Small businesses take note
Two words. Sonic branding.
If you’re thinking “what is sonic branding?”, you’re not alone. If you have a business and you’re thinking “who cares” the answer is — you should.
Sonic branding is the integration of custom branded sound into a brands’ marketing strategy.
Sonic branding is the difference between “meh” and “wow” advertising.
Silicon Valley is known for their ground breaking technical discoveries and enhancements. Some like Apple, Intel, and Netflix have even defined themselves through their one of a kind sounds.
But other than a very select few, not all of them have fully embraced branded sound in marketing.
Sonic branding in Silicon Valley
Intel arguably started with what some consider the first official sonic logo (although I don’t think they even called it that at first). They made us “need” an Intel Pentium Processor Chip in our computers. How? By repeating their iconic 5 note mnemonic, or sonic logo.
Apple followed suit with an “accident” of sorts. Jim Reeks, Apple’s Senior Software Architect back in the 80’s and 90’s, snuck in the boot up sound most of us grew up with as a last minute replacement to the existing tri-tone sound. He saw it as a “don’t ask, apologize later” opportunity. That sound lasted decades.
Netflix’s extremely famous “Ta-Dum” was a very purposeful edition to the branding. The idea was to keep their audience remembering which streaming service they were on as they binge watched originals such as Stranger Things, Black Mirror, or The Crown.
But are those the only ones?
Although some other tech companies use UX and functional sounds like Google, Tesla, and Facebook, it doesn’t seem like they’ve explored an all encompassing brand sound yet.
Tesla uses custom sounds and other forms of UX within their brand but not a sonic logo. As they run ads hardly ever, they seem to only stick with the functionality aspect of sound.
Google and Facebook both seem to be doing the same by using sound here and trialing sound there. Nothing definitive and nothing completely committed to for the brand as a whole. Seeing as how huge they are and how many hoops it would take to make an all encompassing asset, I’m not really surprised.
What would happen if…
What if Google dominated branded sound like it does the internet search?
Currently, the Google visual logo is animated but silent. There is the acception here and there when they’re marketing a specific sound and adding its functional sound but generally, it’s quiet.
What if there were a universal sound to back up all of Google’s marketing?
What if all of their commercials for their insanely high amount of products and services ended with a recognizable tone that said “Google” in a way only Google could?
How much more power and authority would that give them?
Tesla
What if there were a sound that defined not just any old “car” but specifically “Tesla”?
If you really think about it, no car company has defined the sound of “car”. Other than the specifics like engine sounds and the acoustical engineering of interior/exterior design, right now the only thing I’ve heard is “zoom zoom”.
Is this really the best they’ve got? Prove me wrong auto industry. What does a car sound like?
What if Facebook had put all those billions of dollars into a brand sound rather than the Metaverse?
I’m not saying Facebook/Meta was wrong with their jump to the Metaverse but it was a pretty big spend on a hunch. Sound is not a hunch. It’s been proven to be a high performer in marketing and a long term brand building force. I honestly can’t help but ask the question, “where would they be now if…”
Myspace may have come first, but Facebook was the first to master social media. What if back then, Zuck had had a buddy that said, “Hey dude. Let’s add a sound that everyone hears when they go into Facebook and something when you add a friend. And what if we added a little longer of a sound at the end of all of our advertising?”
What would branded sound have done to Facebook’s meteoric rise?
My wager is an awful lot.
When they changed their look the first time, everyone seemed to be up in arms. Actually, that’s every one of their redesigns.
Could sound have helped ease the transition into Facebooks’ rebranding to Meta and their shift into the Metaverse? Would a familiar tone have made customers more apt to buy into their new editions?
All we can do is guess because it never rolled out that way.
But what I can say confidently is that there is still time for big business but more importantly the mom and pops of the world.
What would happen if small business dominated branded sound?
I can’t stress this idea enough to small and medium size businesses. Stop thinking that sonic branding is complicated and out of reach. Any brand can own a sound.
Sonic branding doesn’t have to be a huge 6 figure project. It can be as simple as defining what a brand sounds like and doesn’t sound like.
Even before music, brands can define their real life sound that translates to relatability and familiarity and go from there. For example, a campfire crackling could help inspire outdoor brand sounds. The chatter from a baby is specific to infant product brands. The sound of an engine revving obviously attributes to the automotive brands.
The advantage of sound and small business working together
With smaller infrastructure and less hoops, small to medium size businesses’ have an advantage with sound.
With so many departments and products and lanes and people to go through, creating an all encompassing sound design for companies like Google would be a tall task (not impossible, just complicated). The design could be stuck in bureaucracy for years. For all we know, that’s why we haven’t heard of one yet.
Perhaps it’s not even necessary for Google in the first place.
What’s great about sound in marketing for small business is that it doesn’t have to fit into any sort of traditional marketing mold.
The fact that there are no established rules for this new(ish) form of marketing is exactly why it’s perfect for small business.
Because small business doesn’t have time for rules and hoops. It’s about DIY and bootstrapping and fitting things in when they can. As long as the sound helps tell the brand story in one way or another, it can be helpful. Potentially even a huge leg up.
Sound; keep it simple
Sound in marketing could be as simple as changing the buzzing of your fluorescent light bulbs with LED’s or owning that “annoying” scratching noise of your car wash brushes to be part of its humor and personality. It could be music, but it doesn’t have to be. It could even be exploring a more audio only or audio first platform for the brand.
There is big opportunity to be creative through sound within any brands’ time and resources available. With so many tiny nuances yet to be explored, there are sure to be more opportunity just around the bend. All it takes is a bit of out of the box thinking.
Time and resources are 2 things that can make or break a business. Eliminate constraints and you relieve the workload and accelerate creativity.
Creating long term brand recognition and sales for decades through sound is within every brands’ grasp.
What does your brand sound like?
(This article was originally published on Medium)
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