I was in Mumbai for 10 days, flying back on the day that the city came under attack. I was staying at the Oberoi Towers, so I find myself especially lucky. 

Yet it was the the sight of the main Chatrapathi Shivaji railway station under attack that really hit me. This is the heart of southern Mumbai. This is where the majority of the people of the city arrive or leave Mumbai.

Whilst I was outside that station only a few days before the attacks, I was recording the sound of cars hooting, people talking and the general buzz that is mumbai. I wanted to write a post on the Sound of Mumbai. Sadly, the sound of grenades and guns presently dominates. However, the amazing energy and spirit of that city has ensured that the true sounds of Mumbai returned quickly.

Ruth Mortimer pointed out a great example of how sound matters for brands in her article Branding the Perfect Pitch in Brand Strategy (February 2005).

In Las Vegas it is not music that greets you when you enter a casino, it is the sound of coins coming out of slot machines. A few years ago the slot machines were changed so that the winner did not get a pocket full of coins but a piece of paper that stated the amount of money he was entitled to. This completely changed  the sound of the casino from money pouring out to printing noises. The casinos soon found out that this was not a good change. The solution was simple, now the machines produce the sound of coins when ever someone wins.

citizensound says:

Just like the casinos, many companies learn the hard way of the importance of sound to both consumer experience and revenues. A little bit of insight on how sound plays a critical role to driving the footfall of the casino would have minimised revenue losses for them.

Thanks to Signy Leifdottir for finding this one…

So there I was landing in rainy Brussels at 0930 when I was confronted with the soft sonic branding of Brussels Airlines.

None of this Lakme nonsense of British Airways for them or the equally peaceful music found on Emirates…oh no.

It’s disco time on the morning flight…Brussels Airlines wants to to shake yah bo…dee in Belgium…

For some strange reason it put a smile on my face, so thumbs up from me…though am not sure what the Conservative MP who was also on the flight (Yes he was wearing a blue pin-stripe suit) thought of it…now that the party is pretending to be down with the masses, I should have expected him to be throwing down his rhymes as we headed for the exit…

Anyway, listen to my rubbish recording here…

brussels-airlines

Travelling to Brussels by plane really makes you appreciate the joy of travelling by train.

I had an early flight out on Tuesday from London Gatwick and hated every minute of the journey. However, there was one redeeming factor. As I headed to Gate 109 in Gatwick North, holding on to the rail as the travelator(!) carried me onwards, I was all of a sudden embraced by the sound of birdsong. People were looking up to see where the Robin or Blackbird was hiding. Fantastic! There is no better sound in the world than birdsong in my books.

So as these 10 seconds of joy hit me, I was then shaken into the real world…the birdsong was part of a ‘piece of music’ that I can only describe as despairing. It is the composition that they play after a massage to ‘calm your senses’; it is the music that you find in Health Food Shops next to “Now That’s What I Call Whalesong’ CD and the ‘Wellness for Dummies’ book.

As you know I like to share my pain, so here it is for you all…
gatwick-north-sep-08-0711