No abstract

The perceived duration of a time period may be influenced by properties of environmental stimuli that fill the period. Because music is often present in consumer environments, we conducted an experiment to explore the influence of a musical stimulus property (modality) on listeners' estimates of the duration of a time period. Findings suggest that perceptions of duration are influenced by music in a way that contradicts conventional wisdom (i.e., the “time flies when you're having fun” hypothesis). Perceived duration was longest for subjects exposed to positively valenced (major key) music, and shortest for negatively valenced (atonal) music. Thus, time did not fly when an interval was filled with affectively positive stimulation. An alternative hypothesis based on attentional and retrieval processes is supported. Implications for the design of consumer environments and for future research are discussed.

Music is an increasingly prominent and expensive feature of broadcast ads, yet its effects on message reception are controversial. The authors propose and test a contingency that may help resolve this controversy. Experimental results suggest that message reception is influenced by the interplay of two musical properties: attentiongaining value and music-message congruency. Increasing audience attention to music enhances message reception when the music evokes message-congruent (versus incongruent) thoughts. M USIC has been a prominent feature in advertising since the first network radio broadcast aired in 1923 (Hettinger 1933). Early broadcasts used signature "theme music" to introduce commercial sponsors. By the late 1930s, the ' 'singing commercial'' had become standard practice. Pepsi's historic "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot" jingle became a jukebox hit in 1941 (Enrico and Kornbluth 1986). Musical ads made a graceful transition to television in the 1950s, and they continue to play an important role in broadcast advertising today. Estimates of the proportion of TV commercials using music have ranged from about 75% (Michlin 1984) to over 90% (Garfield 1988). According to a recent Video Storyboard Tests report, music is used as "the main creative ingredient" in one-third of 500 new TV ads (Tharp 1989).Advertisers spend large sums of money on the production of musical ads. Creative fees for an original composition can cost over $10,000 (Karmen 1989). The rights to popular songs can cost much more (Alsop 1985); for example, Nike paid $500,000 for the use of The Beatles' song "Revolution" (Cocks 1987).Industry is risking millions of dollars on the belief that music can help ads sell; yet there is no universally accepted explanation of how this works. Some investigators have suggested that music influences listeners mainly through their feelings. For example, Gorn (l 982) viewed the effects of ad music from a classical conditioning perspective, suggesting that consumers' feelings toward a piece of music may transfer to a product when the two are paired in an ad. Another explanation is that the power of music operates by creating moods (Alpert and Alpert 1990;Bruner 1990;Gardner 1985) that enhance product evaluations and facilitate message acceptance. /Journal of Marketing, October 1993Though most of the research literature has focused on emotional responses to ad music, it is also important to consider music's impact on message reception and processing. Creating positive feelings during ad exposure may be desirable but have little impact unless the brand and message are remembered. Therefore, the current research examines ad recall and recognition. Our focus on cognitive aspects of ad performance is justifiable on both theoretical and practical grounds. Remembering information such as brand names and message claims often precedes responses at other levels in the hierarchy of effects. Various measures of memorability are used extensively in the advertising industry to assess ad performance (Stewart, Furse, and Kozak 19...

This research investigates the effects of the amount of information presented, information organization, and concern about closure on selective information processing and on the degree to which consumers use price as a basis for inferring quality. Consumers are found to be less likely to neglect belief-inconsistent information and their quality inferences less influenced by price when concern about closure is low (vs. high) and information is presented randomly (vs. ordered) or a small amount of information is presented. Results provide a picture of a resourceconstrained consumer decision maker who processes belief-inconsistent information only when there is motivation and opportunity. C onsumers frequently assume that price and quality are highly correlated, and that as the price of a product increases, its quality increases commensurately ("you get what you pay for"). This assumption exerts a powerful influence on the degree to which consumers use price to infer quality (