Drum Up Interest with Drumbeats

“Drum our sales message into their heads.” Maybe that’s behind a recent Sapporo video ad. The insistent, incessant drumbeats as the primary soundtrack are a clear counterpoint to the soothing sound we might expect to accompany the ad’s images of flowing water and graceful Japanese movements.
     Think of the ways you can use auditory, visual, and cognitive drumbeats to drum up interest in your store, products, and services:

• What marketers call “visual drumbeats” to refer to rhythmic elements in ads, signage, product descriptions, and more. The bullet points you’re reading now are an example of visual drumbeats.
• Rhythmic elements in soundtracks on video ads, in a store’s background music, and in a salesperson’s patter. Psychologists at Lafayette College found that rhythmically rhyming claims are more likely to be perceived as true than those that do not have this attribute. Actually any Southern Baptist minister and most campaigning politicians could have told the psychologists the value of rhyming jingles.
• Repetitive ads. Have you noticed the frequent use of ads that are repeats? A brief spot will show on 60 Minutes. Then at the next commercial break, the absolutely identical ad will show again. This drumbeat repetition boosts memory for the ad.

     Don’t make the drumbeats too strong or you’ll irritate instead of induce. This general principle holds true not only for sounds, but also for other sensory stimulation, such as odors. Keep the store fragrances faint or your customers might faint. The benchmark for being too strong depends on the nature of your target population. Younger shoppers might like insistent, incessant drumbeats better than do elderly shoppers.
     And know how your target population will interpret the drumbeats. An evil example of my point comes from the world of political advertising. In the 2006 race for a Tennessee U.S. Senate seat, a radio ad argued against voting for Rep. Harold Ford. Each time Ford’s name was mentioned, we could hear the background sound of tom-toms. Considering that Rep. Ford is black and his opponent is white, some advertising audiences concluded that this advertising drumbeat was racist. That argument was strengthened when people easily recalled a rhythmic rhyme for the last word in the ad’s tag line: “Harold Ford. He’s just not right.”

Click below for more:
Use Both Repetition and Progression in Ads
Talk to Multiple Senses with New Products
Deliver Fragrance to Customers Who Like It
Check That Your Store Smells Good