Music Equity

Johan Sherwood

Branding can lead to many  favourable benefits for any organization. Familiarity, the ability to charge higher prices and produce line extensions without much resistance to purchase are benefits reaped by powerful brands. Companies invest a lot of time and resources to realize the rewards of a successful brand. But the question is how do companies create successful brands? What are some of the strategies used? For me, the answer is in brand equity – a brand’s ability to differentiate itself from another; the characteristics that separates one brand from the other. It’s what differentiates Coca-Cola from Pepsi, Digicel from bmobile.  The thought processes behind creating a brand take us back to the popular Sesame Street song, “There can only be one me”. Therefore, exclusivity is the quintessential element in achieving success in creating seismic brands.  

Usually, marketers look at the physical characteristics associated with a product as a resource to create brand equity. This is both a logical and an obvious approach. Yet, brand equity can also be achieved using external elements outside the scope of the physical features of the product or service. Take music, for example. Music is a true representation of an external component that can be used to achieve brand equity. It touches many lives and influences behavioral patterns.  People become attached to songs they love. Relationships are formed and bonds are forged. Take this Pantene ad as an example

Marketers can use this relationship a consumer forges with a song to create what I refer to as ‘music equity’ – a true representation of classical conditioning. Associate a popular song with a brand and immediately a relationship is formed between the brand and the consumer; there is transference of emotion from one component to another. Love for a song is translated to love for a brand. The song creates a unique value for the customer; it immediately differentiates your brand from other brands. Brand equity… Music Equity is inadvertently achieved through this strategic association.  

Like any strategic alliance, the partnership must be logical. Therefore, the right song must be aligned to the right brand. Marketers can utilize music as a strategy to help create brand equity in creating successful brands. Identifying physical characteristics of a product is one method of creating brand equity. Utilizing external elements such as music is another: Music Equity.