Jingle Modification: Does Slogan Help?

Abstract

In advertising, jingle modifications are often done to inject freshness and to avoid wear-out. This study seeks to determine the effects of jingle modification on brand attitude and brand recall, and the moderating effects of slogan on that relationship. As past research on the effects of jingle modification and slogan inclusion were conducted independent of each other, the interrelationship of the two variables remains unclear. With classical conditioning as the theoretical lens, a 2 (jingle modification: original, modified) x 2 (slogan inclusion: without slogan, with slogan), between-subject experiment was conducted to test the hypotheses, with brand attitude and brand recall as the dependent variables. The results indicate that jingle modification induce positive and significant effects on brand attitude and brand recall. On the other hand, slogan inclusion was not found to have significant effects on brand attitude and brand recall. No interaction effects were found between jingle modification and slogan inclusion on brand attitude and brand recall. Further analyses indicate that slogan only help to enhance attitude when the original jingle was used but not when it has been modified. Additionally, slogan was not found to enhance brand recall for both the original and modified jingles. The implication is that in advertisements with modified jingles, slogan is not required in enhancing consumers’ brand attitude or brand recall. The study provides a strong support for jingle modification and shows that it can have substantial impact even without incorporating the slogan.

Keywords: jingles; slogan; advertising; brand attitude; brand recall.