Category Archives: Sound Branding

Are your sounds becoming brand assets?

Posted on May 20, 2010 | 6 comments

Are your sound elements becoming brand assets? I found an interesting blog post by Jenni Romaniuk on Randall Beard’s Blog which is describing how you can understand, identify, and build distinctive brand assets.

She states that music, jingles, and sounds can become distinctive assets, just like logos, colors, shapes, characters, or fonts. As examples she uses the Aflac duck, the Nike Swoosh, and Mastercard’s priceless advertising. For Europeans or Germans Milka‘s purple cow or Telekom’s “di-di-di-dii-di” are equivalent examples.

For these elements to become a real asset for the brand it is not enough to be used as part of the brand identity. The specific element has to be unique and prevalent. Only then this element can help to support brand identification or even replace the brand name in communication efforts.  Continue reading →

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Selling the Sound of Silence – How much do you charge?

Posted on April 8, 2010 | Leave a comment

How can I differentiate myself from my competition?

Everybody is trying to communicate as much as possible. We want to be louder, sharper, and more innovative than our competitor. Everybody is getting husky (at least they would if communication was a live event) and nobody understands what the others say. The good news is that we found the loudest, sharpest, most differentiated and most innovative instrument in modern marketing communication of our time:

Silence Continue reading →

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Another wake up call for Brand Marketers

Posted on February 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

A TIME magazine article titled “Neural Advertising: The Sounds We Can’t Resist” reflects the value of sound in advertising and underlines the importance of „everday sounds“: a baby laughing, fizzing soda, or the sound of barbeque. All these sounds activate certain parts of our brain and can set us in a different mood. That is true but if every diaper brand uses the laugh of some baby, what will be the difference? Which brand can actually own this sound? An everyday sound is generic! Continue reading →

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The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the US?

Posted on February 24, 2010 | 7 comments

Today I ran across an article by  Martin Lindstrom.

„The 10 Most Addictive Sounds in the World” shows again how important sound branding has become in today’s daily environment. Often sounds immediately influence what we do, but we don’t even think about it anymore. I guess nobody would doubt that.

Doubtful indeed is the way Lindstrom presents his “scientific” material in the fourth paragraph of this article. There should be more information about the mentioned study like year, selection criteria, and sample statistics. At least for those who would like to read more about this study there should be a reference link. Continue reading →

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Why do some Sound Branding elements work some don’t? Does neuroscience gives us the answer?

Posted on February 23, 2010 | 4 comments

A study of the Stanford School of Music which I believe has great relevance to the area of Sound Branding was already released in 2007 (Link to the news release), however; it has yet not been widely discussed in the field of Acoustic Identity/ Sound Branding.

Using brain images of people listening to short symphonies by an obscure 18th-century composer, a research team from Stanford has gained valuable insight into how the brain sorts out the chaotic world around it.

The research team showed that music engages the areas of the brain involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating the event in memory. The study showed that peak brain activity occurred during a period of silence between musical movements. That may be the answer to the question why some Sound Branding Elements work much better (recognition & recall) than others.

The researchers caught glimpses of the brain in action using functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, which gives a dynamic image showing which parts of the brain are working during a given activity. Continue reading →

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The race is on – How does Porsche sound?

Posted on February 18, 2010 | Leave a comment

One of the hot issues in today’s world of automobiles is the electronic car. But what if the vibrant sound of a Porsche is missing? No engine – no sound?! What’s the solution when Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or VW are entering the age of electric cars? In Germany this discussion is already reflected in the media. For sure the first step is a clear understanding of the desired acoustic identity of the particular car brand – which is true for all Sound Branding projects.

Please check the related articles (Sorry, they are in German!) on Zeit.de and Sueddeutsche.de!

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Artikel auf Deutsch:

Die Automobilwelt beschäftigt sich derzeit stark mit dem Thema Elektoautos. Die Frage ist, was passiert, wenn der vibrierende Sound eines Porsches einfach nicht mehr da ist? Kein Motor – kein Klang?!  Wie können Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz oder VW dieses Problem beim Eintritt in das Zeitalter der Elektroautos lösen?  In Deutschland spiegelt sich diese Diskussion bereits in allgemeinen Medien wider. Mit Sicherheit ist der erste Schritt ein klares Verständnis über die anzustrebende akustische Identität der Automarke – was grundsätzlich für alle Sound Branding Projekte gilt.

Bitte lesen Sie die interessanten Artikel auf auf Zeit.de und Sueddeutsche.de!

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Why Sound Branding?

Posted on February 17, 2010 | 3 comments

You can’t turn off your ears. We can look away from something but hardly stop listening. For our ancestors the never sleeping hearing sense was crucial to survive. Hearing is embedded in the emotional part of our psychological system and the instinctive part of our brain. Music and sound is a universal language understood by all humans.

In the power of sound lies a huge potential for brand communication. This potential is hardly used in a systematic approach. Sound Branding gives a brand a new dimension: an Acoustic Identity.

Why do corporations invest in a clear visual identity? It increases recall and differentiation from competitors. Sounds are even more powerful. If you hear the tones of a famous song you can hum the melody. This power is utilized by Sound Branding. Continue reading →

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Welcome to the Sound Branding Blog!

Posted on January 31, 2010 | 4 comments

The beginning of a decade is the perfect moment to start something new.
Our objective here is to create a blog about the fascinating topic of sound branding: how does a brand sound like? why is it important to find the appropriate sound? how can you create it?

We want to develop an international platform to discuss, to promote, and to inform about sound branding issues. With your help we would like to reflect the latest sound branding trends in Europe, Asia, America (North & South) and where ever else you are! We are working out of Germany, Europe, hence our view – hearing – is limited.

The topic of sound branding – or audio branding, corporate sound, acoustic identity… – has been established over the last decade. Now we can hear many great cases of sound branding (e.g. Intel, t-mobile). At the same time there are still too many bad examples of translating a brand into the world of sound. Continue reading →

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