers alike on the whys of consumer response to plement the multimechanism framework. ad music. 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