Harnessing the Power of
Sound and Music in
your Branding Strategy
Harnessing the Power of Sound and Music in your Branding Strategy
The importance of capturing the right audience through music in branding and advertising.
Sonic branding, or audio branding is an expression of a business identity with the use of an elaborate sound. Sonic branding is executed as part of a sonic branding strategy that involves carefully choosing elaborate music that resonates with your brand. In the marketplace, sonic branding is usually expressed as “jingles”. A jingle is a short, catchy sound that a customer can instantly recognise and associate with your business, creating a deeper emotional connection with your consumers.
Many popular brands like McDonald’s, Apple, and Microsoft have successfully leveraged sonic branding to create elaborate “audio logos” to increase their customer base. The unmistakably McDonald’s “ba-da-ba-BA-BAAA” tells and reminds us that we’re lovin’ it. This establishes a stronger identity for their brand in the marketplace, which increases their competitive edge over others that do not do this.
Sonic branding in use
Many brands choose music for their sonic branding strategies because it invokes specific emotions in people. Like smell, music has a strong ability to trigger a memory. Since music creates a memory, people think of your brand when they hear it. This is why it is known as an audio logo and has helped so many new brands and startups quickly grow their visibility and reach in the marketplace.
Music in advertising
Music in branding is usually deployed as jingles in advertisements. While music in advertising is known to yield great returns, not many brands utilise this important tool. When using music in your audio branding strategy, it is important to choose the right catchy music and not just any boring jingle. This is why marketers need to carefully choose music that conveys a similar message to the vision and mission of the brand.
Some even go the extra mile to engage creators to create a uniquely-branded jingle for a specific advertising campaign.
Sonic branding and businesses: What are the benefits?
Businesses that leverage sonic branding as a part of their marketing campaigns unleash a lot of value. Sonic branding involves the use of elaborate sounds to easily influence customer behavior. This promotional strategy comes with a wide range of benefits. The different benefits of sonic branding include:
Sonic branding and businesses: What are the benefits?
You can utilise audio branding as a way to link your businesses to certain feelings, experiences, facts, and emotions. A 2020 study by Spotify shows that audio ads trigger more motivation and are more memorable with people. Audio ads also drive about 24% more recall in comparison to display ads. In addition, it shows that with audio ads, customers are twice as likely to consider purchasing your products or services.
Impactful visual branding
Sonic branding has the potential to create a unique experience. With the use of elaborate technologies, users get an elevated experience if they can feel and touch the music. Haptic technology makes it easy for observers to feel the music through haptic feedback. Innovators are fast transforming music into visual synthetic elements, which means that this could evolve and come with extra sensory layers for a more immersive experience, with enhanced emotional impact.
Influence the purchasing decisions of in-store customers
When it comes to urging customers’ purchasing decisions on the shop floor, sound is usually an underutilised medium. While many brands recognise this, a simple use of radio ads in all departments of the store will not produce the intended effect. Instead, targeted sounds around the store can be deployed for various purposes.
Books & entertainment retailer Cultura installed directional speakers above their ebook displays, to enhance the experience of digital book shoppers, without disturbing other shoppers in the quiet bookstore. When it comes to the use of sounds and music in retail stores, you get endless possibilities to increase sales and revenue.
Increased market coverage
Music in branding can help businesses transcend culture and languages to increase their global reach. As soon as your music-driven brand message gets to the customer and they connect with it, it travels with them. When brands rely on trends such as sound memes, it helps to supercharge their presence. This way, they will continue to make advert campaigns that resonate with their users.
Tugging at heart strings
Sound is one way that brands can leverage human emotions to increase their visibility in the marketplace. Through the importance of sound and music to humans, brands can enhance their appeal and market visibility, when they appeal to the auditory senses of their potential customers. Of course, Bio wouldn’t miss out on this – follow us on our socials and be the first to know when we’re on Spotify, discovering sounds that make us uniquely Bio.
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