4 Steps to Creating an Audio Brand

Music has a profound impact on human emotions.

It unites us, divides us and everything in between.

When used in connection with your business it creates a strong emotional connection with your target market. The strategic use of music can make you, your brand, and your business more relatable and memorable.

Creating a memorable sound is an essential part of audio branding. Just like visual branding, your sound should be distinctive, consistent, and aligned with your brand identity.

But how do you do it?

Before you reach for the kazoo, recorder, or any other instrument it is essential that some planning takes place before you start making music.

Step 1 - Reflect on your Brand Personality

One of the key elements of developing your sound is to reflect on the personality and values of your company.

To do so, it can often help to

Think of your company as a person with its own identity.

What is its history? How old is it? What would it wear? What does it like to watch on TV? How does it spend its time?

I imagine you had similar conversations when you defined your Brand Story.

Is your brand modern and hi-tech. Does it have open plan offices with break out rooms and glass walls? Or are you a red leather chair in a 300yr old academic institution, surrounded by rows of old books?

Both look different and sound different.

Step 2 - Consider your Target Audience

As part of your business strategy, you have a target audience that you market too…. often described as an ‘Ideal Client.’ Different types of Ideal Client have different need and expectations….and different styles of music resonate and connect with different groups of people.

By understanding your audience, you can create a sound that will appeal to them and create a stronger emotional connection.

Think about the preferences and tastes of your target audience. For example, a lot of Generation X (44-59yrs old) are currently in senior positions within companies. If this generation are the decision makers that will decide to buy your product or service (your Ideal Client), then Grime style music is probably not going to connect with them unless there is a specific brand reason that will connect with that genre.

Step 3 - How will it be used?

Using music as a strategic asset is essential to creating a cohesive and universal experience for customers.

By developing an ‘Audio Universe’ for your company, you can ensure that the music and audio is consistent across all customer touch points. For example, this audio universe can be used in advertisements, videos, phone prompts, podcasts, YouTube channel, telephone On-Hold music and even in-store experiences.

Your brand sound should be consistent across all these touch points, as consistency helps reinforce your brand identity and makes it more memorable for your audience.

But it doesn’t have to be the same music or audio in each place. The use of an Audio Universe allows for different pieces of music or audio to be created that the customer considers it to be part of the same brand family.

Step 4 – Create, Test, and Iterate.

Now is the time to start creating music.

Developing an Audio Brand for your business is a similar process to how you developed your brand story, your website, and your company logo…. you got creative and tried various designs until you found one that resonated with your brand values and target audience.

It is the same for Audio Branding. As I say to many clients,

In order to change direction you must be moving.

All legendary creative works started from a single idea which was developed following feedback from trusted friends and clients. So, take all the branding information you have collected through steps 1 – 3 and start creating and refining.

This process of refining ensures that the final audio branding not only reflects the position of the company but resonates with the target audience. But it doesn’t stop there.

Once the audio branding has been launched, seek feedback from customers to see how it is being received. And importantly, monitor your sales growth to see if your returning customers has increased. You can find out more about how to evaluate the success of your audio brand in this article.

In summary, there is a lot that goes into creating a memorable Audio Brand but with the right planning and being prepared to test and iterate your business could could be as memorable as the McDonalds whistling 5 notes.

If you would like to know more about Audio Branding or how music can help to develop your business, then please get in touch via our website at www.blacklabmusic.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.

Michael

Michael Coltham is a film and media Composer and audio wrangler who specialises in composing emotion through the medium of music. He runs Black Lab Music www.blacklabmusic.co.uk, that specialises in helping build an emotional connection with audiences. He is a published Indie-classical/Neoclassical composer and artist. You can find his personal work at https://songwhip.com/michaelcoltham or www.michaelcoltham.com