1. April 27, 2011
Does Your Brand Ring Like
a Bell?
Sonic branding is everything from ringtones to hold
music. Cue your chance to build a memorable
company identity.
By Kay McFadden
" Companies have a call center, mobile app, a website, all with different sounds that don't make
sense together. They realize customers are using these products and want something cohesive
that also makes them stand out." - Audrey Arbeeny
If music be the food of customer experience, play on. That's the tune
hummed by a rising chorus of marketing and advertising experts. Instead of
an afterthought to the visual and written parts of a branding campaign,
sound has become central.
How to Add Sonic Branding to Your Business: What is Sonic Branding?
Audrey Arbeeny is founder and executive producer of the Emmy-winning firm
AudioBrain, which is based in New York and has designed music for NBC's Olympics,
Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Virgin Mobile, among others. She defines sonic branding as
"The strategic development of a brand's attributes through sound and its deployment
across a multitude of touchpoints to create a seamless, cohesive and authentic sonic

2. presence." Arbeeny, who began in this business in 1995 and also teaches sonic branding
at Pratt Institute's undergraduate communications design program, says that's a shift
from three or four years ago. Clients back then usually wanted just a sound logo – a short
pattern of notes like NBC's chimes or the "Intel Inside" tune. Now, she says, "They want
their entire customer experience connected. Companies have a call center, mobile app, a
website, all with different sounds that don't make sense together. They realize customers
are using these products and want something cohesive that also makes them stand out."
How to Add Sonic Branding to Your Business: How Sonic Branding Works
Sonic branding doesn't yet have a ton of market data to back its efficacy. However, a
growing body of academic research attests to the powerful emotional and psychological
bonds between music and listener. Much of it is from Europe, where sonic branding is
better established partly because music surmounts the challenges of marketing to a
multilingual continent. For example, 2008 research at Leicester University in the United
Kingdom found companies that match their brand to music are 96 percent more likely to
be remembered, and that 24 percent of customers are more likely to buy from a store
that plays music they liked hearing. In the United States, Dr. James Kellaris of the
University of Cincinnati has popularized the term "earworm" to describe those hooky
little tunes you can't get out of your head. Ongoing surveys show many earworms include
company themes and jingles, which has excited marketers no end.
How to Add Sonic Branding to Your Business: Determine if Sonic Branding
Fits
Just because you can get a custom ringtone or website theme doesn't mean you need one.
Consider your customer base and sales environment. One of Audiobrain's clients is
1st Advantage Federal Credit Union, which is headquartered in Newport News, Va.,

3. and has 11 branches with 60,000 member customers throughout Eastern Virginia.
Jim Craig, vice president of marketing, was referred to Audiobrain while conducting a re-
evaluation of the credit union's brand image. "We were working on other touchpoints –
our website, marketing materials, etcetera – and it made sense to consider sonic
branding in light of all the work and money we were putting into everything else." Still,
he wasn't pre-sold on the concept. That changed after Arbeeny challenged 1st Advantage
to describe its brand personality in order to create a rapport through music, forcing the
company to think through just how it wanted to sound to customers.
"It was revelatory," says Craig. "Sonic branding may not be for everyone. But our lesson
was, if your business is about delivering an experience to customers, music should be
part of it."
How to Add Sonic Branding to Your Business: Identify Your Sonic
Touchpoints
The first order of business for 1st Advantage was a signature piece of music to asset its
identity. Audiobrain designed a sonic logo usable across a variety of sound touchpoints.
It initially was deployed in branch locations, including one branch where it became a
door chime to signal the arrival of customers. The next step was to foster a positive
climate for branch visitors. So AudioBrain developed a selection of licensed music for
playing over the company's in-house sound system. The music, consisting of recordings
from the 1920s up through the present, is interspersed with short 1st Advantage
commercials using the sound logo. AudioBrain periodically sends 1st Advantage an
updated selection. "It consistently matches our brand personality of being human,
empowering and welcoming," says Craig, noting "Audrey even found urban music with
positive themes," widening 1st Advantage's demographic appeal. The latest addition is a
full music theme based on the short sound logo. Although 1st Advantage does limited TV
and radio, its 60th anniversary is this year and the theme will be used in a series of
celebratory spots featuring employees and customers. At some point, the credit union

4. also plans to use the sound logo on its website.
How to Add Sonic Branding to Your Business: Sonic Branding ROI
It's hard to nail the exact ROI for sonic branding, so you'll sleep better if you regard the
expense as a long-term investment rather than a short-term revenue producer. Craig has
used mystery shops and anecdotal samplings from customers and says, "We've gotten
feedback that shows both customers and employees like the music, and I have to say
we're happy." Some owners may wonder why they can't just download a generic ringtone
or turn on a radio. The answer to that may lie in the changing nature of consumers.
And consumers have more choices. "Our ability to get anything we want at any time
makes it imperative to rise above the clutter," says Arbeeny, "and sound is a very good
way to do that."