MODELO DE EVALUACIÓN Y MEJORA DE LA CALIDAD

The impact of congruence in advertising on the consumer’s psychology in general can be drawn from various theories. Konecni (1982) suggested that the inclusion of music would demand extra resources to process each component and hence the attention would be divided. Though the theory mainly concerns the divided attention based on processing multiple stimuli, it can also be related to the congruence in such a way that the attention would not be divided to the extent of becoming a distraction, if such music

Figure 2-2 - Overview of Musical Effect on Consumers

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is to be congruent. Support for this can be found in the literature (e.g. Kellaris et al., 1993).

The literature also identified other theories like Priming (e.g. Yeoh & North, 2010, 2011), Prototypicality (e.g. Martindale & Moore, 1988; Tillmann et al., 2000), Associative Network (e.g. Heckler & Childers, 1992), and Gestalt Psychology (see Macinnis & Park, 1991) to explain the effects. Importantly, these theories bring about various perspectives that the congruence can be conceptualised from. For instance, Associative Network Theories, including Priming, identify a musical snippet as an activator of a common set of associations, while prototypicality considers such stimuli being atypical of a schema in the memory to be congruent, which would in turn facilitate processing and schematic associations (see Cooper, 2007; Martindale &

Moore, 1988). Gestalt theory, on the other hand, considered element interactivity and their intrinsic determination (e.g. Macinnis & Park, 1991) as the basis for congruence.

Each of these theoretical bases provides a unique perspective on how congruence could affect consumers and demonstrate the complexity of the construct, when all these aspects are considered together. Most of these research used the prior schematic information (see Shevy, 2008) as the basis of conceptualising congruence, which falls into the social cognition domain (Heckler & Childers, 1992). Though their conceptualisation was adequately based on these theories, some research (e.g. Heckler

& Childers, 1992) argued about the clarity of conceptual distinction among such researchers. However, these differences in conceptualising indicate more of the complex and multi-faceted nature of the concept of congruence than those researchers being conceptually unclear. It also implies the need for further research for greater conceptual clarity in this regard.

2.2.5.1 Gestalt Theory and Congruence

When considering an advertisement as a bundle of stimuli with interactive elements, Gestalt theory bears more relevance. The other theories become more applicable when specific memory related to a musical stimulus is available, which will be pivoted on past experiences. For instance, activation theories assume certain memory associations get activated while prototypicality requires an existing schema in the memory for deciding congruence. Though Gestalt theory also conceptualises experience-related

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processing, it is more oriented towards generic experiences (Speck & Elliott, 1997) as opposed to the specific nature of the others. It is neither a top-down nor a bottom-up process but rather innate and automatic in nature without being influenced by learned and strategic processing (Speck & Elliott, 1997).

The theory goes far back as the beginning of the 20^th century followed by the work of Christian von Ehrenfelsin in 1890 on the formulation of “form” and “whole,” where the latter became the fundamental quality known as “Gestalt quality” (see Sabar, 2013) Gestalt theory can be expressed as “…wholes, the behaviour of which is not determined by that of their individual elements, but where the part-processes are themselves determined by the intrinsic nature of the whole” (Wertheimer, 1938, p. 2). This concept of whole is as a result of element interaction and not related to specific physical characteristic of the element such as four lines constituting a square when the individual lines or angles do not say anything about it (Sabar, 2013).

The gist of the theory is that the meaning perceived through such element interactivity is “whole” and greater than the meanings of the individual elements (Wertheimer, 1938). These meanings are related to the experiences a person had in his/her life (Wertheimer, 1938) or, in other words, the organisation of stimuli is done with a great deal of subjectivity. This is the reason that when some random set of dots or incomplete figures are given, people tend to create their own patterns in them, which can also be used to categorise people (Speck & Elliott, 1997). Gestalt psychology addresses three broad categories of stimulus organisation: closure principle, principle of similarity, and figure-ground principle.

Out of many applications, Gestalt theory has been used in the area of understanding aesthetic objects such as art or a piece of music. For instance, one would be able to still recognise a melody after listening to a musical snippet only once, even though it is played in a new key or in a different tempo (Wertheimer, 1938). Similarly, a symphony of Beethoven comprises many parts played by many instruments in spite of those elements being individually different and bears less or no meaning at all compared to the whole symphony. Hence, it is not the physical characteristics or the parts of the music that are individually important but the meaning of “whole” as a result of the interaction between such parts (Speck & Elliott, 1997; Wertheimer, 1938). This also

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emphasises the importance of considering the congruence through perceived measures to capture it at an abstract level.

In the light of Gestalt theory, Garner (1970) recognises an existence of “good” vs.

“poor” patterns. The former is comprised of commonly perceptually-organised patterns out of a given set of elements (e.g., dots) while the latter is comprised of alternative perceptual organisations. Applying this to the advertisement elements, it could also be considered that the perception of congruence can stem from the perceptual organisation of these stimuli in the advertisement. In other words, it is the general concept of the “fit” or the congruence that the consumers would perceive in considering what comes out from the interaction of the advertisement stimulus-elements from an overarching perspective. This is what Macinnis and Park (1991) referred to as

“emergent meaning” (p. 162). Furthermore, Speck and Elliott (1997) argue that the bottom-up approach to perceptual organisation is more close to the claims of Gestalt theory than the top-bottom approach for the reason the former is characterised by

“whole” being “unmediated experience” (p. 163) where individual elements play no significant role in determining the whole.

On this premise, an argument can be put forth that considering individual structural characteristics of a stimuli may not be as important as considering the overall perception of congruence among such stimuli. For instance, structural characteristics like the tempo, loudness and texture of a musical snippet become important when they are considered at the element-level but the overall perception of congruence, which does not exist at the element level, emerges as a result of such interaction. Especially, in a case of not having prior specific memory / experience related to the stimulus elements (e.g., brand and music), considering congruence from the Gestalt perspective would be more applicable.

2.2.6 Summary

Sounds that are humanly organised with an intention and accepted by a culture are defined as music. Music has attracted other domains like psychology and marketing with its special effects on human cognition. Consequently, almost every advert in the present day situation utilises music either in the background as a peripheral cue or as a

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jingle with the central message. The research carried in the this field commonly looked at the aspects of music like self-reference, fit (congruency), jingles, instrumental vs.

vocal, and original vs. altered lyrics. However, when viewed from the Gestalt psychological perspective, congruence emerging as a result of element interactivity will be more sense-making especially in the case of unfamiliar stimuli. Nonetheless, in general, the effect of music on consumers is not a simple construct. It is dependent on the personal characteristics and contextual characteristics that are in play. However, it is clear that the music in any form in the present day commercials has a significant effect on their effectiveness.