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 brand building efforts and how bands collaborate with brands.
This column (no. 4) was published in issue #12 Oct 10th, 2010 and focuses on how brands are using music and to what extent they are dedicating the resources to make it a success. Please find links to the first three columns at the bottom.
In the previous column (issue 11 of the magazine), we concluded that there are almost endless possibilities for brands to use music. To that end, it's critical for those brands, who do use music, to do so in a systematic way that is on-brand and to describe this in precise terms in a music strategy. And we established that brands as a minimum must define their music profile - step 2 on the music staircase (see column 1).
So ein music ding müssen wir auch haben
Music and branding is nothing new. Lots of brands have used music as branding tool for decades, and with great pleasure. The last 10 years the trend has been on a sharp rise due to the 'so ein ding müssen wir auch haben' syndrome ('we need one of those').
The fact is, brands love music just as much as their consumers and think it's really cool.
But how seriously are they taking it? Do they dedicate the thinking, time, resources and boldness? Are they interested in taking a bigger, more strategic step? Or put in another way: Are they putting enough energy into maintaining the love?
Let's turn to a study done in 2008 by the bright folks at Heartbeats International. This study shows that there's a big difference between the importance that brands attach to music and the level of resources they put into it. Let's take a closer look.
Where should the finger be pointing?
In 2008 Heartbeats Intl asked roughly 70 of the biggest B2C brands in the US and Europe: What's your view on music as brand building tool; how relevant is music to your brand; how do you use it; and how will you be using it in the future?' The study shows that:
- 97% believe that music can strengthen their brand
- 76% are actively working with music
- 68% believe that music is important to build a unique and consistent brand, also in future.
- 7 out of 10 brands spend less than 5% of the marketing budget on music
- 4 out of 10 brands have defined a music profile
- 2 out of 10 have a sound logo.
Because money isn't enough. There has to be people in the organization to manage a music strategy. People with the right skills to carry it out or manage an agency who does it; who are placed close to where the decisions are made; are part of the brand team; and who have music and brand building as part of their job description and KPIs.
So really, where should the finger be pointing when the marketing director states that 'our music strategy has failed, we're getting no ROI, we're dropping it'. That's right, you have to give something to gain something.
Lack of commercial focus
Seemingly forgetting that brands must be prepared for dedicating resources in several ways to the project and over a longer period of time, means that they miss out on the benefits of strategic use of music.
And this might well be the reason why we see so much tactical and short-term oriented use of music.
Thus, it isn't surprising that Heartbeats Intl's study shows that the brands here use music primarily as complementary marcoms element:
The majority use music in TV ads, followed by music on website. On the 3rd place we find music in stores and showrooms, and only on the 4th place we have artist sponsorship/collaboration. Then follow events, radio spots, music products (promo CDs, ring tones) and coming in last is sound logo. It's worth mentioning that sound logo has gained significantly since 2008 but the others are more or less static.
The study also asked the 70 brands in what way music is important. And reveals that the majority (68%) believe that music is important for brand image and differentiation purposes. Only 20% mention customer loyalty and a measly 12% mention sales. Obviously, if there isn't a clear commercial objective with the marketing efforts incl music marketing efforts, then it's pretty darn difficult to advocate.
Altogether we can conclude that there's quite a bit of road to be traveled before we get to a systematic, useful and sustainable approach to using music.
But in many way this is the wonderful thing about it - there is so much potential still in the relationship between brands and music. It just requires awareness and a dedicated effort to be part of it. Or as the Beatles so simply put it in 1969: 'And in the end, the love you take / is equal to the love you make'.
Next time we'll look at some of the concrete barriers that brands experience as fas as working strategically with music is concerned.
Previous columns:
Music and Branding #1
Music and Branding #2
Music and Branding #3
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