Intentional Audio

The online journal of sonic branding and audio identity. Brought to you by Sonic ID and Noel Franus.

Why the 'Buyology of Sound' is a trite distraction

I love Martin Lindstrom’s work. He’s done a great job giving sensory design the stage it deserves in the branding and design world.

He’s now studied ‘the world’s most addictive sounds.’ Here’s the summary.

I’m excited about the notion of anything sonic-branding related appearing in a consumer mag like Time. But I’m stumped. The study, or what I’ve read about it, feels too trite to be taken seriously.

Lindstrom divides the world of sound into ‘branded’ and ‘non-branded’ sounds. But that’s an artificial bifurcation—smart brands can very much influence our thoughts, feelings and behaviors in the real world around us without having to rely on ‘branded sound.’

  • Silence, water, white noise or ambient sound in a workplace environment for influencing productivity and striking up an emotional response.
  • The right soundscape in a retail setting to mediate space and evoke interaction.
  • Functional and aesthetically fitting cues in public spaces such as transit centers, airports, stadiums and open-air malls to inform and eventually create a sense of spatial identity.

Brands live in these spaces—but it doesn’t mean they have to rely on ‘branded sound’ to effect change. Maybe a sense of ‘brand-oriented choreography,’ but there’s a huge difference between the two. You wouldn’t guess that from this study if you took it at face value.

More nits: Lindstrom says in this Time interview that many generic sounds, such as a baby’s laugh or a burger sizzling on the grill, are not ‘owned’ by brands today but will be so in the near future. We can assume that consistent, repetitive television advertising is will drive this because the conversation is exclusively about tv spots.

Ick. Though it’s hard to argue with the notion that repetition breeds familiarity, it’s dependent on the assumption that tv is king. Today it is for a mass audience. But the future is much more thin-sliced.

Our media and our lives are far more fragmented than they were 50, 20, even 5 years ago. We live online, with our smartphones, consuming time-shifted media on a variety of devices and in a zillion private and public places.

If brands can’t find a way to be relevant in each of these spaces—through messaging or, God forbid, utility—they die.

We’re trying to change behaviors. Brands that succeed are those that evoke meaning with intent, precision and a keen sense of context. Not those who have the best bag of tricks for crashing the amygdala in just a 30-second spot.

Finally: babies? Most powerful sound on earth? I’ve got a stick of dynamite over here that says otherwise...

Hey, we're in I.D. magazine

Idmag

We do a lot of writing on the business of sonic branding and identity. Now and then it's nice to have a break and have someone else do the writing.

Fortunately we've received such a break. Sonic ID's creative director Martyn Ware and I are featured in the latest (June 2009) issue of I.D. Magazine, which is its "Design+Business" issue.

"Rock Brand: Sonic ID Rethinks Advertising with Next-Generation Jingles" is available online and in print at newsstands near you now.

Just between you and me: it's taken the talents of writer (and accomplished musician) Daron Murphy just 1,000 words to say what normally takes us quite a bit more. So a huge thanks to Daron and the I.D. team for sharing our story with this wider audience.

-- Noel Franus

 

A little guidance for emotionally wayward brands

Found myself referenced in a recent Ad Age/CMO Strategy piece on music and brands. It's a writeup on the Heartbeats International report, which if you haven't seen it, spells it all out:

  • 97% of brands believe that music and sound can strengthen their brand.
  • 41% believe it can do this by building a consistent image of their brand.
  • 27% believe it can help make their offer unique from competitors.

I'm going to take a second to follow up on that. The obvious conclusion (stated so well by writer Charlie Moran) is that sonic branding and audio identity is "worth a hell of a lot more money than you put in, because it'll be fortifying what you've already got." For the most part, he's referring to television and the agencies working with tv. Which is a sensible starting point.

But wait. There's more. Peel back the onion and you'll see that in every global brand, right now at this moment, decisions are being made about music and sound that have nothing to do with television or catchy jingles. For example:

  • A facilities and maintenance manager in suburban Dallas</strong> is selecting the background music for a corporate briefing center, sales area, or other customer-facing space—spaces devoted to the generation of revenue
  • A phone-systems integration manager outside of Boston</strong> is choosing the music and voices that millions of conference-callers will hear when they dial into virtual meetings. Meetings with captive, often influential audiences.
  • A programmer/developer in India</strong> is hurriedly selecting the blips and bleeps that will be a core part of his/her company's mobile devices.
  • A marketing team in EMEA</strong> is outsourcing the selection of music (walk-ons, background tracks, demo audio) for their annual 20,000-person event to a company that's also responsible for such things as food and Powerpoint creation.

Forget television. Forget sonic logos, audio stings and mnemonics. Toss aside the jingle. These people don't need any of that; they're responsible for some of the moments that can make or break the user experience, the guest experience, and the feelings we have about a brand.

What guidance will you give them? How prepared are you to get them jazzed about the brand? Who's funding their operations? Who do they report to? Why should they care?

Been there before, as both a client and consultant. It's never easy, but brands do live everywhere. Everyone who manages them needs the right guidance and/or tools. The same guidance that feeds mainstream media should be able to play out for many other uses as well.

Anyone who invests in, produces or directs a sonic branding or audio identity effort should keep this in mind. Treat it like a good, hardworking investment and it will perform like one.

-- Noel Franus

 

Bear with us

Unfortunately some of the detritus associated with switching blogging platforms includes spambots, duplicate posts, and entirely missing posts. And that's the biggest problem here — I'm still blogging occasionally, but we're missing nearly two years' worth of stuff. I'll get it back online shortly. In the meantime, please continue whistling. Thank you. — Noel Franus, February 21, 2011

New article: sonic branding as intellectual property

I have a new article posted at iMediaConnection. The idea: sonic branding and audio identity can and should be about creating intellectual property—protectable assets that grow in value over time. (Think NBC, McDonald's, Intel, etc.) As a cheat-sheet for you, I've identified four questions that any brand organization, large or small, local, national or global, can ask to begin creating that capital right away.
1. What is your return on music and sound today? Most companies spend millions and expect nothing in return...which creates the mindset that this is a cost, not really an investment. 2. Do you sound as unique as you are? Great brands inspire us. They solve problems, they make meaning. Yet most brands sound alike: generically upbeat, harmlessly acceptable and usually...forgettable. 3. What's your emotional identity? How can/should you use music and sound to unleash the otherwise unexpressed emotional DNA of your brand? 4. How elastic is your brand? If you really want your brand's sound identity to thrive everywhere it lives, ensure that it's flexible enough to stretch, twist and grow across multiple touchpoints, markets and cultures.
And there you have it. I should mention that at Sonic ID we've used this framework successfully for our clients. Of course you're free to do your own thing, too, and if that works for you then I'd probably enjoy hearing your story. Happy reading, -- Noel Franus

Podcast Available: Sonic Convergence show 01

It's up: Sonic Convergence, our first-ever 'live podcast,' is off the press and available for listening online or download.

In this show we get to the nut of sonic branding and audio identity—what's possible and how we push the envelope. After all, we may wake to the clock radio, we tune into our iPods, we have our favorite artists. But most of us really understand very little about music and sound. What I explore in this show are some of the answers to a question: how can we leverage the power of sound for valuable brand experiences?

Guests Martyn Ware and Brian Schmidt are some of the world’s top creatives in doing just that. Ware is founder of Heaven 17 and the Human League, creative director at Sonic ID, and a sound designer with recent installations at the NY MoMa and the Venice Architectural Biennale; Schmidt has been the guiding ’sonic spirit’ for audio in the Xbox and primary composer for multiple game titles for Sega, Sony and Electronic Arts, in addition to hundreds of arcade, console and pinball games. Together their work has been experienced by hundreds of millions of people.

Listen online or download the podcast. Questions, comments and suggestions for future shows are most welcome.

-- Noel Franus
Posterous theme by Cory Watilo
  
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