Original Music, Ninjas, and YOU!

In the advertisement drenched world of today, it is increasingly difficult to influence buyers. If people sense they are being sold something, they shut down. So how can brands advertise effectively, without really ‘advertising’? One way to burrow into a consumer’s subconscious is to employ the powerful use of music to affect their mood.

A few years ago, a study was conducted involving different styles of music being played in a supermarket. The results were freaking awesome! When French music was played in the store, 77% of the wine purchased was French. When German music filled the air, 73% of wine purchased was German. Decision-making was drastically altered simply by the music being played. What’s even more amazing is that customers didn’t notice or believe that music was influencing them. Only 1 out of 44 customers spontaneously mentioned music as a reason for their purchase. When asked specifically about the music influencing them, 83% of customers said that music had no effect on their decision.

Music Is the Back Door Into Consumers’ Minds

As music is being heard, it evokes emotions and memories that seemingly materialize in the buyer’s head. It is these emotions and memories that inform their decision. Using subtle advertising in music, consumers never see the ad coming and can’t shut it out. Simply put, music is the ninja assassin of advertisements.

And who doesn’t love a ninja. Nobody. That’s who.

You might be wondering, “how can my company employ these ninja assassin secrets!?”

This is not a simple task. Everyone can’t just play German oompah music and expect sales to skyrocket. More realistically, companies need to find music that echoes their brand message; a song that conjures the “feel of the brand.” Again, not an easy task, but there are professionals whose job it is to craft the perfect song for your brand. By creating custom music you can tweak musical elements until it evokes the set of emotions that your brand represents. As we learned from our wine buyers, the right emotional response often times means a sale.

Building A Brand Without Giving Everything Away For Free

Interested in building a brand that customers can trust, but don’t want to share too much? Here are a few tips on how to strike the right balance:

Emotional connection: don’t focus only on giving away information to your potential customers. Also give some thought to creating an emotional connection via storytelling, or perhaps sharing your own personal reasons for getting into the business.
Don’t fear giving away too much: you should not sit around worrying all day about how much information you are giving away. Give info naturally so that potential customers can begin to trust you and the sales will flood in shortly afterwards. Some customers might make a purchase as a way of saying “thanks” for giving away so much useful information.
Give only part of the story: when giving away information you can talk about the why and the where, but not the how. This will work in your favor, because they’ll only have a piece of the puzzle and understand that they need to opt for your services to get the whole picture.
Share supplemental info: focus on sharing the kind of information that you might not package up in your services and products, yet is useful to know for the average customer. This could be a set of myths related to your industry, or an article on how to spot useful products.

The Sound Heard Around the World

The Nokia ringtone. Otherwise known as the most identifiable audio brand tune on planet Earth. How did it gain so much awareness?

Audrey Arbeeny, founder of New York’s audio branding firm Audiobrain, states that she has never had anyone unable to identify the Nokia ringtone. At the peak of Nokia’s popularity in the ‘90s, the tune was heard nearly 1.8 billion times a day—and it’s still heard 20,000 times every second today.

Where did the tune come from? It is actually a snippet of a waltz piece, “Gran Vals” by Francisco Tarrega. It was used as a backtrack for a television spot for Nokia in 1992, and then part of it was chosen to become the ringtone. It was slightly modified to sound more electronic.

Today’s Apple Ringtone Is Yesterday’s Nokia Ringtone

Nokia is the pioneer. The tune was unique to the brand and became identifiable not only for Nokia, but for cellular phones in general. Similar to the generic trademark of all tissues often being called “Kleenex,” all phones were synonymous with the Nokia ringtone. With the burst of cellphone technology becoming widely used in a short period of time, this really boosted the Nokia tune’s awareness worldwide. The tune was used in media to represent all phones, such as its use in movie theatre messages to turn off cellphones before a film began. This contributed to making Nokia stand out as the dominating cellphone audio brand.

During the ‘90s, cellphones were seen as a status symbol. The Nokia tune was melodic, friendly and engaging. It made consumers connect with the brand. When that ringtone went off in your pocket, everyone in the room knew you had a Nokia phone.

Sound designer Henry Daw, who helped build Nokia’s audio brand, states, “During my time at Nokia, consistency was especially important for the core brand sounds…it’s important to understand that consistency doesn’t mean that everything needs to sound the same. Rather the aim is to sing from the same hymn sheet—your overall brand sound needs to follow similar guidelines and design principles.”

The Technology of Cellular Phones is Constantly Changing

Your sound needs to match your product while staying brand consistent. Nokia is a great example of audio brand flexibility.

The first 90’s tune was a tonal, electronic buzzing sound. The early 2000’s ringtone stayed similar, but had a softer tone. The tune then became more classical sounding with piano, morphed to feature acoustic Spanish guitar, and with smartphones, became more modern, similar to Apple’s xylophone sound.

Sound Is Language, Learn To Speak It!

The tune of the ice cream truck. The sound of church bells. The Apple iPhone ringtone. We hear certain sounds and associate them with brands, memories and feelings.

Your brand may have a visual presence with a logo and color scheme, but does it have an equally strong audio presence? In today’s saturated market, brands need to differentiate–audio branding is a tool you can use to strengthen your brand identity and awareness among consumers.

Humans are highly visual, but sound is much more powerful. A visual doesn’t ring in the mind of the consumer, stuck in his head for days, like a well composed jingle can.

The consumer can shut his eyes, but he can’t shut his ears. Many Americans now look at their smartphones during television commercial breaks. The consumer may never see your commercial or your logo–but they’ll hear the sound of an audio logo or brand music and know it’s you.

Think about your target audience. Are you selling a pick up truck? What kind of music do you think people buying pick up trucks listen to? You can cater to your demographic by utilizing the music they like, and by using sounds that will spark their interest.

By utilizing brand music in your radio commercial, you essentially keep the flow. You aren’t interrupting the music consumers are listening to–you’re joining in on it. Ever heard those Bluebell radio commercials? They sound like actual songs. I let them play all the way through. (Psst…we can help you create your own original brand music.)

So, what does your brand sound like? Is it perky and upbeat? Slow and luxurious? Is it instrumental or techno? Sound is a language all of it’s own. Use it to communicate your brand’s feel.

Sources:

http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/how-nokia-s-original-ringtone-became-most-played-tune-planet-169615