"If a picture paints a thousand words, a sound can paint a million — and faster. Music bypasses logic and reaches the heart instantly. That's what great brands do too."
— Daniel Jackson
Even today, when I think of Titan, the music lingers in my memory. It is the music I have grown up with—from the time Titan was a gifting brand with an advertisement showing a father playing Titan music at his daughter's wedding to the contemporary beats added to the same music in a more recent teacher's farewell advertisement.
Music has the power to trigger emotional immediacy and is, therefore, a strategic brand asset. Music isn't just decorative but instrumental in shaping how people feel, remember, and relate to a brand. Sound is identity. The right brand sound triggers memory, trust, and emotion — often before even the logo appears. Music is not just a sensory signal but a core part of a brand's identity.
Marin Lindstrom's research has shown that brands using consistent soundscapes see up to 96 percent higher brand recall. He argues that sound should be part of a multisensory brand strategy, not an afterthought. While Byron Sharp focuses on data-driven marketing, he sees audio branding as a tool that improves brand salience and memory structure.
The 5D Framework for music-driven brand building summarises how music enhances brand equity across dimensions:
Distinctiveness: Music creates unique sonic assets (jingles, brand tunes) that can help brands stand out and be remembered. It enhances brand recall and recognition in cluttered markets. It supports cue-based engagement as an immediate, non-verbal signal to draw attention, indicate brand presence, or guide behaviour. For example, the Intel chime or the Netflix "tu-dum" startup sound acts as a sensory entry point into the brand experience, priming users for premium content and storytelling.
Depth: Music evokes emotional responses like joy or nostalgia, making brand interactions feel personal and human. It helps to build emotional connection and brand loyalty. Music shapes how a brand feels. It helps craft a distinctive emotional palette—fun, bold, sophisticated—that is immediately recognisable. For example, the Coca-Cola' happiness' series, from seasonal jingles ("Holidays are coming") to global anthems tied to youth and joy. Music is core to Coca-Cola's emotional storytelling and optimism. In campaigns, Nike uses curated, powerful soundtracks to underscore energy, struggle, and victory, reinforcing its identity of athletic excellence and empowerment.
Dialogue: Through branded content, music partnerships, or sonic UX, music enables two-way interaction, engagement, and cultural relevance. It helps drive brand engagement, virality, and youth appeal. Examples include Spotify Wrapped and the Red Bull Music Academy. Music helps with cognitive priming—think of it as Pavlovian branding. Repeated exposure trains consumers to associate that cue with specific brand meanings.
Dimension (consistency): Sonic branding ensures a consistent experience across all platforms—television, apps, stores, etc. It helps strengthen brand coherence and professionalism. Examples include Apple's product music and MasterCard's payment chime. Sound aids functional clarity, particularly in digital and physical experiences. Sound can indicate transitions or confirmations—"your payment went through" or "you completed a level."
Direction: Music reinforces a brand's values and personality and helps deepen brand positioning, which guides creative storytelling. It becomes a tool, carrying themes of change, aspiration, rebellion, and so on, that align with the brand's purpose. For example, Lemonade Insurance uses cheerful, digital-native sounds in their app and explainer videos to humanise a tech product and make insurance feel friendly.
Music can bypass our mind and go straight to the limbic system, which governs emotion and memory and is activated by music within milliseconds. Unlike language, which is processed linearly, music is experienced holistically — instantly evoking feelings, often before we consciously interpret them. This is why just a few notes can trigger goosebumps, tears, or joy.
Music is an emotional anchor that ties to people, places, and past experiences. The heartbeat, breath, and movement are naturally rhythmic. Music aligns with these bodily rhythms, creating a sense of harmony or catharsis. Upbeat tempos can energise, while slow, minor chords can invite reflection or sadness — mirroring our internal states and helping us feel seen or held. We often feel emotions we cannot articulate. Music expresses nuances of joy, grief, hope, longing, and transcendence beyond language.
Music, therefore, builds stronger brands by making them instantly recognisable, embedding them in emotional memory, helping them connect across generations and cultures, and making brand experiences more immersive, joyful, and intuitive.
Well, who can forget Idea's "Honey Bunny" song?
About the author: Ashita Aggarwal is Professor of Marketing and Chairperson, Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) and PGDM Business Management (PGDM (BM)), S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR). Views are personal.