Bernice Afriyie, W14: Topic Selection

Hello Jennifer Andreae and class,

After going through the selection of podcasts and listening to them, I have decided to emulate "Under the Influence." Clicking on "The Psychology of Price" and seeing it was twenty seven plus minutes, I was annoyed. However, it was nothing like the strictly informational podcasts of professor's I've known; it was informational and engaging. The anecdote at the beginning of the podcast – coupled with O'Reilly's cool, captivating voice – pulled me into the world of pricing, anchoring and pleasure. The episode drew from various sources of marketing research: JCPenny, Banana Republic, wine tasting tests. I knew that I was getting opinions from people who had taken time to research the topic thoroughly. The episode was well paced and organized. The concepts flowed and tied in with one another brilliantly.

My podcast will focus on the hypnotic influence of music in commercials. Why do people like the music they like? Is it due to their "taste" or is it because of marketing? I want to find out if the success of ad campaigns is due to their ability to market jingles, songs and tunes. We may not like Maxwell House or Cheez Whiz but most of can recite word for word the lyrics of songs used in their commercials.

The music in "The Psychological Price" worked well to introduce new themes and concepts. O'reilly's tone and pacing helped to accentuate important points. I plan to integrate that into my project, punctuating my podcast with different iconic commercial tunes so that the listener can consciously reflect on music's influence on their buying habits.

Spark (Student Paper and Research Kit) helped me to narrow my topic significantly. At first, I intended to cover the psychological influence and targeting of music, but after going through several Spark steps I realized that was too broad. My topic stemmed from my interests in psychology, so I would advise other students to start from their interests as well. It would advise students to get a second opinion on their working thesis before starting the revision process.