Book Launch : Personality Not Included

I'm quite excited about tomorrow's lauch of Rohit Bhargava's 'Personality Not Included.' I'm a firm believer in the fact that brands need a "Personality (that) is the unique, authentic and talkable soul of your brand that people can get passionate about." If you'd like a taster, you can read the books introduction here.

As a proponent of social media (he celebrated his 500th Influential Marketing blog post this week) Rohit's taking a fairly enlightened and inclusive approach to the launch. He's asked bloggers to send him five questions, which he will answer. Here are mine and I'll update with the answers when they come in:

1. As a director of Sound Strategies, I believe that sound and music has a powerful, yet largely undeveloped role to play in corporate personality - particularly in an online world. What's your view on this, Rohit? RB: I think you are absolutely right, and you will probably find my technique section on what I call "Sensory Marketing" very interesting. One of the examples I share about this, which is more of a marketing gimmick but does demonstrate the tecnique (if not necessarily the entire idea of personality) is the promotion for the Sony picture The Messengers with their secret ringtone that only young people could hear because of the frequency.


2. Which - if any - role models do you beleive are the ones to watch for using sound and music to create a 'unique, authentic, talkable soul?' RB: I think the most obvious example has to be Apple and their success with setting their advertising to songs that become iconic. Case in point, the New Soul song that has been #1 on all the charts thanks to its debut as part of the Macbook Air TV spots. The other place I would point to is YouTube, though in that case it is not so much brands as indivuals, but some of the most iconic videos are set to songs that convey the emotion in the most powerful way.


3. Perhaps the better examples are from outside the worlds of marketing and branding. Are there lessons we can draw from other fields of study on how to use sound and music to stir the passions of our audiences? RB: I am sure there are. For example, what about sound research as a part of physical therapy or as part of treatment for a high risk pregnancy. There are lots of applications that we have not yet even begun to understand. This is a fascinating area and I love this series of questions you have here.


4. Companies are increasingly experimenting with video and audio as part of their marketing, what is it that makes the combination of image, words and sound so much more compelling and dynamic than words alone? RB: I think it's simply because we as humans are very visual learners and prefer that type of interaction. What is most powerful today is that technology has finally caught up so that these experiences can now be delivered with a relatively good experience.


5. How are you using sound as part of your outreach, Rohit? RB: Ok, of all the question I have had so far, I have to say this is the one where I am going to like my answer the least. I'm not doing very much and this interview has gotten me thinking about what more I could be doing. At the very least, publishing a podcast of some of my speaking engagements. If you have any other ideas to share, I would love to hear them!

Thanks for such quick responses Rohit, I'll have a chat with my Sound Strategies partners and come back to you!