Audio Branding is the term given to the marketing art of associating brands, products or companies with music or sound to increase sales.

Its one of subtle aspects of marketing that is often over looked and when got right is deadly effective while be almost unnoticeable. Audio branding can be broadly divided into two area’s – Inclusive and exclusive.

Exclusive Audio Branding is a very unique and interesting execution of a brand strategy. My favorite example would be Aber Crombie and Fitch who’s stores are designed to exclude a large percentage of the population hence prolonging their popularity as an “in” product with a very fickle age cohort. If you walk into the A&F store across from the Trump Tower in New York you are likely to be instantly greeted with 3 sensations.

1. Sight – The First thing your eye’s will see is a ridiculously attractive model – often a male with their top off. Then your eye’s adjust to the fact that it’s very dark akin to a nightclub atmosphere.

2. Sound – Pumped out of every corner is a very loud vocal house music with a touch of electro thrown in. If you not in the cohort that hits the trendiest of clubs that plays this music then you will find this a very surreal and uncomfortable place to be in and look for the door.

3. Smell – The signature A&F aftershave is pumped into the air to make you very aware that this is no ordinary store.

So why would a brand go to such lengths to keep certain customers from buy?

Well actually it makes sense. There is nothing uncooler to the teenage / early twenties age group than a brand leakage that leads to having “older” “uncool” and in general people who don’t fit into their image of the brand. As soon as the 16 year old sees their parent or teacher supporting a brand it takes the brand away from them.

The message is clear, if you don’t like dark atmospheres and very loud night club environments then the A&F brand isn’t for you – please don’t shop here! Counter Intuitive but very very effective. Others thrive on being in the environment and spend even more time in the store & money on the products to become a part of the happy, dancing and attractive image that is A&F

So what is inclusive Audio Branding?

Have you ever wondered how effective music is on making sales? Did you notice that supermarkets play slow mellow music so that you take your time shopping hence increasing your impulse buying and total spend? My favorite example is from Martin Lindstrom:

In one experiment over a two-week period, British researchers played either accordion-heavy French music or a German brass band over the speakers of the wine section inside a large supermarket. On French music days, 77% of consumers bought French wine, whereas on German music days, the vast majority of consumers picked up a German selection. Intriguingly, only one out of the 44 customers who agreed to answer a few questions at the checkout counter mentioned the music as among the reasons they bought the wine they did.

The facts are incredible, people make feeling judgments and their feelings are influenced by things around them.

Is audio branding deceptive or immoral?

No! The idea of influencing a decision is what marketing is all about. We sell not to deceive but to enhance the customer experience. Whether you choose to influence or not with it, sound will influence. Some may say its noise pollution, but i would strongly disagree based on the fact that by having no sound at all this will also effect and influence customer decisions.

In conclusion audio branding is an important part of marketing, to ignore it won’t go away. For those shops / cafes who play a local radio station with no regard to its effects on customers – be it positive or negative there is an effect; worse still the outcome is usually based on a decision made unknowingly. Since there is a profound effect make a conscious decision and consider the auditory marketing as important as any visual marketing aspect.

I read in the papers that The Irish Entrepreneur magazine brought over Times Square resident the Naked Cowboy to launch their “You Can Do Anything” Campaign. Yup that’s just the thing to inspire Irish Entrepreneurs!

Naked Cowboy

I’m not sure if they were trying to get in touch with the previous generation of Entrepreneurs – who maybe able to relate to him because they too lost their shirt in the property deals that they stored their money in. But lets face it the guy can be as rich as he likes – there is no way that standing out in the cold almost naked is an inspiration for anyone over here and quite frankly i’d be more inspired by a picture of a dole cheque!

Shameless effort for publicity and frankly quite embarrassing really for us real entrepreneurs.

What do all these ads have in common?

(Watch the video below before reading on)

Well they’re entertaining and think carefully, can you name all the brands that the ads were meant to sell to you?? Can you even remember half?

By putting the brand at the very end of the ad the point of the ad is wasted because that is the exact time that the viewer has retracted to laugh or think about what they just saw.

So why do big companies, with big budgets so often waste money on a flop campaign?

It comes down to outcomes. The person giving a marketing company a brief will probably stress that they think the ad should be entertaining or reflect the fun persona on the brand – usually a reflection of their own personal persona. His/ her outcome is to be seen as entertaining and funny. Oh and the marketing company should implicitly know that they want to sell stuff too right??

Well the marketing companies outcome is to show the client and other potential clients how funny and smart they really are. Their main objective is to win recognition for their smarts, NOT to make product sales. If they can make an add that wins awards and gets loads of laughs that may bring in new clients. A more mundane ad that preforms is less appealing to them.

It comes down to the companies mission and vision. Stelios’ Easy brand has a mission to put bums on seats, if something doesn’t achieve this goal they simply don’t do it. No matter how entertaining the add is unless its going to make profit – just don’t do it.

Sam Walton was a visionary, He started in business owning a Ben Franklin Five-and-Dime shop and by following his beliefs founded an empire of well over 4000 stores. When he passed away in 1992 the family’s net worth was almost $25 Billion.

Sam had 10 simple rules to business which are very inspiring and helpful to entrepreneurs starting out:

Rule 1: Commit to your business.
Rule 2: Share your profits with all your associates, and treat them as partners.
Rule 3: Motivate your partners.
Rule 4: Communicate everything you possibly can to your partners.
Rule 5: Appreciate everything your associates do for the business.
Rule 6: Celebrate your success.
Rule 7: Listen to everyone in your company and figure out ways to get them talking.
Rule 8: Exceed your customer’s expectations.
Rule 9: Control your expenses better than your competition.
Rule 10: Swim upstream.

During this economic restructuring, these fundamentals apply more than ever as the Celtic Tiger gives way to the celtic cubs, who although not full ready for it are now responsible for taking over the leadership of the pack.

Ireland is still in Major denial about the prices of its commercial property sector. At the moment its sitting on a tipping point and many stand on the knife point blissfully unaware.

This month i’ve been Jaw droppingly shocked at the lack of foresight of people / professionals in the business of commercial property. One actually told me “It’s awful times, I’m basing the price on the mortgage (they took out to buy the unit in 2007), that and my small mark up so i’ve no room to negotiate on price.” The person owns property in an estate that has remained 95% unoccupied for the last 12 months and had been fortunate to have a tenant who is now moving out. Supply in the area has doubled in those 12 months. I know it may not sound like it but these are smart people – they just haven’t seen that supply does not always meet demand at the equilibrium point of their mortgage repayments.

Galway Babe Shared this vid on Boards.ie about actually how much commercial property is sitting in Galway used and with no potential for demand to increase.

The more i research the issue the more 2009 looks to eclipse 2008 for its economic recessionary readjustment. The best advice one can hope to offer is that Market Rates take no consideration of the cost to get things to market in recessions.

Steve Jobs and his Stanford Commencement Speech 2005. His view on college and so much more.

Here’s what i love about this speech. He points out why college isn’t all that and how you can succeed by following what you love. I believe in college but do think you have to be sure your following your own path and not one some education system set out for you – If you follow this path it leads to being an employee and hoping a pension will be your light at the end of a tunnel you don’t own.

Jay Abraham is another of my marketing / Business Hero’s. His method of doing business has created BILLIONS of additional revenue for his clients and, to me, his most important gift is how he simplifies the business process. There’s no rocket science, just well thought out common sense.

In this part of his seminar speech on copy writing he give amazing insight into how he goes about getting to the core of what people really think / want from a product.

As some of you may know i’ve put a complete freeze on TV and Newspapers in my life in the last year due do their negative take on the economy and general non-sense that makes it into the news these days.

I do however keep up to date with the salient points of whats going on through blogs and radio. When i read this take on the recent spin selling done with the Irish pub price freeze from The Irish Sentinel i thought you couldn’t have hit the nail on the head better:

So now when you go to a bar and ask for a pint of tap water with Blackcurrant cordial it’ll cost you the same €2.50 in a year’s time as it does now. A bottle of Stella that you can get for less than a euro in the off-licence will be €5.50 next December and it’s €5.50 now. A tiny measure of gin and a splash of tonic that costs the publican less than €1.50 but is sold for upwards of €7 depending on which bar won’t change in price one little bit. And when you’re in a late bar and the price of the pint goes up after 11pm then up again after midnight you can rest assured the prices will only go up by the same amount for the next 12 months.

I think people will recognise that we’re doing our bit for them and they need to do their bit for us by coming into town earlier and not drinking at home, the ungrateful bastards”.

Thanks to guykawasaki for sharing this on Twitter.

The Japanese Art of Furoshiki. Now i know most of you will agree this a really cool, eco-friendly idea. But for me this feeds my inate lazy nature – one less thing on the shopping list!

Furoshiki gift wrapping from RecycleNow on Vimeo

Author Seth Godin is another one of my hero’s. This Marketing Guru is really intouch with the new age of disruption marketing and offers massive amounts of priceless information and inspiration.

In this talk he discusses why TV advertising is dead and how to really launch a product.

Choose from either player to view clip.

Another Great Talk from TED, also Kudos to BMW for sponsoring such an event and its streams.