The Most Delicious Sounds in the World

Listen for your sizzle.

Do these colors make you thirsty? | Photo by Denys Nevozhai

“Color alone can conjure an image or product in your mind and make you want it.” — Mary Jane Begin

Sound like color can unleash a desire. Just hearing a soda fizz is enough to trigger a thirst for a bubbly beverage. Sound cues like the fizz of a soda or the click of a lighter act as a mental shortcut to a shared experience and can be used to push products or ideas to your listening audience.

Create a taste for your sound

Chili’s restaurants use the sound of sizzling to draw the attention of their guests towards their most expensive item, fajitas! The sizzle triggers us like Pavlov’s dogs so that anyone within an earshot starts to salivate. And for Chili’s, that sizzle is followed by another sound, “cha-ching.” That’s because cooks find the first fajita order of the night sparks a string of orders.

Photo by Andrew Walton, Unsplash

Find your sizzle

Find a sound that triggers a craving your product can satisfy. A sound like sizzle that creates a demand. To find that crave-able sound, we need to understand a little more about what we really desire. For that we’ll need a list of the seven basic human needs:

1. To live long and prosper
2. To enjoy food and beverages
3. To be free from fear, pain, and danger
4. To have sexual companionship
5. To live comfortably and be successful
6. To care and protect loved ones.
7. To have social approval and membership

Now let’s find you a sound that sells, (1) create a list of desires your product satisfies. Then (2), select a sound cue that elicits those desires.

Let’s use sizzle as our example once again—What basic human desire does the sound of sizzling satisfy? Since fajitas literally satiate our appetite, sizzle satisfies no.2 desire “to enjoy food.” When you order fajitas, everyone in the restaurant sees and hears your food arrive. So, that satisfies no.7, “the desire for social approval and membership.” And since fajitas are the most expensive item on the menu, it also fulfills no.5, our desire “to live comfortably and be successful.”

Soundvertise

The sizzling sound of fajitas provides a resounding financial boon for Chilis. And if used effectively, your sound can help you increase your product sales, stickiness, and satisfaction. Listen for sonic opportunities throughout your business. Listen for your sizzle.

Check out Sound Advice for more sound and music design ideas. Thank you 🎩👌Jared Kinsler is a founding member of Soundnoodle music in Austin, Texas.