Enjoy your weekend.

With the above in mind, lets take a look at, or rather a listen to, how companies are using the sounds that mobile devices make to further build their brand. We’ll go over the history and discuss what the future will hold for audio branding in the mobile world.

The most obvious sound used by cell phones is its ring sound. This sound is just an evolution of what we already expect from a telephone when we get a call. Of all the ring sounds the bell telephone is one of the most recognized phone sounds of yesteryear. It was annoying as heck, but damn did it get your attention.

Old-school bell telephone sound

During these early days, and still continuing today, a vast amount of research goes into figuring what the ideal telephone sound should be. I’ll briefly touch on this research in a minute but for an in-depth look you should read: Brian Roemmele’s article in Forbes, What’s The Story Behind The iPhone’s Default “Marimba” Ringtone?

Fast-forward a few decades to when cell phones were starting to become popular. One of the first major manufacturers of cell phones was Nokia. They understood that the default ringtone used in their products was important to establishing it’s brand and a position in people’s minds. The ringtone is based on a song by Francisco Tárrega called Gran Vals. Today when you hear the sound you know exactly what it means – a call is being made to a Nokia phone.

Francisco Tårrega Gran Vals

Original Nokia ringtone

In 2011-2012 Nokia worked on reviving the popular ringtone through a crowd sourced competition that allowed its fans to create the next Nokia ringtone. It turned out to be a great way to reestablish the brand and get a new lease on its sound.

Of course we can’t forget to talk about Apple if we want a complete history of sonic branding for mobile devices.

It has once been told that a Microsoft executive forgot to turn his phone ringer on to silence mode before a meeting, when the phone eventually rang an onslaught of boo’s ensued without anyone even looking at the executive’s phone – they knew that it was an Apple iPhone.

The Apple ‘marimba’ sound is tattooed in many of our brains. You hear it in movies, on the bus and while you’re out shopping. It’s rather easy for Apple to establish an audio brand, but extensive research has gone into making sure the sound of the ‘marimba’ was just right. As noted in the article above, some of this research was carried out by Dr. Gerhard Lengeling who made sure that the right frequencies (between 2 to 4 KHz), loudness (96 dB) and note lengths ( timbre of the audio envelope ideally should pulse to a full dynamic range to nearly no sound with-in a 3 – 5 second cycle) were used to not only impress but tell people a call is waiting to be picked up.

Apple ‘marimba’ Sound

The real question remains, are any of these sounds effective in building a brand?

Yes, just like the Windows startup chime, in each case the sound of the ring helped to establish the sound of that company. You instantly recognize the brand of the phone from its sound. As a marketer you need to remember that although light travels faster then sound – we process sound quicker.

What’s the common thread?

Our belief at TreBrand is that in order for a sound to be effective at establishing an audio identity for a brand it must be functional. In both of the cases, the sound functioned as a ringtone. Some other famous sonic brands that use this concept of functionality are NBC Chimes and THX.

Into the future, we expect to see more brands outside of mobile manufactures create ringtones for their fans. One of our favourites is the Vienna Tourist Board who commissioned Sound Strategy to create an audio identity for the musical city.

Action point:
For now, listen to the sounds that electronic devices make. How do these sounds make you feel? Does it help you get a task done? Do you feel more connected to the device because it sounds familiar?

Enjoy the long weekend folks!

Enjoy the week.

Enjoy the weekend.

As a marketer, it’s your job to allow as many people as possible to learn about your products and services. Granted, segmentation will play a key role in who you target, but you shouldn’t make it hard for certain people to understand the value of what you are trying to sell.

Prior to starting TreBrand, I spent a few years teaching music. One of the challenges in this role was to get different personalities to learn essentially the same material. I eventually found out, and this is fundamental if you’ve taken a basic psychology course, that different people have different learning styles. Some people learn visually and others learn kinaesthetically. I point this out because as a marketer you spend a good deal of time and money investing in visual branding, perhaps forgetting that people learn in different ways.

Being able to show the value of your product using different senses will help a wider variety of people engage with your brand. If I’m a auditory learner then sound is going to be the easiest way for me to receive information. This concept is similar in other learning styles too. Although I have to admit, I don’t know anyone who learns through the sense of smell, however, our mind is powerful enough to connect the dots.

Professor Charles Spence at Oxford University and his colleagues have been studying many of these sensory connections, called cross-modal research. He was recently featured in a Wired UK article explaining how sound can impact how food tastes.

These connections are deeply ingrained and for most of us they are automatic. You’ll want to understand these connections because getting it wrong can have an impact on the success of your product. Case in point, the bio-degradable bag from Sun Chips or how background noise can cause your pallete to go bland.

Over the next few years, it’s going to be vital to your success as a marketer that you learn to integrate all five human senses. We are encouraged to see such innovative agencies like Hall Marketing and Communications invest in programs like Rejig, which seeks to get all five senses involved in consumer’s interactions with a brand.

I’ll leave you with one last tip, you need to invite potential customers to touch and feel your products to immerse them in sweet smells and peaceful music. Entertain your guests and they will reward you with a purchase!

Who wants a lawn gnome?

Emotion is one of the things that music can most effectively manage. When you hear happy sounding music you instantly change your mood. Of course this has many health benifits, but as a merketer this ability can have an impact on your bottom line too.

Music in the Western world is based on a system known as the “Equal Tempered” system. What this means is that musicians and composers have 12 notes to play with. Certain combinations of these 12 notes sound good together and other combinations don’t. In an overly simplistic way, the combination of notes that “fit” together are known as keys.

Keys are the foundation of many songs we hear on the radio and the silver screen. There are two standard keys that most songs are based on, major and minor. Both types of keys have a group of seven notes that are part of the key (or scale). Playing notes that are inside the key generally sound good, but playing notes outside the key can sound awful even to the most untrained ears.

Here’s the thing, major and minor keys have a completely differnt sound and carry different emotions too. Major keys tend to be happier and upbeat, where minor keys sound sad and use a slower tempo. Understanding this will affect what song you pick for your next commercial.

As a demonstration have a listen to the original version of “Hey Jude” by The Beatles.

Now, listen to a digitally altered version of “Hey Jude”. This version has been changed to a minor key.

By changing the key of the song to a minor key you can hear the difference and you can feel the emotional change too!

Action steps:

• Try to determine if a song is major or minor
• Listen to the emotion. Does it change in different parts of the song?

I’m aware that many of you missed the interview, so have a listen to the audio below.

Talking about audio branding with Kevin Price on The Price of Business

This week features a little ditty from Taylor Swift and Diet Coke.