Sound branding without sound

I have been working in Sonic Minds for two month this spring. They have given me new perspectives on sound branding and how sound branding can be viewed from a strategic perspective instead of tactical.

They don’t consider themselves as a Sound Branding agency but more as an “audible communication” agency. They state at their front page that "we do not make music; we make more effective brand communication. Sound and music are our tools."

I find this a very refreshing way of thinking a discipline that is "growing" and "almost accepted" - and have been so for too many years. 

From my corner of the world in sunny Copenhagen, I view the sound branding industry to be very much focused on sound branding production and the development of the "right" sound translation. It often comes down to bold sound that amazes people and sound that supposedly communicate certain brand values in three-six notes… if the storytelling was told rightly. 

Some people may find it remarkable that Sonic Minds have had clients that bought entire music strategies without getting two notes of music. This illustrates my point; that the real value rests in strategic audible understanding. 

Sonic Minds writes at the website: Sound that does not create value is called noise. To us that it is Audible Understanding. Almost everyone can make well-produced music but if the music is not an embedded part of a brand strategy it creates no brand value. Why should financially stressed companies by brand elements without brand value? 

The focus should hence be on performance rather than affect. 

The French company Sixieme Son has realized the same thing years ago.
Sixieme Son reads sound branding with weight on the word “branding”. They see sound branding just as much from a marketer’s perspective as the musician’s. This understanding is one reason how they have grown to become a brand of their own; they do not need to focus on cold canvas sales because companies come to them. 


I visited Sixieme Son and Michaél Boumendil in Paris in May 2012. They have a beautiful office on a nice location in Paris. The consultants have their offices at door level while the sound production team has their studios on the level below. 

It is like the division between the offices itself signals a segregation between the consultancy services and the music production. The two business areas require people with different competences, different understanding and different equipment.  

More sound branding professionals could benefit from working by the branding disciplines premises – not musicology. I see it as an exercise of making stronger brands by finding the right way to incorporate sound into the existing brand strategy. To find a particular musical expression from brand values, pay-offs or Brand Personality traits, etc. is an important but yet small part.