Wellness and Sound Identity

Celebrating fifty years, for us at Starpool, is a chance to think of the road walked and of the one ahead of us, of our mission and values. This is why, with the help of Rete Doc – one of Europe’s largest agencies in the cultural and creative industry – we went to the discovery of sounds that could narrate our identity and of a sound brand that could be the distinctive sign of our company and of our products. This research led Rete Doc to the creation of Starpool’s sound portfolio, which includes a sound logo, compositions meant for brand communication, as well as four themed playlists. Let’s try and retrace the steps of this identity journey with Andrea Ponzoni, artist-manager, producer and head of the music sector at Doc Servizi.

WHAT WAS YOUR PERCEPTION ABOUT OUR NEEDS AFTER THE MEETINGS?

The meetings helped us to identify the brand history and vision, as well as the heritage and the mission. The 50 years of Starpool are the perfect opportunity to celebrate and enhance the attention towards psycho-physical well-being, with a stable focus on innovation, scientific research and sustainability. “A new dimension of Wellness” is the best representation of the present and future of the company: a new outlook on the journey undertaken so far. So it became immediately apparent that the compositions, the sound logo and the playlists had to be in line with these extremely accurate identity requirements. The sound branding operation is necessary to make the sound experience memorable through recognisable acoustics, which merges perfectly with the concepts of psycho-physical wellness, technical innovation and mental energy. The recognisable acoustics isn’t a crucial element just for the brand identity, but also because it becomes a vehicle to convey the values and the emotions that the company wants to communicate. In this way, sound branding contributes to creating a multi-sensory experience that strengthens the emotional connection with the clients, allowing the brand to remain fixed in the minds of the audience, while promoting a picture of innovation and holistic well-being.

HOW DID THE COMPOSERS INTERPRET OUR NEEDS?

On the basis of the elements identified in the meetings, the composers tried to turn Starpool identity into music. The goal wasn’t to create a background soundtrack, but to interpret the innovative wellness philosophy by designing a unique sound which can evoke, on a first listening, both the company vision and mission, and which can stand the test of time. The premises have been identified by Luca Formentini, who started from the concept of “sound wellness”, discovered and tested by composer Robert Rich, of whom Formentini himself was a student and coworker. This theory revolves around the idea of relaxation through ambient music, covering the entire sleep cycle, including the dreaming phase. Music is in this way an additional incentive in search of psycho-physical balance and harmony. This idea was the starting point to identify additional references. The first step in this direction was the creation of an evocative playlist to help identify the correct image together with the client. Starting from the feedback and from the tracks perceived as the most representative, Luca Formentini and Paolo Cattaneo started the actual composition, then finalised by Gianluca Ballarin.

WHAT MAKES THE CHOSEN SOUND ELEMENTS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE BRAND?

The acoustics of the sound brand and the elements that make it up have been chosen one by one to be recognisable, but especially a good representation of Starpool. Among these, the combination of instruments and the general arrangement especially stand out. The combination includes a mixture of electric and electronic instruments, often used in other compositions, but with different applications: electric guitar and modular synthesizers. The guitar is unconventionally employed like a percussion and is part of the rhythmic structure of the song. Modular synths, on the other hand, are instruments that offer countless possibilities. It is possible to trace the most diverse sound grooves from the synth itself, as it allows to define all the relevant details, including the shape and frequency of a sound wave. The result of this complexity is an undoubtedly unique sound that’s not easily replicated. This particular combination represents multiple elements of Starpool’s identity: on the one hand, instruments that can portray the company’s history so far; on the other, the research and experimentation, a reference to the future of the brand and its mission. Conversely, the arrangement has been designed precisely to stand out from the sounds that are typically associated to mindfulness. Not a slow rhythm, but a midtempo: halfway between relaxation and agentivity, energy and orientation to the future.

TELL US ABOUT THE PLAYLISTS

In addition to the part concerning the sound logo, Luca Formentini and Paolo Cattaneo created four themed Spotify playlists – that is, one for each product line and application area – to help develop the brand sound identity. These four playlists featured on Starpool’s profile favour the audience’s engagement, thus remaining loyal to the mission of the company, which works every day to make wellness a good daily practice, more accessible and sustainable.