Purchase occasion influence on the role of music in advertising

The role of background music in audience responses to commercials (and other marketing elements) has received increasing attention in recent years. This article extends the discussion of music's influence in two ways: (1) by using music theory to analyze and investigate the effects of music's structural profiles on consumers' moods and emotions and (2) by examining the relationship between music's evoked moods that are congruent versus incongruent with the purchase occasion and the resulting effect on purchase intentions. The study reported provides empirical support for the notion that when music is used to evoke emotions congruent with the symbolic meaning of product purchase, the likelihood of purchasing is enhanced. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.