Think about your life routine and imagine that you're hearing something all the time. Sounds that, without realizing it, affect you in a positive or negative way. From the alarm that goes off in the morning when you wake up, to the beeps, melodies and mechanical sounds emitted by different products, advertisements or podcasts with tracks and voices that distract you while you're doing a task, playlists together with other sounds that resonate in different environments or even sound icons that announce a new message received on your cell phone.
Whew! In this tangle of sounds, there are those that affect you, settle in your mind and can sound positive or provoke disastrous memories.
We live in the midst of many sound stimuli and within this context there is the universe of brands that are constantly part of this sometimes chaotic ecosystem, without much or any distinction.
In contrast to this scenario, global studies have revealed consistent data on the use of this vital sense, which has not yet been thought of strategically, in building really strong and memorable brands.
Sounds, for example, affect purchasing behavior by 86%. Sound identities increase brand power by 76% (Kantar). Ads with sound elements are up to 8.5x more effective than purely visual ones (Ipsos). Sound branding not only helps recognition, but also promotes emotional connections with consumers. It has been shown to improve brand value indicators such as relevance and perceived quality.
These elements collectively contribute to a stronger brand resonance. Mastercard's "Sound of Trust and Inclusion" project resulted in a 63% increase in digital transactions anda 78% increase in trust among users, demonstrating the tangible business benefits of effective sound branding strategies.
I've been working with sound for over 25 years and founded Soundthinkers in 2003, a Brazilian Sound Company, precisely to answer these and other key questions through what we call Sound Intelligence, where we promote 360 listening to build identity and brand experience in a strategic and unique way.
It so happens that when I've developed sound projects, mainly for big players, whether local or global, involving different professionals from a wide variety of areas, I've noticed some patterns and I'd like to share them with you. In our methodology, we make a habit of listening both outside and inside the company and this brings powerful and very assertive results when building any strategy.
Then we realized that when we talked about "sound" in a less subjective and more rational way, a common pain arose: many people didn't feel able to talk about the subject or didn't feel literateabout it, especially when it came to making decisions involving sound. Marketing professionals had technical difficulties in discerning the choice of soundtracks or voice-overs for their campaigns, or even in correlating a broader construction, contemplating the in-store experience, for example.
As for the Trade area, in addition to thinking only in terms of playlists, they were unaware of the existence of sound guides to bring the brand's DNA into physical spaces in a broader and more sophisticated way. Ux Designers presented their design system with very clear guidelines regarding visual aesthetic bias and tone of voice, but when we asked them how that reasoning was unfolded in sound, they had the same pain. In addition to the lack of sound literacy evident in different sectors, this reflected another worrying point.
The brand's narrative is being built in a fragmented way and, as a result, its DNA is being weakened. If, on the one hand, we are moving towards an increasingly human and multi-channel brand journey, we realized, through different in-depth interviews with leaders, that there were common, repressed and dammed-up pains in various sectors. However, a brand is perceived by the real experiences we have with it in a 360 way, in other words, an opposite and unified flow, where perception is formed from different points of interaction.
Sound intelligence and our strategic thinking lie precisely in integrating these different points and guiding leaders to activate sound in a much more strategic way, helping to create brands that sound congruent from the inside out and the outside in.
If you, as a leader, could gather a significant sample of your brand's sound manifestations in a stratified way, how would it sound in different moments of interaction? Would it be in line with or dissonant with your desires, pillars, essence and visual and verbal codes? Would it sound unique or generic compared to market peers? Would it generate more good or bad moments for its different audiences?
The fact is that using sound intelligence in brand building is a competitive advantage and if it's not already part of your daily routine, you'd better act fast, otherwise you run the risk of sounding generic or worse, noisy in the minds of those you'd like to engage.
Author: Paulo Dytz - CEO and Founder
Email: paulo@soundthinkers.co
Soundthinkers: https://soundthinkers.co/en
