Marketers understand the importance of a cohesive, consistent brand look and feel, and the benefits of memorability, recall and brand personality signalling that comes with it.
Great marketers understand that sound can do just the same - adding a whole new dimension to the branding arsenal. A great sonic identity brings endless brand benefits and positive impacts.
But what actually is sonic branding?
Sonic branding - also referred to as audio branding, sound identity, sound trademark, brand sound - all means the same thing: how music and sound is used to make a brand known, recognised and remembered.
There are multiple, interchangeable ways to go about creating a sound identity - sometimes brands just use one method, and some brands go for the whole enchilada.
Here’s the menu, bon appetit 🤌🏼
1 - Sonic Logo
Ah, the holy grail of sonic branding: the sonic logo. Intel, McDonald’s, Netflix, the list goes on.
A sonic logo is the sound equivalent of a brand’s visual logo. It’s the essence of a brand wrapped into 3-4 seconds of sound. With enough consistent repetition, consumers begin to recognise your brand for this sound.
Did you know….
The Netflix “Ta-dum” is heard more than 250 million times every month.
It's prolific frequency is one of the reasons it's ubiquitous all over the world.
Most brands use a sonic logo as a bookend - either to kick something off (The Apple startup sound and the Netflix “Ta-dum” are the introduction to these brand worlds) or to punctuate the end of a piece of brand communications (just like McDonald's and ‘I’m Lovin It').
Distilling a whole brand into 3-4 seconds of sound is a big creative challenge, but when done well, the power is immense.
2 - Jingle
Say it with me: Jingles Are BACK!
Most brands think of a jingle as a true promotional sales tool, often associated with local radio advertising of the late 20th Century.
But with the likes of Just Eat and Ocado tapping into the “jingle” world, we can see how major brands are utilising a catchy ear worm to do some heavy lifting in the brand building process.
Did you know….
⅓ of people report experiencing the phenomenon of an earworm at least once a week. 90% experience an earworm once a month.
3 - Brand soundtrack
Soooo… what’s the difference between a jingle and a brand track I hear you ask?
Not that much, but a brand track is less about the brand name with a sung sting and more about finding a piece of music that really embodies the brand, and using that piece of music a lot.
A jingle is a melody that can be distilled into around 10-15 seconds - it has the brand name, it’s super catchy, it’s in your head without you even being conscious of it being there.
A brand track is perhaps a little more subtle. Some brands use commercial pieces of music to soundtrack their every touchpoint, for example Jet2: they use Jess Glynne’s “Hold My Hand” on their above the line advertising and in-flight. Annoying? Definitely. Effective? Very much so.
4 - Brand voice
Somewhat crossing over into other areas of branding, like the use of characters and celebrities, we come to brand voice.
When brands use a consistent voice in their communications, it gives us a whole wealth of information about that brand's personality and feel.
The M&M characters, George Clooney for Nespresso (“What Else?” said by George you could argue is not just a tag line but an excellent sonic logo), Sean Bean for O2 to name a few. Picking a voice with the right sonic and tonal qualities can endlessly heighten brand depth and emotion.
Did you know…according to research by UC Berkeley, the human voice communicates up to 24 emotions at any one time.
5 - UX Sounds
Apple’s sonic identity is so baked into our existence that we often forget to credit it for being probably the most ubiquitous sonic ID in the world: millions of people daily hear the startup chime, their alarm tones wreak the feeling of dread from here to Australia, and the terrifying noise of emptying your trash when you scream “ahhhh - did I really mean to delete that?” These sounds are engrained in our lives.
Most UX sound identities are in this digital technology industries: the WhatsApp notification noise, the Microsoft Teams incoming call chimes, the ping of a Google calendar reminder. They’re not Just Eat in-your-face level emotional branding, but they’re just as effective - if not more - at prompting a direct response.
