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The Power of Music

An 'au revoir' to my mother-in-law

In Audio Branding I suggest that companies of all sizes should use sound as third branding dimension, in addition to traditional visual and verbal identities. The sound dimension can take the form of a simple jingle (e.g. Intel) or of a more complete/complex musical composition. I think it can be very powerful if correctly designed and executed.

Today I had a personal and enlightening experience of the power of music. My mother-in-law passed away last night in her sleep and, while my wife and her brother were driving to her home, I composed a short email to all friends & family. I was OK until I started to write about our common passion for 1940s’ jazz bands, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and so on, while listening to that music on iTunes. At that point, tears came to my eyes and I couldn’t see my keyboard’s keys anymore. Wow! And one of my good friends wrote back immediately to tell me that he was greatly touched by my mentioning of Glenn Miller and of VE Day. 

Well-known scientists such as Don Norman have recently understood how important emotions are to everyday life and to the design of products and services. Shouldn’t businesses follow suit and use music as differentiating factor in branding (beyond playing anything but Vivaldi’s Four Seasons on their telephone system) and as a powerful way to ‘connect’ with their customers?

Posted on Tuesday, May 9, 2006 at 10:20PM by Registered CommenterHenri Aebischer | CommentsPost a Comment

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