Creating a sonic identity

In reality, what makes a brand unique resides in all of the senses it can reach. The combination of visual and auditory cues, in our case, is essential to the definition and recall of a specific brand.

How do you create a sonic identity? And above all, what is the secret of its success? Is it in the process of making it? Is it in repetition and how many times you are exposed to it?

In the audio branding industry, every player has its own process and its own words to describe it.

It is safe to say that most of the processes that we are going to analyze, draw directly from the visual branding process.

In 2009 Carmi & Ubertis¹ proposed their approach to branding that is composed by five steps:

1. Observation: Brand knowledge acquisition and analysis of results, that is preparatory to the strategy development.

2. Construction: Based on the information obtained during the analysis, brand strategy development.

3. Expression: Analysis and study of the strategic inputs for the development of the identity

4. Design: Translation of the strategic inputs and implementation of a consistent and distinctive identity system, characterized on the various channels.

5. Governance: Cooperation with the customer in the brand management process in its various forms and communication coordination over time.

Since this process is quite complex and very much tailored to the needs of a visual identity, it is clear that companies through years of innovation and development of the practice have changed and remodeled it after the needs of the market and specific client’s needs.

Therefore, thanks to desk research and interviews with key players in the industry I am now able to present three different defined processes for creating a sonic identity.

The first one comes from John Groves, founder of Groves Music Production. The process is branded as “Your Sound. Everywhere. Always.”

In Commusication: From Pavlov's Dog to Sound Branding², the author proposes an initial phase of brand audit with which stakeholders and the consultancy can understand where the brand is positioned and what are the key values, translated in adjectives and words, that could potentially describe the brand itself. Then a market review establishes what are the open opportunities in order for the brand to differentiate itself from competition. The application analysis process defines what touchpoints the sonic identity could be applied to; thanks to the workshop expectations are set and managed and initial sonic moodboards are drafted in an inclusive co-ideation process. This guarantees the involvement of the client in the decision-making process since the very beginning. The creative briefing generates clear instructions for the music designers and producers involved in the creation of the sonic identity. Everything takes shape when music is actually produced and right after that, it goes into a market research to better understand how the public/consumer is going to react to it. When the sonic identity is about to be implemented, brand sound guidelines are delivered to the client that is then going to either track their KPI (Key Performance Indicator) through third-party trackers or not.

The second music branding process comes from the German based Whydobirds. In an interview with Sebastian Jautschus, Junior Sound Strategist at the company, he explains what their process looks like and what are the key steps for a successful sonic identity.

In the view of the company there are 4 steps: Analysis, Workshop, Conceptualization and Production, Deployment and Presentation.

Analysis

The first step would require the analysis of the status quo. Getting all the information about corporate branding, brand guidelines, social media presence and so forth.

Workshop

The Second step is getting into a room with the client and having a workshop. The purpose of the session would be twofold. First to align on musical terminology and description of their brand in branding and musical terms. Secondly, it would serve as a co-ideation session in which the client and the consultancy can give a rough idea of how the brand should sound like. Sometimes this can be challenging, because describing music is not that easy.

Conceptualization

The third step is conceptualization. It is the time where everything comes together and the consultancy starts to envision what the brand could sound like.

Production, Deployment and Presentation

Concluding with the creation of sonic assets, deployment, development of sound guidelines and presentation to the client.

For Whydobirds the key ingredient for a successful sonic identity is storytelling. This ties everything together and makes the translation of the visual identity into sound much more credible and acceptable from the customer. In fact, if the correspondence between visual and sound is off, then brand perception can easily lose its strength.

The last branding process taken into consideration for this dissertation comes from the sonic agency MassiveMusic. Thanks to an accurate re-work of their previous nine-steps long process, MassiveMusic is able to provide a simple three-step audio branding process.

Research & Strategy

In the first phase, there is an opportunity to get to know the brand and understand the opportunities of sound and voice for the brand itself. MassiveMusic introduces in the research approach stakeholder interviews. These are very important to really get a sense of what the company is about and what real values they stand for. Competitive analysis is helpful to cherry pick interesting ideas from brands in the same realm. Lastly, the need to think at what is next and not get stuck - from the beginning - with an identity that does have a long-term outlook. In this phase it is essential not to: allow subjectivity to bias, exclude partners and decision maker and omit mood boarding.

Production & Testing

The second phase focuses on production. The first things to consider are ideas around the sonic logo and ideas around the sonic DNA because then everything builds out from that system. Therefore it is essential to work iteratively, with a variety of different talents and above all work iteratively. Never forget that you are about to build a system, that it will need to be unique and that the sound you are about to create has to be linked back directly to the brand idea.

Implementation, Governance & Partnership

Third and last phase is rollout. For this last stage of the sonic identity process it is key to educate both the client on how to use the assets you have provided, it is key to create excitement around the implementation of the sonic assets and it is key that you make sure to appoint someone inside the company as a “guardian” of the work that the creative agency has delivered in order for it to be promoted and used internally. It is also fairly important to keep in mind that people aren’t just going to start using the assets because someone delivered to them, therefore the creative agency work is also to keep a good relationship with the client for future partnerships, track KPIs and be available for further expansions and guidance in the usage of sonic assets.

When considering specifically the music production segment of the entire process it can be useful to have a general idea of what the process looks like and what touchpoints the agency usually design for. As previously expressed, areas of interest for a sonic identity are identified with the terminology “audible touchpoints”³.

The process usually starts with the creation of a brand theme or Sonic DNA (AMP’s terminology). With the brand theme in mind, starts the creation of the audio logo (also known as music logo, mogo, sogo and audio trademark). There could be several variations of the audio logo, depending on the project and the application on different media. Shorter versions of the audio logo or brand theme can be implemented as product sounds, UI sounds in digital application or startup sounds for physical products. The longest versions of a brand theme can include music scores for corporate films, advertisements and/or events, all with different mood variations to adapt to the needs of the event. [fig. Colgate sonic system]

Here a glossary of the most important elements of music branding.

Sonic Logo

Sound logos, sogos, mogos, music logos or audio trademarks are frequently used in conjunction with graphical corporate brand logos. Because it serves as a mnemonic device, a sonic logo may assist clients in remembering the brand name more quickly. Rather than following established advertising models, the development of sound logos is guided by intuition. Variation of sonic logos can be present in UI sound in mobile application or soundstamps (a very condensed version a sonic logo)

In The sound of brands⁴ the author further explains what are the four important factors in the creation of a sound logo:

1. A few-tone sonic logo is recalled faster. The willingness-to-pay of customers is at the highest with a 6-tone-sound logo.
2. A sonic logo is usually between one and three seconds. The sonic logo is concise in its form.
3. A successful sound logo is flexible and adaptable to different surroundings (television, telephone, Internet, etc.) and different instruments.
4. Customers should unmistakably match the sound logo to the designated brand. The sound logo must differ from the competitors.

Brand theme (or brand anthem)

For each brand, a whole musical composition can be employed. This musical composition is then included into the complete corporate sound design, and customers will remember the brand because of the song. There is a clear link between the song and the brand. There are two characteristics of brand songs that can occur:

1. Ordinary songs are written to be broadcast on radio stations without any connection to a company or brand. The most popular tunes are then chosen for corporate use. The music is integrated into the company's audio branding strategy and communicated to customers. When a customer recognizes the link between the brand and the musical composition, every time the song is played on the radio, the company receives free advertising.

2. The exclusive production of a song for a brand is the other type. The company benefits from the song's unique use and direct connection to the audio branding aspects.

Branded Tracks

Starting from the brand theme, music branding agencies usually adapt the core melody to the different purposes and media the company needs to be employing the sonic identity to. Different branded tracks are usually described with various adjectives, some the most used are: corporate, dynamic, sportive, joyful, techy, dramatic. Each of this adjective would be associated with a variation of the brand theme adapted to the mood the track needs to convey and deployed across several multimedia touchpoints.

Brand voice

Sometimes corporations decide to tie a voiceover artist to their brand. The power of voice must not be underestimated! Listeners naturally decode the voice for emotions and information, so a single brand voice has an impact on the brand. The listeners' interpretation of the brand voice has a big impact on how the brand is positioned. Furthermore, it is critical to choose a voice that is consistent with the overall brand values.