Cat Stevens, Music and Its Many Effects

This week I am venturing off the normal Blue Sky Marketing blog path to talk about music. This blog was prompted by a Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam concert that I was privileged to attend on 12/07/14.  I had a sister that listened to Cat Stevens' Greatest Hits album every day for about a year, I memorized every word by osmosis. It turns out that about the same time, my husband was attending middle school in Liverpool, England, they had done away with morning prayers and started each school day by singing "Morning has Broken" by Cat Stevens; the school used music to join the students together. We both jumped at the chance to see Cat Stevens in concert.

Stop and think for a minute about your favorite music, how does it make you feel? What moment in your life does that favorite song remind you of? Are their songs that make you tear up? Are their TV commercial jingles that make you smile?   Whether holiday songs, Happy Birthday or your favorite band, music is emotionally powerful. As I spend most of my days marketing online digitally, I realize that many of us have forgotten / are forgetting the powerful effect of music. We choose from YouTube and Apple's pre-chosen music tracks as background for videos or randomly pick music beds, this needs to stop. Connecting your audience to you brand includes audible cues that we as marketers can provide. As I go humming  the lyric "if you want to sing out, sing out; And if you want to be free, be free" into 2015, I will be mindful once again of the power of music. Thank you, Yusuf.