Acoustics Accessories

In today's brave new world, sounds and products are being fused together to create a unified identity. Sound images are elementary components of brands. Sound identity gives brands a personality. "Acoustic Branding" is the way to achieve this.

Sounds are easier to remember than words and images. What the mind hears and perceives is distinct to the environment and the brand's communications. Yet there are so many times when a brand manager relies solely on the imagery of the communications and not on the "hear me now" sense.

Music does not become just an element while communicating. For instance, the signature tune of Britannia still remains fresh as ever in consumers' mind and serves the purpose of being a strong brand associative. Music in terms of attaching a sense of aesthetic value to the brand helps in accomplishing the following:

• Helps to ensure brand recall. As in the case of Britannia and the ever popular, "Utterly Butterly Delicious" of Amul.
  
• Music creates the emotionality attached to the brand. Cadbury's notes for instance, are all a creation of the brand imagery and its personality of being warm, friendly and at home.
  
• Music can also enhance the perceived product attributes.

Music has adopted the responsibility of an aesthetic brand signifier, not to forget its strong presence in every medium of communication. Consider this: You enter any mall or store today. You are flooded with an acoustic experience. Crossroads has implemented the technique of acoustic branding very well. As soon as one enters the mall, there is a big screen playing MTV and in bits its sponsors and store ads. This is the pull factor of acoustic branding and advertising and the technique is so simple: Use Music.

Problems of Acoustic Branding

1. Semantics poses a major problem in acoustic branding. There is a music brief drawn by the agency and the brand manager to ensure that the communication is understood by all. In a country where there are so many dialects, it becomes a big problem to select the target audience on the basis of music and its understanding.

2. A parallel problem that exists is the lack of music-oriented research tools. There are no measurement tools that can tell marketers how exactly the survey went off. Also most of the time, consumer inputs are minimal or non-existing where music is the basis of the research.

Working Model for Acoustic Branding

The starting point for the acoustic branding process is the positioning itself. The brand values have to be clearly defined before embarking on the acoustics exercise. Once the values have been recognised, the next step is to convert this to acoustics. This is called the Acoustics Transfer Interface - ATI. This is the key stage on the road to establishing a strong sound identity mixed with the brand elements. Here the brand associations are transported to the acoustic system. However, a brand manager must keep in mind what associations are transferable and what are not. For instance, the "naturalness" association of the brand Chandrika Soaps cannot be transferred to acoustic branding, simply because the association itself presents no musical expression.

The above-mentioned process then requires an expert level of knowledge by which brand managers and the agency can differentiate the parameters of the brand that will suit the acoustic composition. These are called Sound Identity Drivers - SI Drivers. There are a multitude of sound parameters on which tunes are selected based on the brand and thus an association is created. For instance, a brand like Marlboro would have an association of a rugged, masculine, and 'countr'y image attached. Hence the SI Drivers in this case would be: Country, Folklore, Guitar tunes, an accordion etc.

Just as the copy is integral to an ad campaign, the SI is a strategic base for management, the agency and the composer. Not to forget the brand! While the sound identity establishes how the brand is going to sound in the future, it also goes one step further. It plays a part on different levels in the brand portfolio. After a sound identity has been created, there is the stage of Transformation, where the SI is made into an experience, a brand in its own right and success. In today's marketing world, sounds and products are fused together to build a unified identity.

Related Reading:

1. "Brand Aesthetics and Acoustic Branding"; Schneider, Michael; 2001
2. "Marketing vs. Branding: Separate Pieces"; Chevron, Jacques; Brandweek; Jun 2000
3. "Heroic Online Branding"; E Commerce Communications; 1999