According to Kelly the Startup Princess, every brand/company needs a theme tune. Apart from making me laugh because the name of her blog is so cool … it reminded me of the IBM song. (Of course, the type that Seth Godin was discussing here is more about adopting an existing song rather than composing your own.)
I had been working at IBM for a while, and a colleague started telling me about growing up in the IBM family — his father being a long term IBMer. And the standout section of the story concerned the IBM song. What? I asked!
Yes indeed, there was an IBM song. And while he offered to dig it out of the family bookcases, the vinyl record (yes it WAS pressed) never surfaced. So any of you IBMers out there who have an MP3 they want to share … give me a shout.
When I think about it … it brings a new dimension to Mike Wagner’s "own your brand" approach — closer to compose your brand (only joking, Mike). But despite the ridicule factor that a corporate song can cause, many companies do have them. What about yours? Got a current or past corporate song you want to share? Perhaps we could rig up an online vote for the best ones.
I think I may just have a winner in my bottom drawer somewhere!
S.
A corporate song is an interesting trend but not everyone will go on this to make a good team.
Though it’s a good idea to promote your brand. I suppose soon we’ll have sites where the corporate song or motive will be playing while the users will be travelling through the site.
Sure, it should be something nice and not very annoying to make people listen to it. After that action, we might make a radio rotation and advertising 😉
Thanks for the mention, Servant of Chaos! You’re the KING. I think your theme song for personal use changes with the season (that what started this conversation is because I’m pitching and need the inspiration), however, for business branding, this seems to be rather tricky if you play for the world…everyone has different tastes and it might backfire, however, internally you can have one and change it each season and that can be really inspiring and helpful for staff to get what your culture and message is all about.
I’ll be watching your blog.
Cheers!
Gavin,
Thanks for pointing us to Kelly’s site – what a super name for a blog!
And actually “compose your brand” is at the heart of what I teach. First a brand must have one’s creative fingerprints on it. What better way to express your creative vision than through a song?
Now to play a bit of “name that tune”!
Thanks for enlarging this conversation.
Kelly, thanks for dropping by … I am very impressed with the name of your blog. Best of luck with your “secret project”.
Mike … yes, I love the name of Kelly’s blog. I wonder if she wears a tiara while blogging! Do you have a WhiteRabbit song?
Interestingly, now that I think of it, creative thinking can be boosted and focused through music — as David Armano says, it is about linking intuitively to your emotions. Years ago I wrote a play … and to keep myself focused I listened to REM’s Out of Time album. The themes of the play and the music were related and helped subconsciously keep me on track and pumped up to write.