You're already Sonic Branding Whether You Know it or Not! But are you effective?

Whether you are aware of it or not, almost every brand on the planet utilizes sound in some way shape or form to convey there message and your brand is no exception. From the words your employees speak to customers to the physical sound of your product or location, sound plays an important role in crafting the customer experience.

At Electric Raindrop, we consider every brand to be similar to a Hollywood produced movie. No matter the genre, setting, or era of a film, sound plays an important role in your audience’s experience of the brand and a proper and intentionally designed sound strategy can help set your brand apart.

Have you ever considered who the voice over is in your ads? Regardless of if it’s a radio spot, tv spot, or social media reel, being intentional with your voice and tone can have a huge impact on your success. Imagine for a moment you are a lawyer that specializes in sexual assault victims. You can have a tough and rugged macho man Randy Savage type voice do your ad read or a more gentle and empathetic woman’s voice? Could you even go further and promise the callers that they will only speak to women when they call?

That is exactly what Darren Kavinoky did for his business, you can hear him talk about this story on this season 3 episode of Ad Infinitum. He figured that women (and even men) would be more interested in talking to a woman rather than a man in a situation like this where they have been abused. It wasn’t about who was the most competent lawyer in the legal sense, but rather demonstrated that his firm understood the issue on a deeper level and what the victims wanted to hear - demonstrating competence on the situation beyond just the letter of the law.

Besides that, your brand is likely including music in many of the ads or it’s retail locations. What are the types of music you are using? What connotations do they convey? If all of your visual branding is floral, retro, sincere and vibrant is a futuristic prog-rock comedy piece the most appropriate choice? Many times the social media teams rely on whatever tracks are trending and just randomly select them rather than carefully curating the vibe.

And this extends to UGC (user generated content) too. If you are working with a specific influencer because of their specific vibe, why not provide them with custom branded music that is your brand in their style? Music has the amazing ability to transcend dramatic changes in it’s harmony, melody, and instrumentation while still retaining the core idea. In fact, this is the basis of scoring films and writing opera! We call this idea a leitmotif, or more colloquially a “theme”.

You can set your brand’s theme in 100’s of different contexts: Spooky, Christmas-y, electronic, cozy, Vintage, elevator music, etc. Once your brand has established it’s identity, the way it is used and manipulated over the course of your brand’s lifetime can be an incredibly powerful way to tell your brand’s story and connect with them on a deeper level.

Other ways your brand may be using sound subconsciously is what the customers hear when they are in your location (perhaps the doorbell when they enter or the actual acoustics of the space too!), common catchphrases used (”My pleasure!” at Chick Fil A), the sound of your product, website, or app; and even the hold music when customers call your location!

Whether you are aware of it or not, your brand is already making use of audio branding. Wouldn’t you want to optimize that for it to be the most effective it could be?

If so, contact us today for a free consultation on how we can help your brand grow through the power of audio!