Audio Branding Research Articles

The Sound of Music: The Effect of Timbral Sound Quality in Audio Logos on Brand Personality Perception

This research aims to advance the understanding of audio branding by investigating the effect of an understudied auditory attribute, timbre, in the context of brand audio logos. Specifically, the authors propose, and provide evidence in ten studies, that timbral sound quality in audio logos (i.e., roughness/smoothness) informs abstract judgments of brand personality (i.e., ruggedness/sophistication). Study 1 shows that the industry practice of altering instrumentation, and thus timbre, in audio logos can change personality perceptions of even well-known brands. This effect persists when the sound source is kept constant with various instruments (Studies 2a–2d), with a combination of instruments (Study 3), and in the absence of an identifiable sound source (Study 4). The authors test specific acoustic underpinnings of timbral sound quality perceptions (Study 4) and show that the effect on brand personality judgments is counteracted by incongruent sensory information from another modality (Study 5). The results of Study 6 suggest that the influence of timbral sound quality on brand personality perceptions is nonconscious, as consumers are unaware of the extent to which the stimulus affects their judgments. Study 7 shows downstream consequences for purchase intentions. Practical implications, theoretical contributions, and directions for future research are discussed.

Audio identity in branding and brand communication strategy: a systematic review of the literature on audio branding

Brand creation and management has undergone a substantial change in recent years as a result of new communication strategies, adaptation to the digital transmedia paradigm, and interaction with consumers. The use of an audio identity as a variable in this architecture and its inclusion in the different points of contact with consumers has generated a growing interest in audio branding. This article responds to the need to establish a conceptual basis and the state of the art in order to advance in the in-depth study of the discipline through a systematic review of the literature. This review was carried out in the Web of Science databases for the 2011–2020 period. After the initial filtering, a total of 36 articles were analysed and divided into four areas of relevance: phonetics in brand names, audiovisual advertising and branding, local city or country branding, and political branding.

Small sounds, big impact: sonic logos and their effect on consumer attitudes, emotions, brands and advertising placement

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to show how sonic logos, despite their brief exposure time, resonate with consumers’ emotions and attitudes in a manner that until now has been attributed to only longer background music in advertising. The moderating role of sonic logo placement within the ad (beginning versus ending) and the mediating role of emotion felt after exposure to the brand and advertisement are also explored.Design/methodology/approachAn expansion on sonic logo research is completed through two experiments testing nine hypotheses. A pretest is also conducted to create two orthogonal sonic logos (sad sonic logo and happy sonic logo) which are then used in the two experiments.FindingsParticipants had higher attitude scores for an advertisement that had a happy sonic logo over the ad that had a sad sonic logo. These consumer attitudes are mediated by emotion felt because of the exposure to the brand and advertisement and are moderated by placement of the sonic logo within the ad. Placement drove more positive consumer attitudes of a sad sonic logo at the beginning and a happy sonic logo at the end of the advertisement.Practical implicationsGiven the short nature of a sonic logo, sonic logo placement in the advertisement is shown to change consumer perceptions. This effect uncovers an important aspect of placement of the sonic logo in the advertisement which gives practitioners a means of application. Furthermore, consumer emotions drive these strong attitudes despite the short exposure times of the sonic logo.Originality/valueThis paper expands upon the limited sonic logo research and shows how the short exposure time of a sonic logo can have the same emotional qualities as long-form music, previously reserved for background music in advertising. In addition, by uncovering the mediating relationship of emotion felt after exposure to the brand and advertisement, it is shown how these short audio branding elements can help shape emotion and consumer attitude toward brands. Finally, altering placement of the sonic logo can enhance consumer attitudes of the advertisement and brand.

Sonic identity and audio branding elements in Spanish radio advertising

The emotional potential of sound is an excellent resource for companies and institutions seeking to test new ways of communicating with their stakeholders through the senses. However, there are still few organizations that include sound as a conveyer of their corporate identity. Audio branding aims to expand the contact points with audiences by incorporating sound elements that facilitate the recognition of the brand's values. This research attempts to understand the use that corporations make of sound as a communication tool and to evaluate its presence, but above all it wants to find out if this use is due to a strategic approach or if it is a specific decision marked by the temporality of advertising campaigns. For this reason, in this paper we have taken the radio as an advertising media. On the one hand, because it is the sound media par excellence. On the other hand, because it is where we can find the most well-known modes of audio branding such as the brand song, the jingle or the sonotype. The sample, composed of 239 inserts from the 3 generalist radio channels with the highest audiences in Spain, reveals that only 21% of items contain an element of audio branding, indicating that this is a field yet to be explored by organizations.

From Audio Branding to Sound Trademark: A Comparative Study in the EU and the US

Audio branding generates high profit when it becomes a famous trademark, thus, the registration and protection of trademark is of great significance. The EU and US admitted sound trademark in advance. To analyze the criterion of registration in those two jurisdictions can provide useful legislative experience for the study of sound trademark. Based on the comparative study, we thus can identify critical factors which influence an audio branding becomes a sound trademark.

AUDIO BRANDING BENEFITS AND ITS APPLICATION IN UKRAINE

The article reflects the main theoretical aspects of audio branding as part of audio marketing. The analysis was carried out using ScopusTools and electronic resources research tools. The research analyzed related to different fields of application of the tool, mainly: influence on increase of profitability of investments, introduction of brands in modern practice with the help of audio logos, studying prospects of development of the chosen direction. The work describes the main stages of research prior to the formation of sound identity, in particular, the collection of data by marketers before the formation of the brand's audio DNA. The constituent parts of the sound brand, which are included in the audio brand book, are also highlighted: sound identity, audio DNA, audiologo, jingles, background music, corporate anthem and arrangement, and the areas of their application are indicated. An important part was to highlight the benefits of audio branding directly, taking into account examples of the results of implementation in the activities of various campaigns and its effectiveness in terms of the research conducted. It is necessary to take into account the licensing rules and constantly measure performance indicators, define metrics for each company in order not to get the opposite effect. Thus, the main ways of measuring the effectiveness of the sensor marketing tool and possible ways of licensing an audio product were added. Despite the limited budget for financing such marketing campaigns of most Ukrainian enterprises, the country already has huge potential to develop sound branding. That is why the authoritative audio agencies leading successful cooperation with both domestic and foreign customers are actively developing in Ukraine. Most large companies realize the benefits of adding sound elements to the brand. Successful domestic projects in this area confirm the effectiveness of such activities. As a result, the successful example of introduction of audio branding to the Mastercard brand in Ukraine was analyzed and prospects of application of this activity for Ukrainian brands were proved.

Can muted video advertising be as effective as video advertising with sound?

Video ads are often muted when seen in social media on a smartphone. This research compared video ads across three Muting conditions: (1) normal (audio), (2) muted, and (3) muted with subtitles. The lab-study results showed that muted ads had lower free brand recall, cued brand recall, and brand recognition than normal ads and adding subtitles did not improve effectiveness on these measures. However, the free brand recall effects were significant only for ads seen in a news environment on a desktop computer. Ads seen in a social media environment on a mobile phone were less effective, measured by free brand recall, which is a difficult memory task. Muted ads were just as effective as normal ads and subtitled ads, in a mobile social media environment, on every measure except brand recognition, which is an easy memory task. These results suggest that muting makes little difference to the effectiveness of video ads seen in social media on smartphones. In the desktop news environment, muting reduced ad effectiveness, measured by free brand recall, but improved ad liking. The negative effect of muting on free brand recall was significant only for ads with high amounts of information (speech and audio branding) in their soundtracks, which was lost when the ad was muted. Two visual strategies (visual storytelling, and referencing shared understandings) counteracted the effects of muting on high audio information ads seen in a desktop news environment.

De música, propaganda y publicidad en el No-Do

Already transformed into an artistic discipline of audiovisual communication, music has become an essential tool for advertising and image promotion, sing or advertising concept helping to quickly remember the advertising message which media is interested we keep in mind. For it, cinematography is one of the audiovisual media that benefits the most of the use of music-image binomial as dissemination elements. In this article we will try to explain how the No-Do used one the most used audiovisual techniques currently in the advertising world, the Audio Branding. In this way, we will unreveal those formal resources which, from a musical point of view, they were used for the No-Do promotion on their newspaper mastheads. We will see how the changes in the pictures of such mastheads undergo modifications in pro of the conservation of the soundtrack composed by Manuel Parada de la Puente, being his music the responsible for the durability of the No-Do brand over time.

Beyond jingles and needle drops: What every brand needs to know about audio branding's power to persuade

Two major trends make it urgent to manage the audio component of a brand: the explosion of touch points and the fact that all new touch points are audio-enabled. Today, brands must strive to be as meaningful in their audio expression as they are in their visual one. Brands that want to stand out must create a distinctive audio DNA that expresses their values and then express their sound coherently across contact points. If there are graphic standards, there should be audio standards, if there is a visual style guide, there should also be an audio style guide.