Sonic Branding
Music perception

It is common to think that elements that define a brand are related to visual language and the meanings associatedwith forms, fonts, symbols, colors and visual style used. However, we must remember that on the way to the sensory brand are a number of other elements such as verbal hearing that define their identity. Is the case of company’s naming or even its strapline, which is that conceptual line that defines organization’s philosophy or core business and generally joins the logo to reinforce its message.

Certainly, Spanish composer Francisco Tarrega when he composed his Gran Wals in 1902, could not have imagined that 13 notes created by him between the bars 14-16, would be one of the most listened music world (0:12 // 2:29 on the video). Nokia Company adopted these 13 notes as default ringtone for its devices, reaching reproduce up to 20,000 times per second or what is the same as saying they heard 1.8 billion daily times in the world. No doubt a clear example of highly recognizable brand was first used in 1992 to promote the Nokia 1011.

Other examples of audio brands as recognizable as their logos, is the case of the lion’s roaring that identify films studios Metro Goldwyn Mayer was registered as trademark. We cannot dissociate fanfare featuring the logo of 20th Century Fox, or the Intel four-note bong composed by Walter Werzowa in 1994. But the listening experience is not just musical notes, Kellogg’s has researched for many years the relationship between the sound of cereals and taste. As a result of this research, they has been developed the perfect breakfast cereal sound with the collaboration of a specialized laboratory. This sound was registered as Kellogg’s property.

No doubt these sound seconds aim to achieve a memory that goes beyond the visual image, then we can consider whether there is an auditory cogency. Pregnance act was proposed by Gestalt Psychology, which defined the visual cogency as the quality of the visual forms that capture the viewer’s attention by simplicity, balance and stability of the structure. However, Jorge Oteiza, world-renowned Spanish sculptor, contributed to this concept with a broader and deeper meaning, transcending the visual forms and referring to the aesthetic experience as an existential aesthetic.

The musical imagination, even in people little given to music, tends to remain faithful in time, recalling the tone and feelings about the first time you’ve heard certain melody. This is due to the extraordinary tenacity of musical memory that tends to store even heard in childhood sounds, the rest of life will be remembered.

Neuromarketing studies with large and growing interest neurological phenomena related to music perception and imagery, the complexity of the processes involved and the opportunities for creating and managing brands.

In short, trademarks currently looking to provide a more immersive sensory experience, including smell, taste, tactile experience. Regarding the auditory brand, it is a way to explore and develop further, especially if it is understood that the act of listening to music is not only an auditory and emotional phenomenon but also motor. As Nietzsche once said “listening to music until the muscles”. We perceive music although we are not aware of it, our face and posture to an auditory stimulus, reflecting the narrative of what sounds like thoughts and feelings it provokes.


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