The First Sense: Hearing
Today we discuss the last in my six part series The Six Senses of Marketing – The First Sense: Hearing.
What’s the first thing you heard today? Unless you were woken up unexpectedly by a thunderstorm, a fussing child or your neighbour’s car alarm, chances are it was the sound of your alarm clock which is specifically designed to trigger a response with a sound.
A sound can distract you, instantly change your train of thought, wake you from a deep sleep, and while each of the other 4 senses are as equally important to our survival, it is a sound that alerts a mother to a child’s need for attention and it is for this reason that I’ve left it until last and it counts as my first sense of marketing.
Can You Hear Me Now?
Communication is certainly one of the most important needs that we all share and one that is particularly important to marketing your company. You can communicate using other senses, but conveying messages in a way that can be heard is usually our favoured approach. Even those messages that are written are said to first be “heard” in the head as the words on the page are transformed into the words we first learned as speech.
What Exactly Is the Sound of Silence?
If I say “cha-ching” I’ll bet you thought of money or a cash register. Did you also “hear” the sound? If I say “ding dong” did you hear or think about a bell?
How about “choo-choo!”, “pssst!”, or “moo”.
What would you hear if I said the word “silence” wouldn’t it rather be a lack of sound? Also, very powerful when you use it effectively, much like a pause for effect in speaking.
The Bell Tolls for Thee
Unless you were unable to hear from an early age, most folks can have immediate feelings upon hearing a single sound. A dog barking might convey thoughts of a childhood friend or perhaps a moment of fright for someone who has been bitten. A siren often means danger to anyone who hears it, but will mean that much more to someone who had a significant interaction with an emergency vehicle. In my household we use the sound of a kiss when we’re passing a room as a quick I love you or a final goodbye when we’re leaving, and we’ve all become conditioned to hear them above the background noise and to immediately respond in kind.
One More Time, With Feeling!
Sounds can help convey a meaning or a feeling in a movie. One of the best examples I’ve ever seen of this is here (simply click on the white box above ‘join me’ to change the music).
A slight echo on a dripping faucet can convey that you’re in the sewer, a creaking door opening can send you to the top of a staircase leading into the dark basement of a haunted house and a harp strum has sent many of us into a dream or a magical land on more than one occasion. What is it about these sounds that transport us immediately into these scenarios or convey these feelings? Is it simple conditioning like Pavlov’s bell and if so, how can we harness the power of a sound to our bidding?
Hear Ye, Hear Ye
Sound has always been used to get someone’s attention. Whether it be a whistle, a horn, a specific word yelled, or a particular tune, we’ve always found one way or another to gain the attention of our audiences. NBC used 3 chimes to signal on the hour and half past the hour and those 3 simple tones became synonymous with their station. Windows used this same ideology for their start up and shut down identifiers. Sound didn’t work so well for Nokia in a positive branding sense because when everyone had the same ringtone, everyone continuously checked for a phone call that wasn’t theirs. It got a bit tiresome and the brand began to suffer for its popularity. But it does prove that sounds can be powerful enough to make everyone on a train stop what they’re doing to perform the exact same action and I would argue that no sound has been so powerful since the air raid siren.
Martin Lindstrom of Buyology Inc. and author of Buyology and Brandwashed discovered in his study that while 2 of the top 3 powerful sounds were generic (a baby’s giggle was #1 and a vibrating cell phone was #3) Intel’s chimes were 2nd highest in his subject’s brain scan activity and 5 other brands helped to round out the top 10 addictive sounds.
Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, Play a Jingle for Me
From jingles and packaging to sound identifiers and even the sound of your vehicle’s door closing; companies have been trying to own the sound that reminds you of them. Having worked in radio and helped many companies create jingles, signature sounds, or audio mnemonics; I truly believe in the power of sound and feel that it is highly neglected in the branding of most companies. While you can spend millions on focus groups, composers and symphonies to create that one of a kind string of a few notes, I feel that it is much easier and more cost effective to find a sound that already has a place and a fondness in the customer’s mind. While we may all know that the roar of the lion tells us an MGM movie is about to start, it took millions of dollars and years of repetition to embed this sound into movie goers minds; I would suggest using a sound that already means something to your audience and pertains at least somewhat to your product or service.
I’ve used the ding, ding of the bell they used to use at a gas station to convey that down home feel and long forgotten attentive customer service, and a more updated set of sonar pings to convey the connectedness you get with a telecommunications company.
Say What?!
Studies show that playing soft, slow music causes restaurant goers to eat slower as well as in more abundance, environmental sounds can help boost the perceived quality of food products on a buyer, and although the new packaging of Sun Chips was more biodegradable, the increased sound of the bag’s crinkle caused consumers to stop buying. Sound is powerful and I would urge you to look at every part of your business: the squeak on the front door, the ambient sounds of your waiting room, the voice and hold music on your telephone, the product packaging, and the crunch of the product as it’s eaten – to find ways that you can create a more pleasant experience for your customers. Whatever you use, remember to employ a sound that recalls pleasant thoughts in your prospect. In time, hopefully these pleasant thoughts will transfer over to your product or service to help complete your sensory ensemble and the ever elusive overall pleasant feeling of your company in the mind of the customer.
I’m Listening
Thanks for tagging along on our journey though the 6 Senses of Marketing, please leave a comment below to let me know your feelings on the subject!
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