Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management 
ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 8, No. 3, 2023 

 

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Study	on	the	Impact	of	Music	Marketing	on	Branding	of	
Short	Video	Platforms	
-- Take B Station as an Example 

Jie Fu, Qiang Mao 

School of Economics and Management, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, China 

 

Abstract: Music marketing is a way for companies to use the characteristics of music art to enhance communication and 
exchange with consumers, to better meet their needs, to better integrate music with the company's brand image and products, 
and then to maximize the benefits of business activities under the marketing strategy of music. Through an in-depth analysis of 
the specific role of "Wave Trilogy" in the branding of B station, this paper summarizes the various reasons for the success of 
"Wave Trilogy" and puts forward three suggestions and recommendations for short video platforms: music video promotion 
should focus on authenticity; music content should be healthy and give people beauty; appropriate advertising music should be 
chosen for target consumers. 

Keywords: Music Marketing, Short Video Platforms. 
 

1. Introduction 
In 2020, on the May 4 Youth Day, B Station paid tribute to 

the youth of today with "The Back Wave", then encouraged 
the students with the song music video "Into the Sea" during 
the graduation season, and finally "Happy Together" blended 
the middle-aged and the younger generation to pay tribute to 
the 11th anniversary of B Station. The phenomenal marketing 
of "The Wave Trilogy" is a strong proof that music-based 
creativity still has an irreplaceable role in the Internet 
environment, and with "The Wave Trilogy", B Station has 
earned enough word of mouth and popularity to further 
enhance its brand image, and "The Wave Trilogy" is also 
known as the hottest music promo of the year. This successful 
music marketing case makes people can't help but applaud, 
and also makes people can't help but think about the powerful 
power of music marketing on brand image shaping of short 
video platforms. This paper hopes to analyze the successful 
music marketing case of "Wave Trilogy" of B station, deeply 
analyze the specific role of "Wave Trilogy" in brand shaping 
of B station, summarize the reasons for the success of "Wave 
Trilogy" in various aspects, and finally put forward relevant 
conclusions, which have certain significance for short video 
platforms to use music to shape brand image, marketing 
momentum and open awareness. 

2. Short Video 
As the name implies, short videos are short videos of 

instant length. Short video relies on social software to achieve 
rapid expansion, forming a huge user base, accurate 
information push, huge information resources to bring users 
an immersive experience, which makes users get spiritual 
satisfaction. At the same time, short video marketing has 
achieved an innovation of sales model. Some scholars found 
that short video sales model has better effect in brand 
promotion, customer attraction and knowledge payment, etc. 
Compared with traditional marketing model, short video sales 
model can break through the space barrier and effectively 
deliver product information to customers, so as to meet the 

personalized needs of different customer groups. 

3. Short Video Marketing 
Building scenes is originally a form of drama, the purpose 

is to bring the audience an immersive experience. The 
purpose of building scenes in short video marketing is to 
quickly deliver product information to customers, to achieve 
effective communication between customers and brands, to 
provide personalized services, and to make customers have a 
better consumption experience. This paper argues that: short 
video marketing has 3 characteristics: first, it is centered on 
user experience; second, it relies on big data technology to 
achieve accurate service; third, it plays the role of social 
advantages and has strong interaction ability. 

4. Research Related to Music 
Marketing on B Station 

This paper, through a review of literature, concludes that 
the Wave Trilogy has been applied to B-site for branding 
mainly in the following ways: 

4.1. Music - Target Users "One to One", Multi-
Group Coverage 

The core of B Station is to build an inclusive and 
diversified brand, and it has a general direction in the 
selection of target user groups; B Station initially appeared in 
the public eye as a ghost video and learning software, and 
later added food and beauty, so for B Station itself, the user 
group is relatively large and has a wide coverage, so the user 
group of "The Wave Trilogy" is naturally open to all social 
groups. The user group of "The Wave Trilogy" is also open to 
all age groups. 

For "The Wave", it is a recognition, praise and message for 
young people, as the promo says, "You are fortunate to meet 
such an era, but the era is even more fortunate to meet such a 
you"; while "Into the Sea" is a good hope for graduating 
students and graduates entering the society. The purpose of 
"Into the Sea" is to stand in the perspective of young people, 



 

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the core users of B station, and to trigger the emotional 
resonance of people by telling a story of different people with 
different life encounters. The main characters of the final 
story "Happy Together" become an old grandfather and an old 
grandmother, but still keep a young heart, keep learning and 
always be positive. The purpose is to clearly tell the outside 
world what the core assets and soul of B station are and what 
kind of website B station is. At the end of the video, it says, 
"Everything you're interested in is on Station B." This is a 
straightforward way to show its brand positioning to the 
public and to tell consumers that the core brand image is that 
Station B is a diversified station. 

4.2. Multiple musical expressions to further fit 
the users 

After the Wave" adopts the form of speech, inviting the 
famous actor He Bing to give a three-minute speech with deep 
emotion. The speech is already very provocative, plus the text 
itself, is also powerful enough, so it is hard not to let people's 
blood boil after listening to it. Even if so much time has 
passed, mentioning "The Wave Trilogy" will still be 
emotional and touching, and although there are mixed 
reviews online, it is undeniable that "The Wave Trilogy" has 
indeed brought high traffic and high conversation for the B 
station, and the heat is lasting. 

The most touching part of "The Wave Trilogy" is "Into the 
Sea". Unlike the impassioned and grand narrative of "The 
Wave", "Into the Sea" is sung lightly and presents more of a 
warm aspect. In fact, the lyrics of "Into the Sea" have been 
changed a few times, in order to connect with the text of 
"After the Wave", because they are both part of the brand 
promotion plan of B website, so there is continuity in the core 
and tone. Although "Into the Sea" is not very controversial, 
everyone has their own interpretation. Some people are 
moved by it, while others say that it is too abrupt because of 
the deliberate sensationalism. But no matter what, for a 
marketing music film, it has already accomplished its mission 
if it can trigger some resonance or reflection in you at the 
moment you watch it. 

The whole film tells an inspirational story about "old age 
UP" with a comedic approach, and deeply interprets the brand 
"B station, is a learning app". positioning. The best thing 
about "Happy Together" is that you know it's a music 
commercial, but you can't help but watch it and shed tears. 
The short film breaks away from the conventional story and 
tells a moving story in a "comedy + inspiration + 
brainwashing" way. The old grandfather in the film learns 
hard for love and eventually learns to shoot and edit, which 
also invariably conveys the brand function and brand 
attributes of B station. 

4.3. Music release time is special, users 
produce multi-dimensional memory 

The success of the music release in reverse has an 
inseparable relationship with its release time, and choosing a 
specific time to release the corresponding music video can 
achieve twice the result with half the effort, while enhancing 
the consumers' memory point. 

The main wave of "The Wave Trilogy" of Station B, "The 
Back Wave", was launched at the time of May Fourth Youth, 
a holiday that has special significance in our country. The 
May Fourth spirit of "patriotism, progress, democracy and 
science" is also the best quality in young people. The spirit of 
May Fourth is also integrated with the current situation, 

despite the mixed reviews online, but whether flowers and 
applause or abuse and trolling are doing silent propaganda for 
the B station, and the B war is also destined to be the king of 
this wave of traffic. 

For "Into the Sea", its choice to release on 520 is a romantic 
and realistic thing in itself. Because of the graduation season, 
some people are busy looking for jobs, some are busy falling 
in love, some love and career success, while many people are 
still nothing, so graduation is not necessarily full of joy, there 
may be melancholy and confusion. This is also the subtlety of 
"Into the Sea" released on 520, the most romantic day to show 
the most realistic side, triggering the resonance of the 
majority of graduating students. bilibili said that "graduation" 
is actually a symbol, a symbol of a person independently 
facing society, life and the future. Everyone will experience 
this moment, which is a common part of us. 

With the two previous success stories, "Happy Together" is, 
on the surface, the light of the first two series. People have a 
hunting mentality, and the Chinese people seek for 
completion. The previous "Back Wave" and "Into the Sea" 
have already set the atmosphere to the extreme, and as the 
final part of the trilogy, it can be said that "Happy Together" 
itself was released under the attention of all kinds of people. 
Released on June 26th at the 11th anniversary speech of B 
Station, "Happy Together" clearly tells the outside world the 
brand positioning of B Station and shows the core soul of B 
Station - "All the videos you are interested in are at B Station". 
Now B Station has become a pop culture platform that 
aggregates multiple circles of people and multiple 
products/classes of content. 

5. Conclusion 

5.1. Music video publicity should focus on 
authenticity 

In the use of music for brand marketing division should 
focus on the user group, increase the authenticity of the 
content.Music is only a media tool used by enterprises as a 
brand promotion, as a tool, the media should not only assume 
the responsibility of the release channel, but also involves the 
carrying of economic interests, political interests, and 
propaganda role. Therefore, the release of content in the 
media must be after the basic gatekeeper, that is, information 
screening. The screened information should be consistent 
with the corporate brand concept, and the audience. Music 
propaganda is certainly with a strong purpose, because 
propaganda is subjective, exaggerated, variant, sensational, 
the purpose is to fully exploit the human nature. But focus on 
the propaganda effect and completely detached from the 
objective authenticity, will only be sanctioned by the law and 
the market public abandonment. Therefore, enterprises should 
pay attention to the authenticity of the content when 
conducting music publicity and marketing. 

5.2. Music content should be healthy and 
upward, give people the enjoyment of 
beauty  

As a marketing promotional music film, the first content 
should be healthy and positive. Brands in the use of 
promotional films to promote their own ideas, to achieve a 
certain purpose of the enterprise, whether it is to develop the 
market or consolidate the concept of the product should 
strengthen the control of the promotional content. For the B 
station, most of the user groups of the B station are the young 



 

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generation, in addition to the "Generation Z" mentioned in 
this article, there are many minors who have just come into 
contact with the Internet. Although many of them have been 
in contact with the Internet for a long time, they still have a 
curiosity for new things and their self-control is still 
insufficient. The almost unrealistic play method spread by 
"Post Wave" is likely to convey incorrect values to the 
younger generation, and under the influence of factors such 
as the pursuit of trends by the herd, many of them may have 
a higher level of consumer desire, and in order to achieve the 
momentary desire impulse may even go to the road of 
harming society or breaking the law. Therefore, companies 
should fully consider all aspects when collecting promotional 
materials, and the content should be designed on the basis of 
a healthy and positive music film to achieve their goals. 

In addition, most consumers in contact with music films 
and radio music in a relaxed and leisurely state, for example, 
many young people now bath to find the right music, dinner 
to play the next god drama, in fact, are to be able to make 
themselves more relaxed, enjoy it. Therefore, the brand needs 
to convey the brand message in a relaxed and cozy way, that 
is, to bring positive emotional feelings to consumers, so that 
they can get a healthy, happy, leisurely and comfortable 
spiritual experience from it, and then extend this positive 
emotional feeling to the brand's perception. 

5.3. Select appropriate music for the target 
consumers  

Music can quickly capture the user's mind, and ammunition 
focuses on the choice of release time node, so that users can 
form a lasting memory. 

Each music advertisement has its own target audience. The 
audiences for the trilogy of "After the Wave", "Into the Sea" 
and "Happy Together" are all inconsistent. Precise positioning 
of the brand's target audience is conducive to quickly 
capturing the minds of the target customers and making them 
loyal to the brand. Therefore, music advertising must match 
the hobbies and interests of the target audience, i.e. select or 
produce music works according to the music appreciation 
ability and level of the target audience. A variety of 
classifications can be used to summarize a brand's target 
consumer groups, such as gender, age level, educational 
background, income level, occupation type, ethnicity, 
geography, etc. Brands often intersect different classification 
criteria for more detailed classification, and then the precise 
selection of music for advertising is even more important. For 
example, the music that children like is usually simple and 
smooth, with short and crisp syllables and a range within an 
octave, and the lyrics should be written in a childish, simple 
and vivid way, so that children can easily learn to sing them. 
Teenagers like the most popular forms of music in society, 
such as the popular pop, R&B style, as well as the 
representative works of popular pop stars. It is because of the 
trend of domestic pop music that "Milk Tea Yurami" became 

famous at that time. The background music is "Dandelion's 
Promise" from Jay Chou's new album, which is melodious, 
warm and pure, depicting the first love, and with the 
interactive images and sweet confessions of men and women 
in first love in the advertisement, the warm and sweet image 
of Yollof milk tea is effectively conveyed to the target 
audience. It effectively conveys the warm and sweet image of 
Unami milk tea to the target audience of teenagers. For 
women between 20 and 30 years old, we can use music 
describing the sweetness of love, romance and warmth to 
render the theme of the advertisement; while married young 
women or middle-aged women should focus on the music to 
highlight and outline the harmony of family, the liveliness of 
children and the good interaction between husband and wife. 

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