Emotional Engagement.

September 14, 2007 issue

Ruth Simmons

Never a dull moment in marketing

Just when it seems that marketers have recognized that consumer purchases needed to become
more weighted towards emotional attributes over functional benefits, it is becoming increasingly
apparent that a changing social climate is now demanding brands be assessed by their integrity
and genuine commitment to communicating honestly about who they are, what they do, and
what they represent. There is a shift creating a significant change among stakeholders
(customers, employees, shareholders, and suppliers) who are looking to brands to help define
their role within society and for a purchase to count for something more than just an acquisition.
(Social Brand Capital; The Loyalty Nucleus of Corporate Social Responsibility Rachel Simmons,
brandchannel June 07).

Whilst music is a powerful medium that can help bring the emotional qualities of products and
services to life, more significantly, it can distil a complex social message to its essence. It also has
the innate ability to connect at a profound and human level with an honesty that cannot be
contrived. Responsible brands are beginning to recognize that there is a difference between just
using music in their communications and understanding how music is resonating with
consumers, which is demanding a new level of music literacy.

Music is more personal than you thought

From the pulse and rhythm found in our heartbeat, breathing and movement, to the melody
that is created in our laughing, crying, screaming or singing, music is such an intrinsic part of
who we are. The whole range of our emotions can be held and expressed within the rhythms and
harmonies of our personal different musical styles and idioms. These intimate connections with
music can remain despite disability or illness, and are not dependent on a musical training or
background. (Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy website)

Nordoff Robbins is a charitable organization supported by the Music Industry and works with
people who are autistic, have senile dementia, or are in coma; they, in fact, work with any and all
extreme conditions of mental and subsequent social isolation, where all other forms of
communication have failed. The Nordoff Robbins therapists understand that music has the
capability to reach into an individual at a profound level, which is different and unique for each one
of their patients.

And whilst there are certain elements of music that are primal and connect with people regardless
of culture and geography, the very gifted therapists at Nordoff Robbins know at an experiential
level, that every human being has their own musicality, a DNA that means that each and everyone
of us respond in very different ways to the music we hear.

What Music?
The expression music soundtrack of my life is a phrase that is often used to describe the music
that forms the punctuation marks or signposts in a persons life. We all intuitively understand the
deeper context of this expression, but do we actually understand how or why this happens and
what causes the similarities and differences? The challenge with music is that it is ubiquitous. We
are literally bombarded with external melodies, rhythms, and lyrics all-day and everyday. So why
are some songs more important to us than others; why can we remember every lyric to a
particular artist and not others; cry to some songs without even knowing consciously that we are
listening, or simply want to just get up and dance as the opening notes reveal themselves?

Are there any clues in genrespecific music where the rhythms, instrumentation, etc. all share
similarities? On the surface it would appear that social groups, peer pressure, and networks are
the primary influencers. Recent findings by Drs. Rentfrow and Gosling (Music Preferences and
Social Perceptions 2005) found that music provides unique information about personality
unavailable through other clues. The role of individuals within a community and how the dynamic
of how they affect/effect change may hold other indications.

If music evokes emotion, understanding emotion and the ways that each and every one of us
experiences the same emotion is almost as complex as the ranges of emotion that make up the
individual and their personality. We may begin to find some of the answers to the above questions
if we start to break it down in the following way:

Music and Physiology

Whilst on the surface it would appear that the human body is built on a similar template, just by
looking around tells us that there are infinite variations of this physical formula. For a start, we all
look different. The physiology of a human being is a complex interactive and interwoven balance of
internal chemical actions. Similarly under the surface we all have the same basic sequence of
chemical reactions for breathing, digestion, and so on. Quite simply, given the identical chemicals
in a particular environment, we all respond the same with the same chemical reaction but with
subtle levels of difference. Some people eat and get heartburn when they eat certain foods whilst
others seem to have cast iron stomachs; some metabolise food very quickly; others almost just
have to look at food to put on weight.

These sensitive and individual chemical reactions equally operate in the process that also affects
mood. The fine balance between what makes us feel good and what makes us want to sleep or run
and hide is different for each and every one of us.

What it boils down to is that we are all a fine cocktail of thousands of these chemicals, stimulated
physically or by more subtle stimuli like touch or a look or a sound. We are the walking result of
various combinations that affect who we are and how we behave. But how and can does music
play a role in eliciting those chemical changes that affect mood and behaviour? And what is it
about the music itself that actually changes the mood?

Following the logic: -

1. The world is made up of very different personalities because of the way that each individual
balances and regulates his/her chemical reactions.

2. Chemical reactions that affect mood can be triggered by a music stimulus,

3. If we can change/moderate mood with music maybe some people need more and some less
of the same musica bit like how much seasoning we each need to get the full flavor of
food.

There are four basic stages when we listen to music

1. As the music plays, we hear something and on a basic level recognize that there is a sound.

2. If we are still within the vicinity of that sound, we move from hearing to listening. Within a
few seconds the brain starts to look for values and events that we associate with similar
experiences of those soundsmarkers that we know and have experienced before.

3. It is in that moment, when we make a connection to those markers that we start to

respondwe exhibit an emotional response.

4. When the triggers are familiar the emotional response is intensified and if that is powerful
enough we will start to experience a physicality to the sounds; hairs stand up on the back
of our neck, we get up, we tap our feet, we dance.

The whole process takes nanoseconds. Great music producers understand this and give us the
distinctive markers to hang on to so that when we hear that track again, we respond like Pavlovs
dogs to a particular hook, rift, or mnemonic. It would appear that the more we hear the marker,
the faster the response time. Equally, if we associate that track with a negative marker which
could be something completely unrelated to the music but that happened simultaneously with
music or similar music in another moment, then that music will have a whole lot more hurdles to
overcome (to create a positive impression) when we hear it in the future.

If building brand loyalty is about positively reminding consumers of the values of their products,
then using music that has positive markers becomes more critical. When a brand consistently
uses music that truly resonates and is congruent with all other positive aspects and values of
their branding and also makes their customers feel good, they have a head start in beginning to
build real value from their music investments. Of course not all music needs to be anthemic and
uplifting but appreciating and understanding how the impactful, well-executed use of even sad
music could have on consumers will enable brands to influence consumers more gainfully.

It is extraordinary that without any formal music training most people understand how certain
instruments evoke certain emotions. Somehow over the years we just know that by adding
strings the arranger can bring romance to the piece; change the key from major to minor and
even the most musically illiterate sense the sadness. Listen to a great BB King guitar rift and even
if we have no idea of the complexity of the virtuoso, the music seems to reach into our very souls
and pluck at our feelings.

How does this happen?

But the real conundrum is why some of us intellectually recognize the intended mood of music
but dont make that emotional bridge to actually feel that emotion? In other words we can hear
and understand the intention of the music but it has absolutely no effect on us as individuals. It
simply doesnt touch the triggers that stimulate and moderate our particular mood and behavior.

Who is currently using this music and emotion approach?

Recently London Transport started to play classical music at their stations at night where they
were experiencing social disorder. The idea was to calm those who were hanging around and
affecting the atmosphere at the stations. Not all classical music soothes the soul and so
repertoire selection played an important part. Of course there is an argument that says the actual
target market itself was socially conditioned to dislike this type of music so much that they simply
upped and left. But this in itself would of course raise other issues. If people feel forced to do
something that they dont want to do, they could become even more hostile. But this was not the
case; for those who stayed, the stations just became a nicer place to be.

Similarly the supermarkets have found that certain genres of music at different times of the day
will affect the speed at which people navigate the shop floorliterally chosen to reflect the pace
that they want us to move around the supermarket.

Interestingly, the use of music by many brands at other customer touch points like call holding is
inconsistent. Whilst Brands intuitively understand that callers to their companies need to be
managed, the Music Societies that licence this facility recognize that many companies just use
almost any royalty free music to still fill the dead on hold space.

Research by Dr. Adrian North (Music and On Hold Waiting Time University of Leicester1999)
found that not only was there is a difference in the mood of the caller when certain music was
being played, but callers who were listening to that music stayed on hold 20% longer than callers
who were just exposed to simple verbal messages. He also was able to ascertain that callers will
also wait even longer if they hear music that fits their expectation of the companys style image
and corporate message.

Similarly, Image Generators conducted a USA Business Telephone Survey earlier this year with
30,000 people regarding how music changes the perception of time. They discovered that when
callers were presented with silence on hold, 52% got fed up and hung up with over 48%
estimating that they had held on over 1 minute. When met with just music, the hang-up rate
was only 13% with 56% estimating the time on the line as less than a minute. Further, 85%
agreed that they actually liked to hear interesting messages with the music background and 10%
acknowledged that they had actually bought as a result of hearing about additional services and
products.
The Significance to Brands
Current market research techniques mainly examine how values affect taste and what factors are
affected by that taste, which is of course of infinite fascination to marketers who want us to buy
their product. Brands are reputed to be spending US$ 10billion a year on market research at a
global level and music is still acknowledged as being at least 50% of the stimulus in a commercial
film (John Hegarty Creative Director of BBH). Yet modern market research about music is still
generally limited to how likes and dislikes, memorability, and brand recall are linked to the
sophisticated segmentation of target markets.

Yet we continue to analyze areas of choice, the areas where we feel we have the most control. But
what if we dont actually have control? What if music is something where we only pretend that we
have control, but in actuality our innate emotional triggers simply cant lie? What questions do we
ask then?

When a consumer remembers a brand because they hate the track or what has been done with
itis measuring the dissonance as well as the resonance of the music with the consumers
response to the product relevant?

Music, Branding, and the Future

With the ongoing fragmentation of the market, brands have the opportunity to talk to smaller and
more relevant audiences which may mean that we have to start to look at our consumers from the
bottom up, i.e. as an individual behaving within the dynamic of a group rather than top down
where we look at the group as a whole.

New research (not yet published) by Dr. Rentfrow indicates that there are music age watersheds
in an individuals life; times when we are finally honest with our internal musicality. Times when we
rise above peer pressure and social conditioning and we turn to the music that we really like,
because it actually resonates with our own physiology. Is this the level of perception and
understanding that we as marketers need to strive for? Maybe it is here where we will begin to
understand the triggers that will connect to real customer buy-in and loyalty.

The science of this area of research is young but the potential is huge. Understanding the way
consumers authentically and genuinely interact with music, and applying that knowledge in our
communication platforms, may be the way forward to music playing a real and more useful role in
marketing, better ROIs, and ultimately happier FDs. Now thats something to get emotional
about.

________________
Ruth Simmons is Managing Director soundlounge, a music consultancy that specializes in
working with brands to understand, develop, and implement the sound of the brand in
commercial environments.

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