Manager of the month: Michaël Boumendil (1994), sound branding pioneer

Every month, Edhec Alumni features an alumnus with a particularly interesting career path. Their vision, their environment and the choices they have made are summed up in a few paragraphs.
Founder and Managing Director of Sixième Son for the last 17 years, Michaël Boumendil (1994) is a pioneer of the increasingly widespread audio branding concept.

His background
A music enthusiast from a very early age, he produced his own scores well before arriving at EDHEC. As soon as he left EDHEC, he had the idea and the conviction that companies could create value by developing a sound identity. He believed he could contribute to his customers brand value with a team of multi-disciplined and complementary experts. Starting with a team of 3, he pushed forward his idea and quickly proved that his innovative concept worked. Today, 40% of his customers are CAC 40 firms, and he has a thick portfolio of SMEs in BtoB, BtoC and BtoBtoC.

His management style
Over the years, his staff has grown and today the company employs 20 people who work in 3 departments: Creation, Consulting and Support, each with their own cutting edge expertise. The teams work in synergy for each customer, discussing the customer’s global requirements, and tailoring their offer to the firm’s needs and budget. The Creation department works on recommendations from the Consulting department (knowledge of the brand, the competition, the environment, etc.), while the Support department manages all the technical aspects of the resulting sound supports, delivering and guaranteeing their installation in liaison with the customer. The teams not only have real expertise but also the curiosity and desire to learn about and understand each customer’s specificity.
Sixième Son promotes 3 key values: high standards, responsibility, and a sense of reality. While the vast majority of customers are satisfied with the company’s service, Michaël Boumendil believes that it’s important to remain humble, to know how to listen, and to take our commitments and those of our customers seriously. Sixième Son’s excellent reputation has resulted in a legitimate demand for value creation that must be satisfied. High standards are crucial at every stage of production, with the ultimate goal of giving the customer a sustainable competitive edge. Customers should even be given more than they expect, as they rarely understand all the advantages they can draw from a truly expert musical approach. The 3rd value is a sense of reality. Remember, Sixième Son doesn’t create a brand’s success even if it makes a contribution. Michaël Boumendil has never tried to go beyond his field of expertise or insisted on exaggerated budgets. He sticks to what he knows how to do, and he does it pretty well…
His work

Sixième Son developed a pioneering concept based on sound. Sound has become a widespread support whether for the phone industry, the internet, the radio, etc. Michaël Boumendil and his team created a sound vocabulary from scratch, developing a catalogue with a precise analysis of their incidence on the brands' customers. Productions designed by Sixième Son influence the customers’ perception of service quality and must be wholly coherent with the brand’s message. Michaël analysed reactions and perceptions in order to advise his customers, and he has honed his professional approach to make it more tangible and less intuitive following years of experience and customer feedback.

His key figures
Sixième Son’s advance can also be counted in figures in this vanguard and expert field. With over 2.5 million Euros in fees, the agency makes more than its ten biggest competitors combined. With a team of 20 employees, the agency is the largest audio branding consulting and creation structure.

Something else …
Support Michaël Boumendil (Edhec 1994) in the international sound design competition
Music is now a major aspect of brand culture and, today, Michaël Boumendil, an Edhec alumnus, is one of the world’s leading experts. An international competition is being organised during the Audio Branding Academy Congress and a panel with a dozen experts and brand managers has selected Sixième Son, Michaël Boumendil’s Design Sonore agency, to take part in the final in New York in November. Even if there are very few real experts worldwide, it will still be a tough battle.
To encourage Sixième Son and give Michaël a helping hand, just click on like on the Congress website at the bottom of the page where you’ll find a presentation of the SNCF case! You’ll find it here