Music and Branding #2

This is a translation of the column I'm writing for Danish industry publication Markedsføring (Marketing).

Music and Branding deals with the trinity of brands, bands, and fans. It looks at how brands use (or don't use) music as part of their branding and marketing efforts and how bands collaborate with brands. Some do it well, others badly. Others just really boring. It also looks at new ways and models for collaboration.

This column (no. 2) was published in issue #9 August 24th, 2010 and focuses on the importance of taking an informed stand on music and branding, even if it means choosing not to include music as part of the brand strategy (and column no 1 is here).

In issue 7, I introduced 'the music staircase' from Swedish Heartbeats Intl - we resist the temptation of calling it stairway to heaven. It's a simple model used to assess how sophisticated a given brand is in terms of working with music as part of its strategy. On the first step, music is used unconsciously and entirely ad hoc. On the final step, music is an integrated part of the brand strategy.
But why is it so important for brands to deal with and have a clear view on music?

Music appears to be more important than sex

In 2008, the research agency Millward Brown et al conducted a study of the relationship between music, advertising, brands, and consumers, "Bands & Brands, How Music Communicates With People". The study shows that:

• Our consumption of music has never been greater. Music has become ubiquitous.
• Music is something all of us love or like a lot. No one dislikes music.
• Our senses, brain, and body is influenced by music. Music can influence the beating of the heart and our emotions.
• Music can communicate atmosphere and 'transport' us to places, we've been, and to moments in our lives.
• 60% listen to music every day.
• 61% say that music changes their physical wellbeing.
• 85% say that music changes their mood.
• Music is the thing most people won't live without. Music beats computer, mobile phone, TV, and even sex.

If this isn't enough reason to consider music as a fixed component in the brand strategy, then this might help: A study by professor in music psychology Adrian North and professor in psychology David Hargreaves shows that brands using music that match their identity have 96% greater recall than brands with mis-matching or no music.

Tired of ads, not of music

Are you still doubtful, consider this: Tens of thousands of brands are launched every year and only few last. We are exposed to an increasing amount of messages each day, let's say 5,000. We remember 10% of these at the most, compared to 33% 50 years ago. In fact, we are so cleverly designed that the more ads we're exposed to, the fewer we remember.

Not so with music.The more music available to us, the more we engage in it. Today, an iPod can host 40,000 songs compared to the few tunes we might be lucky to hear through a lifetime 100 years ago. According to the Millward Brown study, today we consume music through on average 6 different devices, from the TV to the mobile. We never get tired of music, perhaps not counting the neighbor's party on a week night.

People create music, music create people

We don't get tired of music because it arouses emotions and influences our physical feelings. Human beings are born with rhythm and music in our bodies. Scientific research has shown that out of the 5 senses, hearing is developed first in the fetus. Already by the 18. week the fetus is able to hear the heartbeat of the mother.

Music follows us through life and plays a role at all big events and milestones. In many cultures, music is used to awaken the gods and the forces of nature. Music is an element is us human beings.

We use music actively to get in a certain mood. We use music to express our choices, identity, and own personal brand. Music creates energy and on a group level it engages people across age, gender, and culture and encourages social action, interaction, and transaction. Just have a look at the programme on national TV DR2 'Songs that Changed the World'.  

Does this sound familiar? Isn't all of this exactly what us marketing folks are so keen to achieve with the brands we manage on behalf of the shareholders and consumers? Maybe not change the world, but then change at least the individual consumer's world in a big or small but certainly positive way? If not, then what's our reason for doing what we do?

This is why it's so important that brands find out how they should associate themselves with music. Not all brands need to or ought to get all the way to the final step of the music staircase. But all brands need to - as a minimum - develop a conscious and well-informed view on and a systematic approach to the use of music. Also if this means choosing not to use music at all.