What Is Sonic Branding? The Psychology Of Sonic Branding

Can you sing this for me?

“ba da ba ba ba, I’m lovin’ it” 

What? Does it sound like…

McDonald’s?

‘I’m lovin’ it’ is not only the longest-running slogan of any brand but a perfect example of an excellent use of sonic branding.

What is Sonic Branding?

Sonic branding (also called audio branding, sound branding, or acoustic branding) is the sound of your brand. It is the use of sound to reinforce your brand identity like these for Playstation, these for Windows, this for Nokiathis for Intel, and this for McDonald’s.

Sonic branding is about building a relationship between the product and its target market through the latter’s ears, fulfilling the role that a national anthem plays to a country or a hymn plays to a religion. – Daniel Jackson, managing director of Cutting Edge Commercial.

Even though these sound like mere mnemonics, jingles or sound effects, they carry huge emotional and exclusive value and connect with the brand as much as their visual equivalents do (even more).

Your sonic branding connects to your brand just like “Happy birthday to you” song connects to birthday and “We wish you a Merry Christmas” to Christmas.

Psychology Of Sonic Branding

Sound is as important as visuals, even more.

3 new startups launch every second. That’s 3 new visual branding every second. However, sonic branding, being one of the most untapped aspects of branding can make you stand out.

But does it really matter?

“The Intel bong is one of the most powerful assets we have. We’re always looking for ways to showcase the amazing experiences that Intel enables, and the Intel bong sound helps keep our messaging consistent.” – Yogiraj Graham, Director of Production for Intel Global Production Labs.

Studies have shown that the ultimate decisions are made by the non-rational (limbic system) part of our brain. The very same part is aroused by music or sound.

There are many advantages of having a sonic branding. These include:

More Attention

With the availability of such vast amount of information, attention is your most scarce asset. Adding a complementing sound to reinforce your brand identity can help you get more attention of your target audience.

Triggers Emotion

Sound triggers emotions better than visuals do. Try watching a horror movie without the sound and you won’t feel scared. However, just listening to it without the visuals may scare you.

Enhanced brand recall

According to studies, listening to music/sound which correlates with the message improves the verbal memory of the audience, which leads to a better brand recall.

Clearer Message

Music is directly related to emotions. Different sounds and chords represent different emotions. For example – trumpets and drum rolls denote heroism, tabla denotes something Indian, djembe denotes something African, strings can be used to represent both happiness and sadness.

The use of right sound for your brand can help you communicate your brand message in a better and a creative way.

Any guesses what does this sonic branding denotes?

Go On, Tell Us What You Think!

Did we miss something?  Come on! Tell us what you think about our article on sonic branding in the comments section.