together is the rela- tionship to fans. Elvis definitely has that deep emotional connection with his fans, as do other bands described in this book. Retailers and product marketers continue to search for new ways to break the ice with customers and reward their loyalty, whether by frequent shop- per discounts and loyalty cards or special sales and events held only for top customers, all designs to create connections with customers, capturing their loyalty and dollars. Customer relationship manage- ment (CRM) software, all the rage among marketers, helps identify behaviors of the most profitable customers and encourage those behaviors among other segments of the customer base. It helps mar- keters cross-sell other products to loyal customers and increase the productivity of marketing resources. However, CRM can only guide strategies and tactics to develop profitable customer relationships. The human, emotional side of relationship building and connection goes beyond even the best computer software. Scott Elias, founder of New Yorks Elias Associates, a firm heavily involved in music-partnered commercials, explains, "Classic rock has been effective because its nostalgia, something people know and     love."2His analysis indicates that about 75 to 80 percent of national television ads now add music to the ads, compared to only 25 percent just a few years ago. Compared to words in the content of an ad, Elias states, "Music is more primal, and is the most effective emotional communicator. You can communicate with smells, words, and pic- tures, but the most direct and powerful is music and thats why its the universal language."     Making Connections with Music   Central and peripheral processing of messages, the focus of much research in consumer behavior, explain how music affects the per- sonality of a brand. When direct claims are made about a product and its attributes-the brand promise-they are processed cogni- tively by the consumer. Consumers understand what the brand claims to be and evaluate it using their reasoning abilities. Peripheral processing involves cues that the consumer doesnt usually think about-things such as background music, the color of the ad, feel- ings toward the actors, and other elements that pass into the brain without thinking about them, passing into the consumers memory without the filter of conscious thought. Music is one of the most powerful of the peripheral cues, going directly into the brain, and