Sonic Branding
The Future of Sonic Branding — 3 Drivers for Rapid Tech Advances
Women in Voice Mentorship Team, Sonic Sound Byte Series Part 3
Phoebe Ohayon, Head of Design at VoiceBranding.nl values flexibility, ownership, data-driven decisions, and knowledgeable design and builds this into her award-winning Voice-First strategies for some of the world’s most successful brands.
We’d highly encourage you to view Phoebe’s 11-minute video at the end of this article and to read Part 1, Getting Started in Sonic Branding, and Part 2, The Nitty Gritty of Sonic Branding
“Rapid Advances Shape the Indispensability of Audio Branding… to keep up value Knowledgable Design, Data-Driven Decisions, Ownership, and Flexibility”
- Phoebe Ohayon
Harness the Power of a Sonic Identity
It’s no secret that Voice is bigger than ever. As the business landscape expands to voice-first, the sense of urgency to incorporate this into your brand and at levels into company strategy is apparent. The question goes from should my brand have a sonic identity to what is my intention when communicating and “do I come across as desired through Audio: sound and speech?”
Please see the below drivers and the High-Level Overview slide as a framework as you explore the power of sonic branding:
Top Three Drivers:
- Consumers expect products and services to be faster, more convenient, seamless, and hand’s-free. This means more integration between product design, visual identity, and sonic identity is needed from the beginning.
- Voice in all forms is being consumed at a rapid rate, especially in places where visual mediums alone are not appropriate or convenient.
- A Voice-First approach which includes creating a sonic identity and a sonic brand is a way to knock out or get on top of your competition and differentiate your company or brand at every touchpoint.
Note: In this article sonic & audio are interchangeable and voice includes both.
High-Level Overview:
The Rise of Voice Marketing
“If you want to communicate authentically, differentiate your brand and express a unique identity that raises brand awareness than design a voice brand”
Investing in developing a sonic identity that represents your company or brand is particularly advantageous in industries where margins are thin. As categorized below, it invites opportunities for infinite use cases and sets the stage for innovation!
Voice/Audio
Creating a voice assistant or Artificial Intelligent (AI) generated media content or a Text to Speech TTS voice to help rapidly distribute your content in multiple languages.
Digital Products
Applying the right sound or audio cue to an application can greatly improve your customer’s experiences. Think about sound notifications for reminders or speed camera warnings or confirmations when completing a transaction.
Physical Products
Implementing sight-on-sound and voice-to-controlled products for electric and smart cars, in-home robotics, and devices like vacuum cleaners, home entertainment, heating and water systems can be life-saving, differentiate your brand, and create new viable revenue streams.
User-Centered Design
Forward-moving industries integrate and ‘control’ sound to create another dimension of communication with the consumer. For example, healthcare devices are adapting to using sound/audio as a tool to contribute to the well being of patients by amplifying soothing or relaxing sounds.
Content & Marketing
Developing technological advances in hardware and software creates new paradigms for how we consume and do business. This in turn affects how we market our brands. Platforms for steaming data such as music, podcasts, and video have set the stage for audio advertising, voice-activated ads, and digital-audio commercials.
Read on to learn about the best way to approach Sonic Branding to future proof your brand.
How to Gain an Edge
The Voice industry has moved quickly from RSS and podcast to streaming than to reliable wireless devices and wearables that can easily go where you go. Shifts are going to happen. Having a set of core values for your sonic brand helps to create the cornerstones for the future that you want your customers and employees to experience.
Breaking down each value with key takeaways further helps to explain Phoebe’s tried and true framework on how we can keep up with these rapid changes in relation to creating your sonic brand.
- Knowledgeable design is interdependent on identifying the functional and emotional needs and expectations of your audience, so base your design not just on ideas but also on measurable results.
- Data-driven decisions rely heavily on the quality of data. Relevant connections and trends in the data can be deciphered based on signals. This is valuable because consumers will automatically and unconsciously attach meaning; good or bad and a personality to a brand.
- Flexibility is needed for a well-thought-out design. Decisions should be based on feedback and a collaborative approach. The key is to study the feedback and adapt to it “without losing your authenticity.”
- Ownership of your data and voice assets is important to keep in control of your brand’s message everywhere and at all times.
In summary, we focus on the indispensability of audio branding, because audio is bigger than ever.
Click below to view Phoebe’s detailed video presentation and make sure to join our group to be notified of future events.
Start your Sonic Branding Journey Today, Schedule Time with Phoebe.
