Match brand personality to sonic branding

With the rapid rise in voice interfaces, audio search and podcasting, more and more brands are recognising that audio is an untapped opportunity to build emotional brand connections with consumers.

Why it matters

Genuine product differentiation is rare, so emotion is increasingly important to getting people’s attention. Music is the most potent driver of emotions, yet many brands remain deaf to the opportunities that it unlocks. Some may even have a sonic identity that is fighting the brand personality, making the brand equity less distinct and harder to recall and understand. Getting it right can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of brand communications.

In its new Personality report, SoundOut, the sonic branding and audio marketing testing agency, assesses the sonic branding of 135 leading UK and US brands and comes up with some guidelines for success.

Takeaways 

• Determining the personality of your brand is essential. The closer your sonic personality is to the actual personality of your brand the faster it can become a distinctive brand asset.
• If your sonic logo is to become a distinctive brand asset, as opposed to simply a marketing asset, people need to hear it in isolation and immediately think of your brand – and only your brand.
• Consumers must be positively disposed to your brand before an emotional link can be made, e.g. a strong Net Promoter Score has a material impact on the successful execution of a sonic strategy.
• Don’t ever replace an effective sonic logo. But do start again if your logo remains largely unrecognised after several years.
• If you get a sonic personality right in one territory it will likely work globally, but consider localising the melody through, for example, different instrumentation.

Sourced from SoundOut [Image: SoundOut]