Research Method Analysis Hip Hop Music

Question: Discuss about theResearch Method Analysisfor Hip Hop Music. Answer: Introduction It has been observed by various marketing analysts that when a brand name becomes a part of musical lyrics or when the product is shown in any popular hip hop music videos then it creates larger impact in the mind of the customers (Ferguson Burkhalter, 2015). This particular article highlights how this brand placement technique is useful in promoting products and how it has been successful for various popular brands over the years. Research Question There are huge numbers of examples of various brands like Toyota or Segrams Gin who have seen double digit growth in their sales when their product was shown in popular Hip-Hop music videos. So the main research question of this particular topic is that Why brand placement through Hip Hop music has been so successful over the years? Sample Sampling is all about selecting a set of individual that represents a large population. For this particular product Probability sampling was used and the sample size was chosen randomly. A sample size of 50 was selected for this survey. The participants were mainly undergraduate student of a mid western university between the ages of 18 and 36 (Ferguson Burkhalter, 2015). The sample size was appropriate for this research as hip hop music are mainly heard by the youngsters. They were given an online questionnaire containing questions related to two popular apparels. There are lots of apparels which are specially designed for the youth and Hip Hop music connects easily with this type of products. The sample size could have been more for getting a clear picture of the entire scenario. Many researchers also feel that these types of surveys are not relevant for this type of research. Russells theatre methodology which is done in a more realistic way and reliable too as it tests the stimu li of the audience in a real life setting. Methodology Research is a process where people try to finds out answers in a systematic way. For every type of research a proper research design is made and followed by the researcher to answer the main research question. For this particular research the researchers has opted the option of quantitative methodology. They have derived the data from a sample size composed of 50 undergraduate students. The data has been collected via online surveys. Amazons Mechanical Turk service was used to collect the data. This particular platform was chosen because of its growing popularity among the online customers and also marketing scholars who are keeping a close eye on such research. Mturk is extremely user friendly and also cost effective. As this research had some commercial purpose so the respondents were paid $1 for 8 minutes. The research went on for 2 weeks and 304 responses were selected. As the research has been done only for 2-3 weeks and the main information has been derived from the customer to understand the similarities and differences so it can be said that cross-sectional study has been done. Measures and Statistics For this particular study quantitative approach has been used by the researcher to show that how consumer preference for a brand gets affected by Hip Hop music. So for this research it can be said that independent variable is the Hip Hop music whereas the dependent variable is the brand attitude and recall score of the customers. It has been observed that the consumer preference has varied from question to question which has created a direct impact on the music. To get a better result, some of the most popular Hip-Hop songs were played and the participants were asked to recall the brand name coming in their mind. Response of these questions was coded as 0 and 1. 0 stands for Target placement not mentioned and 1 stands for target placement mentioned. Statistical tools like Chi-square test and ANNOVA was used for each of the variable. To assess the recall factor Chi-Square test was used where as the ANNOVA or covariance was used to test the dependent variable which is the brand attitude. This is the way how each of the hypotheses was tested. Though it can be said from the result that all the hypothesis were not supported. For example Hypothesis 1 was supported. It states that a brand name is recalled more often when the name is heard in the chorus of the song rather than heard in the song verse. Results and Conclusion In this particular study 5 Hypothesis was selected. Out of this 5 Hypothesis it has been found that only Hypothesis was supported, 2 Hypothesis was partially supported and 2 were not supported. It has been proved that prominence creates huge impact on brand recall as well as brand attitude whereas congruence creates impact only on brand recall. It has showed that Hip Hop music can create a positive impact on the sales of congruent brand like a segment of luxury cars. It is also to be noted that congruence factor alone cannot derive much attention. For example Mercedes is a high value car which normal people do not usually buy. But when the brand is promoted through hip hop song then even the normal young people who love more fancy brands rather than classy brands will also look upon this kind of cars. It is very hard to predict how much the data is valid. The reason is that the research has been done by selecting a random population. Though theory was paid around $1 for 8 minutes still anyone can give any random answers. Some might manipulate answers on their own and provide. As the research has been done at a high level hence, it can be said that at least 70% of the data are valid. When it comes to reliability then there is no point of doubting as Mturk was used. Further Research This research was done only for the apparel category. There is huge scope to do further study for other product segment as well. Only known brands have been used for this study. It will be very interesting to see how product placement in hip hop music works for an unknown brand. However the findings of this study will be helpful for the brand managers, music artists and record executive as they will get an insight of how hip hop music has done wonders for some of the most popular brands. They might also experiment by using Hip Hop music for less popular brand. References: Ferguson, N. S., Burkhalter, J. N. (2015). Yo, DJ, That's My Brand: An Examination of Consumer Response to Brand Placements in Hip-Hop Music. Journal of Advertising, 44(1), 47-57.