Rob Walker - 05/24/2007

Music Is Critical To Your Brand
You’re in a suburban shopping mall.  The sounds of Gwen Stefani pulse through the trendy fashion retailer, energizing both customers and staff.  This particular song seems to resonate well with the customers—as they scour the racks for the latest fashions, you see their tapping toes and lips moving in sync with the lyrics.  You can’t help but notice how the music reinforces the mood of the brand while entertaining the customers.  And it’s no surprise.  According to Martin Lindstrom and market research firm Millward Brown, “sound has a 41% influence on how people perceive brands.” ¹

Your own experience probably confirms the following: the majority of the national retail and restaurant chains provide music services to their retail locations.  One of the most important reasons is to create a connection between the brand and the customer, using music as an enhancement to the overall brand.  Another critical reason includes the belief that the right music keeps shoppers in the retail space longer, resulting in increased sales.

Who Is Behind All This?
Music service providers are behind this added value inasmuch as they offer abundant music content, the appropriate licensing to play the music, and the technical and creative expertise to deliver the music.  These providers typically have dedicated staff that work with retailers to select the appropriate music for their brands based on a number of factors.  It’s what’s behind the music services provider that makes them different.  How does a retailer determine the appropriate music-services provider with whom to partner?

If They Can’t Brand Themselves, Don’t Expect Any Better For You
As a veteran of this industry for over 15 years, I have heard from several buyers of music services that when pitching services, “a lot of companies say the same thing.”  Most companies speak about custom music, but feel perfectly comfortable repurposing an existing program used by another client.  Most claim to have music experts on staff, yet these hourly employees are nowhere near any trend-setting music hotspots.  Most of the national music providers have access to the same list of songs as the others.  Each has access to the same sound equipment, the same technicians, and pay the same music licensing fees for the use of the content. Given these realities, and even despite their best efforts, most of these companies have not articulated their true differentiating attribute.  Mergers between music services providers only lend further credence to the lack of difference between them.

When a retailer seeks a music services provider, it becomes immediately and abundantly clear that the above makes this a daunting task.  These companies are selling a service that provides a commodity—such as the aforementioned Gwen Stefani track—which when played is supposed to create a unique brand experience for the retailer and their customers.  Ironically, the majority of the music services companies promote services they claim will create brand differentiation—yet they themselves have difficulty articulating how they differentiate their own services.  This is like trusting a fashion expert who is horribly dressed.

If You Want To Differentiate Your Brand, Work With Someone Who Can Differentiate Theirs
“Far too many b-to-b companies continue to stake their brands to entry-level attributes,” explains Mike Stefaniakis in a recent issue of B to B magazine.  Differentiation is difficult especially when a company provides a strikingly similar service to its competition.  “Would a b-to-b giant such as United Parcel Services settle for a tagline like ‘package delivery’?” ²  Many music services companies confuse product differentiation with offering expected traits such as “exceptional service” or “massive music libraries.” These are not a form of differentiation but simply basic requirements.  To be successful, these music service providers must determine one differentiating factor that separates them from the competition. 

Once a company identifies that single differentiating factor, it must be able to articulate its brand promise.  As discussed in a recent article by Lois Boyle, “The Brand Experience,” the brand promise is easily formulated by filling in the following:

Only [insert company] offers [insert benefit] to [insert target customer]. ³

Service providers in this industry have an arduous time completing this sentence, as their offering or benefit is not clearly defined.  Further, most of these companies attempt to be all things to everybody, clouding the focus of core competencies.  This inability to articulate clearly the points of differentiation creates a marketplace riddled with confusion, especially in an industry that is experiencing the addition of multiple new entrants trying to capture much of the same business.

If They Won’t Create Differentiation…
When an industry won’t create differentiation, the customer needs to take it upon him or her self.  Thankfully, there are companies who offer boutique music services (such as Private Label Radio with whom I work) that clearly differentiate themselves from the competition, but the wary would-be client must search them out based on their own unique needs—and the music service provider’s own merits.

To help you do so, consider the following list of questions in light of your unique situation and pose them to your would-be music services providers.  Based on what you hear, differences should emerge that will help you chose the right company for you.

Questions That Focus On The:

Company
• What makes the provider more qualified than its competitors?
• How are service levels quantified?
• Where is the company based?
• How does the location assist in the delivery of this service?
• Is the provider profitable?
• What related services can be offered through a partnership with the provider?
• How many clients does the provider currently have and will the new customer receive the proper care?
• How large is the provider in terms of revenues and employee count?
• Is the provider appropriately sized to support the retailer?
• What substantiates the claim that the company is an expert in music?
• What other music related services can the company provide?

Music Selection
• Who from the service provider will select the music for the retailer?
• What qualifications does the programmer have?
• How is the company tied into the record industry?
• Does the retailer select from a menu of available channels?
• What agreements are in place with major record labels?
• Since any music services provider can deliver similar content, what makes this offering any different?

Technology
• How is content updated? How often?
• Is high-speed connectivity required?
• What bandwidth is necessary to deliver music? Music with video?
• What are the backgrounds of the technicians with whom the company will be dealing?

Service
• How does the music service provider deliver 24/7 service?
• Does the music service provider employ company technicians?
• Is there an advantage to outsourcing installation labor?
• How is service quality measured and quantified?
• What is the guaranteed service call response time?

Costs
• Is there an installation fee?
• How much is the monthly rate for service?
• What is the length of contract?
• Are there any early cancellation penalties?
• Is there an additional fee for messaging?
• Is there an additional fee for on-hold services?
• If video is requested, will the provider buy the monitors?
• If advertising in store, how much revenue will be shared back to the retailer?

While you should absolutely have answers to the above questions before signing anything, you may not want—or get a chance—to start off a phone conversation with them.  To get a good glimpse of what stands behind the company you are talking with, listen to their sales pitch, and see if the following describes what they’re made of.  If not, ask why not.  If the company you’re talking with doesn’t tout the following competencies, it’s not enough to assume these will magically appear when they go to work for you.

• Offers a staff that is deeply involved in the music industry, with the credentials to back this up.
• Offers a location that is centered in the music industry with unlimited access to artists, labels, and industry executives.
• Offers quality music services and has examples of how they changed a brand using music.
• Offers expertise in branding as much as expertise in music.
• Offers expertise in working with new music delivery paradigms such as streaming and Web-based distribution to stay abreast of future developments.
• Offers expertise in the latest music licensing pronouncements and has staff with actual record label licensing experience.
• Offers 24/7 service that is reliable.
• Offers a size that is large enough to serve a national client yet agile enough to attentively care for the client relationship.
• Offers a company that was founded and based in the music industry.
• Offers true veterans of the industry whose passion is music.

 
Parting Thoughts
Music is a differentiating factor in creating a brand.  But music services providers don’t always know how to communicate their own brand—a good indication they will not be particularly successful at communicating yours.  To be an educated consumer and get the services you want (and the ones you need but may not know about), you need to do your homework and ask some questions.  Acting on the answers you get to the questions included above will make getting the music and service you need a much surer bet.

Rob Walker is a Professor of Marketing and Brand Management at The University of Phoenix and is a 15-year veteran of the in-store music industry.  He holds an MBA from Duke University in Marketing.  He currently works with Private Label Radio in Pasadena, CA.