We’ve all heard the music and special announcements while shopping. We’ve even shopped a while longer listening to a specific song. But have you given any thought to whether there was any strategy behind the music or whether it was just a random Spotify play list?
For retailers and restaurants, sound is the most powerful sense to reach the customer while they shop or dine. A song can inspire, energise and remind us of something or someone. An well placed audio announcement can influence your customers’ choice or share brand or product information they might not have known before. Sound is the one sense that has the ability to literally fill the entire retail area. It is unavoidable. It penetrates the subconscious. It drives emotion which is why brands need to ensure that the right music is played in their business – always.
The Harvard Business Review deemed it to be an incredibly “powerful branding tool that has been generally overlooked or perhaps undervalued.” Larger brands, however, have been capitalising on this notion for a while now and building it into their strategy without most of the public even realising it.
What is audio branding?
Audio branding — sometimes referred to as sonic branding — has many definitions on Google, but they all come down to the same basic concept:
” the strategic use of sound elements (whether it is voice, jingles, songs, or even silence) to complete a brand identity and communicate it to the consumer”
It is both a representation and reinforcement of your brand, its values, its promise, and its personality. Sonic branding sets the visual tone in the consumer’s mind. Let’s do a test: listen to different genres of music with your eyes closed, and visualise the persona of the song playing … how is he/she dressed and behaving. What is the personality of the persona in your mind. Think how the persona changes from listening to gospel, hard rock to classical, street rap and then a romantic duet. This is the power of sonic branding.
“Music creates the theatre of the mind.”
The right sonic branding can set the tone for premium products, with premium prices.
Your logo is the visual language for your brand, and by that token ,your audio logo is the auditory language for your brand and is just as powerful on its own, but together they are the most powerful language your brand can have.
Get in touch with our team to see how Go Radio can expand your brand.
