AQUA's branding understanding

Mon, 04/04/2011 - 09:29

With this blog post I know, I take the full risk of ridicule amongst the music litterate people. Danish pop band AQUA is clearly not the most respected band in the music business, when it comes to the quality of the music. I know. I know. I know. This blog post however is not about music. It’s about branding. AQUA broke through worldwide in 1997 with the monster hit ”Barbie Girl”. Then conquered the world, split up in 2001, reunited in 2009 with the hit ”Back to the 80’s”. The single ”How R U Doin” from their upcoming album has just been released, and what caught my attention listening to this song was definitely not the lyrics, but their fine branding understanding. At first it seems AQUA is back as AQUA. Same as before. 100%.  ”How R U Doin”’s got all the hit potential it needs. Lene Nystrøm sounds as girlish as ever. But. René Dif the big, rapping, stupid, crazy frontman’s got a slightly different vocal. More mature.  Less talking-singing. Less yelling. In ”How R U Doin” Mr. Dif’s suddenly got a more crispy voice. And he is actually singing. Listen carefully: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fILDrf4UzE&feature=related

Is it all equalizer studio tricks or has he been practising? Has he actually redeveloped his singing skills and thereby making AQUA able to deliver a new valuable music experience? Well I don’t know but for me as a customer, it seems so. If it’s true, I guess AQUA is up for their second round of world tours. And it’s all because of their understanding of integrated branding and valuable differentiation.

So many artists have suffered from not being able to understand what integrated branding is all about. Resisting change, repeating themselves. Even late Michael Jackson sticked to his traditional types of hits, always trying to sound completely as his biggest hits. He also kept on performing his traditional moves grabbing his balls constantly. And from then on he slowly faded away from the charts until his sudden death hyped him once again. The point is that simple repetiton doesen’t create any new value to the customers. Simple repetition just bores the customer and doesen’t give them any emotional or selfexpressive benefits. A brand whether it’s an artist or a chair needs to be recognizable and surprising at the same time to attract the customers.

So all you brands out there, learn form AQUA go practise your brand vocals, so you can become or stay valuable differentiated brand identities.