Document Type
Thesis
First Faculty Advisor
Sharmin Attaran
Second Faculty Advisor
Leila Zbib
Keywords
product placement; lyrics; buying behavior
Publisher
Bryant University
Rights Management
CC-BY
Abstract
Brand placement is a nonconventional medium for companies to use to help consumers gain brand awareness and ultimately purchase a product. The purpose of this study was to investigate brand placement in different genres of songs to identify the participants’ degree of recall and recognition of these brands and determine if participants were enticed to purchase the brand, in order to draw conclusions of what genre and speed make a placement effective. Brand placement has been used in music videos, television shows and movies. Studies have seen a positive effect on purchase intent from these placements, yet there is a lack of information on the effectiveness of brand placements in song lyrics and the consumer’s purchase intent. The methodology of this study was two-fold. First, a content analysis of the Billboard 2018 year-end top 50 songs for Rap and Country was conducted in order to collect data on the words per minute of the songs and use of brand placement. An experiment was then conducted with this newfound data to investigate consumer perspective on recalling products in songs based on words per minute, as well as purchase intent of those mentioned products. Participants were asked to listen to two songs from two genres at different speeds, and then recognize and recall which products they heard. The results found that Rap songs had the greatest average amount of brand placements and the highest category of these placements being Fashion brands. Also, the results found that participants were able to recall more brand when the speed of the song was regular, not at the double speed. Lastly, those who recalled more than three brands listened to music for more than two hours per week and also had a greater purchase intent. Overall, these results show that speed and recall affect purchase intent and therefore should be taken into consideration for advertiser. The most effective way to utilize lyrical product placement would be a slower paced Rap song, in order to create the greatest exposure and recall.
