Hear How Brands Are Shaping Up From Being Musically Fit

Think of your favorite song. Now think about how it makes you feel when you listen to it. Undoubtedly, the uniquely arranged rhythmic sounds that form your favorite musical selection triggers some type of emotion or even a range of emotions. In this instance, I am hoping the aroused feelings are positive ones because after all, you are thinking about how your favorite song makes you feel when you hear it (smile). Can you see how sounds (now isn’t that an oxymoron), particularly ones that have been merged to produce tuneful audible expressions (aka music) has the remarkable ability to elicit emotions, feelings and thoughts? If not, no worries, just keep reading.

Just how I hoped you witness music’s remarkable ability to be a powerful stimulus for emotional response, a growing number of marcom practitioners and organizations are recognizing and understanding its influential capabilities. And they are finding innovative ways to incorporate musical sounds into their integrated marketing communications strategy to enhance their brand identity through a method known as sonic branding, music marketing, audio branding and various other terms to achieve favorable results. Hear 3 great ways how brands are benefiting from getting into shape by being musically fit. So, here it goes:

1.Google Connects Emotionally

How:Google’s Year in Searchcommercials takes viewers on the exploratory journey of the defining moments that shaped the year. This is wonderfully done in 2017 through the strategic arrangement and combination of visual elements with the moving song, “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles. It stimulates heart-felt emotions while showcasing the search engine’s impact and abilities.

 Listen Here:https://youtu.be/vI4LHl4yFuo

2.Harley-Davidson Reinforces Brand Values

How: Harley-Davidson’s brand-artist collaboration with rocker, Elle King, reinforces the brand’s core value of freedom for self-expression by no one else’s rules but your own with the rockin’ musical score, “Baby Outlaw”. The song’s strong rugged sound aligns perfectly with the brand’s iconic personality and identity of being a freedom fighter or rebel. It also emphasizes the brand experience existing customers enjoy while also appealing to more youthful and diverse audiences to attract and cultivate the next generation of freedom riders.

Listen Here:https://ispot.tv/a/dKib

3.Gatorade Repositions Brand

How: Gatorade found its musical fit in a partnership with David Banner, Grammy Award-winning music producer and recording artist (also a philanthropist and actor) to launch its extended brand, G Series. This music-brand collaboration resulted in the original brand song, “Gatorade has Evolved”, which became the featured background music in Gatorade commercials for G Series.

Listen Here:https://youtu.be/m0oRIthe2LA

Google, Harley-Davidson, and Gatorade are just a few examples of how musical sounds are finding spots in brands’ marketing mix to leverage consumers’ affinity for music. This is happening in notable ways to influence a range of consumer behaviors by building emotional connections, reinforcing brand values and helping brands to reposition themselves.

Hopefully, this provides some valuable insight as we prepare our integrated marketing communication strategies for our team’s brand. And if you haven’t already, maybe you will consider how adding sonic branding to your strategy can get your brand into better shape by being musically fit.

References

A Banner Vision. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.abannervision.com/#!projects/project8.html

Ballouli, K. and Heere B. (2013). Sonic branding in sport: A model for communicating brand identity through musical fit. Sport Management Review, 18, 321 – 330.

Beverland, M., Lim, E. A. C., Morrison, M., and Terziovski, M. (2006). Journal of Business Research, 59, 982 – 989.

Google. (2018). Retrieved from https://youtu.be/vI4LHl4yFuo

Gustafasson, C. (2015). Sonic branding: A consumer-oriented literature review. Journal of Brand Management, 22(1), 20 – 37.

iSpot TV. (2018). Retrieved from https://ispot.tv/a/dKib