What secrets lie in humanity’s romance with music?  What is it that attracts us to certain music and/or musicians?  What are these timeless, magical forces, connecting us and deeply impacting our minds and emotions?  Can we learn more about the nature of people in order to build better products, services and customer connections?

With my interest in brain-based creative learning and experience in the educational market, its no wonder my curiosity was peaked when a documentary entitled “The Musical Brain” appeared on my recent United Airlines’ in-flight programing. –Needless to say, I enthusiastically watched.

Sting engages in research regarding the brain and music. --This can teach us all valuable lessons about PEOPLE communications and bonding.

The documentary’s producer, Daniel Levitin, is a neuroscientist, musician, author and the directing founder of Levitin Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal.  For this documentary, Levitin combines the latest science with entertainment, including a variety of experts and musical artists.  A major contributing force in his research and production is Sting, the iconic international musician and songwriter.  Sting agreed to be a guinea pig (test-subject) for scientific exploration, studying how his brain is affected by music.  (*Sting is committed to learning about the science and complexity of the musical arts.)

Below is a breakdown of some of the concepts and discoveries presented in the documentary. I simplified 4 KEY RESEARCH POINTS, while adding my own correlating BUSINESS TIPS to help inspire you to build stronger relationships with your customer base –your own audience!

Research Point #1:

Understanding Relationships/People, Pleasing Expectations, and the Valuable Element of Surprise.

Humans seem to have an innate, deep desire to be understood, reached, engaged, entertained and stimulated. In music and in business, people like a combination of secure, pleasing expectations (or pleasing sounds), while also wanting an element of surprise.  –It peaks another level of attention and interest, while expanding our desire for learning and pushing our envelopes.

BUSINESS TIPS: Think of ways you can assist in building your customer relationships.  View your marketing activities as the art and science needed to reach them. Make sure you understand the people you’re serving.  Do your research. Communicate artfully and simply to your customers/clients with expressive, distinctive words and actions that really reach them. Present some secure predictability, while also presenting something different and unique.  Exceed expectations and/or reach out creatively to your customers.

It’s important to think ‘P2P‘ these days –’PEOPLE TO PEOPLE’!  …It’s not just B2B (Business to Business) or B2C (Business to Consumer) anymore!

Research Point #2:

Engage Your Audience/Customers.  Use Multiple Senses and Modalities for Deeper, More Lasting Impressions.

Good music (or music we like) is effective because of the way it stimulates our brains and emotions; it fully ENGAGES us. It’s auditory, but it’s also rather kinetic. –Music inspires a desire for movement, such as foot-tapping, clapping, and of course, dance movement.  The engaging quality of music helps ingrain it deeper into our brains and memories. Many Alzheimers’ patients will even detect a single note that’s ‘off’ in an old song. (That’s just one of the research studies done in the Levitin Laboratory)

BUSINESS TIPS: Create as many positive interactions and multi-sensory experiences between your company and your customers as you feasibly can.  From face-to-face events to on-line with text, voice, art, sound, etc. Optimize your website’s Feng Shui.  Use the web to integrate your presence. Re-purpose your valuable assets for the web –any video, radio, sales presentations, educational materials, or any other tools you have to maximize your success opportunities.

Research Point #3:

Social Connection and Bonding –A Powerful Element of Music and Business.

Music is highly social and bonding. A variety of sub-cultures are often formed by the types of music people listen to.  In varying degrees, identities can even be built around them, which is often a ‘right of passage’ for teens and young adults.  Not only do we share the experience of listening to music, but we often sing along. We can easily find ourselves, no matter what our skill level, singing aloud…alone in cars, showers, etc.  But, we also find pleasure in singing along together! –This is uniquely human and believed to be part of our deeper desire for a larger connection.

BUSINESS TIPS: Create interactive forums to share your business message, thoughts, philosophies, etc.  Engage in Social Media Networking on the Internet, and relationship building through events, direct interaction and community participation.  Social connection and bonding can be affected significantly by what you do.  If you’re successful, you can also create (or ‘earn the right’ to tap into) a ‘cultural community.’ –This can provide your business with potential for long-term fans or CUSTOMER LOYALTY!

Research Point #4:

Creative Charm, Leadership, and Expressions of Truth/Sincerity.

What is it about musicians that people swoon over… and often, no matter how attractive they look or NOT?  Psychologists feel that it taps into what we’re attracted to… We’re genetically drawn to leader-personas. It’s survival-based.  Leaders also reach their positions through demonstrations of creative skills and talents. In addition, we want to identify with them, and become like them.  An equally important draw, is the level of sincerity or truth delivered by the artist.  We want to connect with them and believe in their sincerity.  We often feel a unique bond as the artist shares something deeply connective with us.  –It’s experienced as something sincere, personal and special.

BUSINESS TIPS: Here it is… it’s simple (yet complex) and critically important:  Be a LEADER, be CREATIVE, be HONEST and SINCERE in your communication and activities.

Is your business the communication equivalent of ‘MUZAK’ (generic elevator music) or are you producing ‘GOOD QUALITY MUSIC’?

(*When Sting’s brain activity was measured while listening to all kinds of music, it completely stopped with Muzak!)

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Like we always say at Web Marketing Therapy (WMT), for greater marketing results (on and off the web) you need to engage in a critical mix of the ART and SCIENCE of business creation and execution.

In a world of jaded consumers who are bombarded with creative advertisment and marketing schemes every time they pull out of their driveway or turn on the TV, having a unique voice is extremely important. It is becoming more and more important for businesses to understand which advertisements consumers are “sick of” and give them something different. I encourage you to be true to yourself, connect and bond with your customers to find out what they need/want, and give them something unique! Give your business its own unique voice and let it stand out from the crowd!

Pixar writers knew that they needed to keep the crowd guessing with its creativity. Why not do the same for your own business? Creativity sells.

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