Jez Frampton

101 Great Minds on Music Brands and Behavior

Jez Frampton,Global CEO, Interbrand Group

Jez Frampton is the Global CEO of Interbrand Group, where he oversees shaping the strategy and growth for Interbrand’s 31 offices worldwide. In his 17 years with Interbrand, Frampton has partnered with clients from around the world, in virtually every sector. He has also been instrumental in driving the growth of Interbrand’s widely respected Best Global Brands report. Under his leadership, Interbrand was awarded a Gold Design Lions award at the 61st Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. A frequent guest on CNN, FOX, BBC, CNBC, Bloomberg and other media outlets, Frampton often discusses the important role that branding plays in bringing business strategies to life —and how the leading brands of tomorrow will be those who commit to creating personalized, seamless and curated experiences for their consumers.

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“Music is one of the up-and-coming weapons, or tools, in a marketer’s tool case. It’s one of the most powerful emotional drivers there is. ”

— JEZ FRAMPTON, GLOBAL CEO, INTERBRAND GROUP

Reese: Brands are so disciplined when it comes to their visuals. It’s written in stone, it’s not up for discussion. At the same time, 80% of brands are very arbitrary when it comes to what I call their ‘audio behavior’. There doesn’t seem to be a clear strategy. Why is that?

Frampton: I suspect it’s simply because people haven’t really thought about sound to the same degree or depth that they’ve thought about visual identity systems. When I started working in branding, it was all about ruthless consistency in terms of brand identity. We’re over that. Now, there has to be a sense of authenticity to your brand, it has to be easily recognizable, but it shouldn’t be ‘cookie-cutter’. A brand has to live. That means you have to constantly evolve in the way you present yourself. And while there might be a lot of consistency in a brand’s visual identity, it’s different with respect to the communications approach. What does that mean with respect to sound? Within the whole soundtrack of a brand, there are a myriad of different experiences. As a brand manager, you have to be careful not to be dragged too far off the piece, in order to keep a sense of integrity.

“All too often people seem to think it’s all about a four-note “da-da-da-da”, rather than asking themselves: “What do we sound like?” Which is the real question.”

Reese: When I talk to executives on the brand side, a lot of them feel insecure when it comes to audio branding. What advice would you give to a brand like, say, Mercedes-Benz?

Frampton: The starting point is obviously a clear understanding of what your brand is about. Then you have to think about the brand experience as a whole. For someone like Mercedes, that would include everything from signature sign-offs on advertising, to the sound of the closing of the door, perhaps the signature sound you get when you press the start button, right through to the soundscape in a dealership. The challenge is to create a seamless experience. How do I join everything together, from my app through to my vehicle, through to my dealership? You have to have somebody working with you as an adviser who understands that. Otherwise what you’ll get is something that might fit one or two of your channels, but it won’t help you develop a sonic identity that works in many different environments. A lot of music companies have a music production background, and they’re trying to leverage the assets they have. But they don’t necessarily have strong branding or marketing backgrounds. Where music creation and branding intercept is where you might get the right answer.

Reese: That’s true. Very often, these jobs are execution-based, there’s no strategy, it’s like throwing color against the wall to see what you get.

Frampton: Bad idea. I think what it comes down to is having a real appreciation for the degree to which sound is used within your organization. All too often people seem to think it’s all about a four-note “da-da-da-da”, rather than asking themselves: “What do we sound like?” Which is the real question.

Reese: That’s a good point. The belief that audio branding is just about an audio logo is a common misconception.

Frampton: … a logo that will somehow transform my business. Good luck.

Reese: To a degree, I find that successful audio brands are comparable to famous singers, like Elvis or Sinatra. It’s not about that one particular song. It’s about their voice, their appearance, their behavior.

Frampton: And it’s about their consistency and their authenticity over time! Elvis got threatened by the rise of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, but he didn’t suddenly start imitating them. He was himself, a Rock ’n’ Roll artist, and he was very consistent in the way he delivered his music over time. Brands have to follow that lead. Otherwise consumers get confused, and frankly, the brand could come across as a little schizophrenic. I find it remarkable that people understand it with things they can see, but they don’t necessarily understand it with things they can hear.

Reese: It is odd. After all, sound is the direct way to our subconscious, and we remember it the best and the longest.

Frampton: Very, very powerful indeed. And if you look at the way music is used in film, where it transports tension, fear, happiness… The composers and sound engineers who work in the film industry play around with one theme across the whole movie. In Star Wars, for instance, one motif reappears throughout the whole film, and even if you don’t hear it all the time, the rest of the music fits with it.

Reese: It’s highly recognizable. At any second, with eyes closed, you know it can only be Star Wars.

Frampton: Exactly. It’s a sonic signature.

Reese: It’s similar with the theme songs of the James Bond films.

Frampton: Yes. That’s also a great example. And even though the way music is produced has progressed so much since the early Bond films, the current film themes still reference that.

Reese: Good point – so where do you think this is going? What will brands need to sound like in the next 10, 20, or 50 years?

Frampton: Who knows? But I will tell you one thing – because I’ve had many conversations about this with various different clients very recently. Looking at the automotive industry, within the next fifteen years to twenty years, cars that drive themselves will be the norm – if we believe what we’re being told, and I’ve seen some of the technology first-hand. So you’ll probably be spending less time with your hands on the wheel than you’re doing now, and the nature of vehicles is going to shift quite a lot. The car environment is going to become a primary place to consume content: movies, the internet, music, whatever it might be. And that changes sound as well. It opens up massive opportunities for brands to use sound in much more interesting way. You will need to mix differently, you’ll need to use surround sound, things like that. So on that basis, sonic identities and sound systems are going to become more important over the next ten years – way more than they might have been over the last twenty or thirty. Consumer behavior is changing, and that provides opportunity, if you can spot it.

Reese: Can music change consumer behavior?

Frampton: Music can change the world. Intel achieved that… Well, their sonic identity, those four notes, certainly changed their world. It was part of a bigger strategy, though – the sting represents Intel hardware as the ingredient in all of those different manufacturers. It is symbolic of that, and it goes deeper than the simple four notes. Going forward, we will continue to learn from that.

Reese: Do you believe brands should have audio style guides?

Frampton: Yeah, I believe they should.

Reese: Don’t you think that handcuffs the team creatively?

Frampton: Well, it depends. You certainly don’t want to end up with something that drives your staff nuts. Part of it depends upon how your organization works. If you are P&G, the areas where you will use sound are probably smaller than if you are an airline or a hotel, where besides traditional advertising, music is used to fill spaces and set moods. Ultimately, you need someone within your creative team who understands music, but who’s also ultimately a bloody good creative director.

“I find it remarkable that people understand it with things they can see, but they don’t necessarily understand it with things they can hear.”

Reese: In this book project, I’ve assembled all the Global CCOs of the biggest branding and advertising agencies worldwide. And most of them confirmed that in our industry, music is seen as mere icing on the cake, even though it makes up 50% or more of the effect of a film. So let me ask you this: Why doesn’t something that is responsible for 50% of my sales get 50% of my attention and 50% of my budget?

Frampton: The interesting question is: Has anyone ever done an ROI study on it? The answer is probably no – although I don’t think it would be a difficult thing to do. It’s good old-fashioned test marketing. As a retailer, you could use sound A in one store or town, and see whether it outperforms sound B. We have managed to isolate the effect of corporate social responsibility on brand value in the same way. But it’s not a cheap thing to do. It’s not going to be something where you pay 50k and then you have an answer.

Reese: At Interbrand, you have an amazing portfolio of clients. But you don’t have an audio competence unit.

Frampton: No, we don’t. We did in the past, at various times. We had one in London about 15 years ago with a couple of full-time employees. I actually got involved in that because of my background of working in the music industry. At the time, I don’t think companies were ready for it. We just couldn’t get anyone to buy. But when you see the emergence of companies like Massive Music nowadays, these guys have begun to realize that it’s a strategic game and they’re beginning to develop that part of their offer. But it’s a relatively recent development. It’s not that long ago that they sat at a music suite for a day and applied different combinations of five notes, and that’s what they offered – going back to your initial observation. Now, they’re building some vivid and well-thought-out structures for the use of themes and sounds and music curation, what songs you should license, and things like that.

Reese: But are the clients ready to pay for it now?

Frampton: I think that still only very few large corporations are ready to pay a significant amount of money for an audio strategy. But the industry will ultimately have to recognize there’s a need for music and sound strategists. At Interbrand, we know what a strategic approach to music in branding can achieve, and we’ve frequently teamed up with Massive Music. We see our job as growing brands and businesses. We’re an eclectic mix of consultants and designers – and we have some of the best in the world! Within that context, a question all companies will have to constantly ask themselves is: “How do I create a deeper, more meaningful brand experience for my customers? How do I make sure they choose me more frequently, how do I make them more loyal to me, how do I stand out amongst my competitors?” To that end, music is one of the up-and-coming weapons, or tools, in a marketer’s tool case. Music is one of the most powerful emotional drivers there is.  

Note: The interview took place at Cannes on June 2nd, 2016.

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