Ronaldo Degazon – ANTH 086 – Final Paper – Marilynne Diggs-Thompson

How and why has music made an important difference in product demand? Why or how has music

created interest in the product or has enhanced product desirability--Was the artist the important

factor, or did the product enhance the reputation and sales/ brand enhancement of the artist? Could

you argue that an equal combination of factors was ultimately responsible for increased sales or

brand awareness? Also discuss how and why music (or a particular type of music) has become an

essential part of consumer marketing and product sales.

Music has become one of the most integral parts of advertising. Music in advertising affects the

way viewers perceive the brand by different means and on different levels. In this paper we will look at a

specific case of music in advertising – Sandals advertisements and their use of the song ‘Time of My Life’

by Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley. We will discuss how and why music has made an important

difference in product demand, the effect of the song on Sandals product versus the effect of the product

on the song/artists and the magnitude of the roles played by different factors in increasing the product’s

sales.

Before we delve into the effect of ‘Time of My Life’ on the Sandals advertisements, let us

establish some background information on the hotel chain and on the song. Sandals Resorts is an

operator for all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. The resort chain has segmented its market into six

distinct target audiences, each of which is referred to by a nickname; Single Shannon & Bachelor Brett,

Honeymoon Hannah & Hayden, Married Mark & Missy, Family Frank & Felicity, Anniversary Angela &

Adam and Retired Richard & Rhonda. Single Shannon and Bachelor Brett consists of young, middle class

singles who are looking for “a fun vacation with the opportunity to meet other singles.” Honeymoon

Hannah & Hayden consists of young, upper-class newlyweds searching for “a relaxing honeymoon

getaway.” Married Mark and Missy entails middle aged, upper-class married couples who seek “a

vacation away from the kids.” The remaining three categories comprise of upper-class, middle aged

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Ronaldo Degazon – ANTH 086 – Final Paper – Marilynne Diggs-Thompson

parents looking for a family vacation, middle-upper class married couples looking to relive their

honeymoon and middle-upper elderly couples looking for a relaxing vacation. ‘Time of My Life’ is a song

recorded by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes for the nineteen-eighty-seven romantic drama film ‘Dirty

Dancing.’ The song has won a number of awards including an Academy Award for ‘Best Original Song’, a

Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Original Song’ and a Grammy Award for best pop performance by a duet.

The film ‘Dirty Dancing’ was a hit amongst its expected teen audience but it was even more popular

amongst adult audiences. The film was the first to sell more than a million copies on home video and as

of two-thousand-nine it earned over two-hundred-fourteen-million dollars worldwide.

There are several ways in which music enhances an advertisement. David Huron came up with

six categories which show how music improves advertisements; entertainment, structure and

continuity, memorability, lyrical language, targeting and authority establishment. The entertainment

aspect of music helps enhances an advertisement by adding aesthetic value to it; an advertisement that

has more aesthetic value will be able to capture more attention from the audience. Music also plays a

structural role by tying together a sequence of visual images and/or a series of dramatic episodes,

narrative voice-overs or a list of product appeals; this function of tying together discontinuous scene

changes or edits gives continuity to the scenes in an advertisement. Music serves the function of making

a product more memorable to viewers as it is known to “linger in the listener’s mind”; this function is

particularly effective when a well-known song is used. Music serves as a form of ‘lyrical language’ as it

permits the conveyance of a verbal message in a non-spoken way; language utterances can sound much

less naïve or self-indulgent when couched within a musical phrase rather than simply spoken. Music also

helps an advertisement reach its target audience; certain market segments will respond more to certain

artists/songs/styles than others. Finally, music helps with authority establishment; that is, giving an

advertisement more credibility because of the artist being used.

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Ronaldo Degazon – ANTH 086 – Final Paper – Marilynne Diggs-Thompson

In the Sandals advertisement we can see five of Huron’s categories at work. The song adds

aesthetic value with the ‘feel good’, ecstatic mood that it conveys. It also adds structure and continuity

by smoothing over the scene changes. The phrase ‘Time of My Life’ serves as lyrical language as it

conveys the message that Sandals visitors will have a once in a lifetime experience. Moreover, the song

provides memorability due to the simplicity of the hook ‘Time of My Life’ and the popularity of the song.

To elucidate on the popularity of this song, one needs not look further than its gold standard

certification in each of the U.S, Australia and Canada and its platinum certification in the Netherlands.

Furthermore, the song ‘Time of My Life’ and its association with the film ‘Dirty Dancing’ also helps the

advertisement with targeting its audiences. The film was popular amongst teens and adults in the

eighties and nineties which corresponds young, middle aged and elder adults today; all of these age

groups are targeted by Sandals. Both the song and the film are extremely popular romantic productions;

Sandals caters mainly to those seeking new romance (Single Shannon & Bachelor Brett) or those looking

to continue existing romance (Honeymoon Hannah & Haden and Anniversary Angela & Adam).

It is difficult to compare the effect of the artists (Medley and Warnes) on the product versus the

effect of the product on the artists; this is because the versions on the Sandals advertisements are cover

versions (not the original version sang by Medley and Warnes.) Nevertheless I believe that the artists do

more for the product than the product does for them. My main reason is that the popularity of the song

is immense; once again I will allude to its gold standard certifications in the U.S, Australia and Canada,

and its platinum certification in the Netherlands. To put this further into context the sales benchmarks

for gold certifications in the U.S, Australia and Canada are five hundred thousand, fifty-thousand and

fifty-thousand respectively whilst the benchmark for platinum certification in the Netherlands is sixty-

thousand; this means that the song has at least six-hundred-sixty-thousand certified sales, and let’s not

forget the thousands of uncertified bootleg sales and internet downloads. All these figures are to

emphasize the likely impact that Medley and Warnes’ song has had on the Sandals advertisements - an

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Ronaldo Degazon – ANTH 086 – Final Paper – Marilynne Diggs-Thompson

impact that would be difficult for the advertisement to reciprocate. Another reason to believe that the

advertisement doesn’t have a greater relative effect on the artists is that the artists are past their peak

years. Both Medley and Warnes produced the majority of their music between the sixties and nineties.

I don’t think that an equal combination of factors was responsible for increased sales/brand

awareness for Sandals’ hotel product. Sandals’ main attraction is its three S’s – sun, sand and sea. All the

resorts are located in the Caribbean, a region whose greatest tourist pulls are its warm climate and

sandy beaches. The Sandals advertisements capitalizes on this by showing scenes of sunny weather, lush

green terrain, sand and beaches (nearly all the scenes include a beach). This is not to say that the song

doesn’t have much of an impact on Sandals product; as alluded to in the previous two paragraphs, the

song is immensely popular and is more than likely to have caught the attention of new viewers. Also key

to the success of the advertisement is the age and racial diversity on display. The advertisements feature

both black and white visitors who range in age from young-adults to middle-aged to elder-aged. This

sends a message that Sandals is for every adult. To summarize this paragraph, I believe that the factors

ranked in descending order of importance are the attraction of the three S’s, the song ‘Time of My Life’

and other factors such as racial and age diversity.

In conclusion, music in advertising enhances product demand in several ways: entertainment,

structure and continuity, memorability, lyrical language, targeting and authority establishment. The song

‘Time of My Life’ enhances the Sandals advertisements in all of the above ways except for authority

establishment. I believe that the song does more for Sandals adverts than the adverts do for the

song/artists. Finally, I strongly think that the main factor responsible for increased Sandals visits is the

attraction of the three S’s and how such is portrayed in the advertisements.

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Ronaldo Degazon – ANTH 086 – Final Paper – Marilynne Diggs-Thompson

Bibliography

1. Why Today’s Ads Need Amazing Soundtracks Retrieved from

http://www.adweek.com/video/advertising-branding/why-todays-ads-need-amazing-

soundtracks-video-162860

2. Music: The Unsung Hero of Advertising Retrieved from

https://www.ama.org/publications/MarketingNews/Pages/music-advertising-marketing.aspx

3. Music in Advertising: An Analytic Paradigm Retrieved from http://www.musiccog.ohio-

state.edu/Huron/Publications/huron.advertising.text.html

4. Sandals Presentation Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/sjohnson09/finalpresentation3

5. (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(I

%27ve_Had)_The_Time_of_My_Life

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