The Strategic Integration of Music Branding and its Evolution in the ...

general, it can be noted that respondents could not connect brands with music spontaneously.
Coca-Cola was associated with bands the most successfully, which might be a result of
emotional branding strategy related to music. Among Hungarian groups the local brand Túró
Rudi was the most well-known sonically where patriot feelings and consumer ethnocentrism
could play a crucial role. (Herskovits, 1948) Some of the respondents said that one of their
favourite bands is Quimby played in the commercial of Túró Rudi that is why they could
recall the commercial easier as well.
5.3. In-­‐depth Interviews
For drawing the model of value creation through music branding, in-depth interviews
conducted with practitioners were essential for getting deeper insights for the subject. I have
successfully managed to interview people from the artist area (4 musicians), from the media
sector (journalist, radio speaker) and from management perspective as well (corporate and
music management persons). Overall I reached 12 practitioners and in average I spent one
hour for an interview. For the representatives of different fields of music branding I designed
more interview guidelines.
Through the in-depth interviews I could gain relevant and deeper insights in the field of music
branding, moreover about the Hungarian music scene. The Hungarian and international music
trends were uncovered, where the approach of music branding and its value for musicians,
brands and consumers were touched followed by future opportunities as well.
Interviewees all mentioned the same tendencies regarding the development of music
industry: innovative and mobile strategies can be successful in the changing music industry.
They enhanced the role of social media (YouTube, Facebook, MySpace), which are suitable
for sharing music videos creating musical communities and experiences. All of them
evaluated the Hungarian music scene underdeveloped compared to Western-European
countries by 4-5 years.
During the interviews the definition of music branding had to be grounded in the first
moments even in case of experts as well, since there is no general definition in the literature
or practical area. However, several examples appeared confirming the relevance of the wider
approach of music branding. One of the management thinks that “music is applied by
intutions in branding strategy nowadays” and in his opinion it can be the root of many
unsuccessful attempts: there is no strategical thinking behind the activities. For instance, he
mentioned a Hungarian experiment of Jack Daniels, which had the aim to shot a movie
24