Companies selling ethical and sustainable products could increase sales by using up-tempo and upbeat music in their marketing, new research from the University of Bath has revealed.
Music plays a key role in advertising as it can produce a strong emotional response from the consumer – with music in a major key, or mode, often associated with positive emotions such as happiness and joy.
In contrast, minor mode music is usually linked to negative emotions such as sadness and anger.
The research by academics from the university’s School of Management shows that using up-tempo, upbeat music can be particularly successful for ‘green’ brands to overcome what marketers know as the ‘attitude-behaviour gap’, where what consumers say differs from what they actually do.
This is a particular challenge in ethical and sustainable markets where it is often difficult to persuade well-meaning consumers to convert their good intentions into actual purchases.
Studies have shown that while about 30% of consumers claim to care about brand ethics, just 3% translate their words into action. A similar number claim to care about green consumption yet only 5% buy green products.
School of Management reader Dr Haiming Hang, whose main research area is consumer’s judgment and decision making, said this attitude gap was a serious marketing problem because any exaggeration of consumers’ ethical concerns can distort the market, leading to oversupply.
“Our research suggests one way to bridge that gap is to use advertising music more creatively – specifically, to use up-tempo, major-mode music,” he said.
“It’s no surprise that music influences consumers – we know that consumers who enjoy the music associated with brands will view that brand more positively and it will make them more likely to buy the product.
“That’s the subjective aspect of music – what’s more significant is the objective aspect – tempo and mode.
“Our research shows major mode music is effective in reducing the attitude-behaviour gap by 40% to 50%.
“And since fast tempo music tends to generate positive feelings such as happiness our research suggests the attitude-behaviour gap is smallest when major mode music is played at a fast tempo.”
As part of the study – titled ‘Disentangling effects of subjective and objective characteristics of advertising music’ – the team created radio adverts for two fictitious products – an electric car called EcoCar and a reusable coffee mug called EcoMug – and examined how music affected purchase intentions across multiple experiments.
Hang said the research findings held true regardless of consumers’ music background and for any type of green product being advertised.
“Marketers must be aware that simply incorporating a piece of music that consumers enjoy may not be sufficient,” he added.
“When incorporating music into advertisements, marketers must recognise the importance of music mode and music tempo to ensure that a favourable attitude towards a brand translates into sales,” Hang said.
