by James Di Fiore

Created on: August 03, 2008   Last Updated: August 20, 2008

In almost every form of modern marketing techniques, whether experiential, guerrilla or traditional marketing, the demands on the industry to come up with something groundbreaking is on constant replay. Often, these new techniques manifest in the form of simplicity, carving out new ideas with what seems to be painfully obvious.

No industry is on constant alert for new competitive advantages like the hospitality and retail industries. Restaurants, hotels, retail and salons are constantly on the lookout for the next idea to move their establishment to the top of the heap when it comes to customer satisfaction. Quite often, marketers get lost in a vortex of same - old practices like print ads and savings offers. But once in a while, revolutionary concepts change the landscape, providing businesses with the opportunity to fine tune their branding......literally.

Music.

The natural assumption is that music plays merely a background role in the service and hospitality industries. In recent years, establishments have gravitated towards satellite services to quench their customers' thirst for sound. But satellite has its drawbacks, including poor sound quality and the habitual failing of service during weather disruptions. But that may be just the tip of the iceberg. While satellite provides a wide variety of licensed music, there is no verifiable marketing advantage to having a play list which includes dozens of differentiating genres.

In fact, many industry leaders would argue the opposite - that by offering a mega selection of music, establishments lose the ability to identify their branding needs. If considered to be in the same vein as interior design, this variety would be like changing the look and feel of your business several times a day. How extraordinary would it be to realize the crux of the satellite lure - being equipped with every genre under the sun - is exactly why the service should not be considered in the first place? Marketing experts are beginning to call satellite services convoluted, the abundance of choice saturating any hope for branding a business through music.

But there is hope for the hospitality industry. New services dedicated to branding businesses through music have emerged, presenting themselves as the new ambassadors in successful music marketing strictly for hospitality and retail. By compiling music proven to be universally appealing, companies like Hushhh Lounge have created a conceptual premise where music becomes as important as

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