We are loyal to music because of how it makes us feel – a brand has the same ambition.

Every time a brand uses music - in marketing, sales or in a PR context, regardless of the music, genre, style, artist, or channel through which it is played, the music is influencing a constituent's perceptions about the brand. It is effectively creating an asset or liability for its overall brand equity. When the ‘Sound of the Brand’™ is carefully and strategically managed and is consistent and relevant to its target customers, it has a positive impact on the equity of the brand.

This article examines how to ensure that music becomes a brand asset not a liability. It assesses how resources are currently allocated to music and explains how music branding, if properly managed and measured, can increase the brand value (emotive and financial)

MEASURING THE "SOUND OF THE BRAND™"

Independent research by Dr Adrian North and Dr Hargreaves at Leicester University has shown that:

"Brands with music that fit their brand identity are 96% more likely to be recalled than those with non-fit music or no music at all”
“Respondents are 24% more likely to buy a product with music that they recall, like, and understand compared with 8% where the opposite applies"

If North and Hargreaves are right, as brand guardians we have a responsibility to understand how to bias the music elements that contribute to a 24% uplift in sales. Today, effective businesses demand that, item-by-item, the values of all dimensions of the assets that they are managing are given a cost and a nominated value to the bottom line. Intangibles such as customer relationships, account for 48% of the ever-growing proportion of corporate values (Price Waterhouse American & A market 2003). Yet 40 years ago, the idea that we would or could put a value on a name, a visual or a relationship was as questionable as implying today that we can put a value on the “Sound of The Brand™".

songseekers estimate that in the UK, somewhere in the region of £40 million is spent a year, on the acquisition of music rights for advertising commercials alone. This figure does not take into account the additional costs of production, manufacturing, or spend on music sponsorships, premiums, events, hospitality etc. Projects are often executed with separate outside agencies, across different territories, with disparate music ideas often decided visibly by the creative intuition of a few and invisibly by costs and availability of tracks, in the last few days of a campaign. As a result, current accounting of music is fragmented, with the net costs of overall music expenditure rarely totalled and the specific contribution to a brand's effectiveness and equity rarely, if ever, calculated.

The ramifications of this are twofold:

i) The role of music and its contribution to the brand equity is misunderstood/unknown.

ii) The overall coherency of the “Sound of the Brand™” is confused and therefore is ineffective at reaching target consumers in a meaningful way

CAN WE ACTUALLY MEASURE THE IMPACT OF MUSIC?

Sarpel Ustinel, Senior Manager at American Appraisal, a company specialising in quantifying the values of intangibles for the balance sheet explains: "There is no simple way to put a price on something that is difficult to put your arms around." Today, the credibility and popularity of Interbrand’s annual Top 100 Brands report and the fact that measuring a brand’s 'intangibles' is now a key part of its overall assessment, shows that not only can it be done, but that it is an intrinsic part of the evaluation of a brand.

As a first step to managing and measuring the value of music (MusicEquity™) it is vital to establish accountability in the system. The brand itself must agree and be able to define its sound and what it stands for in terms of where it belongs in the world of music. All parties who are in the music decision-making process should be able to give the 'elevator pitch' – a detailed understanding that extends beyond " find me a fabulous piece of music" or "something uplifting and anthemic that will appeal to 25-49 year old women", or worse – "how can we become cool - quickly?" Without this in place there is no base line.

A second step is that brands need to understand how customers and the music industry actually hear their brand versus how they as a brand want to sound and determine the gap that needs to be closed. The recent relationship/product placement idea between McDonald's and rap music seems to have run its course. In order to get rappers to promote their burgers in their songs, McDonald's announced in March 2005, that they would pay up to 5$ for every radio play of tracks that included McDonald's in the lyric. McDonald's finally admitted that they have not had to pay out one red cent, let alone 50 to rappers in exchange for a tribute to the Big Mac. "As a PR initiative it was great. It was based on the idea that it would give McDonald's some credibility among the youth market. So while it got them a lot of publicity at the time, it was a bad music strategy because they were never going to be able to follow through." (MediaGuardian 5th Oct 2005)

While brands invest a huge amount of resources on market research, current investigation involving music still just tests lifestyle or what the consumer likes or remembers. Of greater value to a music strategy would be understanding the way consumers hear and process music and how this influences the depth of emotional response to the brand and how that impacts on the music 'stickiness' to the product? By breaking down the research into more relevant elements and designing research that measures the MusicIntelligence™ of the consumer, brands will begin to understand how this can be employed to drive purchase behaviour.

Given that leading Creative Directors believe that music offers the same potential impact as a visual, "Music is up to 50% of a commercial" (John Hegarty of BBH – the man who put the music into Levi's advertising), music should warrant the same level of attention and investment. And if this is the case, then music and those responsible in the process should be able and expected to be as accountable as in all other areas of branding.

The third step is therefore, to introduce methods of evaluation, looking at how music is succeeding or missing the beat. Additional questions aside from creative impact need to be asked around music usage and selection to ensure that it is helping to meet business and marketing goals. Whilst winning awards for creativity is fabulous, selling product is paramount. Every company who considers using music as a part of marketing, however small the usage, should have a documented music strategy that addresses questions such as:

What can music say about our brand?
What music direction will reflect the brands core attributes, positioning and values?
How can music help us reach our target consumers and/or penetrate a new market?
How will the use of music affect the overall value of the brand?
How can we develop a strong sound to our brand that we can leverage in other areas of marketing?

How can/do we manage music acquisition across different geographies? What will be the ROI on music expenditure, what are the measurable benefits? Short, medium and long-term objectives for music and guidelines around usage should be carefully laid out so that everyone involved in the brands marketing knows how to build the ‘Sound of the Brand™’ when opportunities arise.

If brands are to understand the role and impact of music, they will need systems that allow for comparison of costs against market rates, potential savings, process optimisation and best practices. They need to understand how money is allocated to finding and acquiring music properties and who is in charge of the overall process. To begin to measure music intangibles, a brand will require new marketing metrics that align the integrity of the music use with the congruency of the brand values - metrics that look at what, where, when, how and why music is used.

SONIC BRANDING IS A START

Some brands are getting audio recognition by creating sonic logos - melodies that acts as a trigger to link product and name, services, or benefits. Sonic Branding is an area of music analysis that is getting closer to how music can be used as part of the brand identity. It is definitely gaining credibility within the branding community with the growing belief that “sonic branding used to be a luxury, but now it is a necessity" (Rita Clifton Chairman of Interbrand). But where current sonic branding practices are still lacking, is that almost all the focus is on the creative execution and adaptation of one sound.

Intel™ has to have one of the most famous of all contemporary sonic logos. In 1994, when it first launched its Pentium Chip, Intel™ provided the public with a new melody. "We wanted to create a brand around processors, because there hadn't been one before," explains David Mitchell, Intel's head of advertising for Europe. "As PCs went into the mainstream market in the 1990s, we stopped being a company that talked to engineers about technology and became a company that talked to consumers about a brand." Intel wanted their logo to convey brand values of safety and technology. "Whether you can imply that from five notes, I'm not sure," concedes Mitchell, "but it certainly acts as a trigger."

Although most people would not be able to describe the function of a Pentium Chip, or even differentiate an Intel™ logo, they would know the tune and recognise that it belongs to Intel. "An Intel™ commercial is heard somewhere in world every 5 minutes on a radio or TV commercial." (Arts.telgraph 29/12/04). At anything from £10,000 -£50,000 per spot, the financial investment for the brand to get this level of consciousness is enormous in relation to the cost of the creation and production of those few notes. Is it value for money? Imagine this logo on call holding. The challenge for any brand is that a sonic logo in isolation is very limited in its application. It is really only a syllable in the whole language of the 'Sound of the Brand™'.

A brand that has got closer to understanding the ‘Sound of the Brand’™ is Starbucks, who effectively have no TV, Cinema or Radio advertising to steer the process. With no sonic logo or catchy jingle to rely on, Starbucks took an entirely different route. This is a company that evidently not only understands its target market, but also is listening to what they are saying. Starbucks is the friend who understands us and totally appreciates our 'coffee moments'. Confident that they consistently delivered high quality product they looked to add another dimension to a cup of coffee. Initially the shops felt like a friend's lounge, comfortable sofas, Internet hotspots, somewhere to shelter out of the rain for as long as you liked. Music was gently added to the mix. Not just the favourite music of the individual shop manager, but specific music chosen to enhance the atmosphere, with acoustic architecture supporting the experience, so that it was never too loud or soft. The sound strategy was designed as an acoustic experience that would reinforce the very essence of Starbuck's values and branding. How often have we heard 'I wish that I could package that atmosphere and take it home?' Starbucks did just that - on a CD. Just like their coffee, the CD added value with its high quality content and its unique availability to Starbucks' customers.

Extending the brand experience is when brands can get customers to think and respond to them outside of active marketing. Psychologists call this emotional anchoring, which is particularly effective with music. Every time customers play one of the CDs purchased at Starbucks, they will be enjoying that great coffee moment once again. The real stroke of genius is that Starbucks have not only have created an out of store experience but an additional revenue stream which goes straight to their bottom line.

How dissimilar is having a music strategy from Sonic Branding? The process is as different as what goes on in the Planning Department to what happens in the Editing Suite. Yet music strategy and execution should be intrinsically connected. A music strategy should embrace all the ways sound emotionally engages or could tactically reach a consumer and the feasibility of the execution.

Music is a powerful marketing tool that not only has the ability to add credibility to the brand by building on an emotional relationship with a consumer, but also has a measurable value. Imagine the time when the CMO can justify to the CFO the value and worth of music. Then music will be not regarded as an expensive indulgence, but will actually be easier for planning, production and marketing teams to justify their budget requirements. Those who handle and are responsible for music should welcome the opportunity to have their abilities, strengths and practices evaluated; it is the only way that brands will get a true music score. For music is to play a real role in the brand's equity we shouldn’t be afraid to reconcile the brand's bottom line with music top lines.

Contributors
Ruth Simmons and Rachel Simmons

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Ruth Simmons is Managing Director of songseekers, a dedicated music consultancy. She is a Fellow of the RSA and is a regular commentator on music and music related marketing.
Rachel Simmons is a brand strategist and her mother's most supportive critic.

© Ruth Simmons August 2005