Ernesto Quinteros
101 Great Minds on Music Brands and Behavior
Ernesto Quinteros, Chief Design Officer, Johnson & Johnson
Born in New York City and raised in California, Quinteros leads the global design organization at Johnson & Johnson (J&J Design), integrating care-centered design and brand innovation across the company’s Consumer Health, Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices businesses. With a career spanning 30 years, his work has received international recognition with IDSA, Industrie Forum Design (iF) Hannover & Shanghai, Red Dot and Good Design in a range of categories, including automotive, consumer electronics, fashion, healthcare, Internet of Things (IoT), music equipment and mobile experiences. Prior to J&J, he served as Chief Brand and Chief Design Officer at Belkin International.
“As we become more dependent on voice activation and gesture-based experiences, sonic mnemonics will have a greater role in creating emotional and enduring connections with brands.”
— ERNESTO QUINTEROS, CHIEF DESIGN OFFICER, JOHNSON & JOHNSON
Uli Reese: Tell me about your role at Johnson & Johnson.
Ernesto Quinteros: As Chief Design Officer, the design organization I lead is involved in all dimensions of design, meaning everything from visual communication to the design of physical, digital and spatial touchpoints that make up a more complete and holistic experience. My team’s portfolio of work includes consumer products, pharmaceutical patient-care solutions and medical devices, like robot-assisted surgical solutions, as well as the Johnson & Johnson brand identity and expression, both externally and for our employees.
Reese: What drew you to design initially?
Quinteros: From an early age, I had a fascination with drawing and building all sorts of things. For example, I would build model kits of aircraft—but then I wasn’t satisfied and would go a step further to build a physical structure, the air hanger to house the plane and the surrounding tarmac for airport support vehicles to service the plane. What came inside the box wasn’t enough; I had to make the other things that were part of the real-life experience for the people that participated in air travel. One day at university, when I was studying illustration and graphic communications, I discovered industrial design in a hallway case, and my world forever changed. I realized, “There are so many problems to solve, and experiences to create!”, so I made the transition to product and experience design and never looked back.
Reese: How important is sonic in building a brand?
Quinteros: We’ve seen an accelerating shift over the decades as technology continues to advance and force our relationship with brands to morph. Many of us grew up watching TV and spending hours reading physical magazines; the advertising was often very visual, but it was an extremely flat experience. Now with all of the multi-sensory connected devices, sonic has a much bigger role to play. Saturated with visual communications… it was difficult for many brands to be differentiated, often appearing the same - so in that respect, sound is another dimension to increase uniqueness and emotional connections with audiences.
Reese: Would you say that audio is important now in terms of consistency and trust-building?
Quinteros: I think of the recent CNN campaign, “Facts First”, and the first time I saw it, I thought, “Wow, it’s really important to me that I live in a democratic and facts-based society.” The background music they created for the piece was extremely simple and something familiar from the past, a piano tune that felt very pure, clear and honest. It was interesting that they needed to create a campaign to establish news credibility for themselves and that they chose to use piano music to establish a relationship with truth. I appreciated it because of how important truth and facts are to me in this current era.
Reese: Trust will be built digitally over our screens in the next decade as more information is exchanged via audio. Do you agree we need a holistic and future-proof way to deal with this?
Quinteros: Yes, I agree. This makes me recall a meeting I had with a digital innovation & advertising agency in New York a few years ago. After they showed us their portfolio of work for screenless experiences for some of the biggest brands, I asked what it meant for them for the future of advertising. In the moment, they appeared surprised by the question and sheepishly admitted that they didn’t know. With increasing concerns around security and privacy, we will be required to build a higher degree of trust with audio out of necessity because nobody wants to be surrounded by so many screens. People want a simpler experience, and we want information exchanged “on the go” without having to look at those screens. Audio is an interesting brand dimension that people should be experimenting with and in a variety of ways. I’m sure some of the tech companies are already experimenting here, and I don’t know where it’s going to go, but I believe that the brands that do it right will build trust and engagement much faster than the brands that don’t. Audio will definitely play an increasingly bigger role over the coming years.
Reese: People’s lives are already being run by screenless ecosystems, so where do you see this heading?
Quinteros: Sonic speaks to the younger generation. Even me, I don’t want to be bothered with typing on a screen and keyboard anymore. In my home, we have several voice-activated systems, some are Alexa-assisted SONOS speakers, and we also have a Siri-assisted Home-Pod. My children often turn to Alexa to ask about the weather, or what event might have happened on a particular date, and they expect to get their answers this way. They want an immediate, frictionless experience with the least amount of effort. Many are concerned of a future with Artificial Intelligence (AI), yet you can see that the younger generation is already extremely comfortable with these AI-assisted systems. I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to see a future scenario where an AI solution could help solve a debate in the kitchen, because the AI could read the situation and emotional sentiment of the conversation by leveraging sonic listening, and then provide the relevant information in the moment.
Reese: Returning to the Johnson & Johnson customer experience, what is audio’s role in that today, and how do you see the future?
Quinteros: Companies/brands that really bring value are the ones that are led by purpose, and that purpose needs to resonate with consumers and stakeholders, etc. At Johnson & Johnson, we have a clear purpose statement, “We blend heart, science and ingenuity to profoundly change the trajectory of health for humanity.” I believe that audio can help us communicate our Purpose sonically, to strengthen credibility, build shared empathy, and help us connect with people in emotional and immediate ways. I think this is important as we live in an age where some individuals don’t trust science. It’s an opportunity for sonic branding to support us on this critical topic.
Reese: Why are so many brands so late to the sonic party?
Quinteros: Many leaders don’t understand the value of sonic branding or believe it will help them achieve their business objectives or brand and marketing goals. I believe that there’s this evolution of readiness at play and many take the legacy communication methods for granted and aren’t willing to evolve their thinking. It may be because it’s more difficult to quantify a sonic piece of communication over a visual one. I think that’s a challenge that will be helped in the future with the application of data science and analytics. Another trap I have seen with many brands is that they often sound very similar. For example, in the skincare category, they have a psychological mindset, “this is how a skincare brand is supposed to sound like,” which means there’s little risk-taking, and caution is favoured over pursuing bold differentiation.
Reese: Do you think it will help brands stay relevant if they have a sonic identity or a shareable DNA?
Quinteros: Yes, I think so. Many people understand that visual brand identities create “trust marks.” Sonic identity is another way to strengthen our emotional relationships with trust. As we become more dependent on voice activation and gesture-based experiences, sonic mnemonics will have a greater role in creating emotional and enduring connections with brands. Creating a sonic identity and a shareable DNA across all audible experience moments will only help brands thrive in a technology landscape that is forever evolving.
Note: The interview took place in New York, United States, on the 11th of August 2020.
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