A lot has been researched and written about importance of music in business outlets such as Cafes, Pubs, Hotels, Restaurants, Spas, Gyms, Retail Outlets and even in work places. If you happen to go to a store, pub or cafe where there was no music playing, what was your reaction? Most likely you would have perceived that place as “too quiet ” or even “dead” place.
Many research papers published at various point of time have confirmed that music could influence the duration you stay in side a business establishment, your mood , emotions and hence, buying behavior as well.
Music branding is the approach of using unique, proprietary sound and music to convey a brand’s essence and values. And when used correctly, it can create a visceral connection that other types of branded communication can’t.
For various commercial establishments (cafe , pubs, retail chains etc.) music branding has the ability to:
- Impact purchase behaviors
- Boost brand loyalty
- Connect with customers on an emotional level
- Reinforce brand values and personality
- Increase employee morale and productivity
- Unify multi-unit locations
When music is designed to evoke a brand persona and values, the connection with your audience works at a far deeper and emotional level.
The music creates buzz and excitement beyond your original value proposition and brings additional content for your audience to discover and share. Just as your visual strategy is consistent across all touch points — so should a music strategy be consistent across all “ear points”.
The goal of marketing is for your audience to make both emotional and transactional investments back into your brand. Music provides the value that brands need to connect on an emotional level, turning loyalty into advocacy, as well as differentiating themselves among competitors.
Thus, having right Music Branding for your brand is a intricate process of understanding the brand, its core values and accordingly define the kind of music elements which would go with the brand and will strengthen its equity.
However, unfortunately, many times not enough attention is given to this critical aspect of brand building and to creating an exciting and engaging environment in such business establishments (cafe , hotels, retail chains , spas, gyms etc ). On the pretext of music branding, many entities are licensing the library content played When music is designed to evoke a brand persona and values, the connection with your audience works at a far deeper and emotional level.
The music creates buzz and excitement beyond your original value proposition and brings additional content for your audience to discover and share. Just as your visual strategy is consistent across all touch points — so should a music strategy be consistent across all “ear points”.
The goal of marketing is for your audience to make both emotional and transactional investments back into your brand. Music provides the value that brands need to connect on an emotional level, turning loyalty into advocacy, as well as differentiating themselves among competitors.
Thus, having right Music Branding for your brand is a intricate process of understanding the brand, its core values and accordingly define the kind of music elements which would go with the brand and will strengthen its equity.
However, unfortunately, many times not enough attention is given to this critical aspect of brand building and to creating an exciting and engaging environment in such business establishments (cafe , hotels, retail chains , spas, gyms etc ). On the pretext of music branding, many entities are licensing the library content played based on genre preferences. Just to explain , let us consider two popular retail cafe chains in India – Chaayos and Costa Coffee. Both have very different brand identities. The difference gets reflected in the visual identity, menu, pricing and ambience within and outside outlets. However, when it comes to playing background music in such outlets, the usual players selling license to play music offer same library content to both the outlets. This is not what Music Branding stands for.
Songdew, the leading music network is offering very innovative solution to Music Branding. The platform has more than 35 K musicians /bands from India alone. After getting a brief from the brand, the music specialists in the company carefully create the specific music identity for the brand and then invite thousands of musicians on the site to create music in line with the brief. Thus, for every brand there is completely different playlist created aligned with the specific brand identity and, hence , music branding of the same.
To summarise, music branding holds enormous sway over our perception of a brand, as well as our choice to engage with it. Music branding helps a business or organization differentiate itself from the masses. However, while developing the music branding for your brand, you must give it as much attention as you give to the visual identity of the brand. It is not about simply playing library content in your business outlets.
About The Author: Sunil Khanna is an IIT, IIM alumnus is a media industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in media and entertainment domain.
