Muzak

Organization Snapshot

Muzak is a privately held company founded in 1934 specializing in music programming for businesses. It is based in Fort Mill, South Carolina and currently has 3,000 employees and over 200 sales and service locations.

Blue Ocean Strategic Move

Muzak created a Blue Ocean when it started offering businesses pre-packaged "easy listening" music programs over wires that they could use as background music in elevators and at their stores and workplaces.

The founder of the company, Major General George Owen Squier, realized that music makes people feel better and could improve the customer experience. Background music, carefully selected and programmed, could also help boost productivity, reduce errors and improve employee morale.

Programs initially involved instrumental versions of popular songs piped through wires, but have evolved to sophisticated, integrated programs of music and voice delivered by satellite, over broadband, and on high capacity disks.

Over the years, Muzak has built its capabilities to help companies - especially retailers - increase their emotional appeal through what it calls audio branding. The company develops audio programs that are customized to musically evoke the themes, emotions and attributes of each brand's unique personality.

Success

Muzak has grown its business significantly over the years. According to the company, the firm supplies background music to some of the world's leading brands such as McDonald's and Aveda. Over 100 million people hear Musak daily in its clients' 500,000+ locations around the world.