Different management tools have been suggested to how brand managers can use sound branding to leverage their brand position. Sound logos, other branded sound, and the sound identity should be handled from a brand management perspective, where sound and music are seen as brand elements. Only then are managers and scholars able to assess sound branding in relation to brand equity.
In the study I found that recognition and likeability of the sound logo and visual logo presented together influence directly on the perception of fit. When a combination of sound logo and visual logo is easy to recognise and is liked consumers rate a perceived general fit higher. Additionally I found that a subconscious fit between the sound logo meaning and brand meaning (measured on a set of attributes) not always correspond to the conscious rated fit. Hence, a sound-brand fit can be differentiated depending on brand, market and positioning.
Here is a small extract from my thesis on how sound-brand fit can be managed according to positioning. The thesis can be downloaded from Boxnet here.
Audio Positioning Identifier
In 2007 five Swedish Master Thesis students from Lund University (Vonk et al.) suggested a sound branding tool for managers called the Audio Position Identifier.
Using this tool, managers can identify the brand position on a matrix of Sound Branding
Level and Strength of Brand Identity.
Here I have included the different situations
of sound-brand fits from my study in the model:
Depending
on level of sound branding and strength of the existing brand identity,
companies should focus on different types of fit between sound logos and brand.
Five brands used in this study are placed under Brand Identity Focus where the
brand identity is strong among respondents but where level of sound branding
perceivably is low.
Brand Identity Focus
Companies with brand
identity focus should focus on creating a high perceived general fit primarily
through recognition. It is important for the companies to link the sound to the
brand and explicitly make the target audience remembering the sounds. Further,
sound logo meaning should support brand meaning (and vice versa) by having as
high attribute fit as possible. Companies with a brand identity focus must make
an extra effort to create as many associations between sound and brand as
possible to integrate the branded sounds in the brand and avoid it becomes an
add-on.
Lange & Dahlén (2003) argue that familiar brands can benefit from incongruency
between elements[1]
in advertising because it requires longer processing which enhance memorability
of ad and brand. However as results showed sound logos may be perceived as
being “brand-incongruent” alone by the audible nature when it is not recognized
as being a brand element. This may be because a sound logo does not fit into
the consumers’ existing “brand scheme” (Hung 2001). Consumers must first learn
to add the sound to their brand scheme e.g. through an ad-campaign explicitly focusing
on remembering the sound could be one way to draw attention to the new sounds.
Making a game on e.g. facebook or mobile could be another way.
Minimum Brand Focus
MW
has low strength of brand identity and a low level of sound branding according
to the respondents and is hence placed under Minimum Brand Focus. They should create
a high perceived general fit by focusing more on likeability. For an unknown brand,
high likeability may create curiosity and aspire to learn more about the
company.
According to Vonk et al. (2007)
a brand with minimum brand focus should first focus on strengthen the brand
identity and secondly focus on heighten the sound branding level. I, on the
other hand, believe that here unknown brands have a unique opportunity to properly
integrate the sound with the brand identity from the beginning as an important
brand asset and hence avoid the pitfall where the sound becomes a loose ad-on
with no real purpose. From this point of view, attribute fit should hence be as
high as possible to associatively bind sound and brand meaning together to
create as high memorability as possible for the unknown brand (Lange & Dahlén,
2003). However, as we see with MW, the attribute fit is low and the sound logo hence
may add additional (and important?) meaning to the overall brand meaning. This may
also prove to be beneficial for an unknown brand.
There are theoretical arguments
for and against a high attribute fit for unknown brands but reality may give a
different answer; a carefully measured sound-brand fit in relation to
likeability and recognition for the specific brand in questions is most
important.
Audio Focus
Companies
having an Audio Focus, where level of sound branding is high and strength of
brand identity is low, should focus on creating a perceived general fit by
focusing on recognition. As with brands with a Brand identity focus it is
important to create a strong link between the brand and sound in the mind of
the target audience.
Attribute fit should be equally high to the brand as the
brand has low brand identity (hence brand familiarity) and information should
be congruent to enhance recognition (Lange & Dahlén, 2003).
Integrated Audio Focus
Companies
with an Integrated Audio Focus must first of all focus on maintaining a high
perceived general fit through both likeability and recognition. Having a high level
of audio branding there may be a risk of creating a wear-out effect. The mere-exposure
effect has an up-turned U-curve which means that at some point listeners
becomes tired of the sound or music and the sound begins to elicit negative
emotions and associations instead of positive.
To my knowledge this was what Nokia experienced with the Nokia-tune;
whenever consumers heard the ringtone they had negative associations such as
being disturbed, interrupted and stressed. The Nokia-tune now comes in different
variations of musical expression, yet with the same recognizable musical “core”,
in the various mobile phones. McDonalds has arguably the same strategy; their
sound logo varies between every marketing campaign and between various countries.
Sometimes the sound logo is sung or played by guitar but the musical core, the recognizable
logo, stays the same.
Such variations may produce a low attribute fit and an
low attribute fit becomes a way for companies to ad additionally information to
the brand meaning, avoid wear-out and through advert inconsistency force the
target audience to more deliberately process the adverts and, hence, enhancing
memorability of advert and brand (Lange & Dahlén, 2003)).
References:
Winther, Julie (2012): Sound Brand Fit: A cross-modal study on the perception of fit between sound logo, visual logo and brand. Department of Marketing, Copenhagen Business School.
Vonk,
Berdine, Steenfat, Majken, Ejlertsen, Mathilde, Stoorvogel, Andre &
Saarela, Antti (2007): Breaking the
silence – a managerial approach for companies to realise their audio potential.
School of Economics and Management. Lund
University.
Lange, Fredrik & Dahlén, Micael
(2003): Let’s be strange: brand familiarity and ad-brand incongruency. Journal of Product & Brand Management,
vol.12/7, p.449-461
Hung, Kineta (2001): Framing Meaning Perceptions with Music: The
Case of Teaser Ads. Journal of
Advertising, Vol. 30/3, p.39-49
[1] Ad-message,
product and brand
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