By providing a viable alternative to piracy, as a start up Spotify achieved a cult-like status in its native Sweden and much of Europe. Since it entered the U.S. market in July 2011, it has made a splash in the U.S. But like many music acts, if Spotify is going to have a significant impact on the music landscape, they need to grow the American audience and educate the market about what’s on offer beyond Apple.

To continue their rapid growth and efforts to win the hearts, minds and ears of the American mainstream, our task was to help Spotify define how music played a defining role in people’s lives.

Building on existing segmentation work, we designed qualitative research with our partners, customer insight agency C Space. We studied the music habits and preferences of two user groups in four typical markets.

In parallel, we mapped the user experience: from a search on Google, to landing at the website, signing up, downloading and using Spotify, and through ongoing product experience and customer service interfaces. We identified the points that could be improved along the way.

Lastly, we spoke with employees and industry experts to precisely define Spotify’s unique position in its category. Why was it different from competitors, and what was its real reason for being?

Based on our insight, we redefined Spotify’s position around the idea of ‘the right music for every moment’. This created a clear sense of their audiences and echoed the central part music plays in all aspects of their lives.

We worked with the leadership team and over 100 stakeholders to build the brand and its supporting experience principles. In less than six months, we galvanised key teams in the business, ensuring buy-in and understanding of the strategy from the outset. We ignited a wave of people-centric innovation across product and marketing.

The brand now serves as a strategic lens. Every internal team – from the Leadership Group and User Insights to HR and Operations – is using it as a starting point for their thinking.

In March 2013, Spotify confirmed they had acquired over 4 million new users and 1 million subscribers, keeping it on track to bring in more than $684 million in 2013 from subscribers alone. Having also recently confirmed over 6 million global subscribers and over 24 million global active users, the brand has grown up. It’s become accessible to a huge new audience, without ever losing its cool.