It’s Noisy Out There - Making More Noise Won’t Get You Noticed

In markets where there is a high degree of competitive convergence, sound can be the deciding factor whether a customer buys from you or your competitors. The right brand sound helps create Brand Differentiation.

Yet sound is often treated as a peripheral activity, the last thing to be addressed in creating an ad.

When music is chosen because it only highlights the narrative, or it’s within the remaining budget, the likelihood of it aligning with the sound of the brand is very low. You’re guessing -- and therefore either lucky or wrong.

Sound and music need to move higher in brand differentiation strategies.

How can we choose sound that is both cost effective and creatively effective? You need to be brave enough to test it with your target market and what is happening with your competitors.

And whilst like/dislike and memorability are useful data, perhaps these are better:

How effective is the audio-visual partnership?

What’s the level of emotional engagement to your brand recall, product suitability and purchase intentions?

When consumer research is part of the brand sound strategy, brands will know what is going on with their competitors and who sounds like what and where the gaps are. More significantly, it will give a brand the confidence to take it from ‘I think this music is right’ to ‘I know this music is right’

– AUDIANTLabs ‘breaking sound barriers’