ACADEMIC ENGLISH (6) / MANAGING A PROJECT

Hotels are really seeing the value of using music to build brand value, and this article illustrates 3 hotels from across the globe who are using music in different ways in order to engage their patrons and offer a holistic branding experience. From music download cards, to live music and music tribute rooms , the opportunity to grow brand affinity and enhance guest experience through thoughtful use of music is strong and valuable. Because of its power to evoke strong emotions, music can empower brand-consumer relationships.

Mood Media’s Holistic Guest Experience Indulges the Senses

Mood Media is renowned for creating background music, but now the Texas-based company, is introducing guests to a holistic sensory marketing experience: from music to digital signage, on-hold messaging, scent marketing and professionally designed sound systems.

“In recent years, with the explosion of mobile technology, and in particular with travel apps and independent review sites, it’s critical that hotels find ways to make the total experience more personal and interactive,” said Jaime Bettencourt, SVP – premier sales & account management, Mood Media. “Integrating media technologies such as Mood Presence provides a powerful point of connection and discovery.”

She added, “More than ever, hotels need to focus on the design of the total guest experience and, most importantly, on the experience at and inside the property. Ultimately, that is what guests remember most; it’s what creates preference, repeat stays and loyalty. The in-person experience is what drives online reviews, ratings and word-of-mouth recommendations.”

Exclusive and distinctive experiences is what mood media excels at providing for their guests. The company approaches this concept, called “Experience Design,” as a holistic strategy, which means ensuring that every touch point communicates the brand’s’ values. Differentiation is created with a strategic approach to the in-person experience. “Audio, visuals and scent can work together to convey your brand and speak to your clientele,” said Bettencourt. “Consistency is critical.”

3 hotels across the globe use music in different ways to engage their patrons & offer a holistic branding experience
Mood Media offers hoteliers a competitive edge by providing the value of working with a single-source provider that integrates various components of the whole guest experience. “Our holistic and strategic approach to a great guest experience enhances the value and quality of the solutions we provide,” said Bettencourt. “As such, the solutions we provide help our clients differentiate themselves and ensure that they are able to maintain a consistent guest experience across their entire footprint.”

Music download cards now double as hotel & resort room keys.

The concept of music redemption online has had phenomenal growth of late with coffee house Starbucks offering redeemable download card codes at its retail stores. Furthermore, L.A.-based Private Label Music offered this idea to its hospitality clients (Four Seasons Hotels, Ritz Carlton, Rosewood, Capella, Westin and Heavenly Spas, Ojai Valley Inn, Bellagio, Luxor, Waldorf Astoria and its newest albums for Coeur d’Alene & Duniye Spa) as an alternative to physical music CDs and it was received with enthusiasm. Boutique city and resort hotels are now taking this concept to a new level by offering up their room keys to double as free song redemption cards to guests upon check-in.

The eco-friendly cards are post-consumer color plastic carrying the hotel’s key photo, logo and phrase as well as a unique pin code on the back which is good for the guest’s redemption of a song from the property’s branded album.Essentially, when hotel guests receive the cards at check in, they download a free song and are then given the option to purchase the album in its entirety. When this transaction occurs, the Private Label Music pays a $2.00 per album royalty to its affiliated  hotel.

Introducing Australia’s first Boutique music hotel

If you’re looking for your next getaway to be a bit more trendy, then look no further than this Australian beachside hotel Boogie Woogie Beach House. This is Australia’s first music-themed boutique hotel, and is on the fast track to becoming a fresh live music landmark. Every Friday night and Saturday lunchtime, this hotel features live music acts and has already been privy to sold-out performances from the likes of Diesel, The Audreys, Mick Thomas, and The Celibate Rifles, with a 22nd of April appearance from Tex Perkins & Charlie Owen.

“When the Celibate Rifles heard about Boogie Woogie they phoned us,” said co-owner Stephen “Doss” Doessel. “They asked if they could stay and play a gig, as they wanted to go surfing.” The hotel invites guests to a one-of-a kind holiday experience, saying, “Want a NSW beach holiday that combines food and destination: where you can party to live music, eat like a king, stumble upstairs to your designer room, then wash away any evidence in the surf over the road next morning?”.

At the end of an evening when lodgers at the Boogie Woogie Beach House retire to their rooms, they’ll find each room decked out in tribute to an iconic musician, such as Nick Cave, Dave Grohl, David Bowie, Louis Armstrong, and one devoted to the beloved mixtape. Patrons at this boutique hotel are given a truly unique and authentic music experience.

With brands increasingly searching for ways to stand out in a cluttered world, music is one of the most powerful ways to resonate with consumers. These 3 hotels successfully used music to add value to their accommodation services.  When used thoughtfully, music can offer hotel guests an authentic brand experience that can drive customer loyalty. Offering consumers a holistic approach, interconnecting all elements of a guest’s hotel experience from touch, to sound to sight to taste, can certainly influence purchasing behaviour. This type of brand experience is what these hotels are offering to patrons, which is essentially buying time into people’s brains. The better the brand experience, the more likely your brand will act as an afterthought in the consumers minds and the more likely they are to buy your services. It’s all about creating an authentic connection with consumers, and music is a universal language which can dramatically drive purchase and customer loyalty.  

https://blog.tunedglobal.com/how-3-hotels-music-grow-brand-affinity

Learn how you can effectively use music at your hotel property.

Music can have such a significant role on a person’s mood that it’s no wonder that hotels rely on music to create different atmospheres throughout their property. However, it’s important to remember that there is a right and wrong way to leverage the power of music. Here’s what you need to know about utilizing music at your hotel.

Lobby

After a long day of travelling, the lobby is the first space that a guest will likely enter. This is why you should focus on creating a serene, welcoming, and relaxing environment. This can be accomplished by playing soft jazz or classical music. Focus on slow, easy instrumentals for ease of listening.

Restaurant

Studies have shown that slower music makes people act more slowly. This means that playing slow music in your restaurant will increase the average length of visit. This also increases the chance that people will spend more on drinks and food during their dining experience. So, if you want to encourage spending, play slow, soft music. If you want to speed up restaurant turn-over times, play louder, faster music.

Pool

Pool and spa areas are meant to be areas of rest and relaxation. This is why you should strive to create a quieter vibe. Try to find similar music that you play in your lobby that’s slightly slower and softer in comparison. This will lend itself to sunbathing by the pool beautifully.

These are some of the ways you can effectively use music in your hotel.  (…)

https://cliconference.com/appropriate-utilization-of-music-in-hotels/

You may have seen the award-winning documentary film Alive Inside, which was released in 2014. It follows Dan Cohen, a social worker who is bringing music to people with dementia in nursing homes.

Cohen asked a documentary film maker to follow him around for three days to witness the astounding effect that music was having on the behavior, mood, and quality of life of patients who appeared to no longer have much of a connection to themselves and the world. The film maker was so moved and impressed that he followed Cohen for months and created this film.

Cohen’s method is fairly simple. He asks a resident’s family to list the songs or instrumental pieces the person once enjoyed. He then creates an individualized playlist on an MP3 player for the resident.

The music, which ranges from jazz to rock to classical, elicits surprising reactions. Some people, who had seemed unable to speak, proceed to sing and dance to the music, and others are able to recount when and where they had listened to that music. The music seems to open doors to the residents‘ memory vaults.

There is a growing body of evidence to explain why people in the movie come back to life and begin to feel like there former selves when they listen to their playlists. Listening to and performing music reactivates areas of the brain associated with memory, reasoning, speech, emotion, and reward. Two recent studies—one in the United States and the other in Japan—found that music doesn’t just help us retrieve stored memories, it also helps us lay down new ones. In both studies, healthy elderly people scored better on tests of memory and reasoning after they had completed several weekly classes in which they did moderate physical exercise to musical accompaniment.

Researchers at the music and neuro-imaging laboratory at Harvard-affiliated Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center have shown that singing lyrics can be especially helpful to people who are recovering from a stroke or brain injury that has damaged the left-brain region responsible for speech. Because singing ability originates in the undamaged right side of the brain, people can learn to speak their thoughts by singing them first and gradually dropping the melody. Former Representative Gabrielle Giffords used this technique to learn to speak well enough to testify before a Congressional committee two years after a gunshot wound to her brain destroyed her ability to speak. Singing has also helped healthy people learn words and phrases faster.

To witness music therapy at work, go to the website of the Music and Memory Foundation, musicandmemory.org, and see what happens to one nursing home resident, Henry, as he listens to his music. You can also learn more about the movement that Dan Cohen has started and find out how you can get involved. And if you are caring for—or care about—someone with mild cognitive impairment or dementia, I guarantee it will inspire you to get an MP3 player and create a playlist for that person! It may also inspire you to make one for yourself, as well.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/music-can-boost-memory-and-mood

Can music really affect your well-being, learning, cognitive function, quality of life, and even happiness? A recent survey on music and brain health conducted by AARP revealed some interesting findings about the impact of music on cognitive and emotional well-being:

• Music listeners had higher scores for mental well-being and slightly reduced levels of anxiety and depression compared to people overall.
• Of survey respondents who currently go to musical performances, 69% rated their brain health as “excellent” or “very good,” compared to 58% for those who went in the past and 52% for those who never attended.
• Of those who reported often being exposed to music as a child, 68% rated their ability to learn new things as “excellent” or “very good,” compared to 50% of those who were not exposed to music.
• Active musical engagement, including those over age 50, was associated with higher rates of happiness and good cognitive function.
• Adults with no early music exposure but who currently engage in some music appreciation show above average mental well-being scores.

Let’s take a closer look at this study

Those are pretty impressive results, to be sure. However, this 20-minute online survey has some limitations. For one, it included 3,185 US adults ages 18 and older; that is a small number if you are extrapolating to 328 million people across the country. For another, it is really a survey of people’s opinions. For example, although people might report their brain health as “excellent,” there was no objective measure of brain health such as an MRI scan, or even a test to measure their cognition.

Lastly, even if the ratings were true, the findings are only correlations. They do not prove that, for example, it was the exposure to music as a child that led to one’s improved ability to learn new things. It may be equally likely that those children brought up in more affluent households were both more likely to be exposed to music and to be given a good education that led to their being able to easily learn new things later in life.

But let’s assume that the results of the AARP survey are indeed true. How can music have such impressive brain effects? Although we don’t know the answers for sure, developments in cognitive neuroscience over the last few years have allowed us to speculate on some possible mechanisms.

Music activates just about all of the brain

Music has been shown to activate some of the broadest and most diverse networks of the brain. Of course, music activates the auditory cortex in the temporal lobes close to your ears, but that’s just the beginning. The parts of the brain involved in emotion are not only activated during emotional music, they are also synchronized. Music also activates a variety of memory regions. And, interestingly, music activates the motor system. In fact, it has been theorized that it is the activation of the brain’s motor system that allows us to pick out the beat of the music even before we start tapping our foot to it!

Use it or lose it

Okay, so music activates just about all of the brain. Why is that so important? Well, have you ever heard the expression, “If you don’t use it, you’ll lose it”? It turns out this is actually true in the brain. Brain pathways — and even whole networks — are strengthened when they are used and are weakened when they are not used. The reason is that the brain is efficient; it isn’t going to bother keeping a brain pathway strong when it hasn’t been used in many years. The brain will use the neurons in that pathway for something else. These types of changes should be intuitively obvious to you — that’s why it is harder to speak that foreign language if you haven’t used it in 20 years; many of the old pathways have degraded and the neurons are being used for other purposes.

Music keeps your brain networks strong

So just how does music promote well-being, enhance learning, stimulate cognitive function, improve quality of life, and even induce happiness? The answer is, because music can activate almost all brain regions and networks, it can help to keep a myriad of brain pathways and networks strong, including those networks that are involved in well-being, learning, cognitive function, quality of life, and happiness. In fact, there is only one other situation in which you can activate so many brain networks all at once, and that is when you participate in social activities.

Dance the night away

How do you incorporate music into your life? It’s easy to do. Although the AARP survey found that those who actively listened to music showed the strongest brain benefits, even those who primarily listened to background music showed benefits, so you can turn that music on right now. Music can lift your mood, so put on a happy tune if you are feeling blue. Uptempo music can give you energy. And if you combine music with an aerobic and social activity, you can receive the maximum health benefit from it. Participate in a Zumba class. Do jazz aerobics. Jump to the rhythms of rock & roll. Or, better yet, go dancing. (And yes, in a pandemic, you can still benefit by doing these activities virtually.)

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-is-music-good-for-the-brain-2020100721062

Music is a fundamental attribute of the human species. Virtually all cultures, from the most primitive to the most advanced, make music. It’s been true through history, and it’s true throughout an individual’s lifespan. In tune or not, we humans sing and hum; in time or not, we clap and sway; in step or not, we dance and bounce.

The human brain and nervous system are hard-wired to distinguish music from noise and to respond to rhythm and repetition, tones and tunes. Is this a biologic accident, or does it serve a purpose? It’s not possible to say. Still, a varied group of studies suggests that music may enhance human health and performance.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/music-and-health

Listening to music may boost exercise ability, ease stress and anxiety, and enhance recovery from strokes.

Whether you prefer Stravinsky’s symphonies or the Beatles‘ ballads, you probably listen mostly because you simply like how they sound. You might not realize that music engages not only your auditory system but many other parts of your brain as well, including areas responsible for movement, language, attention, memory, and emotion.

„There is no other stimulus on earth that simultaneously engages our brains as widely as music does,“ says Brian Harris, certified neurologic music therapist at Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. This global activation happens whether you listen to music, play an instrument, or sing — even informally in the car or the shower, he says. And it helps to explain how and why music therapy works (see „Singing — and striding — stroke survivors“).

Singing — and striding — stroke survivors

Music therapy can help stroke survivors recover their ability to speak and move. The reason lies in music’s widespread effects on the brain, which cultivate a process known as entrainment. Entrainment refers to the simultaneous activation of neurons from different parts of the brain. „For example, when you hear a steady rhythm, it activates your auditory system but also automatically engages your motor system,“ explains music therapist Brian Harris of Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. After certain types of strokes, people can’t move the muscles in their tongue or lips (dysarthria) and therefore aren’t able to speak clearly. But asking them to „sing“ a familiar song using simple syllables (such as „la“ or „fa“) instead of words helps entrain their motor or muscle-activating nerves, which helps them recover their speech. The technique works for all types of movement. „When people entrain, it makes the neurological process more efficient because everything fires at the same time,“ says Harris. When stroke survivors practice walking to music, it helps steady their gait and improves the speed, symmetry, and length of each stride.

Heartfelt harmonies?

Music can also alter your brain chemistry, and these changes may produce cardiovascular benefits, as evidenced by a number of different studies. For example, studies have found that listening to music may

• enable people to exercise longer during cardiac stress testing done on a treadmill or stationary bike
• improve blood vessel function by relaxing arteries
• help heart rate and blood pressure levels to return to baseline more quickly after physical exertion
• ease anxiety in heart attack survivors
• help people recovering from heart surgery to feel less pain and anxiety (and possibly sleep better).

Notable effects

• Like other pleasurable sensations, listening to or creating music triggers the release of dopamine, a brain chemical that makes people feel engaged and motivated. As Harris points out, „An exercise class without music is unimaginable.“
• Sound processing begins in the brainstem, which also controls the rate of your heartbeat and respiration. This connection could explain why relaxing music may lower heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure — and also seems to ease pain, stress, and anxiety.

What resonates for you?

• But preference matters: research suggests that patient-selected music shows more beneficial effects than music chosen by someone else, which makes sense. According to the American Music Therapy Association, music „provokes responses due to the familiarity, predictability, and feelings of security associated with it.“
• In the cardiac stress test study (done at a Texas university), most of the participants were Hispanic, so the researchers chose up-tempo, Latin-inspired music. In the artery relaxation study, which tested both classical and rock music, improvements were greater when classical aficionados listened to classical music than when they listened to rock, and vice versa. Someone who loves opera might find a soaring aria immensely calming. „But quite frankly, if you don’t care for opera, it could have the opposite effect!“ says Harris
• There’s no downside to using music either to relax or to invigorate your exercise if you keep the decibel level in a safe range. You might even consider using your heart health as an excuse to splurge on a new sound system.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/tuning-in-how-music-may-affect-your-heart

Listening to Music May offer a Range of Benefits for Cardiovascular Health

Music’s capacity to evoke emotion is one reason people love listening to it so much. Whether you want to feel energized and uplifted or calm and relaxed, you can probably conjure a few examples of melodies that put you in your desired frame of mind. As it turns out, those mood-related benefits may extend to your heart.

„The beating of your heart and your fight-or-flight system are regulated by your brain. Once you understand that, it makes sense that listening to music that evokes a certain mood might affect the heart’s function,“ says Dr. Andrew Budson, a lecturer in neurology at Harvard Medical School and chief of cognitive and behavioral neurology at the VA Boston Healthcare System.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/put-a-song-in-your-heart

Out of my head and back in the dressing room, Grimaud is telling me what it is a like to be a synesthete, someone who experiences involuntarily sensation in one sense (i.e. seeing a color) when another sense is stimulated (i.e. hearing music).

Grimaud first experienced color-sound synesthesia when she was 11. She was practicing a Bach Prelude in F# Major when she started to see what she describes as a „stain of undefined contours — red, bright, orange.“

„I was quite charmed,“ she says. „You know how it is — as a kid you don’t really ask yourself many questions about the why and the how.“

For Grimaud, the connection between sound and color is connected to tonality. „It seems for me,“ she explains, „that each tonality has a color that represents it, and so the main color dominating the piece is going to be the color of the tonality in which the piece is written and, of course, with every modulation it will change. What I find interesting is that it brings us back to this idea from the Baroque times about how every tonality has its own emotional identity in a way, that they are not even-tempered even if they are equivalent. I’ve described it as something like the byproduct of an altered sense of perception. I think it takes place if you’re exposed to something as powerful as music.“

https://www.dallasobserver.com/arts/h-l-ne-grimaud-on-brahms-synesthesia-and-a-passion-for-wolves-7092407

Go through the INTRODUCTION („World Leaders at Your Desk“) and tell the difference between „brand value“ and „brand equity“.

Consider how reputation is related to a brand and what factors build the reputation of a company.

Now answer the question: What is the link between brand value, brand equity and company reputation?

Give an overview of the article „The No. 1 Hospitality Industry Guide!“ (INTRODUCTION).

What meaning does the music in the image films (PART I) convey? Does it resonate to the pictures?

Listen to some pieces of music (PART II) and describe the atmosphere they create. What psychological effects (beside creating the feeling of wellbeing) does it have?

How can music offer hotel guests a genuine brand experience? (PART III)

How to use music in hotels strategically? (PART III) Does is serve as a tool of manipulation?

How can „music experience“ in hotels help create brand loyalty ?

Read the texts in the section „RESEARCH“. Explain the power of music.

Synesthesia (PART V) is an altered sense of perception. Can you give other examples of the impact music can have, eg. on imagination?

Using the information collected in all assignments prepare and hold a speech on „The Role of Music in Building Brand Value“.

The objective of this project is to learn about the power of music in the context of hotel business as part of the hospitality industry.

It intends to point out its high overall value as well as its strong impact on perception.

It aims to develop the skill of awareness by understanding the strategies applied to attract guests and clients generally.

From the perspective of an entrepreneur it should help to demonstrate how to build brand value and brand loyalty, thus, how to additionally strengthen the brand.