I’m a child of the 70s. In the decade where I grew up, music was a deep part of the fabric of our lives. And if you’re like me, music can remind you of a place in time, an experience, people and movies, and of course, brands.
Take All My Loving by the Beatles. That song transports me to listening to an AM radio under my pillow when I should have been sleeping as a child, while Hey Jude transforms me to singing “Na, Na, Na, Na Na Na Na” at a Paul McCartney concert – decades later - with tens of thousands of people holding up lighters at the Meadowlands. When I hear a certain drumbeat, I think of the West Wing, and, anytime I hear Superstar by Usher, I’ll think of the Chief’s amazing Superbowl comeback victory.
Now, translate that to sound. Cicadas reminds me of hot and humid Summers on Long Island, while squeaky dry snow underfoot reminds me of skiing in the Rockies.
Brands have been crafted by sound, such as the iconic N-B-C chimes, the sound of an Apple Mac booting up, and the sound the build of the Netflix name makes when opening the app.
You see, while Sonic Branding may be a new concept in and of itself, it is a practice that has been at work on the psyche of consumers for as long as there has been recorded sound.
In an article about Sonic Branding I read in Forbes, I found a definition of Sonic Branding I really like - “Sonic branding is essentially a system of strategically crafted sound that makes people feel something about a brand or experience.”
As we consider the brand sounds we’ve experienced over the years, there is another part of the brand experience that, to me, falls into the definition of Sonic Branding. The sound of brand names themselves. In an article written in JSTOR, a non-profit library for the intellectually curious, I found a fascinating article about how brand names can persuade us to engage with brands and that the letters and sounds have, as they put it, a “curious impact” on a brand’s reception with the public. For example, brand names starting with the letter “k” are more memorable and effective in brand recognition.
The latest example of Sonic Branding that interests me, and not unlike what I’ve written above, is old and new again: podcasting. Though there aren’t any solid records I can find to support this, my recollection is that Podcasting began in 1995 with the launch of Audible. Not unlike many leading-edge digital technologies, it took having the right content for the right audience to make Podcasting a thing. And now that it is a thing, a whole new element of Sonic Branding is at work, from the jingles of favorite podcasts and podcast brands to the hosts' voices.
Sound is an incredibly powerful force in our lives. Sounds touch our psyches in numerous ways. It makes us reminisce, laugh, cry, and in his blog on the Loyalty Alliance Achieve Beyond! website, Alan Brunton points out that sound therapy relieves stress and improves well-being. With the newfound importance of the sonic experience, like streaming music and podcasts, is it any wonder why Sonic Branding is a topic on every marketers mind?
