Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), India’s largest hospitality company has introduced The Sound of Taj, a bespoke sonic identity for its iconic brand, Taj.
The new sound signature adapts across geographies and hotel segments to reinforce a unified brand voice.
“Recognised as the World’s Strongest Hotel Brand 2025 and India’s Strongest Brand across sectors 2025, Taj’s brand strength lies in its ability to evolve while preserving its heritage,” said Taljinder Singh, Senior Vice President and Brand Custodian, Indian Hotels Company Limited.
The sonic identity, composed by Mindloop Studios’ Ahmad Haffar aims to meet the brand’s mandate for immediately recognisable audio branding that echoes throughout its marketing assets.
“With a legacy spanning over 120 years, Taj has consistently introduced signature touches that go beyond the visual including the fragrance that greets guests in its lobbies and the textures and tones that define its spaces,” said Singh.
“The new sound signature, composed by Ahmad Haffar, builds on this foundation, offering a multi-sensory experience that is instantly recognisable,” he added.
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Explaining the hotel brand’s new sonic identity, Haffar said he composed the score to embody the brand’s ‘ethos of Tajness’ and to resonate across Taj’s diverse portfolio of grand palaces, landmark city hotels, beach resorts, wildlife safaris and luxury serviced residences, “offering guests an audible cue that is distinctive and immersive.”
The various touch points include:
- A four-second ‘Palace Signature’ which is used across all the Taj Palace hotels on social, digital and online communication.
- A seven-minute long ‘Quintessential Piece’ used in every room, lobby common areas and on-hold/IVR music, globally across all Taj Hotels.
- A corporate piece to be used in brand films
- Three one-minute long pieces for social and digital media titles, the ‘Palace Piece’, ‘Resort Piece’, and ‘Business Piece’.
“This gives an immediate feeling of ‘Tajness’ to the guests globally, no matter which Taj they choose to stay in,” said Haffar, Managing Director & Chief Creative Officer, Mindloop Studios.
From a creative perspective, Haffar said he was able to capture the brand’s sonic identity because: “I experienced it. Plain and simple.”
“Taj Hotels’ management had extended their hospitality to ensure I experience the brand across all of its hotel categories,” he explained. “I visited the Taj Dubai in Downtown Dubai to experience the business category, the Taj Exotica in Palm Jumeirah, Dubai to experience the resort category and the Taj Mahal in Mumbai to experience the palace category and the spas to experience the quintessential categories.”
Haffar said he based his creative approach on the mission to “export Taj’s heritage since 1902 using soul within the music.”
Additionally, his focus was to ‘”create a melody using instrumentation that is both traditional and reinvented for modern interpretation.”
“I hand-crafted each instrument to resemble traditional Indian instruments in a modern way,” he added.
Taj is integrating the score across digital channels, social media and in-property experiences.
