Who Cares If Your Brand “Beeps” Or “Boops”?

Sound can make or break a brands image and it is nearly impossible to reverse an either positive or negative customer experience once experienced. So finding the right sound, even down to the clicking or beeping or booping of your app, matters.

Sound can make or break an experience in less than a second.

I was about to watch something on Hulu the other night and could not help but notice something. While I was navigating to my selection through my FireTV Stick, I noticed a very loud clicking sound as a result of navigating through the home page. It was a harsh and abrasive sound.

I instantly thought that the volume was too high and as I didn’t want to wake the kids, I reached for the remote to check. But then I realized that the volume remote was across the room. So I got up to retrieve it before realizing that the volume was just fine.

Comfy couch positioning disrupted.

When I did navigate into Hulu I was greeted by silence. When running my cursor over movie and show selections, there was no sound at all. This was further noticed because we either have a low battery on our remote so everything is sluggish or our internet is lagging. Either way, I NEEDED that sound in order to know if my remote had actually arrowed down one or if it hadn’t registered my intention at all. So as a result, I clicked through too quickly and missed the show I intended to watch.

Frustrated, I had to retrace my steps to finally get to Nine Perfect Strangers, the show I wanted to see. Then, while frustrated, the Hulu sonic logo came up (as it was a Hulu Original) and I started my “relaxing evening show” slightly frustrated and not at all relaxed.

Not a great time to be reminded what platform I was currently on. Although my frustration was not fully Hulu’s fault, they were my end of journey target so this was my point of sale impression.

I know, I know, first world problems. But here is my most basic takeaway from the experience.

If customer experience is important in any way, then the SOUND of the experience needs to match from beginning to end.

The Journey of Sound - Not the End Result

As I am a sound engineer and designer by trade, I wanted to go back to my TV to corroborate the information for this article throughout the media devices and streaming platforms I had available to me.

What I found was FireTV’s main navigation page defaulted this intense and highly abrasive clicking sound that was (at least deceptively) mixed higher than the actual programming.

When I entered Hulu, Netflix, or Apple+, there was no navigation sound to assist me. With Disney+, the abrasive clicking sound returned.

On Roku, it appeared that the sound could be customized but again, once I selected and entered a streaming site, I was served with no sound for navigation assistance. Sonic logos sometimes but no functional sound assistance on the default.

If the beginning of the sound journey is abrupt or “off color” in any way, the next brand experience in line will suffer.

Sensory Perception is Bias

Our perception is marked by the first interaction no matter what. So if your first experience at a new job is an annoying co-worker that happens to sit right next to you, the fact that the work is rewarding and exciting is overshadowed. You still have to sit next to “that guy” everyday.

My nighttime viewing experience that I shared may not be a big deal to people as a-tune to sound as I am at first glance, but subconsciously there is most definitely a feeling of “off brand” happening within all users.

When the sound doesn’t match, your subconscious knows it and logs it in your memory banks.

What Should Be Done?

I actually got really excited once this scenario presented itself because it proves, yet again, that there is so much creative sound design left to be done in branding. There is no one answer to solving this subtle yet potentially off putting predicament.

These are just a few thoughts I came up with.

1- I would love to see FireTV and Roku and Portal and TiVo talk with streaming services like Hulu and Netflix to align both of their branding sounds to one another. For example, if FireTV has navigational sounds, so should Hulu. And those sounds should flow nicely between one another.

2- I would also love for across the board discussions on proper sound frequencies. The sounds that were actually present were harsh as I said because they were not at an appropriate frequency. In my opinion, there should be a little bit of reverb attached to soften said sound. The user, after all, is sitting in a room that has reverberation in it. The tech should match.

3- If the platforms and/or the streaming services are not interested in branding that functional sound, a library of sound choices should be available for the user upon account setup. They already have avatar choices, why not sound choices. I believe Roku has this but I think that these choices should be as easy to find as avatar pictures.

I Was Right About POS Sounds

These thoughts I’m having are very reminiscent to my thoughts on POS (point of sale) sounds 5 years ago. Unfortunately, no one knew who I was back then and so I wasn’t able to work with the likes of Mastercard when they started incorporating more personalized sounds but I digress.

So if anyone wants to put me in touch with Amazon or Hulu to have a little conversation I’d be ever so obliged. These are exciting times, and I can’t wait to see what comes of it.

In Conclusion

To learn more about me and my research in sound in marketing, go to www.SoundInMarketing.com. If you are a brand and you are looking to create a sound experience or need a consultation on sound strategy, go to www.DreamrProductions.com and let’s chat further.

You can also find me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.