Because music holds a strong power over people, and its impact on consumers is relatively direct, it is invariably an interesting medium for marketers. Although Sonic Branding -branding with music and sound -has been seen as 'the next big thing' in branding toward consumers for about a decade, it is a scattered field still waiting for its breakthrough. Addressing this problem, the present consumer-oriented review of literature offers new insights on the consumer perspective's role in Sonic Branding today, and provides implications for future marketing research and practice. The present article also suggests that there is need for using a common set of Sonic Branding concepts in order to unify the field. Further, the majority of businesses do not yet understand Sonic Branding as the uniquely consumer-oriented practice it has the potential to be. Understanding the way that consumers themselves use music is crucial to successful brand management in this area. However, for theorists and practitioners alike, the immediate challenge lies in developing those concepts and labels for Sonic Branding that will unite the field, and thereby increase its future impact.
The traditional definition of brand loyalty is concerned with a consumer's repeat purchase of a certain branded product or service. As a rule, research on the concept argues that the repeat purchase needs to be combined with a favorable attitude toward the brand. Beyond this definition, further labeling of the brand loyalty research includes whether it is behavioral or attitudinal. Brand loyalty has gained an international reputation as a meaningful branding concept because of its prominent role in the highly influential brand equity construct, where brand loyalty is considered the most important of the four consumer‐based brand equity components. Generally, the role of the consumer's brand relationship, for instance as seen in a brand community, is focused in the analysis of qualitative consumer data, downplaying the role of the management of the brand's communication toward consumers in creating brand loyalty. In the brand trust literature, brand loyalty is generally considered an antecedent of brand trust. Recent research on brand loyalty online has often added the concept of brand trust to the brand equity construct to better address loyalty online. Noticeably, stores and brands make extensive use of so‐called loyalty programs or loyalty cards to retain consumers.
Clara Gustafsson takes issue with the belief, prevalent among brand managers and brand researchers alike, that sonic branding is first and foremost about the music. Instead, Gustafsson suggests that sonic branding should prioritize cocreation with the consumer. The consumer thus becomes a valued cocreator of meaning and brand identity, the consumer’s imagination playing a role in developing a meaningful platform for the brand. Gustafsson explores this viewpoint by arguing for the use of immersive research methods, cultural branding, and ethnographic techniques in shifting the focus away from the music and onto the consumer in order to develop a new approach to sonic branding research.
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