Is music an essential part of any brands DNA? I Part 1

Below you will find part one of an excellent interview with in-depth insight, between the brand associations, image & strategic brand comms expert Martin Dorn, Global Director / COO of M7, and Graham Hales, CEO of Interbrand. Here they ponder this question and explain why they think things may change in future. An interesting read for anyone involved in brand innovation, strategy & positioning.

Martin Dorn (MD): Graham, as the CEO of Interbrand, the world's leading brand consulting agency, with a who’s who client list from BMW, Barclays, and MC Donald's to Thomson Reuters, Post-it, and Samsung, to name just a few, how could music play a part for more innovative brand strategy and positioning in the future?

Graham Hales (GH): If I think about where we are as a business 14 years ago and the way that we tried to bring brands to life it is incredible one-dimensional compared to how we are able to bring brands to life now. The world was clearly multi-sensory but the opportunities for us to execute brands were much more one-dimensional and we've just thought about it in much more one-dimensional ways. There was always the objective that brands come to life and that brand strategy should be evident through visual identity. If I go back 14 years ago we didn't even have a verbal team so we'd be considering brand strategy and identity but really coming up with graphic elements that felt that they typified the brand. We didn't go in the range of applications that we would these days. At those points the web was in its infancy so brands didn't have the opportunity to have the dialogues that they do through social media these days. So the last 14 years has been a constant so sort of stream of how we add more to the brand so the brand can come to life in more ways and one would hope if those ways are executed from the strategic perspective then the brand becomes more consistent and more cohesive as it arrives in its market places.

I think music is fundamentally one of those. We had a go with sonic branding probably about six years ago and it just wasn't very convincing. I think we struggled massively with an articulation of this is the brief of what we want to communicate through sonic branding and this is the answer sonically.  I think we found it very hard and at that point it was slightly unproven so we had things like T-Mobile just coming onto the market place and I think people could say that there was an identifiable role through their sonic messages but how were they communicating it against the brand strategy.

I think now the whole world is becoming much more multi-sensory and the opportunities are definitive there for brands not just to use a sonic piece or a musical piece to identify themselves but also to correct the rights of music because I think people's knowledge and the delicacy of what the brand is trying to communicate has got much more sophisticated.

MD: Interesting. I would like to add something here. The personality psychologist Raymond Catell remarked, "so powerful is the effect of music, that one is surprised to find in the history of psychology so little reference to the use of music."

There is no question about that brands spent huge budgets and energies on comprehensive research, marketing strategies, and advertising campaigns, so why are so many brands still reactive in their choice and usage of music?

GH: I think this is a) to be recognised brand's multi sensory or they have the opportunity to communicate in the multi sensory fashion. If I look at our client base. And our clients are probably more comfortable strategically because they are marketers. We will often find that when we take a brand program from strategic work into visual work it becomes a more difficult area for the client to be able to provide a commentary and a degree of context to the work that is more valuable.

If you take a businessperson who has got up to a board level position they are great at their business contribution but branding could feel like it is something really important but actually quite difficult to provide useful comments on. The marriage that you get by introducing verbal identity alongside visual identity really helps them get it because they can see the words and they can see the translation those words into visual form. I think music has got the opportunity to do exactly the same thing where we now getting much better at this is how we want to define the brand. Therefore, this execution is what should suit that brand, does this peace of music say, illustrate those words to you, do you feel in that way about those pieces of music, and I think this is sort of where we will need to help them with that translation.

I often use the metaphor when we're showing visual work to organisations where they are not used to see visual work it's a bit like playing classical music to some for the first time. You know whether you like or you don't like it but you don't know how to describe it there is a language around classical music which is quiet foreign and quiet alien -literally many of the words used to describe classical music could be Italian or could be French it's not as if you are talking in your first language anymore and I think this starts to illustrate some of the reasons why brands has been slow to engage which these things, they want to be 360 degree, they want to be multi dimensional, it's just the actual people  who are in control of the brands are not necessarily the best people to buy the services  that could relate to music.

MD: So would you agree to suggest that at the moment the choice and usage of music often is in the hands of agencies or actually the people in charge of the account with the biggest iPod collection instead of strategising and developing the overall musical identity of a brand.

GH:  I do agree, yes. I think part of the difficulty is like with visual work we are trying to say people, look, don't think whether you like it or not, think about whether its right strategically, that will give us much better comments.

I think somewhere music has suffered from the subjectivity of "do I like it, or not" or do I trust the person whose presenting it to me to make the right judgments for me, are they using the right commentary around it, is there use of the right words that this piece of music is appropriate for the brand, I am going to believe it, rather than think about that piece of music within a context of itself.

I think part of it is just that we are not fluent enough in music; we are not great at describing music. I think peoples repertoire of music and musical understanding is often too small as well. 

So people can like a band that is middle of the road and just completely shun things that are outside that particular vein of music that might have their preference but actually that makes them very shallow when it comes to receiving music which is more alien or foreign to them and particular once you are start to pick up the global context to this it will be enormously difficult to handle the brand without the right team with the necessary experienced musical instincts for better and consistent brand communications. It's tough.

MD: So could we say that those brands that really invest the time and resources to understand all aspects of the "sound of their brand" and the whole language of music, will communicate in an unmistakable voice with their audience. Awareness and impact will increase because music usage will be strategic not opportunistic?

GH: Yes! They have a much better opportunity to get it right, so the logic is that the more a brand educates itself on how to do something right, the more information it gives itself, the more objectives its decision making will become the better chance to got that right, certainly. 

MD: Do you consider then that developing a brand's musical identity and a music policy that defines, shapes for all who wants to use music would help to add a dimension into their branding?

GH: Quiet possibly, yes. I mean, if we go back to the social media metaphor, where brands are now able to have conversations with their audiences. The more ways a brand can come to life the more evident it becomes to its people, the more real it becomes for people. Music is another element, an important element. We are experiencing brands through sight, hearings, smell, and dialogue. All of the senses are hit by the brand. Music is definitely a powerful one.

MD: To spin that further, if by definition, communities are made up of people who share values and if music embodies values then music communities are made up of people who share values. Is it true then, when a brand uses a style of a music that a potential brand community could wait? That connecting the brand to a particular music genre opposed to a particular music act is a key for driving the musical identity.

GH: I think this is very interesting and quite possible.

I think part of the difficulty is that music and music styles have segmented markets, so if I was to illustrate the point. If you take a band like Coldplay, which is very middle of the road, very easy for middle aged people from middle demographic background to like and enjoy but is very insipid for another community that would want some much rawer much edgier so one can kind of see that's actually quiet difficult for a brand to cross multiple segments without some sort of strategically direction of the musical execution. Music is always going to risk it appealing to the lowest common denominator rather than really hitting the spot and think this is a particular challenge within music driven identity.

MD: The essence of the music itself then, its integrity and what it says and what it means that should be or could become a priority in brand communications?

GH: Well, I think there are huge opportunities attached to it. I think its language is hard to get right given the diversity of music opinion, but, again, if brands gets brave about who they're for and who they're not for you can see that the opportunities are clear there. For example for smaller brands, niche brands, luxury brands, automotive brands, airlines, telecommunications. Perhaps the challenges even greater for multi-group brands, which just aim for broader market places.

MD: Have brands to be able to measure the role of the music, the influence of the cultural differences, both on the commercial front and consumer facing? And how all these affect their ROI?

GH: Brands can certainly measure that. You could certainly foresee that some of the core sonic logos that are out there have got a role played within the identification of that brand and that repetition has provided some degree of value back to the brand, so certainly if you go through some of the brand strength score mechanisms you could feel quite comfortable that music has a role to play within that brand strength score mechanism so therefore music has a value to deliver back to the brand.

MD: So would you say that an implementation of a music branding strategy within the context of brand strategy could boost the overall brand strength? And that this focus is preferable adaptable - given segmentation - by luxury brands (fashion, cosmetics, lifestyle) like Burberry or Prada, and any kind of niche brands, operating in exclusive markets, for example AMG-Mercedes, Bugatti, RR or Breitling?

GH: Without having thought about a lot, I would imagine that is the case, because if you bare in mind that point we are made before that music is appealing to particular segments the clearer you can be about the segment you're aiming at, the easier it is to create that piece of music that you think that segment is going to appreciate or at least have the style of that segment will. Now, music like everything else within society, we’re also living in a dynamic environment so something which feels appropriate in that moment might not feel appropriate in three four years time you need to move with the pace of the society, which again creates another issue within the identity. If you think about T-Mobile again because it is a relatively simple piece of music, it doesn't have to live within a particular moment of time, but it also means that nobody really gonna to like it that much, you know, there is nothing to like about. It's just a sound signal. Martin, is that music?  Or is that just a ta ta ta?

MD: This is called a "brand sound", like Intel carries one, or Audi uses it, with a sort of heartbeat sound at the end of its TV advertising spots.  But it is not really how the brand sounds.

GH: Yes. Right.

MD: That is exactly the difference of taking an appropriate strategised approach by developing the musical identity of a brand, which then can become part of the brand's DNA. Having cleared that, music will be used strategically and will be no longer left out within brand strategy.

This is exactly where the management, communications and marketing departments are struggling with and by that they are loosing vast opportunities for all the brand communication touch points to let music help to shape their brands perception in the most powerful way.

This goes far above creating dialogue, it is about creating emotional connection, contentment, compassion and belonging. Music is the only tool to transcend time and space and to bring back memories.

So how does the brand's musical identity sounds?

How does Apple, Burberry, Audi, Virgin Galactic or D&G really sound? I have only one "brand" in my mind which created a musical identity, employed a music branding strategy and created its entire identity around it: the church. You hear one tone of an organ or one voice of a Bach choral and you think immediately on the church. There is no way you couldn't. They own that piece of musical identity forever. It is part of their DNA now.

GH: Fascinating stuff. I think there is probably a metaphor as well. If you look at music for films. Okay, so films have got their hour and a half or their two hours but you can see that film scores are able to feed particular appropriate to the mood that a film is trying to create, right from the opening sequence you get a feeling of what this film is all about, maybe this finds an interesting metaphor for brands and how they want to set the right emotion around themselves. If you can do it within film, and if you think of the power of. Those brands have around themselves, advertising being like small films and small snapshots of emotions that the brand likes to create around itself.

Yes, there is logically a bigger role for music in the future.

MD: Do you reward Levis back in the days? Can you recall that as well? Would you suggest that this is a good example for niche or fashion label targeting a specific group with that particular kind of music?

GH: Yes, to a degree. The music absolutely hit the Zeitgeist of that time. There was a fashion attached to this and clearly that worked for that particular period of time and the 501 add had that six months life-cycle its set Levis of a course it could exploit for the next three years or so but thereafter ending up loosing its way again. So, I think it's interesting that you can get piece of music that absolutely hit that moment in time

MD: ... And survives even that time. 

GH: Yes.

MD: I mean the product ended... but the perception and association of Levis lived on.

GH:  Right, the advertising is still famous because of it. To a degree, one could almost comment that the brand became so iconic within that particular moment for society that society moved on but the brand got stuck in that moment in time.

MD: So music was the ultimate tool to that time for to accomplish it? And would you suspect the build up of that "iconic" situation to be failed without having the right music strategy involved?

GH: Possibly, possibly, yes. If you didn't have that piece of music with that commercial could it have worked? No.

To carry on for the second piece of this interview plese click here