Sound + Logo = Sound Logo?

Did you miss out on the Audio Branding Congress or my presentation on Free Association Profiling? Here is a quick update on the presentation - also keep an eye out for the ((ABA)) Yearbook 2011/12 where the conference paper will be published.

Free Association Profiling is an exploratory study conducted under the ExSL project as a pilot test. 

The objective was to explore possible new ways to profile sound logos. It is still under development and debate. There are already different tools for profiling sound logos for example emotional profiling using Geneva Emotional Music Scales. 

A study on sound logos and brands' pay-offs using this scale was presented last year and can be read in the Audio Branding Yearbook 2010. This time we wanted to take a step back and challenge some common assumptions that these tools are based on. 

Based on Network Association Theory (Collins & Loftus, 1975) the experiment considers which associations consumers actually attribute to sound logos. One way to use associations as evaluation method is to look at number of associations, valence and origin (Krishnan 1996). Related to brands, the theory can explain how sound and brands can be linked together in the mind of the consumer/listener. 

The  setup had a full-factorial design where all sound logos were presented to all participants. The part with self-categorization was discarged from presented analysis as we are currently doing some further analysis on self-categorization.
The selection criteria of sound logos from the pool of 50 logos were 1) (estimated) level of previous media exposure 2) tempo, 3) expressive characteristics, 4) included the use of real sounds/effects or not.

Findings show no indications on correlations between a sound having a significant associative space and the amount of associations elicited from the sound. 

Associations towards media related sound occurrences, communicative, or functional sounds seemed more common, which has been suggested by Nikolai Graakjaer (2008), since sound logos share many characteristics with e.g. interface sounds in computers, ring-tones etc. 

We found that heavy marketing efforts are necessary for establishing a brand-sound link. We saw no strong brand-links in these 10 popular sound logos - not even the most common/used sound logo in Danish advertising space. 

The method can be used to give sound designers an idea of the associative meaning of the sound(s) they are composing and "visualize" the sound logo.

Free Association Profiling shows how consumers associate the sound logo without direct reference to the brand and visualize if the sound has a associative space that contribute to intended (and meaningful) perception of the brand image.  


If you are interested in the presentation slides? check out SlideShare 

A closer look at the case submissions at the Audio Branding Congress 2011

I have been taking a closer look at this year’s case contribution to the Audio Branding Congress to see what they have been up to this past year; which products are popular, which procedures are used and what kind of customers are represented?

Of the 13 cases presented customers are represented from seven different countries of which two are from outside EU. One case is protected with password and is not included. The customers represent a broad selection of industries from bank, pharmaceuticals, public institutions, mobile manufacturer, transport, tourism, etc.

It looks like the sound logo is a fundamental part of the sound production and only 1 case (ING-DiBa)  does not include a sound logo in the service. This is a case of renewing the existing sound where the customer already has a sound logo.

Another case stands out because the created sound is not primarily intended to be a sound logo but however a notification sound for mobile payment (Barclaycard). None the less the sound is presented in the case in an animated version where the sound functions together with a visual side as a representation of the brand.

4 of the 11 sound logos are also presented in an animated version in synchronization with a visual logo; AG2R La Mondiale, Barclaycard, Michelin and Royal Air Maroc. Most brands have some kind of combination of sound and pictures included in the case. It seems that the Exploring Sound Logo project is highly relevant because it explicitly study the relationship between sound and picture on a range of different brand constructs.

Out of 12, 7 companies have besides the sound logo bought “brand music”. A piece of music with our without voice (song/speak) which forms a music “theme” for the brand. This can be used in different contexts e.g. on TV as background, at live events, on the website etc. I am surprised though, that only one case - UBS AG - presents the same theme in different music genres such as rock, classic, jazz.

Five of the 12 cases includes telephone systems for on-hold or welcome music/speak; AG2R LaMondiale, Airela, Sabesp, SNCF, and Vienna Touriste Board. Other five cases includes TV-commercials, where photo, music and speak represents the brand. Lastly, other products such as specific event music (intro-, on-stage-, and background music for AG2R Le Mondiale), radio spots, songs and podcast also presented in the cases. Referring to the big attention that podcast had a couple of years ago (at least in Denmark) it is interesting that only the USB AG case includes podcast sounds.

Taking a closer look at the sound bureau’s methods and procedures there is a general great acceptance of test and evaluation in the development phase. Three cases mentions that the customer besides the sound-products also receives a sound manual or/and a brief for future sound management.  

To the extend the cases describe their creation process, all cases use either the company’s core values or identified attributes to translate to - or express with – music. One case are different; Prater Service as it seems to use the existing motto / pay-off to match the sound with instead. Ramsgaard et al. did a study in 2010 of sound logos and companies’ motto / pay-off and sound significant differences in the perception of pay-off & sound logo on selected emotional parameters. It indicates that sound logos strategically can be matched with the pay-off to the extent the customer wishes.

Tools such as “audio mapping”, workshops, focus group interviews, association evaluation, surveys, cross-cultural studies, benchmark analysis and following tracking are mentioned in the processes. It gives evidence of a high standard of professionalism (not that I had to expect anything else) and well developed methods in the creative phases.

The ExploringSound logo group is also presented at this year’s Audio Branding Congress where I will present a pilot study of Free Association Profiling of Sound logo. In relation to the conference the Audio Branding Yearbook 2011 will be published. Here a paper on the exploratory study will be presented.