One of the many descriptions of music is that it is a universal language. It offers an excellent communication medium, and marketing is all about communication. Incorporating music into your ads and marketing campaigns can help broaden your audience, making more people aware of your brand. One important requirement exists to leverage the power of music for brand awareness: appealing music that gets the message across.
This guide delves into the psychology behind the use of music as a marketing tool for building brand awareness. It also offers four tips on how to incorporate music into your marketing campaigns to build brand awareness.
The Psychology behind Using Music to Build Brand Awareness
Building brand awareness through music mostly entails influencing the audience’s psychology in three impactful ways:
Memorability
Music is easy to memorize, and the brain will record it automatically if it is appealing. For example, many people in the U.S. will recognize McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” jingle as soon as it starts playing. The jingle is synonymous with McDonald’s, which is synonymous with fast-foods.
Essentially, the jingle makes McDonald’s stand out from the hundreds of other fast-food brands. McDonald’s doesn’t have to engage in another major marketing campaign to build brand awareness. Indeed, the original jingle will suffice for everyone who has heard it before.
Emotions
Music also evokes different emotions in people. For example, playing keys on a high and short note evokes excitement. Alternatively, playing them on a low note may evoke calmness or sadness. Many people often base their purchase decisions on their emotions, as demonstrated by the popularity of emotional advertising.
Suppose someone is in a good mood and an ad about a snack with an exciting jingle starts playing. The person may have never heard of the brand before. However, they will notice it because the ad’s music makes them happy. Then, they are more likely to purchase that particular snack to feel even happier. More importantly, they may remember the brand fondly the next time they feel like having a quick snack.
Entertainment
An enjoyable and entertaining song will stick in many people’s minds when they listen to it for the first time. Similarly, an entertaining jingle such as McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it” easily sticks to the audience’s minds.
4 Tips to Build Brand Awareness Using Music
People familiar with McDonald’s jingle will immediately visualize the brand and its range of fast foods when they hear it. Ideally, this is the level of brand awareness your marketing music should achieve. Brand awareness is the first step to growing your customer base and revenue streams, which is also exemplified by McDonald’s.
Here are four tips to help your marketing campaign build brand awareness through music:
1. Synchronize the Music & Video Content
Many marketers tend to focus more on the visual aspect of their ads and add music as an after-thought. That is exactly how the music sounds: an after-thought that doesn’t really fit into place.
Your ads’ visual and audio contents are two equal halves that should complement and complete each other. Ideally, the music should reinforce the video’s message, regardless of whether it is playing in the background or foreground.
The best way to synchronize your ads’ audio and visual contents includes adding music at the beginning. Imagine the sounds that go with the pictures as you are planning. Then, try them out as you test each of your marketing ideas.
2. Make It Authentic & Artistic
McDonald’s marketing jingle makes it stand out from hundreds of other fast-food brands because it is authentic and original. It doesn’t sound quite like any other marketing jingle in the industry. However, some other brands’ marketing jingles sound eerily similar to it.
Your marketing music should be original and authentic. Thus, everyone immediately identifies it and doesn’t associate it with another brand. Ensure that you familiarize yourself with the competitors’ marketing music and avoid making something too similar.
You may not have to worry about your marketing music standing out if it is artistic. People appreciate good music and despise terrible music, and the same principle applies to marketing jingles. It pays to hire a professional specializing in marketing audio to work with your marketer.
3. Leverage Nostalgia & Emotions
Some songs and jingles will stick in your mind when you hear them for the first time. In contrast, people tend to tune out unappealing sounds. Then, the jingle may not catch on regardless of how many times they hear it. Instead, they may even come to find it irritating. The best way to make the jingle memorable is by making it entertaining.
Besides making the jingle memorable, you can also use it to evoke nostalgia. For example, an Xbox ad targeted toward younger adults use the gaming console’s older tunes to remind them of their childhood.
Music also significantly influences the audience’s emotions. The exact emotions that it evokes depend on factors such as tone and tempo. Many people base their purchasing decisions on emotions, making emotional advertising especially popular with marketers (and their audiences, too).
4. Make It Relevant
Ultimately, everything in your ad should convey the message you want to communicate. Music has a special way of speaking to people, making it ideal for conveying the message. However, different people can interpret music differently, so it is important to ensure that it is relevant. This further emphasizes the importance of synchronizing the ad’s visual and audio contents.
Build Your Brand Awareness Through Music
The impact of music in marketing is undeniable. Brands, such as McDonald’s, Subway, and State Farm, are excellent examples of building brand awareness through music. Your brand can benefit from integrating good music into your adverts. 4th Quarter Time can help you develop irresistible marketing music and jingles that will get the message across. Get in touch today to learn more about how we can help.