mbi-602; consumer psychology; james corbitt

MBI-602 Consumer Psychology JAMES CORBITT

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Social and Consumer Psychology in Apple’s iPod Advertising campaign (2003-2008) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjxSNwenylk

Brand/Music Partnerships

The advertising industry has sustained growth that appears, in numbers, stronger than

many others within the creative industries. UK advertising and marketing created £13.4bn

of Gross Value Added in 2014 alone (C.I., 2014). The expenditure on this market allows

for more advertising agencies to convey awareness of many more brands, often with the

use of Brand-Music partnerships via synchronisation (Sync) of music (see appendix 1).

This synergy between music and brands allows artists songs to be licenced to

advertisement agencies to be used in “synchronisation” with visual images (Harrison,

2014) to enhance a message or create an emotional response. Licenses from sync

generated an estimated £18.2m income for UK record labels (BPI, 2013). Whilst there is

sufficient data to account for the music industries financial benefit from brand partnerships,

data to show the benefit for advertising is less evident due to its quantitative qualities

being harder to measure.

This document aims to show how music-brand partnerships can be mutually beneficial

through an analysis of consumer psychology in Apple’s infamous “dancing silhouettes”

iPod adverting campaign (2003-2008), focusing on one television advert from the

campaign that features The Gorillaz’ single ”Feel Good inc.”, whilst commenting on the

series of adverts as a campaign. This advert has been chosen because the data that has

been compiled since its launch in 2005 by advertising agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, provides

sufficient insight into its success that will help with its consumer psychological analysis.


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This analysis will explore the motivations of the campaign by applying the Familiarity

Theory in influencing the consumer’s behaviour, and the Social Identity Theory to identify

impact on target demographics.

The Campaign

Released by Apple Computer inc. in November 2001, the iPod, along with it’s digital

jukebox software (iTunes) rapidly grew in sales from 600,000 sold in 2002 to 10 million

sold in 2004, just two years later (Apple inc., 2016). Some of this growth from 2003 is most

certainly a direct result of upgraded features in the third generation iPod, as well as their

move to make it compatible with Windows, exponentially growing their potential customer

base. This potential to sell iPods to a mass market needed a unique marketing campaign

to convert music consumers into iPod users. Director, Susan Alinsangan from the

advertising agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, designed the concepts for their campaign to be

launched in 2003. These featured striking block coloured backgrounds with distinct

silhouettes dancing to the synchronised music that appears to be played via their own

iPods, becoming the main feature of each advert. “The energy in the silhouettes dancing

depicts the full-bodied portability of the iPod” (Gopinath, 2014), furthermore promoting the

new age of portable music where sudden movements won’t lead to skipping CD’s like in

earlier CD Walkman players. The function of the “empty vessels [dancers] are blank

human shaped spaces that can be filled with whatever identity the audience wants and

most desires from the iPod” (Gopinath, 2014). Each advert features a song that succinctly

targets the different social identities that would become Apple’s customer base. The idea

of identity poses an interesting topic to explore through the psychological theories that are

detailed in this document.

The success of the campaign, for the brand, the ad agency and the bands is clearly

suggested in sales data and prestigious awards. For TBWA/Chiat/Day, the silhouettes


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earned them multiple awards: a “Global Effie” and a “Kelly Award”, both prestigious

awards in the profession (Sunset, 2008). The agency was also nominated as the “U.S. Ad

Agency of the Year 2004” by Adweek (O’Leary 2005). In terms of sales, Apple boasted a

38% income growth, across all products, between 2005 and 2008 (Statista, 2016) and a

21% increase in the number of iPods sold in the same period, from 42m to 197m units

(Apple Inc., 2016). Whilst the adverts can only be correlated to sales data, it is suffice to

say that this success is partly, if not largely, down to Apple’s alignment of sales and

marketing. Bowers (2015) informs that customers will notice un-alignment and are

deterred by it, sales will be saturated and lead to wasted and missed revenue.

Record labels began competing to get their artists music synced to the ads, despite the

bitter relationship between the industry and Apple’s launch of iTunes and its disruption of

the music industry supply chain. A correlation can be drawn between Apple’s 2005 advert

featuring “Feel Good Inc.” and The Gorillaz’ success. The 2005 release became their

highest chart performance to date, holding UK chart positions for 42 weeks and peaking at

number 2 during the ad’s circulation (The Official Charts Company, 2016). Its success was

also international, holding 13 weeks in the US charts and peaking at number 14 (Billboard,

2016). This took the bands career to the next level where they would go on to win

numerous awards for their music and performances.


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Social Identity Theory

By 2003, consumers no longer needed to be educated on the concept of portable music.

Consequently, Apple didn’t need to inform its audience about the concept of portable mp3

players; they needed to persuade people to buy into Apple as a brand for expressing their

identity through music. In the iPod advert, psychological theories of identity play a key role.

Research indicates the importance of music as a tool that individuals use to communicate

their social identity (Dunn et al, 2011). The use of silhouettes allows the audience to

transform into the dancers and distinguish and express the two parts of their identity

outlined in William James’ two-component identity theory (1890). The “me” part of identity

is that which is observed and known, this could be seen as the physical database of music

held on an iPod that is individual to every owner for all their social peers to see and judge.

Secondly the “I” allows the consumer to use their iPod as an evaluative tool of self-identity,

“subjective to change” (see appendix 3.1.1). The motivation for these self-evaluations is to

increase self-esteem. “For adolescents striving to establish their identities and to increase

their self-esteem, this allows them to establish favourable social and personal identities”

(Tarrant et al, 2016). These components of identity have both cognitive and emotional

aspects. We constantly compare ourselves with others, so that particular situations and

social groups exert a powerful influence on what we do and what we say (Hargreaves and

Miell, 2016, pg.7-8).

The iPod adverts, through example’s set by the dancing silhouettes clutching the product,

show that you are able to express yourself in a physical and categorical way. The iPod is a

social statement, just like dancing, which is an outward, public expression; other people

will notice the bright white iPod that you use. Social constructionist approaches to self-

identity suggest that the iPod and it’s public expression in style and function, depicted in

the advert, allow “Interplay between self and society and we cannot develop an


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understanding of one without the other, and that this is achieved through interaction with

others” (Mead, 1935). The campaign uses contrasting musical genres in each of the

adverts in the campaign to target different demographics. These differing genres among

demographics are likely to reveal different relations between personality and music

preferences (Dunn et al, 2011). When considering The Gorillaz’ chart performance before

the release of their single “Feel Good Inc.” (The Official Charts Company, 2016), it is clear

they were not in the class of “popular music” but would have an impact on the relatively

niche audiences of indie and rock subcultures that would attract their audience in a

widespread campaign like the iPods. According to Tefjel’s experiment (1971), group

favoritism within these niche genres of music can be achieved by the simple categorization

into a group no matter how arbitrary. This is achieved through the choice of music in each

advert. The variations of music genre in the iPod adverts transform the consumer’s

perception of the iPod even though the product stays the same. The consumer will show

positivity towards the iPod advert whilst their preferred genre of music is being played as it

triggers “in-group” favouritism. However, when the same person views an advert with

contrasting music that is not preferred, they will discriminate against it as an expression of

“out-group” (see appendix 3.3, Tejfel et al, 1971). The benefit to the consumer from

discriminating out-group musical identities of subcultures is to inflate positive

distinctiveness of their in-group identity of musical preference and in contrast, raise their

self-esteem (Tefjel et al, 1971). By applying this psychological evaluation, it is possible

that the iPod adverts actually influence positivity towards their product in one advert by

creating discrimination between others that contrast their musical identity.


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“In today’s world, deciding what music to listen to is a significant part of deciding and

announcing to people not just who you “want to be”, but who you are” (Hargreaves and

Miell, 2016). The imagery of freedom through dance, made possible by the iPod, is also

reflected in the lyrics and theme of the song. “Love forever, love is free, let’s turn forever,

you and me. Windmill, windmill for the land, is everybody in?” The semantics behind the

language of “love and “free” have connotations with the desires in ones social identity.

According to Rentfrow & Gosling’s (2003) model of traits in identity (see appendix 3.5),

identity can be measured by an individual’s neuroticism, extraversion, openness to

experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness. “Freedom” allows an individual to

express and refine their traits in identity to be most personally desirable, which

theoretically would lead to being “Loved”. “People have an intrinsic desire to know about

themselves” (Festinger, 1954). Having freedom to achieve this allows uniformity in social

groups that an individual perceives to be important to their self-esteem. Therefore the iPod

is seen as an invaluable tool to achieve this and the advert concisely communicates this.

The last lyric in the chorus, “is everybody in?” is a rhetorical question, which in English

Linguistic theory is a question not asked for an answer, but for an effect (Study.com,

2016), mainly influence and persuasion.

The Familiarity Theory

The Familiarity Theory suggests that consumers who maintain high familiarity in products

are able to make heuristic, information-based decisions when choosing a product (Park

and Lessig, 1981). The simple concept of the iPod being a tool for music consumption

could allow for this heuristic approach to be taken by many consumers using information

stored in their Long Term Memory stores (see appendix 2.1). This allowed the iPod’s

advertising campaign the freedom to be creative rather than informative, with music

becoming the main and only narrative. However, the absence of information-based

marketing also has an impact on those with low familiarity to the product. When product


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familiarity is low, decisions are based upon the “information they think they know through

self-report” (Lichtenstein et al, 1977), consequently increasing an individual’s reliance on

price and brand information (Park & Lessig, 1981). The effects of these theories are

beneficial to the consumer’s ease of decision because they require low cognitive effort to

arrive at a decision, and this is beneficial to the consumer as it reduces decision time and

increases choice confidence, both of which are considered desirable (Park & Lessig,

1981).

Apple has been considered one of the most powerful brands of the century, in the early

2000’s spending a budget of $100 million on marketing (Khaney, 2012). In the iPod advert,

the absence of information avoids confusing an individual with low product familiarity,

focusing on Apple as a brand and making it easy to make their purchase decision through

brand reliance alone. The ability to influence consumers of high and low product familiarity

allowed Apple to target a much wider audience. Another factor that could have influenced

TBWA/Chiat/Day’s decision to avoid informational marketing is the “DRM Effect” (Kronlund

& Yoon, 1990). The effect suggests that brands with increased “memory accessibility” and

familiarity, like Apple, have an advantage over less familiar brands in the same category.

Kronlund & Yoon’s experiment (1990)(see appendix 2.2) found that high familiarity brands

are associated and accessed in an individual’s memory when they are exposed to other

brands in the same category. Therefore Apple’s competitors marketing efforts actually

strengthen their brand through the encoding process of cognition and association. Strong

brand knowledge and familiarity was key to the success of the iPod campaign. Franken et

al (2010) state, “We like to buy brands we know”, therefore achieving higher familiarity can

be directly relatable to marketing and product success.


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Part of the familiarity theory that has been thoroughly researched is the effect of “mere

exposure” on liking. Bornstein’s (1989) research into mere exposure suggests that the

more we have experienced something the more we like it. The mere exposure effect has

been observed across a range of attitude objects (Crisp et al, 2009). When applying the

theory to Apple’s iPod advert including The Gorillaz’ music, it is possible that it benefitted

both. The frequency of advert exposure to targeted audiences would have been frequent

but not invasive during the campaign. Stang & O’Connell (1974) suggested that a

relatively small number of exposures gave the greatest effect, at 10-20 exposures liking

begins to slow (Zajonc et al, 1972) and beyond this threshold, liking could be reversed

(Kail et al, 1973), supported by Brickman’s (1972) research into over exposure with music.

The advert successfully avoids over-exposure by accounting for a second condition that

effects likability via mere exposure. “Shorter durations of exposure to a stimulus

strengthen the effect” (Harrison & Zajonc, 1970). With this knowledge, we can observe the

length of iPod adverts and determine that the brief 30-second duration of each advert

exposure aims to reduce the risk of over-exposure. Furthermore, the length of time that

the audience is exposed to the brand logo within the advert is relatively short, making a

strong impression on the audience but also keeping the audience less aware of the

exposure. This unawareness to exposure also strengthens mere exposure, as suggested

by Bornstein et al (1980).

Due to the fact that the advert and synchronized music are displayed as one production, it

is reasonable to say that the psychological theory that benefits Apple’s marketing strategy

will also have a similar benefit to the artists including The Gorillaz through association.

This association combined with mere exposure could have lead to favorable perceptions

of the product due to their subliminal nature (Garivaldis & Moss, 2007). The process by

which this is possible is by assimilation bias (see appendix 2.8). If Apple’s adverts became


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familiar and liked by an individual, music in other adverts within the campaign would also

be perceived as familiar during their subconscious encoding within the individual and are

henceforth “liked” (Garivaldis & Moss, 2007). Therefore an audience of a differing song

that had featured in the campaign may have presented assimilation bias when exposed to

the familiar visual imagery of the Gorillaz’ ad and this could have influenced the likeability

and success of the song Feel Good Inc. outside of the campaign’s context.

Conclusion

It is clear that brand/music synergy is a vital part of both the advertising and music creative

industries. “The key to successful brand partnerships is to understand the ideals of a

creative versus those of a corporate” (Henley Business School, 2012). The sales data of

Apple’s iPod and the chart performance of The Gorillaz’ song Feel Good Inc. both show

that the campaign achieved the intended corporate goals whilst proving extremely

beneficial to the band. The strength in the music’s ability to target specific identities whilst

showcasing the products functionality played a larger part in the ads success than other

informational-based marketing would have done. Furthermore, the application of the

Familiarity Theory gives us an insight into the psychological effect on creating desirability

and influence in consumer behaviour and it successfully influenced a mass market into

choosing the iPod as their tool for music consumption. The strength that the campaign had

generated for Apple’s relationship with the music industry has grown ever since, with their

latest ventures including Beats One Internet radio, as well as the evolution of iTunes and

Apple Music. Forming psychological evaluations enables the music industry to be more

focused and accurate in promoting specific music for specific advertising exposure,

ensuring that investments into brand partnerships are not ill considered or wasted.

Word Count: 2555 (excluding quotes)


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Statista(2016)Apple’snetincomeinthecompany'sfiscalyearsfrom2005to2015(inbillionU.S.Dollars).Availableat:http://www.statista.com/statistics/267728/apples-net-income-since-2005/(Accessed:1April2016).Study.com(2003)Rhetoricalquestioninliterature:Definition,effect&examples-video&lessontranscript.Availableat:http://study.com/academy/lesson/rhetorical-question-in-literature-definition-effect-examples.html(Accessed:3April2016). Sunset,B.(2008)‘Marketingcampaigncasestudies:AppleiPod’.Reviewofby.Tajfel,H.(1974)‘Socialidentityandintergroupbehaviour’,SocialScienceInformation,13(2),pp.65–93.doi:10.1177/053901847401300204. TheOfficialChartsCompany(2016)Fullofficialcharthistory.Availableat:http://www.officialcharts.com/artist/9975/gorillaz/(Accessed:27March2016).Thomson,A.andCook,N.(1998)‘Anyoldmusic’,TheMusicalTimes,139(1865),p.59.doi:10.2307/1003838.


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Appendices

1. Synchronisation and Brand-Music Partnerships

Music Synchronisation License:

“ A license to use music in “timed synchronisation” (sync) with visual images” (Passman,

2013).

The term music sync applies to any form of musical sound that is put to visual image. For

instance music could be used in a horror film to add effect to an action in order to add to

the emotional impact on the audience. Music sync in advertising generally applies music

that is written for the recorded music industry as this has greater impact on cultural and

social relevance. Where the music sync doesn’t apply in advertising is through radio

advertisement, which doesn’t include visual images (Passman, 2013).

The Process of Music Synchronisation:

• Advertising agencies, TV & Film Production companies etc. who want music for

sync employ a Music Supervisor to formulate a brief, giving detail on a project and

the message they wish to convey with music.

• Music publishers, who represent/hold the rights of songs employ a Sync Manager

to promote the catalogue of music to these potential clients and offer songs that fit

the brief.

• If the music is suitable, the publisher and client negotiate a Sync Fee for the use of

their song and issue a license for the client to use the music within set conditions.

Music-Brand partnerships:

Where music sync in advertising can be seen most prominently is in major Christmas

advertisement campaigns such as John Lewis and Marks and Spencer. The John Lewis


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Christmas ad for 2013 used an established artist, Lily Allen, to perform “Somewhere only

we know”, written by band, Keane. The use of sync in this campaign launched the single

into number one in the Official Charts and as a result, continued to expose John Lewis’s

brand (Harrison, 2014).

“The key to successful brand partnerships is to understand the ideals of a creative versus

those of a corporate. Deals should be brokered via finite negotiations born of an all round

vision of the bigger picture for both parties. Whilst the end goal for an artist is, essentially

revenue, if the artist’s camp is simply looking to ill a gap in their income, then they are

missing some essential added value that a brand can also bring to the table.” (Henley

Business School, 2012)

2. The Familiarity Theory

2.1 Familiarity and Its Impact on Consumer Decision Biases

and Heuristics (Park and Lessig, 1981)

Heuristics: “Solutions based on informational methods and experience” (seen in high

familiarity choices)

Two major approaches for operationalizing and measuring product familiarity:

• How much a person knows about a product.

o Product familiarity may be examined with respect to an individual’s Long

Term Memory (LTM).

o Contributes to understanding the impact of memory contents on the decision

makers’ (DM) evaluation and choice.

• How much a person thinks they know about the product.


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o Product familiarity is based on the person’s self-report of how much they

know about the product (Lichtenstein and Fischoff, 1977).

o Provides information about DM systematic biases heuristics in choice

evaluations.

Effect of product Familiarity:

Perceptual Category Breadth- is a decision makers (the consumers) perception of

different categories within a product such as size or dimension. High Familiarity gave

narrower perceptual category breadth, meaning a more heuristic approach.

Reliance on Price and Brand Name Information- is the decision maker’s ease of

evaluation using the brand and price. Low Familiarity finds it less difficult to use this in

decision-making.

Decision Time- time taken to process two tasks of decision-making: first being to narrow

down to a set of acceptable options, the second being deciding which of the acceptable is

best. A decision-maker with only a moderate amount of familiarity may require more time

than low and high familiarities. This is because they have enough familiarity to make stage

one of decision making but not enough to efficiently perform stage two.

Choice Confidence- is directly associated with Familiarity as greater Familiarity means

greater they are confident in their information processing to arrive at the final decision.

Having knowledge allows for quicker cognitive processing which is positive because the

brain likes

Dual Process – Familiarity uses system one, which is quick and easy (intuition)

2.2 Consumer Considerations Sets: Altering Memory, Brand

Evaluations, and Choice (Kronlund and Yoon, 1990)


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The DRM Effect

• Brands that have increased memory accessibility (Higher Familiarity) have an

advantage over less familiar brands.

• Lists of related words were shown to participants (thread, pin, sharp, point)

• Participants falsely report having seen a non-presented critical lure (needle)

• This effect is even more likely in longer lists

• Warning the participants had no effect unless it occurred before the exposure of the

list, not between exposure and recollection

• Suggesting the illusion is created in the encoding process of cognition

• Participants had higher preference ratings for major vs. minor brands.

• Brand accessibility influences brand evaluation

• When a mixed-choice (Stimulus and Memory based decision making) was

introduced, competitors had minimal influence in choice of major brand lures.

• High-risk choices cancel out reliance on familiarity.

2.3 Attitudinal Effects of Mere Exposure (Zajonc, 1968)

Mere repeated exposure of an individual to a stimulus object enhances his attitude

towards it.

• Mere exposure refers to making the stimulus accessible.

• Attitudes change hostility to curiosity to friendship (Goetzinger’s classroom

experiment).

• There is also evidence to suggest that a subject will favour the novel rather than the

familiar in “exploration”

• However this can be explained by a desire to discover if something is of danger to

the subject rather than in favour.


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2.4 The Effects of Frequency and duration of Exposure on

Response Competition and Affective Ratings (Harrison and

Zajonc, 1970)

• Stimuli elicit competing response options.

• Tension from this competition creates a negative state.

• As exposure increases responses become more imbedded and response

competition is reduced.

• Reduction in tension reduces the negative state and increases response rate over a

wider range of conditions.

• The results from research show that frequency has a greater impact than duration

of exposure.

• The effect is stronger when people are unaware of the exposure frequency

(Bornstein et al, 1980)

• There appear weaker exposure effects with lengthening stimulus exposure

2.5 When Mere Exposure Leads to Less Liking

• “The more we have experienced something the more we like it” (Bornstein, 1989).

• “The effect has been observed across the range of attitude objects, from

geometrical shapes, through to sounds, tastes, art, music, attitudes, and faces”

(Crisp et al, 2009)


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• The effect also appears to be greatest when a relatively small number of exposures

are used (e.g. Stang & O’Connell, 1974). After 10–20 exposures the change in

liking slows (Zajonc et al 1972).

• Researchers have then observed a decrease in liking as exposure increases

beyond some boredom threshold, resulting in an inverted U-shaped curve (Kail et

al, 1973).

2.5.1 Drive and Predisposition as factors in the attitudinal

effects of mere exposure (Brickman et al, 1972)

• Second condition under which mere exposure can lead to less liking.

• Undergraduate students listen to a 90 second segments of five rock and roll songs

from the B-sides of popular records from the 1960s.

• They listened to each song 0, 1, 2, 5, or 10 times. Finally, participants listened to a

3–5 second segment from the chorus of each song and were asked to rate how

much they liked the song.

• Found was a decrease in liking with increased exposure.

• Research suggests that with initially negative attitudes repeated exposure may

strengthen these negative affective reactions.

2.6 Musical Expectancy and Thrills (Huron et al, 2010)

• Temporally rooted phenomena such as anticipation, surprise, and delay underlie

important aspects of musically evoked affect.

• Animals respond to stimuli more quickly when the stimulus is more predictable (De

Lathouder, 2002).


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• For example, when asked to indicate whether pitches go up or down, listeners are

faster to respond when the melodic contours conform to their expectations (Aarden,

2003)

• The hormone and neurotransmitter dopamine, for example, has long been viewed

as the brain’s principal reward system

• Dopamine appears to reward wanting or expectation

2.7 Emotion and Meaning in Music (Meyer, 1956)

Meyer’s research on music and emotion outlines two contrasting views: the absolutist

versus referentialist and the formalist versus expressionist:

• ABSOLUTIST: "musical meaning lies exclusively within the context of the work

itself."

• REFERENTIALIST: “musical meanings refer to the extra musical world of concepts,

actions, emotional states, and character.”

Meyer forms compromises that acknowledge both views however he suggests that

emotion in music is within the expressionist’s viewpoint:

• FORMALIST: “the meaning of music lies in the perception and understanding of the

musical relationships set forth in the work of art and that meaning in music is

primarily intellectual”

• EXPRESSIONIST: “the expressionist would argue that these same relationships

are in some sense capable of exciting feelings and emotions in the listener”

Problems with Music Psychology:

• Hedonism is the confusion of aesthetic experience with the sensuously pleasing


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• Atomism is the tendency to try to explain music by reducing it to a succession of

separable, discrete sounds and sound complexes.

• Universalism is the error of regarding music organization as "good for all times and

all places".

2.8 The effect of Familiar Music on the Perception of Other

Individuals (Garivaldis and Moss, 2007)

The effect of recognisable music on the perceived familiarity of other individuals:

• Studies have revealed familiarity of persons, objects, and contexts can affect human

information processing.

• Favorable perceptions of an object or person can be gained after multiple exposures

even when subliminal.

• Assimilation bias - when individuals are exposed to music they have heard frequently

before, persons in the environment might also seem more familiar.

• Contrast bias - when individuals are exposed to music they have heard frequently

before, persons in the environment might seem less familiar in comparison.

• Factors that determine the bias - temporal, spatial and semantic relationships

between the “prime” (music) and the “target” (a person).

◦ Contrast - more likely to appear when both prime and target are in the same

category i.e. the prime is a familiar PICTURE OF A PERSON and the target

is also a PERSON. If the prime were Hitler, the target would be perceived as

less aggressive in contrast.

◦ Assimilation - likely to prevail when prime and target are not of same category

i.e. individuals who receive the WORD hostile evaluate PERSONS they

encounter as more aggressive.

• Contrast and assimilation arise from distinct phases of information processing.

• Assimilation reflects a bias during the encoding of stimuli.


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• Music and Persons are not part of the same category therefore assimilation should

prevail.

The effect of familiar music on perceived personality:

• Individuals will tend to assume that a person who seems familiar is likely to be a

member of their social group.

• Theory of self categorisation- individuals tends to perceive their friends superior to

others. This may have evolved to inflate self-esteem.

• 5-factor model of personality- extraversion, emotional stability, conscientiousness,

agreeableness and openness to experience are perceived as desired in a variety of

contexts.

• IN SHORT

◦ Friends are familiar

◦ Music promotes familiarity

◦ Hear familiar music —> perceive someone as familiar —> perceive them as a

friend

◦ Familiar music promotes perception of friends

◦ Friends have qualities that are favorable and positively perceived.

2.9 Leveraging Consumer Insight in Insurance (Franken et al,

2010)

“We like to buy brands we know.” The Boston Consulting Group’s research into the topic

defined three categories of Consumer Brand Insurance:

INERTIA – Buying a brand due to habitual tendencies as a result of low cognitive effort.

LOYALTY – Repeating consumer behavior that reflects a conscious decision to stay loyal

to that brand. These consumers have a strong positive attitude. Consumers within this


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category react more emotionally to change within their preferred brands.

INSISTANCE – Category of brand loyalty where the buyer will accept no alternative and

go to extended lengths to ensure they are loyal to that brand, motivated by preference to

the particular product or pure brand loyalty.

3. Social Identity Theory

3.1 What are Musical Identities and why are they important?

(Hargreaves and Miell, 2016 pg.2-15)

“Music is a fundamental channel of communication: it provides a means by which people

can share emotions, intentions and meanings even though their spoken languages may be

mutually incomprehensible.” (p.2)

• The ways in which people experience music—as ‘consumers’, fans, listeners,

composers, arrangers, performers or critics—are far more diverse than at any time

in the past, as are the range of contexts in which this takes place. (p.3)

• Resulting in music being the means by which we formulate and express our

identities.

• Nicholas Cook (1998) puts this succinctly: ‘In today’s world, deciding what music to

listen to is a significant part of deciding and announcing to people not just who you

“want to be” . . . but who you are. “Music” is a very small word t encompasses

something that takes as many forms as there are cultural or sub-cultural identities’

(p. 5).

• From the psychologist’ s perspective, the functions of music fall into three broad

domains, namely the cognitive, the emotional and the social. (p.6)

• Research evidence suggests that the social functions of music are manifested in

three principal ways for the individual, namely in the management of interpersonal

relationships, mood and self-identity (North and Hargreaves, 1999).


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3.1.1 Concepts of self and identity in social psychology

(Hargreaves and Miell, 2016 pg.7-8)

Self-concept, self esteem and self identity:

• Self-esteem is the evaluative component of the self, and has both cognitive and

emotional aspects: how worthy we think, and feel we are.

• We constantly compare ourselves with others, so that particular situations and

social groups exert a powerful influence on what we do and what we say.

The two components of Identity

• William James’ (1890) distinction between two components of identity:

o The ‘ me’ is that part of our identity which can be observed and known, whilst

the ‘ I’ is that part that is able to reflect on the ‘ me’

o The ‘I’ therefore constituted the ‘ real’ and unchanging self for James,

whereas the ‘ me’ was seen as subject to change since it is composed of

social categories.

o Four aspects of the ‘ me’: the spiritual self, the material self, the social self

and the bodily self, all of which were seen as plural in that they come in

different forms.

“For adolescents striving to establish their identities and to increase their self-esteem,

identifying with particular genres of music which they rate highly (e.g. ‘intelligent drum’

n’bass’) and distancing themselves from less valued genres (e.g. ‘ pop’) allows them to

establish favourable social and personal identities” (Tarrant et al, 2016). The iPod allows

people to express their identity physically.

Social Constructionist Approaches

We are not just influenced by others, but are in effect made up of interactions with


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others— we are ultimately social and not personal beings.

‘Personal ’ and ‘social ’ aspects of the self are differentiated.

“Interplay between self and society: that we cannot develop an understanding of one

without the other, and that this is achieved through interaction with others” (Mead, 1935).

I am conscious of myself and become myself only while revealing myself for another,

through another, and with the help of another . . . every internal experience ends up on the

boundary . . . ‘To be’ means to communicate . . . ‘To be’ means to be for the other; and

through him, for oneself. Man has no internal sovereign territory; he is all and always on

the boundary (Bahktin, 1981, p. 287).

3.2 Human Relations (Festinger, 1954)

•People have an intrinsic desire to know about themselves (abilities, correctness of

opinions).

•’Objective’ sources of information not always (often?) available, so we turn to social

sources (comparisons with others)

•Opinions are ‘validated’ when we discover agreement with others; disagreement, which

implies uncertainty, is threatening

•Other group members are an important source of social comparisons; hence, pressures

to uniformity in groups

•The more important (or cohesive) a group is to us, the stronger pressures to uniformity;

clear group goals usually increase cohesion

•The more uncertain or ambiguous the situation, the greater the reliance on others and

hence the greater the conformity

3.3 The Minimal Group Experiments (Tejfel et al, 1971)

• Experiment on “decision making”


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• Participants showed preference for their own group, determined by painting choice

and discriminated against “out-groups”

• The minimal condition needed for group favouritism was simply categorisation into a

group, no matter how arbitrary the criteria for categorisation.

• The methodology of his research was criticised for using only young students,

however his research still remains stronger than others.

3.3.1 Explanations for minimal group discrimination (Tejfel et

al, 1971)

• Competitive norms in Western societies

o Biases were also found in other cultures.

• Social categorisation process

o The cognitive process of categorisation accentuates differences between

categories and minimises differenced within categories

• Social identity processes

o Discrimination could act to inflate positive distinctiveness of in-group, and in

contrast raise group members’ self esteem

3.4 Music Preferences and Personality (Dunn et al, 2011)

• Research has clearly indicated the importance of music as a tool that individuals

use to communicate their social identity.

• “Music is a badge of one’s social identity” (North et al, 1999)

• Differing notions of music genres among different populations are likely to reveal

different relations between personality and music preferences.


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3.5 The big five trait model (Rentfrow & Gosling, 2003)

• Neuroticism (N): an individual’s propensity to feel fear, sadness, embarrassment,

anger, guilt, and other emotions of negative affect.

• Extraversion (E): an individual’s propensity to be sociable, talkative, assertive,

active, and indicates their preference toward stimulating and exciting environments.

• Openness to experience (O): an individual’s propensity toward intellectual

curiosity, imagination, aesthetic and emotional sensitivity, and originality.

• Agreeableness (A): an individual’s propensity toward being altruistic, helpful,

sympathetic, and empathetic toward others.

• Conscientiousness (C): an individual’s propensity toward cleanliness, orderliness,

having self-determination, and self-control.

-Each of these dimensions represents a continuous scale with opposite extremes. -Higher

scores for a given dimension are interpreted such that the individual should be more

consistent in personality with the dimension label and description.

-Lower scores are interpreted such that the individual should be more consistent with

personality adjectives that are opposite to the dimension label and description (e.g.,

introversion).

3.6 Authentic Identities: Straightedge Subculture, Music and

the Internet (Williams, 2006)

• There is a dialectic relationship between music and identity, wherein music is seen

as consequential in the creation of subcultures as well as a consequence of them.

• Through the musical experience—both making and listening to music— individuals


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are able to locate themselves in specific subcultural formations.

• Through the music experience we become a part of something larger than

ourselves, requires that we conceptualize something beyond music, its producers,

or its consumers. This something has traditionally been “subculture.”

mbi-602; consumer psychology; james corbitt

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