Examining of music used in advertisements within the context of AIDA model: A qualitative research

Advertisements, which are defined as the cave art of the 20th century (Richards and Curran 2002: 63), play an important role in promoting products to target market, informing the consumer about products, the purchase of products, and the experience of products. Advertisements have effects of informing, persuading, reminding, and supporting on buying behavior (Barban et. al. 1989:65). This study investigates how consumer behavior is affected by tonal, atonal, and silence (lack of music) in commercial films, with respect to the AIDA model. Advertising, music, the usage of various music in commercials, and the AIDA model -to measure the effectiveness of commercials- were thoroughly studied with the help of literature. It is thought that the notions of advertisement and music, which are universal languages free of the limitations of culture and society, affect people's emotions, behaviors, attitudes, and preferences drastically. The usage of music in commercial films helps to strengthen the massage to consumer and the intended effect of the commercial on consumer, makes it easier for the target market to understand the commercial (Batı, 2010: 780); also helps to attain an attitude towards brands and affects the buying behavior (Binet et. al. 2013: 10; Lang 2015 :1). The AIDA model was developed to define the steps in the course of sales and the effect of the product on target market (Lewis, 1898). According to AIDA model, the consumer behavior follows four essential steps: Attention, interest, desire, and action (Yılmaz et. al 2014: 53). The population of the study is undergrad students of Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University Gölköy Campus, the sample taken from the population consists of 30 male and female voluntary undergrad students the researchers were able to contact. The data were obtained by focus group discussion method. Three different focus groups were constructed from 30 undergraduate students between the ages of 18 and 25. Each group watched the same commercial film with different background music; the first group watched without any music in the background, the second one watched with atonal music, and the third one watched the commercial with tonal music. The data were analyzed with qualitative descriptive analysis. The results suggest that the presence of music and the presence of tonality in commercial films are meaningfully related to consumer behavior with respect to attention, interest, desire, and action.