Fado music: an exploratory investigation of the affective responses and intentions

Dissertation presented as the partial requirement for obtaining a Master's degree in Information Management, specialization in Marketing Intelligence Music occupies a very important place in people lives and it is commercially relevant to marketers. Although the sales of music have declined, the consumption of music has actually increased, given the prevalence of online music video websites and music streaming. Across the world, more music is being listened to in increasingly varied ways, yet little consumer research has addressed the decision-making process behind its purchase. Traditional music like Fado is an important instrument to support Portuguese internationalization. The modernization of the cultural tradition via music brought Fado to the international market. In this article, we focus on the responses Fado creates in the listener and how those responses influenced the intention to later buy the music, since Fado is a genuine and an internationalized cultural product as well as it's a symbol and represents the presence of Portugal in the World. The data was collected from an online questionnaire conducted to 213 Portuguese music listeners. A Fado song was used as the sample stimuli, since Fado is a typical Portuguese musical genre and it is crucial to understand the preferences of people and what makes a song popular. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to verify and validate the research model. The results show that the sensorial, emotional, imaginal responses to music all had direct effects on the affective response, which in turn influenced purchase intention. Analytical response is also considered; however, it does not have the same effect on consumers psychologic states, due to the fact it does not have a positive direct impact on affective response. Our findings also indicate that familiarity and surprise factors play a potent role in increasing the affective response, evidencing the importance of a mix between “new” and “old” as well as distribution which is important to people could better know the existence of a song. Here, the same reasoning can be applied to the affective response which has shown to have positive direct effect on purchase intention. This study fills the gap in the literature, where little attention has been devoted to examining the factors influencing the digitalization of traditional music like fado. The findings help to understand how culture works, how it provides affective responses on others, helping musicians and recording labels to develop better market strategies.