Introduction

Background Information

Much information is available worldwide through the internet, televisions, radio, podcasts, blogs,
and news. As a result, businesses find it difficult to promote their products or services and impress
consumers to come and buy their products or services offered. Companies make huge investments
into their marketing departments to win on their competitor(s). Marketers are also looking for
innovative marketing strategies to stand out and be recognized. One of the highly effective strategy
is using music (Neese, 2015). Music is a universal language that has no boundaries, it connects
people from different cultures around the world with similar emotions.

The advertising industry and music business have a lot in common. Both industries are part of the
economy and media systems. That is because they both use media systems to gain publicity and the
economic system to acquire money. Moreover, both industries interact and influence each other in
terms of strategies, trends for joint ventures.

How someone responds to the sound heard is indeed referred to as perception and it is a cognitive
response of emotion associated. Hulten (2015) states that one cannot ignore a sound and the
highest level of sound a human ear can resist is up to 120 decibels and can almost react to any level
of sound, even to a silence, that is 0 decibels. A human also unconditionally responds to the sounds
and is influenced based on the present environment. That also defines why some annoying sounds
could have a negative impact on the brain and other sounds like music is loved for positive impact.

Music and marketing.

Indeed, music is easily malleable and as a part of sensory marketing, it can be influential and form
an image of the brand by stimulating consumer response and behavior (Salkovska et al., 2018).
Music that fits the taste of the customer can help increase sales and is an affordable marketing
strategy because music can be chosen instantly (M. Paz Toldos et al., 2019). Music can also influence
other sensory experiences. The positive and negative emotions evoked by listening to music and
influencing the taste of a product can be related to the concept of multisensory experiential design
technique. Many global companies have already used this concept to increase their brand image
during campaigns and events by offering their free products and services while using music in the
background and foreground (Reinoso-Carvalho et al., 2019). Irrespective of the industry or the brand
or the product, music can be designed specifically to match the atmospheres and enhance the
positive impact on consumer behavior. Especially, a significant impact is observed on people who
are more reactive and responsive to the auditory cues implied through the surroundings
manipulated by the marketers.

Many sounds other than music that are catchy to hear can be advantageous to the marketers. A
sensory signature that is appealing to hear like slogans, jingles, voice-overs, speeches, and sound
logos are a perfect example. These sounds are used to convey the characteristics of a product and
integrating them with appropriate music is very interactive. Slogans integrated into advertising in
the form of jingles enhanced the memory of the consumer while acting as a mnemonic device to
recall the brand characteristics. Nguyen and Grahn (2017) consider exposure to background music
designed for mood and arousal effects to improve recall and recognition abilities. Many researchers
also studied various effects of music as well as its components. It is found that musical components
can influence the cognition, behavior, and mood of a listener. These musical components including
tempo, pitch, rhythm, and volume can be structured according to the emotional expressions (sad,
sentimental, exciting, happy, humorous, etc.) that interests a marketer. For example, to possess a
happy emotion a fast tempo with high pitch merged with flowing rhythm and medium volume
structure is considered effective.

A threatening stimulus is followed by an emotional state of anxiety and fear. Therapists use music to
improve the cooperation and comfort of the patient under behavior management. It helps reduce
anxiety and pain perception before going through a treatment (Akmal et al., 2019). E-commerce
websites use popular music genre in the background to manipulate the cognitive responses of the
consumer which positively influence the buying intentions. This genre of the music varies depending
on the musical preferences of the consumer group and shopping product category (Dikčius et al.,
2019). With the help of the above statements, it is comprehensible that since decades through
quantitative (experiments, surveys, etc.) and qualitative (interviews, reviews, etc.) studies
researchers recommended music as an essential part of strategies to define consumer cognitive
response towards branding, advertising and service environments (Furtado & Ikeda, 2017).

Music in advertisement.

Together with involving and appealing music, musical characteristics, and vocals that match with the
attributes of the advertised product results in favorable purchase intentions, liking of the advert,
and recall of the advert. Recall of the message delivered by an advert is also higher when listeners
are provided with an instrumental version of a music compared to vocal versions. But, the extent to
which a consumer is familiar with the song’s lyrics and tone impacts the ability to recall. Musical
characteristics like tempo & timbre also influence consumer behavior. Among slow-tempo, fast-
tempo, and no-music presence in the background of radio adverts, slow-tempo said to be significant
in producing favorable advert content recall and affective responses. Music used as background for
adverts also influences a consumer’s mood and purchase intentions. The structure of the music can
also evoke emotions of the consumer if it matches with the appropriate mood. For example,
purchase intentions are said to increase in the presence of sad or happy music that evokes mood-
congruent to greeting cards for hospitals (get well soon message and sad music) or birthdays (wishes
with happy music). In total contrast with the above statements, the use of music in advertisements,
especially on radios, silence before (or) while presenting vivid information about a product is linked
with the ease of advert recall, message, and retention factors.

Music in the service delivery environment.

Music can be selected based on the environment and the way it interacts with the surroundings to
make sure it is not irritating to the listener. Right music as an integral part of the whole store
environmental design will also positively influence revisit intentions. Every individual prefers music,
which might vary depending on time of the day, day of the week, and by age, gender, social status,
education, and culture. That said, service providers can choose a perfect musical match for their
consumer preferences accordingly to the music genres available. There are also chances that a
patron gets saturated with a similar kind of music after some time. Hence, music compositions
selected by service providers must not only be preferable but also fresh. As an ambient factor, music
can also have its effects on online consumers’ emotional responses. It was observed that warm
colors and fast music on the website evoked positive experiences. Here we can point to Correia
Loureiro et al. (2019) suggesting that ambient music is advantageous to many service environments
but when considering its presence in an art gallery exhibition, service providers should acknowledge
the correlation between the art style and background music. It is therefore crucial to avoid
exuberant stimulation which leads to distraction and to augment unforgettable consumer’s
experience.

In Taiwan, visitors to a memorial museum experienced both emotional and cognitive influences in
the presence of background music (Chen & Tsai, 2015). Managers of some casinos also believe that
manipulating musical characteristics of background music enhances consumers’ experience of
gambling, while they can also use live music for non-gambling experience (Bramley et al., 2016). In
the context of telephone operators’ service, the presence of music influences perceived waiting
time to be less. Liked music enhances the behavioral response of the consumers waiting in a line and
lead them to evaluate the service environment to be more favorable. Specifically, slow-tempo music
has a significant impact.

Music as a part of health-care service is being implemented around the world. Therapists who used
music as part of their strategies to treat patients with “Rett syndrome (a mental disability)” could
achieve increased cognitive and affective responsive behavior. With people dealing with traumatic
situations, improvement in mood reduced stress, and anxiety was observed in the presence of live
music (Dvorak, 2015). Though music had positive effects on patients, the presence of background
music caused a distraction for the working staff in some hospitals, consequently resulting in
patient’s safety concerns.

From workers singing to coordinate and maintain the pace of their job during the pre-
industrialization era (like sailors chanting while rowing) to tech workers using iPod to gain
concentration on their work in this post-industrialized era, music has always been a part of the
service environment for workers. But numerous researchers concentrated on music effects on
consumers and little emphasis is given to significant effects on workers. Background music
influences the concentration of workers, those effects depend on how frivolous one is towards that
music. Both liked and disliked background music are attention-grabbing, which in turn affects the
concentration of the worker. Direct or background music can also enhance the overall outcome of
business meetings, from stimulating cooperation to providing stress relief. Through many studies,
numerous implications were given to the managers of the service sector on how to use music in the
background, atmospherically enhance consumer perception. It is also observed that atmospheric
music influences employees too. This concludes that a lot of emphasis must be given by the
managers towards the inclusion of music into their strategies.

Music in branding.

Brands that are illustrative of their character and brands that can be used to depict the personality
appreciated by peers are always preferred by youth. Marketers can transcend such consumer
behavior and design marketing strategies to influence future buying behavior. Brand positioning,
brand awareness, brand equity, brand value, and brand image are some essential drivers of a
marketing strategy

A design language assessed by experts in defining the emotion and deciphering definitive language
can be created through music methodology. Without any formal music knowledge, a listener will be
able to disentangle a composer's motive towards communicating brand qualities (design language
defined emotions) and passing such music as articulation to a suitable brand.

Consequently, Md Washim Raja et al. (2019) noted that ad recall, ad message, brand recall, brand
identity, and brand perception are better enhanced by advertising music than retail music for brand
decision and purchase intentions.

Consumers associate towards a specific brand due to a certain attitude. This association can be
studied by the networks formed between brands and consumer's thoughts. These connections are
guided by product attributes (color, design, and taste) and brand attributes (logo, name, slogan,
music). There is a relationship between attitudes towards the brand, emotions triggered, and
background music used. Brand attitude can be formed and manipulated through high & low
involvement construct of the commercials.

Music that specifically fits with the visuals of the commercial further portrays the customer’s
imagination, the brand, and the product. The author demonstrated the cogency of audiovisuals
based on a product of a popular brand "Apple" by explaining that there are interactions between
visual dimensions and musical dimensions. For example, content versus musical material, camera
movement versus musical movements and developments, and product attributes and lyrics. Min
(2018) also discovered that the impact of fit music's execution cue is more prominent for luxury
brands and efficient music usage (by recreating brand image) will improve their market share by
25% in the imminent decade of online business.

A re-branding strategy is required when it is observed that consumers are only associated with the
historical attributes of the brand like logo, name, design color patterns, music. Many sports teams
are going for the creation of tweaked brand music that exemplifies the traits of their brand under
the concept of sonic branding. Also, music that perfectly fits with the ad was viable among listeners
who had no earlier information about the brand, this indicates that an ad's ambient sound is a
significant marker of the brand's general character and can have a compelling effect demeanor
towards the brand.
As a mnemonic device, music associated with the right brand-slogan improved memory for an ad
when consolidated as a melody or jingle, helped in effortlessly recollecting the message delivered by
that ad compared to no music presence. Though the relationship of music and advertising seems to
be non-hostile, music composers consider the utilization of music in commercials as a leverage to
make money with a negligence towards traditional music and marketers consider it to be an
unambiguous potent means to consumer's emotions.

Aim and Objectives

The purpose of doing a systematic review to analyze the usage of music in marketing is to:

1. To ensure that entrepreneurs are availed with enough information on the various purpose of
using music in advertisement.

2. Systematically analyze evidence that musical structure is important for advertisers, hence
marketers should not only stress on fitting background music for their campaigns but also on the
background music closures.

3. Provide evidence on the influence of background music on promoting products that encourage
unethical behavior.

4. To ascertain that a negative attitude towards advert music can potentially cause a negative
attitude towards the advert since some important components of attitude formation towards adding
music in advertisements are cognition, attention, association, distinction, music message fit,
affection, emotion, mood induction, and hedonism.

This study is important because it would ensure that important information is available to help the
entrepreneurs with their advertisement methods and decisions since their main purpose of doing
advertisement is to attract more customers. It will also ensure that the advertisement agencies
adjust their advertising media such that it would reach their targeted audience effectively and
conveniently.

Hypotheses

The following are the tested hypotheses in this study:

1. H01: Music plays an important role in the success of an advertisement

HA1: Music does not play a central role in the success of an advertisement
 2. H02: most businesses use music accompanied by adverts.

HA2: Most businesses do not use music accompanied advertisements.

3. H03: Music accompanied advertisements are more effective

HA3: Music accompanied adverts are less effective

4. H04: Music accompanied adverts is the future of successful advertisement

HA4: Music accompanied adverts is not the future of advertisement

Summary

Music in adverts is a commonly used advertisement technique to help consumers memorize the
advert and as a result, they can recall easily. The initial notes found in music activates a cohort of
possibly matching memory which narrowed as the sound continues. Music makes the memorability
of the product easier to viewers as it lingers in the listeners’ minds. Hence when an advert uses
music alongside its main message, its main message lingers together with the music. Adverts from
televisions, radios, or other Media use easily recognized music to produce an important positive
relationship with recall and comprehension to the targeted population. As a result, recalling
information is enhanced when cued with a song that is well known by the viewer. Therefore, adverts
strategically make use of popular music to make a long-lasting impression on viewers.

Structure of the research.

Aim and objectives

Aim
A study which looked into Scopus (2017), Google scholar (2017), Web of science (2017),
studies on music usage in a marketing context started around 1966’s and many trends like music
in service environment, advertisements, sonic branding and musicscape were observed and there
is an increased scope and many possible research ideas for future studies
(Furtado, W. M., & Ikeda, A. A., 2017)
. Since researchers started studying about music, background music, music
variables, usage of music and the influence they have on consumer perception and consumer
behavior in various industrial contexts, a very little emphasis have been given to the detailed
course of music usage that the studies went through into various contexts. This paper tries to
summarize the course of music usage those studies went through, through a detailed analysis
based on certain criteria, thus providing a good start to one’s idea of music usage.

This research investigates most of the studies about music/audio/noise aids used directly (or)
indirectly to influence or affect an individual’s perception and behavior towards the context that
the aid was intended.

With the help of online database of Google scholar 2020 and EBSCO 2020 a critical content
analysis by systematic review is done which includes all the articles that considered fit to our
objectives.

Objectives
 Conduct a thorough research on articles that studied music, music variables, music usage
in a way to influence an individual, a group, an organization.

 Examine the contexts of those studies and investigate the final outcomes, based on their
general idea and future implications.

 Methodology starts with collecting articles and journals that studied about music and its
usage in different contexts considering chartered ABS ranking.

 Categorize those articles based on themes such as service, Ad, and more, then sub-
categorize those articles with decade, year of publication, context, industry, authors,
music genre, main findings and more. Analyze them based on the categories.

 A systematic, critical evaluation of all the articles is done based on our categorization and
compare the implications, discuss the findings, evaluate based on our literature and
finally summarizing the course of music usage took place in detail and basics for
implementing music as managerial implications and future recommendations.

Structure of the research