By Lucas Murray
4 tips for crafting and committing to your new brand identity
Over the past few years, sonic branding has evolved from a niche, nice-to-have marketing asset to a must-have for any complete brand ecosystem.
Forward-thinking companies realise they must use sound and music to stand out both in traditional media and on audio-first platforms like TikTok, Spotify and other social media and streamers.
However, knowing your company needs sonic branding and learning how to create an effective sonic identity are very different things. In my time as a producer, I’ve seen brands achieve varying levels of success—and there are four main reasons a sonic identity might be doomed to fail. These are obstacles that will never go away, but fortunately, by knowing where the dangers are, you can aim to avoid them while becoming one of the select few brands with a truly iconic sound strategy.
Music is subjective
Music is extremely abstract and difficult to talk about. I sometimes witness teams trying to make it more tangible by pushing for specific musical elements: “We need an ascending melody because that feels happy and positive.”
Maybe, but there are just as many successful examples of “happy” descending melodies in music. By only pushing for ascending melodies, your sonic identity may risk sounding like the rest—not providing the differentiation you desire.
Instead of relying on what we think is appealing, seek more objective measures that tell us what is effective. For example, we know through research that the most subconsciously appealing sound is baby laughter.
While not every sonic logo needs to hit the same mark, it’s helpful to get real data around where your sonic assets are landing on KPIs like recall and emotional appeal. Not only will this confirm whether you’re truly appealing to your audience, but it will also help get buy-in from stakeholders involved in the process.
Commitment is hard
Creating a sonic identity is like getting married—ideally, you are signing up to be with your identity for life. The best predictor of sonic success is sustained, frequent use. You must commit to using it across touchpoints as often as you can.
Though, as Chris Rock once put it, “commitment will give you a headache.” It’s difficult to find “the one” sonic identity and stick with it; newer, shinier sounds will always beckon you away from your brand. However, you must resist your wandering ears by understanding that the benefits of commitment far outweigh the difficulties.
For example, the psychological phenomenon known as the mere-exposure effect teaches us that people like things merely because they are familiar with them. This is doubly true for music, like when a once-annoying earworm creeps into your head enough times to become your favourite song. Commit to your sonic identity, and your audience will learn to love it too.
The landscape is changing
Gone are the days in which you could rely on a sonic logo at the end of a commercial to fully reach your audience. Linear television is evolving, and culture is being shaped by social media. In 5-10 years, we’ll be adapting to yet another iteration of the media landscape.
Yet some brands are still falling into the trap of creating sonic identities with only broadcast TV and terrestrial radio in mind. These may currently be important touch points for your brand, but they may not be soon. The important thing is to design your sonic identity with enough flexibility in mind that it can expand around, adapt to and perpetuate on new and evolving platforms.
Brands contain multitudes
It is difficult enough to translate your brand purpose and personality into music that perfectly represents your brand. It is even more difficult to get buy-in from various departments that need to approve or implement your sonic identity. C-suite execs, brand managers and partner agencies will likely all have different needs for it. You might hear: “It needs to be flexible like McDonald’s,” “It needs to be instantly familiar like Intel” and of course, “It needs to have fewer notes to fit into video.”
There’s nothing wrong with any of these notes individually, but there is no way to satisfy all of these disparate desires in one sound without creating something that sounds indistinct and unmemorable.
Instead of trying to hang your hat on a single sound that does everything, you must create a sonic identity system—one that encompasses a creative concept, long- and short-form sound, music curation guidelines and a strategy for rollout and use. You can then address your team’s many needs without having to water down the work.
Creating a sonic identity is hard work, but when done correctly, it’s an incredibly effective tool for attaining brand recognition, brand love and higher KPIs. If you rely on objective measures, commit to your new identity, plan for flexibility and create an entire system, you are well on your way to creating an enduring sonic identity.
Feature Image Credit: Sandipkumar Patel/Getty Images
By Lucas Murray
Lucas Murray is vp, supervising music producer at Made Music Studio.
