Most major brand owners aren't strangers in the use of music. In fact, name me one TV ad that doesn't use a music soundtrack. See what I mean?
Music in this context is used to help achieve attention, interest, desire and action.
But the use of sound in a branding context is something different and admittedly not that well understood by the vast majority of brand marketers.
However, all that's set to change in the wake of this latest adventure in brandcasting.
InterContinental -- owner of the Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, Crowne Plaza and Indigo brands -- has just announced it's about to embark on a "global acoustic programme" that will be rolled out across its vast hotel and resorts empire.
The key difference between this and the use of music in advertising is that InterContinental wants to create interest in its hotel and leisure brands rather than in the music per se.
In other words, InterContinental isn't trying to discover the next Babylon Zoo, a band made famous as a result of its 'Spaceman' track used in the Levis 501 TV commercials in the 90s.
Research by InterContinental shows that if you're a frequent business traveller, it's the differences at the margin that make a huge difference between staying at one hotel compared with another.
This perspective also holds true in other markets where product differentiation has all but evaporated as products and services become homogenised.
In an interview with Time magazine earlier this year, Andy Cosslett, CEO of InterContinental, hit it on the head when he remarked: "You have to sort of deconsolidate, strip down all the things we do in hotels and go and ask why. Why do we do that? Why do we play the 'Girl from Ipanema' when no one in the bar is over the age of 40? Why do we have to tow that pianist out?"
It's true to say that InterContinental has had a bumpy ride of late in the highly competitive hotel and leisure market, but the outlook for future growth of the group is very positive and it's this that's driving InterContinental to reconsider the whole "brand experience" that it's delivering to millions of customers around the world.
InterContinental has chosen to work with UK-based , which specialises in combining the disciplines of corporate analysis, marketing, sonic relevance and musicology to create a sound strategy that's unique for the brand owner.
"InterContinental's commitment to the project has been extremely solid and over a period of time it'll expect to see some tangible results. The sound architecture is already under construction and will be ready for roll out in 2008," explains Michael Spencer, managing director of Sound Strategies, although he's not giving the game away in terms of what customers are likely to hear in the hotel lobby or in the washrooms.
Well, not yet anyway.
As part of the research programme, Sound Strategies has run a test which it developed from its work with brand teams across other industry sectors.
Spencer observes: "It involves identifying the brand from its associated music alone and the TV and radio commercials from which it's taken are usually considered the best of all time for their use of music.
"Interestingly, the average recognition of a brand from its music is around 5/40 with the highest score normally around 9/40. In one workshop, a creative director didn't even recall the music from his own TV commercial!"
Clearly, InterContinental will want to avoid such poor results and will expect a much higher prompted and unprompted recall from its target market and customer segments in terms of the sound or music that it uses in its business.
Spencer warns: "The sound or music must be integral to the brand and not just an add-on or dressing."
If this can be achieved, then there's evidence it can lift the human spirit, change mood, cause closer association with the brand and reinforce the messages delivered in words as well as in pictures.
This may sound like an over-claim but as a result of advances in neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology, researchers are fast understanding how music can create or affect mood, how it acts upon the memory, and quite simply how it can make you feel good.
So where does this latest adventure in brandcasting leave sponsors?
Given that music is used across a range of sponsorship activation -- not just in advertising but in exhibitions, on websites, in podcasts, in telecommunications, in-stores and other public areas -- sponsors must now consider their sound strategies much more carefully rather than relying on a catchy pop tune that doesn't actually say much about the brand or aid long-term recall and memorability.
Instead, sponsors must consider their sonic footprint among the audiences that they seek to connect with.